Hot Off The Presses: SB Responds to Atheism+

In response to the Atheism + movement let me propose an alternative. Let’s call it S+B (Skepticism Plus But) to represent our commitment to skepticism, social change, and freedom of inquiry. 

Skeptics plus we care about social justice, but we understand that these words can mean something a bit different to everyone.

Skeptics plus we support women’s rights, but we realize men are people too.

Skeptics plus we protest racism, but we hope to see a day when race will be as unimportant as eye color.

Skeptics plus we fight homophobia and transphobia, but we realize that groups dedicated solely to this battle do it much better than we do.

Skeptics plus we are humanists, but we don’t call people names or try to destroy their lives.

Skeptics plus we are atheists, but we support tolerance for religious people and religions that cause no social harm.

Skeptics plus we believe in separation of church and state, but, as always, we remain open to different opinions on all of these matters as long as they are voiced in the spirit of charity, freethought, and reason. We fear being blindsided by groupthink and welcome dissension in the ranks. Even if you disagree with us on some of our goals, you’re welcome to join us and choose which battles you, personally, want to fight. No matter what, we will not dehumanize you (online or off) or allow ourselves to think that we are better than you. Whatever else, we will not hate.

(I’d like to give more than partial credit to Jen McCreight, aka Blag Hag, for being the inspiration for this post. See her original idea here, on Freethought Blogs: http://freethoughtblogs.com/blaghag/2012/08/atheism/)