Southern (US) Atheists? Is there a tradition?

[Taverner]

Just asking if there has been a tradition, even if small and ignored, of Southern Atheists.

One usually hears of Flannery O'Connor, Harper Lee or William Faulkner.

Hardly Atheists, but hardly "toe the line" fundies...

[Stargleamer]

1. I'm not sure of O'Connor, I thought she became religious. . .

but I might be wrong. In any case, does being from Missouri count? Then the South has one of the Best Atheists of All: Mark Twain.

[Taverner]

2. She was religious. As was Faulkner and the rest.

I am asking if there is any Southern Atheist tradition

[MineralMan]

3. There are atheists everywhere. Atheism is an individual thing,

not a group. So, you will find atheists wherever you go. You may not recognize them, but they are there nevertheless.

Atheism is not a belief system. It is an unbelief, and cannot be proselytized for. It simply is the lack of belief on the part of an individual.

Are there Southern atheists? Of course there are. Geographical location is not a determinant.

[tosh]

4. Hey Taverner,

I think I understand what you are asking. There is a VERY strong southern tradition of a kind of christianity which does not take the bible LITERALLY but views itself as a discipline and a "way to live". I was raised this way, a third generation in a church that had and still has the largest congregation of any in my hometown. It has nothing to do with the kind of fundamentalism that we hear from so much. My father (WWII generation) was in sunday school and church every sunday, as was his father, but he referred laughingly to those types as "Holy Rollers".

I am an atheist but I have no regrets about being brought up as a member of that church. It taught me love and compassion and how to be a GOOD person, honest and fair.

I honestly don't know how or when these "Holy Rollers" became so vocal and so powerful, but I believe that they are just victims of a political party that used certain issues to gain their votes and nothing more. Now they can't be put back into their container.

[onager]

5. Well, there was Maxcy Gregg of South Carolina...

Confederate Brigadier-General.

Loved science so much that he had a personal astronomical observatory built into his house. According to people who knew Gregg, his science library rivaled that of Harvard University. His day job was being a lawyer.

Proving that science and skepticism aren't necessarily a good defense against bone-headedness - Gregg was also a "fire-eating" Secessionist who helped draft South Carolina's ordinance of session.

At the battle of Fredericksburg in Dec. 1862, Gregg was shot thru the spine and lingered in horrible pain for 2 days before dying.

According to legend, during that 2 days he was badgered to do a deathbed conversion by the religious fanatic "Stonewall" Jackson. Gregg just replied: "You know I'm not a believer."

(That scene was used in the 2003 movie Gods & Generals, which had a running time damn near as long as the real Civil War.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxcy_Gregg

Long as I'm here...

"Stonewall" Jackson was one case of religious mania actually doing something good, however unintentional. Jackson fervently believed that every human being needed to read the Bible, so he taught slaves how to read. That was highly illegal in Virginia at the time.

Oh, Flannery O'Connor was a Catholic, and apparently a pretty devout one. Some lit-critics have called her "the greatest Xian writer." Much of the irony and tension in her writing came from her ideas of religion, as opposed to those of her...more fervent Protestant brethren in Georgia.

My usual plug: if you've never seen it, get ahold of John Huston's 1980 film version of "Wise Blood." Huston worked with O'Connor's literary executors and the script is lifted almost verbatim from the book:

"I'm gonna start me a new church. Where the blind don't see, the crippled don't walk, and what's dead stays that way."

:rofl: