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The inspiration of an activist (contd. Crashsight interview)
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In part one I spoke with Phil Brown about his band’s new album “Responders” and its story. Here we further discussed what motivates his activism and how it relates to Crashsight’s music.
Why do you have a passion for activism?
It started because of the horrible state our educational system is in when it comes to the teaching of science. The ignorant public has worked tirelessly to impede the teaching of science, and it's just going to churn out more uninformed people. However, as bad as things might be under conservative Christianity, it's nothing compared to countries under shariah law. Islamic societies are frighteningly barbaric in their understanding of science, women's rights and any sign of human progress. So even though it's a worthy cause to fight for reason at home, it may all be for nothing if we don't fight for it where it counts. A dialogue must be started with the Islamic world and the main obstacle is the idea that all cultures should be respected.
In the mythology of “Responders” there is an organization called “The Passive.” It is run by a small number of people that have a desire to see the extinction of humans, so they don't want the religious war to stop. They begin to recruit people to protest the Responders with the idea that people shouldn't be insulting the religious views of the armies because “faith is a virtue.” The Responders believe that attacking the central religious beliefs of the armies as being central to their tactics, so they are enraged by the rise of the passive movement. This section of the story was my way of expressing concern over the way so many people rise to the defense of extremists by saying we should respect their beliefs. When someone does something horrible for explicitly religious reasons, people tend to point the finger at everything but religion itself.
An influential example of “The Passive” would be the reaction to the fatwa issued against Salmon Rushdie, after the release of The Satanic Verses. When the Muslim world was up in arms over his book Ayatollah Khomeini ordered for his assassination, and what did people like the pope do? Did they say it was immoral to ask a population of 1 billion people to murder someone for writing a blasphemous book? No. Instead the pope and others declared that the real problem was that Rushdie insulted Islam and we should all feel sympathetic for the “deep emotional hurt” caused to Muslims. The fact that a significant population of the world would think that the problem was an “offensive” book, and not the ordered execution of an innocent person, tells me that we will have many people sympathizing with tyrannical religious movements once they become more powerful. And it tells me that we have a large problem to deal with when it comes to being honest about free speech, rational thinking, and morality.
How do you respond to those who equate atheist's activism with evangelical preaching?
If a substantial population believed in astrology so strongly that they were willing to disown family members, discriminate against gays, and start wars based on star patterns, then activists would be approaching them the same way. Activists fight against bad ideas, whether popular or not. If the entire world believed that the Earth didn't revolve around the sun, would it be considered "preachy" to be continually fighting against them if they’re trying to declare themselves as morally superior and inserting their falsehoods into school curriculum and government? We would be doing the same thing we are doing now, bringing to attention that there is no evidence for their belief and that it is causing harm.
Also I think a huge difference between atheist activists and theistic activists is that our so called “ideology” is simply about skepticism and bettering the world through an honest dialogue about what we know and don't know. We don't advocate the burning of books, or the discrimination of anyone from the work place. So many people, even atheists, are under this pre-conception that Jesus was a great moral role model even if you don't believe in him as a savior. However, he introduced the idea of being eternally tortured after death for minor transgressions against God. I can't think of anything more immoral than threatening torture for not believing in a story that has no more evidence to support it than the Gods of Olympus. And of course the foundation of Hell was a heavy influence on Islam, which directly plagiarized much of Judaism and Christianity.
Atheist’s activism is based on a concern for people's life in the real world, the one life we are sure that we do actually have. We believe that all bad ideas must be questioned and the one area of discourse where bad ideas are considered “virtuous” is in religion, hence the focus on it.
Who has influenced you the most and in what way?
My views formed on their own through my own studies of world religions through high school. The musical integration started after reading the works of Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris. Though I'll admit that Metal Gear Solid 4 played a large part in my inspiration. Silly as that sounds, it's a great political story about the world being separated into competing military factions. Playing that game finally gave me a visual as to what the world of “Responders” might look like.
For the record, is there anything you would like to make clear about you, your band's music, or atheism in general?
My views on religion don't particularly reflect the views of the entire band. Though I wouldn't call any of them believers, we are all different people. I'm just lucky to have these friends who believe in what we're doing, musically and topically. As for any comments on atheism, I think it's important to say that being an atheist doesn't make you a better or worse person than anyone else. Atheism is just an absence of supernatural belief. There's much more to learn and stand for in life. Like Christopher Hitchens says, atheism is not a sufficient requirement for enlightenment, but it is a necessary one.
People stand for reason in many ways. Fighting for science education, battling racism, informing the public about the risk of disease. I stand for it by fighting religion, because religion affects all of those things and so much more. I don't think the whole world needs to be like me. That's not what this is about. I think that people can find a common goal to stand against the imminent dangers we face. If we can take care of that, then maybe we can focus on the general problem with superstition.
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