Atheist Internet Outreach Response
by Luke Setzer
Ayn Rand’s unique viewpoint manages to stir the awe and ire of both ends of the cultural spectrum in the United States. Leftists admire her staunch atheism but remain horrified with her advocacy of laissez-faire capitalism. Rightists adore her support of free markets yet detest her atheism. Both sides miss a central theme of her philosophy, Objectivism: Man is a being of thought and action, reason and emotion, mind and body. Each person is an end in himself and not the means to any other end such as “God” or “State” or “Society” or “Environment”.
Sadly, the last few decades have seen a dramatic increase in the number of “conservative” writers who ardently employ religious precepts to justify capitalism--and not even authentic capitalism at that, but a heavily regulated market called “compassionate capitalism”. Even this Big Brother style of “managed competition” fails to satisfy the whiners of modern liberalism. Despite their wisdom in seeing through the lies of religion, many atheists continue to act like “Christians without God”, accepting without question altruism as the proper moral code.
To demonstrate this trend within the movement called “atheist activism”, consider the following incident in the pages of the online quarterly newsletter Atheist Internet Outreach (AIO). The December 2003 issue included a humorous note on the proliferation of a broad range of taxes in America, observing: “Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago and our nation was the most prosperous in the world, had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.”
The March 2004 AIO Newsletter included two scathing responses arguing that the piece came from the minds of “the anti-tax cult” and “some ultra-rightwinger who doesn't like to share”. While these complaints bear no direct relevance to atheism, they reveal the average atheist’s continued adoration of statist interference in economic life.
I encourage all Ayn Rand admirers who understand the need to separate economics and state in the same way and for the same reasons that the United States currently separate church and state to visit Atheist Internet Outreach (AIO) to subscribe to the list, review the newsletters, and write the editor with your thoughts.
Below I offer my own response as inspiration for yours.
Many people arrive at atheism through critical examination of widely accepted beliefs. They ultimately reject faith in that agent of fraud called “Church”. Yet many of these same people nevertheless retain faith in that agent of force called “State”.
Your article "What the Hell Happened?" generated disturbing responses from Kathy Moore and Stan Levine. They evidently want us to believe that no thinking person would support a minimalist state and laissez-faire capitalism. Levine referred to the original article as a product of the “anti-tax cult” while Moore suggested that full-time motherhood somehow denigrates women. Both accept without question certain altruistic moral principles and statist political principles that “have nothing to do with atheism”, to echo their own complaints. Their public statements betray the flaw of most humanists, namely, that they behave like “Christians without God”.
Fortunately for lovers of intellectual, personal and economic liberty, not all atheists view the State with the rose-colored glasses of Moore and Levine. Ayn Rand’s atheistic philosophy of Objectivism fully supports a minimalist, non-theistic government tasked strictly with the protection of individuals and their property from force and fraud. The myriad functions currently tasked to government outside of this scope, from roads to education, would be shed and left to the private sector.
I have attended at least one atheist convention where my open support of this viewpoint in a hospitality suite received an explosive “F*** YOU!” from a Castro supporter in response. What brilliant reasoning! What lucid logic! I hope most atheists practice more rational dialogue than this.
Happily, Anne Lieb nailed the issue on the head when she wrote, “What terrifies people is that Life is largely up to them, that it's not a moment-to-moment issue of God spinning a roulette wheel and their bouncing around mindlessly until their luck changes, although chance is a big player in everyone's path.” Just add the words “and State” after “God” and you will have the Objectivist ethics and politics in a nutshell.
For more information on this powerful philosophy, visit Central Florida Objectivists at http://widescope.tripod.com and follow the “Love Your Life” link to their suggested reading list to get started. Objectivism has changed many lives for the better. Hopefully, it will do the same for AIO subscribers.
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