Off a tip from snowqueen, I’ve been watching the Mr Deity videos on YouTube. Wickedly funny! I had no idea that God was like a Hollywood executive. But suddenly a lot of things make sense. ‘Mr Deity’ is occasionally scathing, as though written by someone who’s heard all the lame rationalisations for God’s inaction.
And so I wasn’t surprised to learn this from Mr Deity’s FAQ.
Brian, what is your stand on Religion?
I am a formerly religious person (non-bitter), and as such, have great sympathies for the beliefs and feelings of religious people.
The first and great commandment is: Thou shalt not be bitter.
But notice:
In future episodes, I intend to turn the tables a bit and poke fun at what I call the “angry atheists” (of whom I am not fond). We’ll see if they take it so well.
And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt not be angry.
I suspect that this is a stereotype we’re going to see for the next several decades: The Angry Atheist. Too bad it’s being promoted by a funny satirist like Mr Deity. It was pulled out by Fox News asshat John Kasich, who angrily asked a smiling Brian Flemming (of Blasphemy Challenge fame) why he was so angry. Are we going to have to walk around with big fake churchy smiles on our faces, just so we can debunk this meme?
But maybe this is a good chance to address the Anger Issue. Richard Dawkins was once mystified during a talk when someone asked him if he thought anger was a natural part of the deconversion process. He wasn’t sure, so he turned the question back on the audience, who responded resoundingly: Yes.
Yes, we are angry. I am angry. Why shouldn’t I be? I have wasted hours and years of my life on a flimsy set of ideas that claimed to be true. I’ve paid thousands of dollars to a religious organisation that promoted fiction. I knocked on doors for two years of my limited life in the hope of convincing someone of a set of absurdly stupid beliefs. I testified that these beliefs were true for the very worst reason: I had had a feeling that they were true.
While I’m thinking about it, allow me to take this opportunity to make an apology. People of Perth, Australia: I am sorry that I ever troubled you for one second about religion, the fictional plan of salvation, and made-up gods and scriptures. In a small way, it’s a comfort that so few of you believed me.
And yet, who am I angry at?
My parents? Not really; they were fooled too. They were just trying to do their best, and get me to heaven where we could live as a family forever, la lee la lee la.
Myself? I feel like I should have figured it out sooner. But I was given shitty tools to find truth. And it’s hard to overcome years of training, especially when you’ve received (as you suppose) a message from God confirming everything. And invested so much in it. So I guess I did figure it out eventually, when it was difficult. In a way, I’m actually sort of pleased with myself.
People who still believe? I confess to a flash of ire now and again that people can still be theists, but that’s because I sometimes forget what it was like, and how hard it was to change. When I remember that, I can forgive them for continuing.
I’ve heard that one of the important psychological jobs of adulthood is to be able to forgive your parents for their failings. I’ve seen twenty- and thirty-somethings that still burn with rage over things their parents did, and that’s not healthy. In like manner, it’s important to forgive your religion of origin (and the people therein) for promoting the God delusion.
Angry atheists: your anger is real and justified. Now sort it out, and be healthy. Fight theism with relentless cold reason.
4 February 2007 at 1:08 pm
I was reading a column over at the CSI website (the one formerly known as CSICOP, not anything to do with the TV show) around about the same time I was watching those Mr. Deity clips (those were absolutely brilliant by the way, good find Snowqueen!). It was about Dawkins and Dennett’s “bright” campaign and how they’ve unintentionally reinforced certain prevalent stereotypes about atheists.
I’m not talking “angry atheist” here, I’m referring to that far more irksome beast, “arrogant, patronising atheist.” Atheists tend to get a bad rap because, more often than not, they come across as sneering pricks =) I know you keep saying you don’t think we theists are inherently moronic, but it’s hard to shake off that impression when you refer to religious belief as a delusion and declare the whole thing to be a waste of time.
Come on, how am I not supposed to take that as an insult, Daniel? That’s a good chunk of my life and identity you’re dismissing as ‘absurdly stupid’ there. I assure you, I’m not in some sort of mind-washed state, waiting for the day when I become lucid enough to break free of delusion and start thinking like a grown-up.
I’m glad you’re happy with your worldview, seriously I am, but for mr.deity’s sake, would you stop being so condescending towards us religious folk? It makes you about as endearing as the fundamentalists.
One day, I’m going to convince you that a person can be rational and religious at the same time.
4 February 2007 at 2:41 pm
Hm. alarik is still here reading. I infer from this that he still enjoys something about his Good Reason experience. But I can’t figure out what it could be, because I keep insulting his memes.
As I keep saying, I know you can be rational and religious at the same time. I wasn’t a moron. The beliefs I had made perfect sense as long as I accepted certain assumptions. But I have since discovered that those assumptions were bad. I accepted them because they were taught to me as a child by people I trusted, reinforced by a community, and entrenched by habit and inertia. It would have been unusual not to have been influenced. And now, seeing those beliefs with this new perspective, I feel incredibly frustrated at my (own, not your) former credulity. This I have expressed without holding back.
I cheerfully admit to being a bit of a prick sometimes. 🙂 This is the natural impression that comes off when I tell people that their cherished beliefs are false. I secretly think, however, that their irkage is compounded by their inability to provide solid evidence for their claims. And since they can’t address that, they complain about my tone. Oh, I didn’t like his tone. Oh, he’s so angry. Just as bad as a fundamentalist. And so on.
The blog is where I let the personal voice loose, so a lot of these things are how I see them. I write from my perspective, not yours. I do not sugar-coat my atheism so you can feel good about it, even though I’d probably be a nicer and more non-alienating person if I did so. Yes, I do see my previous religious involvement as a waste of time. No, I am not targeting you. Yes, I like you, but I’m not worried if you don’t like me back.
4 February 2007 at 11:37 pm
Never having been a Christian believer I am perhaps not angry at having wasted my life but I can imagine that the feeling of being duped and basically misled must piss you off. I find it insulting that many people think that atheists must be immoral. If you read my recent post on gay adoptions, I think that I’m a lot more ethical than many Christians. I’m not angry because I’m an atheist, I just hate hypocrisy.
5 February 2007 at 12:20 am
Oh, I’m always here reading. I’m just tend not to talk much unless I disagree with you 😉
Don’t worry, I know you’re not targeting me or anything like that, it’s just that as a still relatively mainstream Mormon it’s hard not to take it personally. Hell, that’s not even that part that bothers me, plenty of people think my beliefs are crazy. I think what irks me most is the assumption that those LDS who still believe are simply in the same place you were before your deconversion.
My family isn’t LDS and I wasn’t really raised that way, so those assumptions you talk about aren’t so deeply ingrained. The thing is, I already have questioned the whole thing and I simply arrived at a different place. I’m not in some stage that you grew out of, I’m in a different spot entirely and, because I’m a prideful bugger, I hate people dismissing that as invalid.
If I didn’t like you, I wouldn’t care what you thought about the whole thing. It’s precisely because I hold your opinions in high regard that it bothers me.
5 February 2007 at 4:57 am
I don’t want to argue that atheists’ anger is not real and justified… Although I don’t label myself as an atheist after my ‘de-conversion’ I spent a lot of time being angry at people and circumstances but then realised that it achieves nothing. There is no need to be angry at your past because every second has made you who are you are now.
“Yes, I do see my previous religious involvement as a waste of time.” – it wasn’t, and if you realise that then you can stop being angry. easy.
just love and be happy
is the hippie bothering you yet? 😛
Wish I was able to go to the swearing class tonight. Have a ball.