Neil, you are out of touch

(From here)

Sorry, Mr. Tyson, but your culture makes it hard for you to see the world the rest of us live in.  You are surrounded by scientific thinkers who are functional atheists, even if they claim to be “believers”.  They have to operate as if reality is what it is, and there is no possibility of a miracle popping up and invalidating all the data.

In the rest of the world, though, we have to live with a different culture surrounding us.

A culture where the “non-golfers” get attacked, sometimes quite literally, for not being “golfers”.

In this culture it makes sense to band together with other “non-golfers” for mutual protection and in order to not be seen as a lone prey animal.

I am an atheist, and I will lend my support to any other atheist I see getting attacked.  I will call myself an atheist, if asked, in order to let others know they are not alone.  I will act like an atheist by not going along and pretending to believe in imaginary friends, even though it makes it hard for me to find a job and have a social life.

Mostly I don’t care whether other people believe in imaginary beings or not.  What I do care about is when they punish me because I don’t share their belief.  I welcome the chance to get together with others who don’t feel the need to praise their imaginary friends for every good thing that happens in their life.  It’s not about sitting around talking about not believing in god- it’s about not having to listen to the believers gush.