Do you see this tittle as an insult? If so, this text is for you! Learn where the fear of atheists originates, what it really means, and find out if you really aren't an atheist.
To understand why the expression of atheism is negative and uncomfortable, it is necessary to look in depth at our recent history. In 1945, right after the second World War, the growth of communism encountered the advance and consolidation of North American capitalism in the world. The communism proposed the end of social classes through the division of richness and also wanted the absolute control by the state. Fearful for the capitalist economies in the word, the United States used many resources to detain the communist advances, such as military support to threatened countries and massive use of propaganda. The American propaganda pointed the communist regime as evil and anti-religious. The image of the communist regime was associated with the image of the old USSR destroying and expropriating churches and prosecuting religious groups. The fear of losing the religious freedom added by the nightmare of losing its own richness, promoted the terror and hate of the atheist-communists by most of the western world. These roots are still alive today; We tend to associate the word atheist to communist, anti-god, oppressor or fascist.
Atheism is nothing more than a lack of believe in deity(s). Atheism does not deny the existence of a architect of the universe. Atheism just denies the religious belief in mystical gods. Atheism isn’t a religion, or a political view, much less an instrument of proselytism. The atheist doesn’t have to believe in scientific theories such as Evolution of Species nor in the Theory of Big-Bang. The atheist doesn’t have to be skeptical to the existence of aliens, gnomes, fairy or any other popular myths. The only thing that makes you an atheist is the lack of belief on the “local god”.
The “local god” is the only acceptable god for the most of the population in certain area. The conviction that every religious group have that, “there is only one god”, disregard the belief in other gods of the other religions, because these other groups do not believe on the “true god”. So the lack of belief on this “true god” would turn these other religious groups, atheists. It is estimated that there are more than four thousand religions around the world. Between them, there are more popular religious groups such as Christianity, with two billions of followers, Islamism with one and a half billion, Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism and Confucianism. Between the religions less well known, we can find hundreds of African religions and many others with roots in popular religions. If we take into consideration the extinct religions such as the Greek and roman polytheism, the Nordic beliefs, the primitive religions of the native Indians, the Egyptians, Sumerians and etc., the quantity of gods in the world would be staggering. When one religious group believe to have knowledge of the “right god”, it indirectly sends all other religious groups to the atheist group. No religious group can avoid that stigma. The god will never be the right one everywhere.
We can assume with absolute conviction that your actual belief in your god, in some place in the world would be against the local consensus. Your lack of belief in the "local god" would turn you, in the sense of word, an atheist. In a visit to India for example, your lack of belief in the gods Vishnu, Brahma, Shiva or Shakti, would give you the “despicable” title of atheist from the local residents. Your Indian, African or oriental friends that don’t believe in the “only god” Yahweh (biblical god) should be regarded as atheists by you because they don't believe in the "only true god". Your only condition for not being an atheist in this moment is because you are in the right place at the right time.
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