[R. W.: ] Now that I have read Kathy Momic’s letter I think that David Miles’ rebuttal is poorly done.

Enjoyable to read, yes – but in addition to the above, he also spells “Paducah” wrong…

– Miz L. (Kentucky native with a penchant for spelling and grammar)

Momic does not make any blanket statement about atheists in general. She only attacks what she says is Pullman’s motives. She attempts an indirect quote:

Pullman has said it is not possible that there is a God, and he has great difficulty understanding the words “spiritual” and “spirituality.” Pullman wants children to read the books and decide against God and the kingdom of Heaven.

Miles does not challenge her by pointing out that she has not cited this and she seems to imply that she got her information “on the internet,” another fallacy he could point out, snarkily or not. The “kingdom of Heaven” phrase is a big clue that it’s part of the rumor that has been discussed on this and other blogs recently. Miles could have torn that to pieces.

What he does is to set up straw man arguments about what he portrays as her ridiculous attitudes and beliefs about atheists in general. So he does exactly what he implies that she is doing, and she hasn’t done that. His letter isn’t really about her letter at all, but just his indulgence in venting against unnamed anti-atheist Christians in general. Miles’ letter isn’t going to convince anyone to change their opinions or attitudes about Pullman, “The Golden Compass,” atheists or the practice of condemning unread books and movies. If anything it just galvanizes people into whatever their present opinion and attitudes are.

Don’t take my word. Get your information on the Internet.

Oh, man. And this:

We all need to keep our children safe. All the God-fearing masses need to be made aware of this.

The “god-fearing masses” – wow. Let’s all keep our children safe from new ideas! Get the pitchforks and man the battlements, everyone!

I updated the post!

I can’t find any way to access the Dec. 7 letter at Times Daily.com that David Miles is rebutting. Does anybody know how?

Without that access, this post is not fair to Kathy Momic and not fair to us. It’s sloppy. I probably would disagree with her but I don’t get a chance to decide for myself. I only have David Miles’ characterization of it. We don’t know if Miles is quoting, paraphrasing, spinning or flat-out distorting. Analyzing his snarkiness and his effectiveness has no meaning if we cannot compare his letter to hers. For people here to be clucking about a letter that they have not read is pretty absurd. It’s no different than someone condemning the movie “The Golden Compass” when they haven’t seen it, they have only heard other’s uninformed opinions. Let’s not be sloppy.

She probably isn’t acquainted with an atheist but “knows” that atheists are possessed by the devil, don’t know right from wrong and don’t believe in anything.

UNBELIEVABLE rubbish! Of course, I think that was his point as I read the rest of it. Unfortunately, there really are people who think like this and it’s sad.

However, I do think religion was viewed more critically than at less prestigious universities. In one of my discussion sections last year, intelligent design and paranormal research were openly mocked. So I assume there’s a balance. It’s often the case at universities that the loudest people are assumed to be the majority. Religious people are obvious, they have campus crusade, services, chaplains, and other shit. Atheists tend to be quiet and thus more difficult to detect on a college campus. I assume that was the case at my university.

I also found a study from the 50′s i think, that showed better universities have lower instances of god-belief.

And, yes, that letter is aboslutely fantastic. Many thumbs up.