Sam Harris Myths (2)
It could be my bias, of course, but I can't help
thinking that atheist Sam Harris whinges a lot. Not only has he done
some whimpering about fellow-atheists criticizing how he goes about
proclaiming his faith, he's now whining about atheists being kept out
of politics. Now I don't know how many atheists want to get into
politics but are held back specifically because sixty seven per cent
would rather not have an atheist as President. I'm going to guess that
you won't find many atheists who were on the verge of beginning the long
run for the presidency until recently but dropped the notion when they
heard the Newsweek poll result.
Then Harris juxtaposes his list of myths that is
supposed to give us the reasons 67% of Americans would rather not have
an atheist for President. Harris said he was going to deflate the myths
to help put atheists in the senate, congress and the White House. Bless
me, is he writing for fellow-atheists or for the 67% that are believers?
I'm going to take it that he's trying to persuade believers with such pieces as this Los Angeles Times serving.
Is he really aiming to persuade believers? Maybe these believers aren't
the rabid dogmatists he keeps saying they are. If they're the sickness
and poison that are at the heart of America wouldn't you think he's
wasting his time talking to them? I mean these believers are no part of
that elite group of intellectuals in the NAS and they're sick dogmatists
to boot.
{In any case, if he thinks this sloppy little piece is
going to change minds he should think again. G.K. Chesterton said he was
an atheist until he started reading atheist material and had his first
doubts about his doubts. Then he read the atheist Robert Ingersoll and
said to himself, "Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.")
But for all his whimpering about how muzzled atheists
are in America, Sam is beside himself with delight when he tells us that
93% of the members of the National Academy of Science are atheists.
I take it, then, that being an atheist in America is no
hindrance to someone becoming a part of probably the most powerful
fraternity in the Western world. Put the pharmaceutical companies, their
political lobbyists, the scientists, the equipment manufacturers, etc.,
all together in a symbiotic relationship and you have a force that gets
its way to an astonishing degree. Harris pretends that atheists are
downtrodden and that he needs to deflate the myths that he claims are
keeping atheists from having "a larger role in our national discourse."
You think that fraternity doesn't have a power disproportionate
to its numbers? (And I don't hear any state supported colleges and
universities launching an investigation into the vast sums of taxpayers
money being spent on nurturing atheists for the NAS.)
On top of all that, he wants to leave the impression
that 67% of Americans would rather not have an atheist for President
because they think that atheists are (characteristically) immoral.
Sixty-seven out of every hundred Americans think that atheists don't
love their husbands and wives, their children, their friends
and don't live in warm and honourable faithfulness with them?
Sixty-seven out of every hundred Americans think that if
you're an atheist you don't see beauty in a little child or a golden
field of wheat or some majestic mountain range?
This is supposed to be what's keeping an atheist from getting to be President?
Drivel.
That kind of believer is mythical.