In my last entry I shared the story of atheist/humanist Leo Igwe and the way Christians physically assaulted him and others who are trying to end the religion-driven witch hunts in Nigeria.

While such stories involving outright violence fortunately seem very rare these days, the same intolerant mindset seems to regularly express itself in other ways.

Consider these three recent news items:

North Idaho Atheist Billboard Vandalized (KHQ.com; Oct 21)

MOSCOW, Idaho: In a press release issued Wednesday, the American Humanist Association said the organization may have to pay to replace an atheist billboard in Moscow after it was vandalized.

According the to American Humanist Association, the billboard, the third displayed by the organization in Moscow, reads “Millions are good without God.” The vandal(s) used what appears to be spray paint to black out the word ‘without.’

“I knew there would be some disagreement with the billboard’s slogan, but I do wish that those who objected would have opened a dialogue with us rather than trying to stifle our message and damaging property,” said Roy Speckhardt, executive director of the American Humanist Association. “A phone call would have been much nicer.”

The company that AHA contracted with to display the billboard, Lamar Outdoor, said they will assess whether or not the billboard can be cleaned. If not, the American Humanist Association will pay to have the billboard replaced….

Australian Atheists Targeted By Hackers (Emma Woollacott/TG Daily; Oct 21)

Atheist websites in Australia have been hit by distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.

In what’s probably an act of man rather than God, the sites of both the Atheist Foundation of Australia and the Global Atheist Convention were hit yesterday afternoon.

The Atheist Foundation of Australia – organiser of the Global Atheist Convention – runs both sites, and is attempting to bring them back online.

“Recently the Global Atheist Convention website suffered a DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack, which caused the Global Atheist Convention and the Atheist Foundation of Australia websites to be taken offline,” says the AFA.

“While we do not have enough information to confirm the source or reason for the attacks, they came in the wake of news that The Rise of Atheism Global Atheist Convention has already sold 1,000 tickets and will be the largest gathering of atheists and other freethinkers in Australia’s history. This may have been not just an attack on atheism, but an attack on freedom of speech.”

The event is to be held in Melbourne next March, with speakers including Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion.

Police are investigating.

Uninformed Hannity Tries To Provoke Culture War Over NYC Subway Atheist Ads (Faiz Shakir/ThinkProgress; Oct 24)

During his Fox News show on Tuesday night, right-wing pundit Sean Hannity attacked a new ad campaign soon to be appearing in New York City subway stations that raises awareness about atheism. The ad, sponsored by The Big Apple Coalition of Reason, reads: “A million New Yorkers are good without God. Are you?”

“These ads inform New Yorkers that a million or more of their neighbors are good without God,” said Michael De Dora Jr., the executive director for the New York branch of the Center for Inquiry. “That is, a million of us have found or created natural morality, and lead good, productive, and meaningful lives without appeal to religious dogma or God.”

Sensing an opportunity to exploit the ads for political benefit, Hannity told his audience that a Christian group could never get away with airing ads like that:

“Can you imagine the outrage if a Christian group put pro-God ads in the New York City subways? What outrage.”…

But as Subway Sights — a blog about the NYC subway system — explains, “The problem with this thinking is that Christians have been putting up pro-Christianity ads in the subway for years and nobody cares.” The blogger continues, “There are ads for all kinds of competing churches, each offering their own flavor of Christianity and their own path to salvation”….

Subway Sights concludes, “Of course, Sean Hannity doesn’t factor this into his argument because he doesn’t ride the subway and has no idea what he’s talking about.”

Indeed, Hannity doesn’t seem to ride the subway. He has said, “I travel on private planes, I have an SUV that I’m proud of.” But his lack of knowledge never stops him from opining on things he knows little about.”

Numerous other examples of this sort of thing can be found in the entries I posted on Nov 26, 2008 and Feb 20, 2009.

Why?

Why are Christians (among others) so quick to strike at an atheist’s right to speak out?

Why are so few Christians willing to forthrightly condemn and speak out against these sorts of attacks when they do occur?

Why are so many Christians apparently far more interested in silencing the atheist point of view than in trying to honestly address the facts and logic that support it?

Why do so many Christians (among other theists) have so little faith in the ability of their beliefs to survive in a free marketplace of ideas?

Why can’t I recall *ever* coming across a news story about a Christian billboard being vandalized by atheists? Or a Christian website being shutdown by atheist hackers?

Why – yet again – do “gOd’s people” seem to be behaving in far worse ways than the gOdless?