Why we can win…In fact, why we’re winning.

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Margery Eagan. Spirituality columnist for the CRUX website “Covering all things Catholic” writes a strikingly telling and courageously open piece this month entitled:
“In a Funk about the New Atheism”.

Margery went to see two of the Four Horsemen, Richard Dawkins and Dan Dennett speaking in a Boston suburb to a packed house of over 2,000… “who cheered and laughed and had a great old time at the Chevalier hearing two gray-haired guys go on about the ridiculousness of believing something based on nothing.” Her words.
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Hitch of course is gone and Harris charges a pretty steep fee to be heard, Dawkins and Dennett went for $35 a head that night. Sam may have to fund a pretty hefty security budget.
Ms. Eagan continues:
“Let me say right now: As a Catholic who ricochets wildly between blissful moments of faith and complete and utter doubt, I found the whole experience unnerving. I’d hoped both men would be humorless, strident, militant, even obnoxious. Then I could go home feeling confident in my faith. Instead they were funny, charming, and quite likable. I went home deflated.”

This is an intelligent and successful woman. Born in the same year as I, 1954, she has accomplished much as a journalist and local celebrity in her 60 years, as writer for the Boston Herald, Boston Globe and co host of Boston Public Radio. It seems as if this was her first encounter with the likes of Richard and Dan and quickly discovered that what she may have heard of non-believers as “strident, militant Atheists” from her Catholic culture turned out to have been dead-nuts wrong.

One of the commenters to her blog post summed up that perspective all too well, one that us “Unbelieving Scum” run into all too often: We are angry, god-haters, nihilistic, with a bleak view on existence and no possibility of moral grounding. Blah, blah, blah. Xianity is so full of shit sometimes it’s eyes are brown. Well Margery got educated and acknowledged it. Good for her. So many Xians learn a whole new ball game when they actually get to know gays, atheists, other religionists. It’s not their fault. It is what they have been told by people they trust; authorities and teachers they rely on: priests, nuns, bishops, cardinals, the Pope himself.

I don’t claim Ms.Eagan may or may not have been exposed to nor believe this standard Xian propaganda but it was rather obvious from her very honest writing that she was taken aback as these dastardly “New Atheists” did not live up to her expectations at all. Instead they acted like the reasonable, kind people that most non-believers and believers alike are. She did belie one parcel of the “non-believers as despairing humans” trope:
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“Maybe they’ll rethink when they’re older and facing their own mortality. Alas, Dennett is 73. Dawkins? He’s 74.”
As she alludes, I suspect they have already faced it. I know Dennett came damn close to meeting his non-maker with heart surgery some years ago. Like the vast majority of secularists, despite Xian wishful thinking and at times outright lies about deathbed conversions (phony stories of Darwin or Hitchens for example) atheists don’t worry about what most likely doesn’t exist: god(s) or an afterlife. It is not an issue. It never comes up. There is nothing to rethink. Xians need to learn that. She did, I suspect.

Over 900 comments accumulated in less than 7 days since she posted, and perusing thru most of them I found one non-believer after another identified as ex-Catholic, atheist, secularist, what have you… debating, questioning, probing Catholic and Xian or religious beliefs in general and praising Margery Eagan for her candor. I thought sure the majority of comments would be other Catholics with a lot of “Yeah, well here’s why Catholicism is still…” And there were plenty of those defenders but just as many questioners and the Catholics gave a lot of ground.
Like Mary. They’re not stupid. When they actually confront disbelief and look at it, ignoring the Xian spin, the phony party line of the Church regarding non-belief and non-believers, they are struck with the reasonableness and reality of it all and the “just regular folks” who happen not to buy into religious fantasies.

The CRUX website, to the editors credit, is up front about giving voice to Catholic’s concerns and questions about their faith. From the About page:
“Crux strives to cover the worldwide institution of the Catholic Church, from the papacy to the hierarchy to local dioceses. We’ll explore the theology, doctrine, liturgy, practices, and traditions of Catholicism in the context of the life of modern-day Catholics, giving full voice to disagreements and challenges facing the Church and Catholics. We will examine Catholicism in the context of other religious traditions.”

In closing Margery had this to say:
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“There was an hour-long, book-signing line after last week’s lecture. So I asked some of those waiting patiently about the New Atheism’s appeal. Some common answers: It’s much more rational than angels and God-made-man. Too much of organized religion is corrupted by money and power. And cradle Catholics said just what you’d expect: They are unable to remain in a Church that treats women and gays as less-thans and sex as evil. Pope Francis may be a nice guy — and on the right side of climate change — but it’s not enough. Like I said, it was a tough night.”

People aren’t stupid. Conned sometimes. Emotionally committed and surrounded by worldviews however manufactured often so powerful and suffusing that they can’t escape. Or at least not right away.
This is why we can win. Believers aren’t stupid, merely hosed and the information that shows them they have been hoodwinked is everywhere.

This a classic example of why we are winning and secularism is gaining so much ground. Yes, it was a tough night for Ms. Eagan, I don’t doubt that. But a very good one as well. She obtained all sorts of information that she didn’t have before and her expectations of how she had heard atheists would behave turned out to be all wrong. And most importantly, she took another step away from a monstrous faith that relegates homosexuals to hell, women to second-class citizenship and condemns millions of children to crushing poverty and many an early ugly death because of it’s insane dogma on birth control.
It was a good night for all.

end religion now.

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