Response to ABC's 'What Would You Do?'

ABC recently aired an episode of their hidden camera show, “What Would You Do?” The episode featured an angry atheist in Texas being rude toward Christians in public. Well, a fake angry atheist in Texas being rude in public toward fake Christians. Apparently, they had an actress play an atheist woman who rudely interrupted actors and actresses who played a Christian family praying in a restaurant. The goal was to see who would stick up for the poor Christian family being oppressed by the evil atheist. Check it out:

Hilarious! It is always fun when the majority makes up a fake situation to demonize the minority. Right? I mean how many times have we seen atheists rudely yelling at a nice Christian family who are peacefully praying before their meal? That happens all the time in… Texas!

As an atheist, I can tell you that when I am out in public, I try to keep my atheism on the down-low because I am a little worried that some “peace-loving” Christian will beat the crap out of me or threaten to beat the crap out of me for not believing their ridiculous belief system. And I live in the suburbs of Philadelphia. As it turns out, lots of Christians are easily offended and many of them have no problem letting you know they are offended through violence or the threat of violence despite the fact that Jesus talked about turning the other cheek in the Gospel. Still, God does talk about smiting his enemies a lot, so I guess they do have some biblical support for their actions.

Even in this hidden camera show, we see Christians get really angry at this atheist woman. I’m actually surprise there wasn’t any violence. This could have gone really sideways given Texas’s open carry law. I could totally see a Christian getting so angry at this atheist woman that he or she might pull out a gun.

Don’t get me wrong, in this fake scenario, the atheist woman is definitely in the wrong, but some of the Christians were way more angry than they should have been given the situation. More than that, the situation itself is ridiculous. A lone atheist in Texas would almost certainly not challenge a Christian family’s right to free expression. It would be only slightly less plausible if they had her eating a baby for her meal. My point is that it is actually far more likely for a Christian to yell across a table at an atheist family for NOT praying in a public restaurant and even that is a bit of a stretch even in Texas.

The thing about atheists though is that we don’t wear funny hats or act in a way that makes our lack of belief in deities evident to the general public. Unless someone is wearing an atheist t-shirt or something, most people would never know that there is an atheist present. This being the case, I think it would make for a far more interesting television show if a Christian angrily approached a gay couple after the couple gave each other a quick kiss on the lips while waiting for their food. That’s a totally realistic scenario.

But again, whenever you create a fake situation that might cause Christians to get angry, you are playing with fire. You never really know how a Christian will react. Sure, there was that nice old couple who sat down with the fake atheist woman peacefully, but you might also get some dude pulling out a gun to defend his deity’s honor. In Texas, the latter is probably far more likely. But that’s just my opinion; I could be wrong.

In any case, The Facebook page for the show has a lot of atheists commenting on this segment. Feel free to check it out and add your voice.