Sam Harris has written the Cliff's Notes version of his two books on atheism. He takes on the following ten myths about us nonbelievers:
1) Atheists believe that life is meaningless.
2) Atheism is responsible for the greatest crimes in human history.
3) Atheism is dogmatic.
4) Atheists think everything in the universe arose by chance.
5) Atheism has no connection to science.
6) Atheists are arrogant.
7) Atheists are closed to spiritual experience.
8) Atheists believe that there is nothing beyond human life and human understanding.
9) Atheists ignore the fact that religion is extremely beneficial to society.
10) Atheism provides no basis for morality.
I think #4 and #5 are weak. The whole basis of fundamentalist anxiety about the theory of evolution is that the claim that the science behind it leads to a rejection of religion. That's why science is under attack. And while chance alone did not give rise to biology, even Harris admits it played a role.
Still, this is a pretty good list of talking points.
Well some atheists most certainly are dogmatic. Indeed there is a certain species of atheist that can be properly described as a fundamentalist atheist. Richard Dawkins fits that description very well. . .
If atheists do not "think everything in the universe arose by chance" it would seem that they would have to believe that a certain amount of design was involved. . .
In that atheism is a religious stance it is fair to say that it "has no connection to science" although that statement is open to some interpretation.
Some atheists are arrogant, others are not. All to often the poster boys for atheism are quite arrogant though. Richard Dawkins being a case in point. . .
Many if not most atheists are closed to spiritual experience, especially if that spiritual experience is expressed in religious language. Dogmatic fundamentalist atheists pathologize religious experience.
Posted by: The Emerson Avenger | January 01, 2007 at 11:20 PM