Atheists who protest too much risk affirming what they oppose
DONALD CLARKE
A FEW years ago, Jonathan Miller, the admirable physician, theatre director and satirist, gave an interview on the subject of (we choose our terms carefully) disbelief in a divine being.
“I never use the word ‘atheist’ of myself,” he said. “It’s scarcely worth having a name for. I don’t have a name for not believing in pixies.” It’s worth keeping Dr Miller’s words in mind when considering the debate – much of it carried out in the letters page of this newspaper – that the recent World Atheism conference in Dublin stirred up.
A few games of atrocity poker were played out. (“I see your clerical abuse and raise with the Stalinist purges,” nobody quite said.) Accusations of fundamentalism were flung back and forth. Nobody’s mind seems to have been changed.
Over the last decade or so, the emergence of something called New Atheism has fired fresh energies into this most ancient of philosophical debates. Writers such as Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris have made it their business to lecture anybody who will listen about the lunacies of religious belief and the evils propagated by certain clerical bodies.
Many of us who categorise belief in God alongside a faith in toad-worshipping or rain-dancing are uneasy about this development. It is certainly a good idea to collectively campaign against specific outrages carried out in the name of religion. The continuing struggle by mainstream American politicians – the Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann for one – to introduce “intelligent design”, the belief that evolution is engineered by a deity, into school syllabuses is worth worrying about.
(What next? The inclusion of “here be dragons” on maps depicting less-well-explored parts of the globe?)
It hardly needs to be said that right-thinking folk, religious or not, remain concerned about the Catholic Church’s handling of abuse scandals.
That noted, it must be acknowledged that the activities of the New Atheists often appear counterproductive. A superficial problem exists with the tone adopted by some of the group’s leading figures. It is a continuing irony that Richard Dawkins, a towering figure in so many ways, often comes across like a provincial archbishop addressing a congregation of serfs.
Even Christopher Hitchens, witty where Dawkins is patrician, is uneasy about Dawkins’s decision to launch an organisation, aimed at propagating a naturalistic worldview, entitled the Brights Movement. Hitchens finds it “a cringe-making proposal that atheists should conceitedly nominate themselves to be called ‘brights’ ”. More seriously, the attempt to organise disbelievers into a cohesive movement risks playing straight into the deists’ eager hands. Atheism begins to sound like a belief system; atheists take on the quality of adherents and those arguing against faith find themselves labelled secular apologists.
Atheism A Belief - News
Atheism begins to sound like a belief system; atheists take on the quality of adherents and those arguing against faith find themselves labelled secular apologists. None of this helps the argument. If atheism is, indeed, a belief system, then it is one
I was uncomfortable when people questioned AA dogma, or were firmly atheist. I went through a period of not feeling at home in either Beyond Belief or traditional meetings; I called myself 'agnostic' in the strict sense of 'not knowing and not possible
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Saying that atheism isn't a faith is a form of "dictionary atheism," an argument that atheism means simply the lack of belief in god(s) (or maybe the belief that god(s) don't exist). But clearly atheism means more than that if you're going to build a
From Atheism to Belief: A Journey to Islam in North America by Dr ...
From Atheism to Belief: A Journey to Islam in North America. This was the topic of a lecture delivered by Dr. Jeffrey Lang at McGill University on October 27, 2007. Dr. Jeffrey Lang was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1954. He grew up in a Roman Catholic family but became atheist by the time he was 18. In the early 80s, however, he converted to Islam and since then, he has been an active and influential voice in Islamic Circles throughout America. Dr. Lang is currently a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Kansas in the US.
right at the beginning he says something that has been bugging me for so long.. and then right before he goes any deeper into it, there’s a gap in the video? do you by any chance have that part???? the part after 0:52 is missing.. there is a gap there.. right after he says “so that was my explanation”. what does he think of the matter now?
has no beliefs or tenets, it is nothing more than the rational non-belief in gods as a result of insufficient evidence.
RT : No Sparky, is a lack of belief in any gods.
No Sparky, is a lack of belief in any gods.
should be regaded as an alternate religion and be able to collect faith support from US gov.An unquestioned belief is a faith.
"I'll only listen to arguments which, if proven wrong, would cause a theist to rethink, revise their belief Atheism A Belief - Bookshelf
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One of the most common accusations aimed at atheists is that atheism is an article of faith, a belief just like religion.
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