Monday, December 12, 2011

Why are you atheists so angry?



Now you know why I'm so angry, huh? Now you know why I get angry, anyway. I'm serious. I do get angry, and Greta Christina touches on some of the reasons why.

This was her talk at Skepticon IV at Missouri State University last month. A week ago, I posted Rebecca Watson's excellent speech at the convention, but I haven't had time to check out all of the other presentations (available here on Hambone Production's YouTube channel).

Well, there's just never enough time for everything, is there? Luckily, my brother sent me this link. Thank-you. I really appreciate that. This is a great talk, with a lot to think about.

I can't repeat everything she said, but I particularly liked her contrast between religion and politics, how politics, even at its worst, still has a reality check.

That's a very good point. Political ideologies, as bad as they can be, still make their promises for this world. When they don't work, that's a reality check. But religions make promises that only take effect, supposedly, after you die. No reality check there!

Well, as I say, there's a lot to think about here. It's really an exceptional talk. If Watson's talk and this one are representative of the whole conference, I really do need to find time to watch them all,... sometime.

For now, I'll end with one of Christina's best - and most popular - remarks: "Atheists are not angry because there's something wrong with us. Atheists are angry because there's something right with us."

1 comment:

m1nks said...

That's a good list. I think I should bookmark it and when my (rare) religious friends give me any grief at all about 'wouldn't I feel better if I let Jesus into my life'? I could just fire it up, say 'watch this, and if you have any comments at the end of it I don't wanna hear 'em cos I'll get angry and you're my friend and I don't want to get angry'.

Even though anger is constructive and I might actually make some inroads on your religious belief if I really got stuck in.