When I was a kid I was mostly indifferent to religion. My paternal grandmother was very catholic, and on the other side my mother made sure I didn't take any religion classes in elementary school, but other than that my family simply didn't talk about it. I flirted with agnosticism during my teens, and nowadays you could say I'm an "atheist through and through," although I'm nowhere near as militant about it as some of the more hardcore members of this group.

I generally support these movements. Being rather unskilled in politics or diplomacy, I prefer not to get into debates, but I like seeing other people taking up the fight. What does bother me is seeing that sometimes atheists get so caught up in their anti-religious fervor that they become just as "fundamentalist" as their adversaries.

That brings me to the central theme of this post. There's an uproar in the U.S. about Jessica Ahlquist, a girl who's suing her school because of a message engraved on the auditorium walls. (More info here and here.)

The crux of the matter.

I find her attitude questionable. The prayer seems harmless and there was no reason to go prodding the Christians because of it. I understand that the constitution enforces separation of church and state, public schools must defend freedom of religion, etc., but when you get right down to it the message is pretty nice. It's about friendship, teamwork, respect, honesty, etc. There's a reference to The Man Upstairs, true, but even being an atheist I can appreciate its positive meaning. If we removed the first and last lines, the prayer could pass for a 100% secular message.

I had a brief chat about this with a friend (who is much more militant in his atheism, and was the one who showed me that article in the first place), and we concluded that this kind of attitude is counterproductive. The public is already convinced that every atheist is an arrogant and immoral jerk; propagating this image will only generate bad publicity for our cause. Faith is a delicate topic, and there's no point in poking at wasps' nests without a good reason.

The Cranston High School West prayer doesn't strike me as a good reason. It strikes me as a publicity stunt from a teenager who wants to show off and doesn't fully understand the consequences of her theatrics.