Angry Atheists

[poliphilo]

A happy atheist- by which I mean an atheist confident in their unbelief- wouldn't continually be banging on about God the way Dawkins and Hitchens and Pullman do, they'd just let the matter rest and get on with their cheerfully Godless life, wouldn't they?

I read a piece by Dawkins the other day. (Thanks to chiller  for the link. ) It's very ecrasez l'infame- very shrill. Dawkins thinks he's got the Pope on the run and is giving chase with loud cries.

Philip Pullman is just about to publish a book about Jesus with a provocative title. I doubt that it'll be any good. Fictions about Jesus- for or against- never are. I enjoyed the Dark Materials trilogy, but the anti-God stuff was clumsy. As Eliot said of Matthew Arnold, Pullman is dealing with a subject "in (which) reasoning power matters, and it fails him."
 
I've been an atheist. I've dreamed that dream. The one where the bastille is tottering and you put just a little more weight on the crowbar and something gives and the masses come staggering out into the light of pure Reason. It's not going to happen.

Comments

[litchick.livejournal.com]

Since I became an atheist I've been frequenting a couple of internet forums, and I'm beyond understanding these angry atheists - these disciples of Dawkins and Hitchens. What's the big deal? They sound as bad as any religious zealot only they're on "my team." I understand on one hand, how atheists in a country like here in America can get frustrated at times because of the influence of the Christan right and their attempts to bring prayer into schools, or stop teaching evolution, but beyond that I don't see what the big deal is about, and I think it reflects on us poorly as a group. If they're interested in raising the bar for discussion and delivering more reason and rationality into society I think they need to bring their rhetoric down a notch or two and make a full-hearted attempt to really understand religion and why it plays such a prominent role in the lives of so many.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Shouting is ugly and counterproductive. It makes people want to give you a wide berth.

My favourite atheist is the film maker Luis Bunuel- who knew Catholicism from the inside, understood its glamour, and exposed its absurdities with sly wit.