Angry atheists

Blogger Brent Rasmussen has an excellent response to Rabbi Marc Gellman's Newseek article on "angry atheists."

I couldn't have responded any better myself.

UPDATE

Atheists have a lot to be angry about. In his article, Gellman writes:

Perhaps their atheism was the result of the tragic death of a loved one, or an angry degrading sermon, or an insensitive eulogy, or an unfeeling castigation of lifestyle choices or perhaps something even worse.

This is an implication that atheists all have some sort of emotional or psychological issues otherwise they wouldn't be atheists. Then Gellman wonders why atheists are mad at him.

Gellman is unable to comprehend that most atheists are atheist because they don't think that the religions make any sense. Someone who is "atheist" because he is mad at God isn't really an atheist at all.

Comments

[Jeffery Jay Lowder]

I've posted a reply to Gellman on a blog I contribute to.

[probligo]

I spent some time a couple years back, looking through all and any atheist sites that I could find on the 'net as much in vicarious interest as anything else.

Of the several that I have tracked (that are not intimately interlinked or otherwise incestuous) there would be about half that would reflect the good Rabbi's opinion of atheists. The "least angry" would reflect a bewilderment and anger at "being misunderstood". The worst end seem to consider their "relationship to Christianity" (rather than religion in general) on the same level as GWB regarded Saddam.

And there I think is the key.

The ire of the vast majority of "the angry ones" is directed solely at the Christian Church, and American Christianity in particular. TO me, that seems to indicate a frustrated political tendency as much as it does any disbelief in religion. That opinion is borne out by their litigiousness, and the almost desparate need to separate state from any religious influence.

I have met a number of Kiwis like this - they are the ones who would oppose the saying of a prayer before a City Council meeting for example. One in particular had a real chuckle when I pointed out that those wanting the prayer needed all the help they could get.

For myself it is the same as the existence of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe... either there is, or there is not, a god.

I have a 50/50 chance of being right.

It really is as simple as that.

[Dr. Probability]

"For myself it is the same as the existence of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe... either there is, or there is not, a god.

I have a 50/50 chance of being right."

Having two options does not mean each option is equally likely. There is either a 60' dragon over the next hill, or there is not. But based on what we know about biology, historical evidence of the existence of dragons, and likelyhood the dragon has so far gone undetected...one option can be reasonably said to have a much higher percentage than the other. Believing there is a dragon over the next hill is not the same as believing you will get heads when you flip a coin.

[Anthony]

There's an old joke about Ireland which ends "Well, there are Protestant atheists, and Catholic atheists."

Protestant atheists are the ones who've rejected Christianity (and not found a substitute) for emotional reasons. They're Gellman's "angry atheists". Catholic atheists are the ones who've rejected Christianity (and not found a substitute) for intellectual reasons. They've never had that "conversion experience" and without that, the arguments for the existence of God are all pretty unconvincing. Thomas Aquinas is called "the father of atheists" because despite what is widely recognized as the most powerful intellectual attempt to justify/prove the existence of God, without some sort of prior belief, it's pretty clear to anyone smart enough to follow the argument that it's a circular argument.

The terms "protestant" and "catholic" to describe atheists aren't entirely accurate - there are plenty of "angry atheists" who grew up Catholic, and plenty of intellectually unconvinced atheists who grew up Protestant. But there is a cultural trend for Catholics to emphasize a more intellectual experience of God (at least to the more intelligent), and Protestants a more emotional experience of God, and thus people's rejection of God to occur in the same mode as which they're encouraged to experience God.