Why Are Americans Still Uncomfortable with Atheism? | The New Yorker

Why Are Americans Still Uncomfortable with Atheism? | The New Yorker: Daniel%20Seeger%20was%20twenty-one%20when%20he%20wrote%20to%20his%20local%20draft%20board%20to%20say%2C%20%u201CI%20have%20concluded%20that%20war%2C%20from%20the%20practical%20standpoint%2C%20is%20futile%20and%20self-defeating%2C%20and%20from%20the%20more%20important%20moral%20standpoint%2C%20it%20is%20unethical.%u201D%20Some%20time%20later%2C%20he%20received%20the%20United%20States%20Selective%20Service%20System%u2019s%20Form%20150%2C%20asking%20him%20to%20detail%20his%20objections%20to%20military%20service.%20It%20took%20him%20a%20few%20days%20to%20reply%2C%20because%20he%20had%20no%20answer%20for%20the%20form%u2019s%20first%20question%3A%20%u201CDo%20you%20believe%20in%20a%20Supreme%20Being%3F%u201D%0A%0AUnsatisfied%20with%20the%20two%20available%20options%u2014%u201CYes%u201D%20and%20%u201CNo%u201D%u2014Seeger%20finally%20decided%20to%20draw%20and%20check%20a%20third%20box%3A%20%u201CSee%20attached%20pages.%u201D%20There%20were%20eight%20of%20those%20pages%2C%20and%20in%20them%20he%20described%20reading%20Plato%2C%20Aristotle%2C%20and%20Spinoza%2C%20all%20of%20whom%20%u201Cevolved%20comprehensive%20ethical%20systems%20of%20intellectual%20and%20moral%20integrity%20without%20belief%20in%20God%2C%u201D%20and%20concluded%20that%20%u201Cthe%20existence%20of%20God%20cannot%20be%20proven%20or%20disproven%2C%20and%20the%20essence%20of%20His%20nature%20cannot%20be%20determined.%u201D%20For%20good%20measure%2C%20Seeger%20also%20used%20scare%20quotes%20and%20strike-throughs%20to%20doctor%20the%20printed%20statement%20he%20was%20required%20to%20sign%2C%20so%20that%20it%20read%2C%20%u201CI%20am%2C%20by%20reason%20of%20my%20%u2018religious%u2019%20training%20and%20belief%2C%20conscientiously%20opposed%20to%20participation%20in%20war%20in%20any%20form.%u201D%0A%0ABy%20the%20time%20Seeger%20submitted%20his%20form%2C%20in%20the%20late%20nineteen-fifties%2C%20thousands%20of%20conscientious%20objectors%20in%20the%20U.S.%20had%20refused%20to%20fight%20in%20the%20two%20World%20Wars.%20Those%20who%20belonged%20to%20pacifist%20religious%20traditions%2C%20such%20as%20Mennonites%20and%20Quakers%2C%20were%20sent%20to%20war%20as%20noncombatants%20or%20to%20work%20as%20farmers%20or%20firefighters%20on%20the%20home%20front%20through%20the%20Civilian%20Public%20Service%3B%20eventually%2C%20so%20were%20those%20who%20could%20prove%20their%20own%20independent%2C%20religiously%20motivated%20pacifism.%20Those%20who%20could%20not%20were%20sent%20to%20prison%20or%20to%20labor%20camps.%20But%20while%20Selective%20Service%20laws%20had%20been%20revised%20again%20and%20again%20to%20clarify%20the%20criteria%20for%20conscientious%20objection%2C%20they%20still%20did%20not%20account%20for%20young%20men%20who%2C%20like%20Seeger%2C%20refused%20to%20say%20that%20their%20opposition%20to%20war%20came%20from%20belief%20in%20a%20Supreme%20Being.%0A%0A