{"id":526,"date":"2011-03-03T17:49:00","date_gmt":"2011-03-03T17:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/03\/atheists-as-fundamentalists-a-false-equation.html"},"modified":"2011-03-03T17:49:00","modified_gmt":"2011-03-03T17:49:00","slug":"atheists-as-fundamentalists-a-false-equation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/03\/atheists-as-fundamentalists-a-false-equation.html","title":{"rendered":"Atheists As Fundamentalists: A False Equation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I\u2019m a big fan of columnist Leonard Pitts.\u00a0 But when he\u2019s wrong, he\u2019s wrong.\u00a0 In his latest column he takes up the issue of atheism<\/a> after some atheist objected to a column in which he said that Lara Logan (the CBS reporter sexually attacked in Egypt) \u201cis deserving of our compassion, our empathy and our prayers.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is not the kind of thing that would prompt me to write a comment.\u00a0 It\u2019s so common in our discourse that I usually just ignore it. \u00a0I also hear it much more than other non-believers do. \u00a0Quite often people who do not know that I am a secular humanistic rabbi will ask me to pray for someone.\u00a0 When it\u2019s contextually appropriate, I might engage them in conversation.\u00a0 Usually I\u2019ll just say something to the effect of, \u201cI will keep him or her in my thoughts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Okay, so this particular atheist was moved to scold Mr. Pitts when many of us would not.\u00a0 His response, however, was over the top:<\/p>\n

Indeed, I find myself struck by the similarity between certain atheists and fundamentalists. Meaning the ones who can always tell you exactly what\u2019s on God\u2019s mind and even what He had for breakfast this morning. God did this, they say, because He didn\u2019t like those people, did that because that country ticked Him off. Funnily enough, God\u2019s likes and dislikes always seem to exactly match theirs.<\/p>\n

There is a certain hubris in them that is mirrored in the declaration that God does not exist because our telescopes cannot see Him nor our equations prove Him. It was only a minute ago, as the universe measures time, that our kind was scared of fire, so our faith in our tools to now definitively disprove God is as arrogant as it is amusing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The declaration that God does not exist, which is better stated as the claim that God is an unprovable being, has nothing in common with fundamentalism.\u00a0 There is neither hubris nor arrogance in this assertion.\u00a0 No sensible atheist that I know makes a claim that we can disprove God\u2019s existence.\u00a0 What we state is that through reason and knowledge, the God hypothesis appears to be incompatible with what we know about the world.\u00a0 Furthermore, atheists do not condemn believers to hellfire or any similar consequences.\u00a0 We argue that, to lesser and greater degrees, many theists are condemning us to a world ruled by superstition and ancient stories.\u00a0 Pitts goes on to state:<\/p>\n

God is not proven. God is felt. I know the subjectivity of that will give [the atheist] Patricia \u2014 and others \u2014 fits. Deal with it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Non-theists contend that such feelings are easily explained by human psychology.\u00a0 More significantly, and I believe that Mr. Pitts would agree with this, God-feelings cannot serve as an objective measure of morality.\u00a0 If God is just your feeling, don\u2019t expect others to necessarily share it.\u00a0 And for goodness\u2019 sake, please explain to your fellow theists the difference between your benign God-feelings and their more malignant authoritarian deity.\u00a0 Do not be misled.\u00a0 Your fundamentalist co-believers do NOT confine God to feelings.<\/p>\n

Like many liberally religious people, Leonard Pitts has been taken in by a caricature of atheism created by the zealots.\u00a0 Perhaps the comment he received did not further the atheist cause, but his response was quite misguided.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m a big fan of columnist Leonard Pitts.\u00a0 But when he\u2019s wrong, he\u2019s wrong.\u00a0 In his latest column he takes up the issue of atheism after some atheist objected to a column in which he said that Lara Logan (the CBS reporter sexually attacked in Egypt) \u201cis deserving of our compassion, our empathy and our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6,12,25,30],"class_list":["post-526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogentries","tag-atheism","tag-fundamentalist-christianity","tag-liberal-religions-and-theologies","tag-non-theism"],"yoast_head":"\nAtheists As Fundamentalists: A False Equation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I\u2019m a big fan of columnist Leonard Pitts.\u00a0 But when he\u2019s wrong, he\u2019s wrong.\u00a0 In his latest column he takes up the issue of atheism after some atheist\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/03\/atheists-as-fundamentalists-a-false-equation.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Atheists As Fundamentalists: A False Equation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I\u2019m a big fan of columnist Leonard Pitts.\u00a0 But when he\u2019s wrong, he\u2019s wrong.\u00a0 In his latest column he takes up the issue of atheism after some atheist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/03\/atheists-as-fundamentalists-a-false-equation.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Atheist Rabbi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-03-03T17:49:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeffrey L. 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