My Take: How 9-11 Changed Religion and The US

I can remember where I was when the towers fell, and I could have never imagined how much our country would change in some ways good, in others bad. Whether you chose to believe it or not 9-11 changed all our lives, the Christians became more outspoken, the Muslims were treated unfairly, and Atheists became more militant. Militant Atheism is a complicated issue for me, while I do disagree with some of the views, I do agree with the idea that we need to be more open about our disbelief. It can be hard sometimes as an atheist, because unlike organized religion we are not organized, so invoking a change in the thoughts of the majority is difficult.

A few months back a group of atheists sued the government for the WTC cross, the controversy is well known within our community for causing a series of death threats against atheists to be posted on the Fox News Facebook page. I can honestly say though that I can see both sides of the debate, I understand why Christians would want their religious symbol displayed for their fallen, but what about the Jews, Muslims, and Atheists who died on that day, I think that the Christians shouldn’t have been acting like they were the only ones who died, One of the interesting comments left on the blog that I will leave a link to, has a person stating “The 9/11 attacks was an attack on Christianity.”, the poster then states that he believes that we should make everyone worship his god. Maybe that’s why atheists have became more militant, the Christians became more self-absorbed, A reasonable compromise to the WTC Cross controversy would be the establishment of all religious symbols at the site, including our own, of equal size and quality.

I think that the most damning piece of evidence though should be the effects that it had on my generation, I along with thousands of others volunteered to serve our country, Atheists and Christians, Muslims and Jews, religion did not matter because we were all one fighting against terrorists not Muslims, the most disappointing factor of 9-11 is really just the polarization of religion in all of our lives. I think that we should follow the example set by our soldiers, airmen, marines, seamen, and coasties and work together, try to coexist and help our fellow Americans during this difficult time, because chances are no one religion will ever have full control. 9-11 was never an attack on Christianity it was an attack on Americans, and the worst thing that we can do to honor these victims is create more hatred against one another.