If Jesus Sees His Shadow, It's Six More Weeks of Winter: Religious Humor among Atheists

• In Event: 339 - Regular Session. Everyday Religion

Abstract

Drawing on twenty months of participant observation with an atheist organization in in the Bible Belt, this paper argues that humor directed at religion plays a vital role in atheist groups.
Fundamentally, the use of humor facilitates the creation of intersubjectivity between group members, helps maintain the boundaries between religion and non-religion, and aids in creating standards of what it means to be a “good” atheist. The kinds of religious humor used are highly structured and fall into a number of identifiable categories based on the idea that religion is fundamentally absurd. Religion is thus equated with a particular caricature of fundamental Protestant Christianity in the United States where negative pop culture images of conservative Christianity are amplified and, at least for humorous purposes, taken to be the norm. In addition, atheist individuals comfortable with potentially offensive humor tend to closely link their atheism with libertarian ideals promoting a market of competing ideas. Others, however, who oppose the potentially offensive material, feel that promoting community is also an important part of the group’s mission and of proper atheist activity. Humor is thus shown to an important aspect of the way that many atheists negotiate atheist identities and group boundaries.

Author

• Rick Moore, University of Chicago