“If biology were the primary factor, we should expect to see similar stats, yet we do not.”

Somehow a quote from my last comment on another blog got pasted by mistake.

Bingo.

Take a kid, raise him in poverty, in a small world where a trip to the end of the street is dangerous, where every man goes to prison, comes back, and goes again, where there isn’t any hope because hope is beyond imagining. Now expect that kid to value long term planning for a better future . . . ain’t gonna happen. When the present sucks, has always sucked, and the future looks like more of the same, prison doesn’t look so bad. It becomes a rite of passage.

If we want change, the first thing we need to do is expand the world for our young people. They have to live in a big world, with places to go and things to do. They have to see better with their own eyes. Nobody can dream big on a dirty street corner.

I feel you. We share the same yoke. I think James Baldwin made the most apt summation of this dilemma when he said, “To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time.”

And yet, no matter how much we tease out these issues, we continue to be met with disregard, denialism or ideological recoil. Mahy times, a mixture of these.

Keep doing what you’re doing though. Allow the degradation to stoke the fire (of passion, of nuanced activism) rather than extinguish it.

I often find myself thinking of something Greta Christina often says, “Just because we get one thing (atheism) right doesn’t mean we get everything right.” It’s as if being atheist gives some people an excuse to otherwise be horrific assholes. There is a lot of this in the comments.

I think there are a lot more odd ducklings out there than there are ones that blend right in with the flock. I am glad you are writing and speaking from your “controversial duckling” stance. Helps the next person speak out.

I’ve also been doing this long enough, that I’ve given workshops and have had the opportunity to revisit the MOST enthusiastic of local atheist groups. Checking up on their progress… And even after giving them a near blueprint – MOSTLY Nuffin.

Have to caveat that because “Not All Groups” … right.

I think I’ll skip reading the comment section of this episode enough. I’m already too familiar with that song and dance *shudder*