5 Of The Worst High-Profile Attacks On Atheism In 2013
By CJ Werleman
1. Oprah says atheists are incapable of awe.
Endurance swimmer Diana Nyad, who earlier this year swam from Cuba to Florida at the age of 64, explained that she sees no contradiction between her atheism and her ability to experience awe, or in her words, “to weep with the beauty of this universe and be moved by all of humanity.”
Oprah found Nyad’s comment to be inconsistent with her definition of atheism. She responded, “Well, I don’t call you an atheist then. I think if you believe in the awe and wonder and the mystery, then that is what God is.”
In Oprah’s eyes, atheists must be cold, emotionless rationalists, and for those atheists who do experience awe, well, they really do believe in God, they just don’t know it yet.
David Niosce, author of Non-Believer Nation, writes, “What is most alarming about Oprah’s revelation is that she doesn’t even realize its invidiousness. Atheists, to her, don’t feel that deep, emotional connection to the universe. She has drawn a circle that includes people of all faiths, but excludes atheists, thereby confirming negative attitudes toward nonbelievers.”
2. Time magazine swipes nonbelievers.
In the wake of the Oklahoma tornado, Time journalist Joe Klein published a piece on the therapeutic value of public service. It’s an interesting read up until Klein writes: “But there was an occupying army of relief workers, led by local first responders, exhausted but still humping it a week after the storm, church groups from all over the country — funny how you don’t see organized groups of secular humanists giving out hot meals.”
But according to atheist blogger Hemant Metha, a great number of humanist and atheist organizations contributed to post-tornado relief. Foundation Beyond Belief raised over $45,000 for Operation USA and the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma. Atheists Giving Aid raised over $18,000, which was donated to local relief groups in Moore, Oklahoma, and local atheist groups such as Oklahoma Atheists, Atheist Community of Tulsa, the Lawton Area Secular Society, Norman Naturalism Group, and the Oklahoma State Secular Organization organized volunteers, resources and blood drives.
In addition, there are many atheists, like myself, who don’t consider a lack of belief in a god to be the most critical component of their identity, much in the same way nonbelief in astrology or homeopathy is not a central part of many people’s lives. You don’t find many atheists walking around disaster sites wearing T-shirts that say, “Hi, I’m an atheist,” which explains why Joe Klein didn’t see any “organized groups of secular humanists giving out hot meals.”
3. Justice Scalia says atheism “favors the devil’s desires.”
It’s almost a given that Supreme Court Justice Anton Scalia will say something so outrageous he’ll end up on any number of annual Worst of the Worst lists. In previous years, Scalia has equated homosexuality with bestiality, and more recently he remarked that the Separation of Church and State would come under scrutiny under a Supreme Court with a Scalia majority. This year, in an interview given on the 27th anniversary of his swearing-in on the high court, Scalia said that not only does he believe Satan is a real person, but atheists “favor the devil’s desires.”
New York magazine asked Scalia if he’s seen evidence of the devil’s work recently. “You know, it is curious,” Scalia answered. “In the Gospels, the devil is doing all sorts of things. He’s making pigs run off cliffs, he’s possessing people and whatnot. And that doesn’t happen very much anymore. … It’s because he’s smart.”
Scalia said the devil has gotten “wilier” and convinced people that he and God don’t exist.
Asked if it’s “frightening” to believe in the devil, Scalia replied, “You’re looking at me as though I’m weird. My god! Are you so out of touch with most of America, most of which believes in the devil? I mean, Jesus Christ believed in the devil! It’s in the Gospels! You travel in circles that are so, so removed from mainstream America that you are appalled that anybody would believe in the devil! Most of mankind has believed in the devil, for all of history. Many more intelligent people than you or me have believed in the devil.”
In case you missed it the first time, one of the most important judicial figures in this country believes that Satan is real. No wonder we no longer have a space program.
4. Dana Perino says, “Atheists don’t have to live here.”
Dana Perino, the former White House Press Secretary under President Bush, and now Fox News bobblehead, was asked by her co-hosts to comment on the Massachusetts Supreme Court case brought by atheist parents, who feel that due to the Pledge of Allegiance’s reference to one nation under God, atheist children are “denied meaningful participation in this patriotic exercise.”
She barked, “I’m tired of them [atheists]. I remember working at the Justice Department years ago when I first started right after 9/11 and a lawsuit like this came through, and before the day had finished, the United States Senate and the House of Representatives had both passed resolutions saying that they were for keeping ‘under God’ in the pledge.”
“If these people really don’t like it, they don’t have to live here,” she concluded.
Well, Dana, the Supreme Court has also ruled same-sex marriage is constitutional, so if you don’t like it, you don’t have to live here.
5. Rafael Cruz says atheism leads to child rape.
Yes. Republican senator Ted Cruz’s father really did say atheism leads to the sexual abuse of children when speaking before a gathering of OK2A, an Oklahoma Second Amendment advocacy group.
In his keynote address, the elder Cruz railed against atheism and secular humanism, which he said are two of the main ills facing our society. “Let’s look, for example, at the behavioral consequences of these two foundations,” Cruz said to the group. “Well, if there is nothing, if there is no God, then we are ruled by our instincts.”
Cruz said that because atheism is absent of moral absolutes, nothing is immoral to atheists, and that this worldview, in turn, leads to sexual perversion and sexual abuse.
A study by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops concluded that Catholic priests sexually abused 10,667 young people in the years 1950 to 2002. Rafael Cruz’s father was a Catholic. So, there’s that.