Nov 29
Aggressive Atheism
Leave a Reply
- Author (Aurora Award Shortlisted, Technicolor Ultra Mall)
- Blogger (Obviously)
- Critic (Various Places, Various Things)
- Speaker (Panels, contest judge, etc.)
- One of Toronto's 12 Most Stylish (Toronto Life)
- Futurist (The weather will be . . .)
- Husband (Over two years now.)
- Worker (Cause writing is glamour.)
- Dandy (But probably not how you mean it.)
- Contact ( ryan dot oakley at gmail dot com)
3 comments
Danielle
November 29, 2009 at 12:49 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Yelling at people is never persuasive. Don’t care for these Liberal Extremists.
jamie
November 29, 2009 at 10:58 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
extremism in the defense of truth is no vice.
Ryan Oakley
December 1, 2009 at 3:31 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Making a youtube video, having an opinion or even shouting doesn’t qualify anyone as an extremist. Blowing things up does.
And I don’t think that his video is meant to persuade anyone. Things like this are usually rallying cries for an in-group of people who already agree. It’s an unfurled banner and trumpet cry for atheists. As for me, I don’t trust people who need or desire unfurled banners and trumpet cries.
The video is interesting though — not because he makes any decent points, he really doesn’t– but because he’s such a little Hitler. He talks about abusing religion – as if there is such a thing- but it sounds to me like he wants to abuse religious people. Thought crimes, burnt down buildings and destruction is all he offers. Some alternative.
A fellow like that should make some religious friends. It may teach him that even these people, irrational as they may be, have something to bring to the table too. Well, some of them.
It’s not all villains.
And why do atheists always forget the good religion and religious people have done in the world? The Quakers stance against slavery, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Ghandi spring to mind.
It’s not all evil.
The blood and gore that he attributes to religion is more often a product of basic human aggression, territorialism and attempts to gain or control capital. Religion is just an excuse; an afterthought but an important one. The excuse doesn’t have to be religion. Atheism can also serve as an excuse. But neither is the problem.
Fact is, humans have a mean old bloodlust in them and, because it’s deeply taboo for us to kill each other, we also have a need to justify our murders. We need to dehumanize an outgroup before we attack them.
Religion can provide that sort of dehumanization. It can provide a justification for our bloodlust. So can race, nationstates, shoechoice, colour of shirt and haircut. (Without religion, they would. Even with religion, they do.) But, in the end, it’s just the lie we tell ourselves about why we killed. This lie is an important part of the killing process – it’s a weapon we need – but it’s an easily available one. Religion as religion is irrelevant.
This guy just provides a different in/outgroup. And it’s still all about an imaginary character in the sky. Not about what you believe about it, but if you believe about it. His case is emotional and places human value not on anything real but on what they believe about something that doesn’t exist in the first place.
No real difference that I can see. Just different bullshit.
But I’m sure the suckers enjoy it and the religious people get to feel indignant. So they can all take another step away from basic decency, another step away from getting along with each other and another goosestep towards attacking each other. All over bullshit. Again. Each group with armed with their excuse.