Professor PZ Myers is a confirmed atheist. He has many issues with movement atheism. Among them is their public presentation:
Several of those guys pictured are dead. One, Neil deGrasse Tyson, doesn’t want to be associated with movement atheism. But that isn’t what bothers me most.
One problem is that they’re all guys, every one, except for Ayaan Hirsi Ali. They couldn’t be bothered to copy and paste a picture of Susan Jacoby or Annie Laurie Gaylor or Madalyn Murray O’Hair or Margaret Downey in there — heck, not even Ayn Rand, but maybe that would be too revealing of their political philosophy. If you wanted to demonstrate that atheism is a boys’ club, all you have to do is look at how they advertise themselves.
Yeah! And where are all the world-renowned Chinese atheists? What about the Hispanic ones? The Middle Eastern ones? The gay ones?
Maybe, just maybe, the faces here were chosen because they are the most recognizable atheists. Even the average person who doesn’t pay much attention to atheism has heard of some of them (Dawkins, Tyson, Maher, Gervais, MacFarlane, Carlin, maybe Jillette and Hitchens — most of whom are in entertainment) and the others are commonly discussed in atheist circles, whether atheists like Myers likes it or not. Myers offers Susan Jacoby, Annie Laurie Gaylor, Madalyn Murray O’Hair, and Margaret Downey as alternatives, but these are not household names and I do not often hear their thoughts on atheism discussed.
Of course, it’s not enough for him to declare these groups sexist and racist on the basis of their pictures despite not knowing their creators or members. He has to invent sentiments for them, like pining for the days “when the atheist boys’ club could be all rational and shit without some girl or social scientist or somethin’ coming along and putting a damper on the party with complexity and exposing your underlying assumptions.” I don’t think that this attitude does his own “movement atheism” (Atheism+) any favors, except among the already indoctrinated. It certainly doesn’t encourage me to listen to what he has to say on the subject.
It’s also strange to see Myers criticize these atheists for being “vigorously anti-Muslim.” Myers himself once said that “Islam is the religion of ignorance and hate.” I’m not sure when that sentiment becomes vigorous enough for Myers to oppose it, but I don’t think that the atheists in these pictures support rounding up the peaceful, non-theocratic Muslims and deporting them or for banning their religion, so I’m not sure why this point is important to him. Given how broadly he sometimes talks about Christianity, it also seems hypocritical.
Soooo… see you all at worship tomorrow?
Have a safe weekend.