No more Mr. Nice Guy

As the editor of ReligionAndSpirituality.com, I’m somewhat of an atheist magnet. A guy, let’s call him “Jim Bob,” wrote to criticize that our website is a citadel of Christian “wingnuts” of the “Religious Reich.”

Yikes! (although I do admire the richness of his language).

Jim Bob added, “I haven’t seen one word by a Muslim, Jew, Native American, Hindu, or any other religion but Christianity.”

The thing is, ReligionAndSpirituality.com is a very, very big tent, with 50-something weekly columnists. You can't throw a rock in there without hitting a Muslim; Jew; Baha'i; Buddhist; Hindu; pagan; straight-arrow, boy scout Christian; left-wing, commie, pinko Christian; thoroughly disillusioned former Christian or someone who talks to dead people.

So he’s never actually read the website. But that’s okay. I’m big-minded about this sort of thing and I explained in a beautifully polite and dignified manner, the enormous width and depth of the site’s content.

Okay, I may have also said he was a pathetic asshole. But not in a way that’s like a bad thing, or uncharitable. It was more like reminding him. Still, Jimbo took it in the wrong spirit, so the exchange didn’t go very well.

Is it just me, or has atheism taken a decidedly hostile turn lately? Seems like it used to be more live-and-let-live, as embodied in the words of John Lennon, the gentle soul of unbelief.

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky

Atheism used to have a sense of humor. The famous 15th century political strategist Niccolo Machiavelli was on his death bed. The Bishop visits him and implores, “Niccolo, you are dying. Save your soul. You must renounce Satan and all his works.”

Machiavelli struggles to lift himself up on one elbow. “Father, I beg you, this is no time to be making enemies.”

Oxford University is the Jerusalem of atheism (or rather “reason” as they like to call it). “Reason” is in no way touchie-feelie. It likes stuff it can measure, cleanly and crisply. It was at Oxford where Howard Walter Florey discovered the medical value of penicillin and where Robert Hooke developed the microscope.

This is science; it’s the binary exactness of ones and zeroes. Off or on, buddy. Black or white. Put up or shut up. Don’t expect “reason” to join you in a group hug, or be thoughtful enough to hold your hair back for you when you puke.

Oxford proudly displays a naked, sprawled out statue of poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, who was expelled from Oxford 200 years ago. He was expelled for being an atheist. What this should remind the ruling elite of today’s Oxford is how susceptible to head-spinning reversals are even hallowed halls. A hundred years from now they could easily have on display, a bareass sculpture of the provost who expelled Shelley.

My problem with atheism is as follows: It posits that after a person shuffles off the coil and goes to room temp, there is no “there,” there. You are dust, floating in emptiness, Not even dust. Just atoms. Heck, not even atoms. Nothing, nada, zip.

El Void-o.

Plus, your theory could easily be wrong, and if so, then you’ve also irritated God. And really, who needs that?

Atheism is lose-lose by its own definition.

Comedian Rodney Dangerfield said, “I went to an atheist’s funeral once. There he was, all dressed up and no place to go.” Rodney, who is currently dead himself these days, presumably now knows what’s available to go to. If I can get one of our columnists to chat him up about it, I’ll let you know what he says.

Larry Moffitt
Editor, www.ReligionAndSpirituality.com