Atheistic Persecution

Take just a moment to imagine yourself in this situation: You are a Christian. You have a very firm belief system, but you are ridiculed for your faith. Killed for it. You must keep your beliefs secret in your workplace. You are treated like a lesser person. Now, change it slightly. Imagine that you are Muslim and in the same situation. Or Jewish. Or Catholic. This entire situation is a terrible atrocity, right? But what if you were atheist or non-religious and in that same example? Would society still regard it as such an atrocity? On a daily basis, atheists and the non-religious are persecuted due to their lack of belief. Often, we discuss the discrimination that many religions face, but we never consider what atheists have

Recently, in July of this year, patheos.com reported on a Reddit post created by an atheist teacher. This post shows the conversation he had with his son regarding his non-religious beliefs. The Reddit user proceeded to tell his eight-year old son that he could not discuss his atheism with any of his classmates; this stemmed from the fact that the community was predominately Christian and Mormon, and he was afraid of losing his job because of his lack of faith. By the same token, another post on Patheos tells the story of a man named Neil Carter who was targeted by parents, teachers, administrators, and the community as a whole for being atheist. The confrontation began when a student approached him to ask him if he was an atheist; they had found information on his Facebook page, that Carter believed was private, that led them to this belief. This led to having entire lessons taken over by the principal, being prevented from discussing any politics or religion in the history class that he taught, and being removed from his history class in the middle of the year to teach a math class instead. At the end of the year, Carter was told that his contract would not be renewed, and the school system never gave a formal reason why; however, it was obvious that it was due to his atheism. Both of these individuals are prime examples of how