Some of the most interesting people I've met are atheists. It's no wonder; Psychologist Daniel Crosby, PhD pointed me to a recent Pew poll which found that atheists and agnostics score highest, compared to the religiously affiliated, on a measure of religious knowledge. After publishing my first Huffington Post article, numerous atheists posted comments to opine on the religious views I expressed (if the name hasn't clued you in, I'm Jewish). While reading those comments, a friend asked "Why do atheists read the religion section?" In the same breath, that person said "Well, why the hell not!" Those ruminations inspired this piece.
I decided to open the floor to this discussion because the Religion section was looking a lot like Howard Stern. Let me explain: In the '97 biopic Private Parts, a researcher states that the average listener tunes in to Stern for just 15 minutes -- and the answer most commonly given as to why?
"To see what he'll say next."
"But what about those who hate Stern?" asks "Pig Vomit," Howard's boss.
"Two and a half hours per day," says the Researcher.
"What? How can that be?"
"To see what he'll say next."
In my opinion, Atheists want to be well-informed. They want to know what others are saying, and then what they're saying next. They wish to keep up with all that they're contesting, not to change their minds. Others who I've spoken with speculate that some self-professed atheists may actually be agnostics who are seeking answers to address internal doubts.
Bram Kleppner is a "a fifth-generation atheist" with iron-clad convictions. He reads religion articles because he's always hoping small bits of sanity will insist on working their way into religious doctrine. "It was very heartening to hear the Pope suggest that condom use may be OK in certain circumstances," he told me. He views the religion section as entertaining: "It's fun watching grown, educated people tying themselves in knots trying to reconcile their beliefs to a world that demonstrates daily that those beliefs are false. I'm also looking for (and almost always find) positive reinforcement for my beliefs about our godless universe and the fact that there's no afterlife."
Tonight Show regular and comedian Elon Gold, who is performing his one-man show Half Jewish, Half Very Jewish, offered this perspective: "Just as believers sometimes doubt the existence of God, the Atheist will often doubt the non-existence of God! That's why they're always checking the religious section for breaking news. ... 'Has the Messiah come today? No? Oh good, I'm still right, it's all BS!' Who's more worried about God's existence than an atheist? Especially the atheist who lives a life of debauchery and sin -- If there is a God, there'll be no red carpet treatment for him in the afterlife. So he's got to keep up with religious news. The consequences are enormous if he's wrong!"
But as staunch atheist Bill Maher said in his documentary Religulous, "We need God to decide not to kill each other?"
Atheist comedian Frank King told me he reads the religion section in self defense: "Hardcore Christians tell me the Bible calls homosexuality 'an abomination.' What they fail to mention is that it's only one of several HUNDRED abominations, including wearing clothes made of more than one material. Better send all those blends to Goodwill. When I point that out, they change gears and ask why I'm endorsing the gay agenda. Gays have an agenda? Ever watch Queer Eye for the Straight Guy? You can't get 5 gay guys to agree on drapes, much less an agenda!"
Joking aside, I spoke with clergy members, theologians and psychologists who agreed with my thoughts about the atheist's thirst for knowledge, the need to say abreast of what believers are saying.
"Deep down within every person is a yearning for belief in God," explained Rabbi Yitzchak Rosenbaum, Associate Director of the National Jewish Outreach Program (NJOP). "Even avowed atheists may still be searching for a reason to believe and where better to find that (without going to church or synagogue) than on the religion page."
When pastor and author Carol Howard Merritt started blogging for The Huffington Post, she initially read comments and responded to them, just as she does on her personal blog. While she maintains close friendships with atheists, she encountered what she refers to as "extreme atheism" while reading angry comments to her posts: "It felt like I was volunteering to put my hand in the meat grinder. I noticed quickly that I slacked off in my writing, and I began to lose my voice. You know, I'm smarter than Pavlov's dogs, and if I get hurt every time I do something, then I stop doing it."
But the pastor persevered and continues to write articles today. "It made me curious. I mean, there are a myriad of things that I don't believe. I don't believe in horoscopes, but I don't feel compelled to hang out on horoscope sites and tell the readers how foolish they are. I decided I needed to get tougher."
She had great things to say about Alex Wilhelm, an atheist who also blogs for the religion section of The Huffington Post, so I contacted him.
"I must admit that I read the religion section partially for a laugh," Wilhelm wrote to me, "Why else? To keep an eye on things that I am wary of: anti-intellectualism, pseudo-science, lying to children, extremism, scriptural literalism, anti-blasphemy laws and the like. If you don't know what you are up against, you can't fight it as well as you could or should. I am for a free and secular society where the individual is protected from not just the majority, but from the moral laws of the religious. And so while I do read the oddest articles for a cheap chuckle, I tend to read to gird myself to protect individual liberty."
Clinical psychologist David Sabine, Ph.D., first joked to me that atheists read the religion section for the same reason the CIA listens to Al Jazeera, but then he gave me the more professional response: "The late theologian Paul Tillich views atheism as a legitimate way to express one's 'ultimate concern.' This refers to seeking answers to depth and mystery in life. Atheism, far from being faithless, is a powerful expression of some people's view about 'what it's all about.' So it makes sense for one with 'ultimate concern' to read the religion section and know how others are addressing the question, albeit in different ways."
From a personal standpoint, I look forward to comments from those who challenge me. I look forward to answering questions and I'll willingly admit there are some I can not answer. You could say there's an agnostic in me -- I don't always know what to make of what I was taught. Of course, it is easier to welcome opposition when it's delivered in a "with all due respect" tone.
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach (The Michael Jackson Tapes, Kosher Sex) says there are two kinds of atheists. One kind is what he refers to as "an atheist out of complacency; they can't be bothered to believe in God and so are atheists out of convenience." The second, he explains, is the professional atheist. Rabbi Boteach says that the latter "maintains a deep dislike for religion. 'Professional atheism' is far more about attacking religion than it is about non-belief in God. So they follow religion sections, obsess over them, joke about them, put them down and mock them."
My feeling: anger does not discriminate. While some atheists read the religion section to keep current, some do so because religion incenses them and they feel the need to let people know. And that's OK. Jews get angry, Christians get angry. Humans get angry. It's an individual's right.
If a priest, a rabbi, and an atheist walk into a bar, there's no telling who will be the first to lose their cool (...or who'll go on to pen the joke)!
Follow Shira Hirschman Weiss on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ShiraWeiss
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Ask the people that don't believe.
The reasons will be varied. Many of us, as the article points out, know much more about religion than believers do.
People need to ease up on this "great battle over theism" thinking. Many of us atheists are comfortable and don't need to "win" anything.
Religion is interesting because it has had so much influence, still does, and it's just amazing to see how stupid it can be. It's like watching a train wreck. You just have to look.
Why don't I protest horoscope shops?Seriously?Because I'm not going to be denied a job or have my kids ostracized for being a Capricorn.Don't get me wrong,horoscopes are UTTER nonsense,but they have no bearing on our day to day lives the way religion does.WWIII will not be caused because the leader of Iran is an Aries.
Many of us pay attention to the topic of religion, because it is from there that we will find out who and how new attempts at repression of atheism and of atheists will come from.
Religion permeates western society, worst of all in the US, and so in order to work for our rightful space to be atheists with the full rights and freedoms of citizens, we need to keep an eye on where the next outbreak will come from. Other areas of popular and just as factless supernatural myths do not pose threats to our civil liberties.
Given that religionists keep trying to push THEIR religion into our public and secular spaces (10 Commandment statues in courts, creationism in public school science classes, etc., etc.), it makes good sense for ANYONE who supports freedom of religion, which includes the freedom FROM religion, to keep such a wary eye out.
Then, there is just the enjoyment of watching goofball religionists show off their willful ignorance of all things. I freely admit that there is an element of schadenfreude there.
Oh, and most atheists are atheists for one Very Good Reason(tm): There's not a stitch of evidence that supports the claims of any deity figure. That's all.
Atheists are an extremely diverse group with a number of reasons for reading the religious section:
Atheists who are former believers often come to atheism after deep and challenging research, often in an attempt to defend their faith from their own reasoning (see youtube atheists Evid3nc3, ProfMTH, and LovingDoubt). These atheists tend to be very understanding of the religious perspective and very well read from their religious experience and deconversion process.
As mentioned in the article, atheists are sometimes well read on religion in self defense. These are usually cradle atheists who have been challenged by theists their entire lives. They typically arm themselves with the works of famous atheist thinkers and authors who attack theistic arguments and evidence.
Then there are atheists who are simply curious. Typically truth is very important to atheists. These would be the secret agnostics who have a "yearning for belief in God" although I would label it a yearning for knowledge. What can I say? We tend to be smart and educated group of people.
Then there are lazy atheists like myself who don't read the religious section and ignore those who challenge them. I'm not motivated to participate in the debate and educate myself, so I don't read either side. I do, however, enjoy watching the debate. Good article.
I don't yearn for belief in god (that Rabbi's or any other). I yearn for knowledge of how the world works.
The reason I read the religion section is that people SHOULD read things they don't agree with. An echo chamber teaches you nothing.
They haven't rejected religion out of anger or laziness. They have rationally--and perhaps lovingly--concluded there is no god. They have probably read and listened a great deal. They may believe that there is goodness in the world, but they can't and don't ascribe it to a guy in the sky. They are often kind people, and not at all amoral. They practice the Golden Rule, not because a god told them to, but because it's the right thing to do.
They read the religion section out of intellectual curiosity and with a willingness to learn how others express the goodness that some people call god. They read it with skepticism, and when they see someone using religion or god as a way to justify hatred, unkindness, and intolerance, they sometimes read it with anger. But they read it with joy and from an inquisitive nature when they see someone express the very goodness they would like to see in all people, no matter their beliefs.
I think it is probably impossible to believe in nothing. I think most atheist being with the Golden Rule" (a philosophy that is fundamental to all human societies) and figure out it out from there using the examples set by those around them.
As a young child when a parent says "Be nice to the puppy dear" would it mean anything more to say "By nice to the puppy dear. Jesus wants it that way"?
Additionally, it is cherry picking at its worst to say all of the "morality" presented in the Bible is moral. To paraphrase Dawkins, the God of the bible is one of the cruelest, most vain, vindictive and arbitrarily vengeful characters in all of fiction. Any man that behaved as did the God of the Bible would be branded a narcissistic sociopath, certainly not as a "loving father".
I often read religious articles to find out what christians believe today and how it differs from yesterday.
The religionists just make it up as they go along.
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/thank_goodness