the problem with atheists
April 19th, 2010 | Published in Dialogue, Religion
I am an atheist. Unlike many American atheists, I am not a “born-again” atheist. I did not find atheism after a childhood of religious oppression, or anything like that. I was simply raised without organized religion. My parents, growing up in China, were atheist, as well as college-educated. If there was Chinese religion in their families, it must have been dropped in college, and they certainly didn’t have much interaction with the Abrahamic religions.
I find that this has made me a much less vitriolic atheist than most American atheists. And, truth be told, there is something bothersome about this new-wave atheism, this born-again atheism, this Dawkins-and-Hutchins atheism. Here are some of the reasons why:
- They are so proud of themselves when they discover that religion has been used to manipulate people, that they think they have found all societal manipulation. They stop questioning economic manipulation, cultural manipulation, and other forms of manipulation. In short, they stop thinking critically on these issues.
- Conflating provoking people with being insightful.
- Certainty: I happen to think that being certain you have the one and right answer is a problematic position to have, no matter what the subject. Of course this doesn’t mean that you should change your opinion every time it’s challenged. But it is important to try to understand where someone else is coming from – a position of empathy. Starting with the assumption that someone is stupid leads nowhere, accomplishes nothing, and absolutely shuts off dialog.
