I was glad to see that Moran had caught wind of Chris Hedges’ new book “I Don’t Believe in Atheism” He took away from it a different aggravation than I, but good points - none the less.
I woke up this morning to my mother rushing me to a radio to listen to the Sunday Edition where Michael Enright was doing an interview with Hedges’ about his book.
The podcast isn’t online yet - but when it is I will most definitely link where you can download the show from today. …Turns out Chris Hedges’ is a total whack job that just makes people like my mom and step-dad think they’re right about atheists not actually being able to exist.
What bothered me the most after listening to this guy go on about nothing for so long was that my mom came out saying “no! he’s right! he’s SO right!” …mostly about the fact that atheists don’t actually oppose “god” or “religion” but organized religion. Hedges claims that most atheists don’t even know the different between institutionalized religion and faithful religion.
This really upsets me quite a bit as someone who rejects both institutionalized religion and faith based religion. Hedges’ in right in the fact that I don’t like churches and how they gain so much power and money. He’s right in saying that as an atheist I am deeply opposed to institutions. But he is absolutely wrong in his “definition” of an atheist.
My step dad is another person who claims that atheists can’t exist. He says the very definition of them is contradictory to our existence. He backs this up by saying two things;
“What is my god? You don’t know, so you can’t deny it.” and “For you not to believe in god you are already stating that there is something for you to deny.”
So I proceed in asking him what his god is, and as I’ve written about before - it is “goodness”, and atheism is a cop out because it is easier to deny everything than to formulate into words what you actually support. God, for him is … all that is “good” in the world. This is his “god”… and because goodness has always been here, and because different groups of people have turned this “goodness” and “morality” into god - then no one, by definition of god, can be an atheist, because we all believe in goodness. …and as my friend out in McGill said “If I define “god” as a crêpe, then I am not an atheist. For sure.”
This whole idea of “wrong definition” is really starting to boil my blood. I am told almost every day of my life that I’m not “really” an atheist or that I don’t “understand” what god is or that I’m just “angry” because I have my definitions wrong. But here’s the kicker - I don’t attempt to define god, because there is nothing to define. I think it is naive and simply irrational to start defining god as whatever you happen to feel like, such as “goodness”.
My step dad takes on the idea that whatever you hold highest is your “god”. Well no, I don’t hold anything particularly higher than anything else except for my education - so is my education my god? Should I thank my education every day for giving me life? Should I consider my profs disciples of my god and bow down to their feet? It’s ludicrous to affirm that whatever you want to define god as, is what god is. That totally illegitimates everything. It makes it all pointless.
Go ahead and think that my lack of belief is really just my lack of understanding, that’s fine. But I also think it’s down right wrong. I don’t believe “god” to be goodness, I believe goodness to be goodness. I don’t believe “god” to be morality. I believe morality to be morality. I used to think that the worst kinds of christians were those that didn’t listen to facts, now I’m starting to think the worst kinds of christians are those who tell me that it is literally impossible for me to have no beliefs.
And you know what THAT means, right? … I’m getting his book from the library and not buying it! Take THAT Chris Hedges!
If the “it’s impossible to have no beliefs” thing is an accurate description of Hedges’ position, then it’s obviously wrong.
I do get the impression, though, that Hedges is specifically talking about “New Atheists”. Christopher Hitchens (say) has some very strong beliefs, and a lot of them aren’t very good ones from a humanist perspective.
does it make a difference what kind of atheists hes talking about?
catholics are assholes. that’s still disgusting but im not targeting ALL christians.
i think the “its impossible to have no beliefs” was something her stepdad said, not hedges. i think
Pharrell: Sorry, you’re right. Confusing Hedges with her stepdad.
Yes, though I would be careful about reading too much into the title of his book. Dawkins didn’t choose the title “The root of all evil?” for his TV show; he, in fact, didn’t like it.
Yeah, you’re right, it was my step-dad who said that. His views on atheism are quite weird and quite wrong.
I agree about being careful in regards of the name of the book. My friend Jessica had her book published and had no say whatsoever in choice of front cover or title. So strange. But I think that HEdges is a bit whacked up. I really want to get a hold of the interview so people can make up their own minds on it… I’ll e-mail the radio producer and see if he can send me a link or something. …Once oyu hear it you’ll understand how skewed his opinions sound.
That’s not what Hedges is saying. The book doesn’t saying atheists don’t exist; on the contrary, he contrasts people who merely say there’s no god with people who say religious people are stupid. He doesn’t ever attack Victor Stenger, for example.
The main contention of the book is that new atheism is a throwback to unreconstructed ideas of 19th century Europe, complete with imperialism, condescension toward non-Westerners, and a belief in the perfectibility of human nature. Most of the time he attacks Harris and Hitchens for their neoconservatism, or for their ignorance of the politics of conflicts they call religious. If anything, his sociological argument is understated - for example, he doesn’t talk about the new atheist attachment to the early United States as a rationalist golden age, which is classically reactionary.
If you want to read an interview with him where he talks about the book, Google, “I don’t believe in atheists” and look for Salon.
Alon - I wasn’t talking about his book. I was talking about his interview. I’m sure I’ll have plenty to say about his book after I read it - which I already admitted to having not done.
I just realized that Christopher Hitchens is not the author of I Don’t Believe In Atheism. Damn.