Why Atheists Are So Angry

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Why Atheists Are So Angry

Posted Dec 4th 2007 8:36PM by Dinesh D'Souza
Filed under: Christianity, Controversy, Atheism

If you haven't, you should read the comments in response to my recent debate with philosopher Daniel Dennett both here as well as on the atheist site richarddawkins.net. From the atheists you hear statements like this: "D'Souza is a goddamned idiot." "Odious little toad." "D'Souza is full of shit." "A smug, joyless twit." "Total moron." "Little turd." "Two-faced liar." Etc, etc. Now admittedly the topic of God v. atheism can be an emotional one, but you will find no comparable invective on the Christian side. Why then are so many atheists so angry? One reason I think is that they are God-haters. Atheists often like to portray themselves as "unbelievers" but this is not strictly accurate. If they were mere unbelievers they would simply live their lives as if God did not exist.
I don't believe in unicorns, but then I haven't written any books called The End of Unicorns, Unicorns are Not Great, or The Unicorn Delusion. Clearly the atheists go beyond disbelief; they are on the warpath against God. And you can hear their bitterness not only in their book titles but also in their mean-spirited invective.

Here is a second reason the atheists sound so angry. They are not used to having their sophistries exposed. For the past three years the new atheists have had a virtually free ride. Dawkins and Hitchens make outrageous claims ("religion poisons everything") and media pundits like Lou Dobbs and Tim Russert fawn all over them.
But in the past few months I've been meeting the leading atheist spokesmen in open debate, and challenging them on the basis of the same reason and science and evidence that they say vindicates their claims. After my first debate with Michael Shermer, editor of Skeptic magazine, several atheists on Dawkins' site said, "Well, D'Souza won that debate, but wait till he meets Hitchens. Hitchens will wipe the floor with him. D'Souza RIP." Then after I debated Hitchens the atheists said, "Oh no, this one didn't go as planned. Hitchens didn't do so well." Another commented that atheists could not afford to lose two in a row. Even so, one atheist hopefully noted that Hitchens was not the right guy to debate me; rather, Daniel Dennett has the scholarly weight to do the job.

Now after my Dennett debate, what's the verdict? Well, the audience was full of Dennett supporters who began with enthusiastic applause for him but, as the debate went on, fell largely silent. Several came up to me afterward and told me that I had won. Dennett himself seemed dispirited after the event. Even so, when I posted the debate on my blog, the atheists went into damage control mode. The debate was instantly posted on atheist sites, and atheists rushed to this blog to vote Dennett the winner. This effort gave atheists an early lead, but when the votes were tallied I was the victor. Interestingly my margin of victory was even bigger than that for the resolution, suggesting that several people voted that "God Is a Man-Made Invention" and still thought I won the debate.

A good way to assess a debate is to see what the partisans on each side say. Among Christians the verdict is unanimous. Sample comment from Townhall.com: "My heart went out to Professor Dennett because he was so totally over-matched in this debate You totally demolished him as you have the other atheists you have debated." But all you have to do is to go to atheist sites to see that many atheists also think that I won, although this is sometimes very grudgingly admitted. Here is a sampling of comments that I've taken from richarddawkins.net. "I was at the debate and thought Dennett did not prove his point." "I'm so tired of these D'Souza debates. The more people we send his way the larger his smile grows." "I feel such debates should stop." "I love Dennett's ideas about atheism but I do think he handled this debate poorly against Dinesh." "Ok, Dennett sucked...Dennett's type of responses just made him look like an ass." "Dinesh is an amazingly talented orator, considering how hopeless a case he is arguing." "Hitchens has had a shot, as has Dennett, and neither has succeeded in demolishing D'Souza. D'Souza has a very effective debating technique. Not only did a lot of atheists get up and fire straw-man arguments at D'Souza that he was easily able to counter and make them look foolish, but Dennett...lost his composure and his train of thought." "Let's face it, this guy has taken our best shots and still come out looking good. Maddening."

So where does this leave the atheists? These guys now seem to be 0-3. Some of the blog posters on Dawkins' site are calling on Sam Harris and Dawkins himself to step into the ring. Harris seems willing, although he has approached me about doing a written rather than an oral debate. Dawkins continues to avoid my invitation to debate on a secular West Coast campus, leading one atheist to dub him Richard the Chickenhearted. I really hope that Dawkins proves he has the courage of his convictions. (How brave is it to beat up on former televangelist Ted Haggard?) Otherwise the self-styled "brights" are going to face the empirical fact that when it comes to defending their views, atheists are basically losers. Remarkably, the "party of reason" is simply incompetent to vindicate those claims against an advocate of the "party of faith." Now what could be more embarrassing than that?

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Reader Comments ( Page 5 of 80)

Previous 15 Comments | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | Most Recent | Next 15 Comments

61. kbates,

no, your comment is exactly the right way to approach the matter. those atheist who get angry only prove DD right. you got to admit, DD knows what he's doing. he just draws you in,its our nature. but i was going to post how good your thoughts were

brian at 8:55AM on Dec 5th 2007

62. kbates,

its the stuarts, the chris's who slap their mother,the knights,the linda's, they get so mad. thats a problem,don't you think

brian at 8:57AM on Dec 5th 2007

63. I know why atheists are angry. DD. What an embarassing spectacle of smugness. "No comparable invective on the Christian side"? Apparently he's either not reading his own blog responses or he has a case of agnosia when he does see it. There's just not as much demand for unicorn refutation literature, so aside from cryptozoological volumes why bother? Arguing for God is where the $$$ is.

Mokele-Mbembe at 8:58AM on Dec 5th 2007

64. "Now what could be more embarrassing than that?"

Maybe a grown man having an imaginary friend.

Michael Hogan at 9:30AM on Dec 5th 2007

65. http://pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF103-Nice_Shirt.gif
Unicorn power!

Mokele-Mbembe at 9:18AM on Dec 5th 2007

66. brian,
I think it is a reflection of human nature. Anger, like any emotion is not in of itself "bad". Parents should get angry when their children are hurt, I get angry when I think of how the catholic church only offers help to those needy Africans who refuse life-saving condoms, as a result I contribute only to non-denominational charities. Anger can motivate people to do the right thing. I am less concerned with WHY someone does something as opposed to what people ACTUALLY do. But no, I don't think hostility for the selfish pleasure of indulging in hostility is very productive.

kbates at 9:26AM on Dec 5th 2007

67. Mokele-Mbembe,

I have seen the light. I will not disparage unicorns again.

Cheers

Michael Hogan at 9:31AM on Dec 5th 2007

68. kbates is referring to indignation. Atheists are INDIGNANT.

Mokele-Mbembe at 9:31AM on Dec 5th 2007

69. Sheer luck can't happen, nobody ever wins the lottery, it just doesn't happen that way, must be divine intervention.

a born atheist at 9:34AM on Dec 5th 2007

70. WHY ARE ATHEISTS ANGRY?

Because we are being targeted. Adultery used to be the hobgoblin of the Judgementalists (there's nothing fundamental about them!) But Adultery has become comonplace among christians also. Then it was gays (or as they prefer "homosexuals), and abortion,...and now they are coming after atheists to make us part of the EVIL spreading across the world.

---I've never had an atheist proselityze at my door.
---I don't remember any atheists Crusades "against the infidels" in the middle ages from school studies.
---I've never seen any atheist televangelists pollutiing the airwaves.
---THERE ARE NO ATHEIST CHURCHES OR ASSEMBLY HALLS.
---There have been no mass killing of Hutus by atheists in Africa.
---There were no Huegonot/Atheist wars in Europe. ----Atheists do not have missions to China to give out our holy books or try to convert the heathens.
---Atheists do not make a yearly pilgrimage to Mecca.
---Atheists do NOT have a designated leader, such as a pope or head of an evangelic group.
---Atheists have no holy texts that we refer to by chapter and verse to judge others or tell people the "correct" path in their life.
---Atheists don't have "sunday schools" to brainwash or scare impressionable children into our way of thinking.

---And Atheists DO NOT HAVE BLOGS ON AOL PUTTING DOWN OTHER RELIGIONS.

We atheists are generally a peaceful lot....trying to make our way in this world and uphold our responsibilities as correct citizens and responsible inhabitants of this earth.

We atheists do NOT care to spread our message. We are not (for the most part) zealots. Most of us have arrived at our viewpoints through personal voyages; thinking, experiences, searching, and open minded inquiry into history, science, and aspects of all religious faiths...not just christianity. When viewed comparatively with other religions, there is nothing that sets Christianity apart as the one true religion.

"I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition (christianity) one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology"

-Thomas Jefferson

But atheists are now under attack .....Dinesh D'Souza has found his calling: to make atheists out to be evil incarnate, on the same religious par as gays and abortion doctors and feminists. It's a typical Wedge philosophy and effort.....divide the people into "US" and "THEM", and to villify an otherwise peaceful and peace loving group of people.

I dare Mr. D'Souza...indeed I challenge him...to write a blog about what Christians and Atheists have in common....what we share...what we have in common as humans. But it seems all that Dinesh is interested in is dividing....and selling his books and his own personal viewpoint.

Truly this is the Christian way: to divide humanity and foster hate.

larry d. at 9:57AM on Dec 5th 2007

71. Perhaps the salient point is that Unicorn worshippers aren't doing things that right minded people should get angry about, such as introducing bogus science into classrooms, exhorting people to go to war, preaching hatred against homosexuals, etc. If they were, I'm sure that the likes of Dawkins and Dennett would be writing books on the very subject.

Matt at 9:42AM on Dec 5th 2007

72. DD boy says "Now admittedly the topic of God v. atheism can be an emotional one, but you will find no comparable invective on the Christian side. Why then are so many atheists so angry?"

Really? We will find no comparable invective on the Christian side? Hmmm...let's start with DINESH himself!

These quotes are from YOUR OWN BLOG ENTRIES, DD...

"Atheism is a grim philosophy"
"anti-religious bigots"
"atheist propagandists"
"atheist myth-makers"
"half-educated atheist rambling on"
"Christians need to stop believing the atheist con."
"It's time to tell the ACLU to go to hell."
"Somehow these religious and modest girls are not attracted by what liberal culture has to offer."
"the God-hating ignoramuses burst into applause"

And let's follow that up with quotes from so-called Christians who flock to this blog to support you.

"you guys are a boil on the butt of humanity."

"there are really no atheists out there. There are a lot of mixed up hurting people (in their hearts and souls)"

" i think your atheism is a cadaver. dead. with absolutely not one shread of redemption in it whatsoever."

"Respect my Lord if you want my respect."

"the stupidity of the so called Atheists of this world."

"modern atheists serve the agenda of denying the value of certain persons for the benefit of other persons."

"I personally do not believe in atheists."

"I love reading these articles that shed light on the atheist pest"

"ATHEISTS DO NOT EXIST."

"This is a christian nation whether anyone likes it or not"

And of course, there's all that "separation of church and state" stuff that we haven't discussed lately.

So...why are we angry? Hmmm...

brandon at 9:42AM on Dec 5th 2007

73. mokele,

and if you go to dawkins web site do you not see the same hawking of merchandise. you failed to mention that everywhere on dawkins site is BUY THE BOOK!!!! the god delusion. please be fair in your assessment mokele. you imply its only DD. shame,shame

brian at 9:43AM on Dec 5th 2007

74. Ah, people... The sad thing is, both sides are trying to feel better by belittleing the other. In one corner, the 'churchies' as I call them, try to put 'God' in a box, so to speak. In the other corner, they simply contend that the 'box' is not there. (?) Both sides are (sigh) trying to simplify something so that it fits into their tiny little minds, when the truth of the matter is, 'God' is far more than either one side can imagine. So, as a result, they are limited by the narrow scope of their imaginations - that includes you, Dinesh. Your arguments only support your case, and theirs support- nothing. Einstein once said- 'Imagination is more important than Knowlwdge.' Rock On Al!!!

robert at 9:45AM on Dec 5th 2007

75. It didn't take long to find this little Christian screed:
http://enewschannels.com/2007/12/04/enc2336_023354.php
...which calls atheists "dim-witted", "impulsive", "fool", "idiot", "raving", "simpleton", "proud", "arrogant", "quixotic", "stupid", "simplistic", "know-it-all", "simpleton", etc.

Yup, as Dinesh says, "you will find no comparable invective on the Christian side".

Ray Ingles at 9:51AM on Dec 5th 2007

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Mo Rocca appears on a bunch of shows, including CBS News Sunday Morning (with the indescribably wonderful Charles Osgood), The Tonight Show on NBC, and NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! He's a sometime judge on Iron Chef and was featured on Telemundo's Amore Descarado. Last year he starred on Broadway in the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. His expose "All the President's Pets" was published by Crown in 2004.