The delusions of John Gray

The critics of atheism seem, without exception, to be lacking in imagination. Over and over again, what we hear from them is desperate attempts to pigeonhole atheism as just another religion; they squat uncomprehendingly in their hovels built of faith and peer quizzically at the godless, seeking correspondence with their familiar theological nonsense, and crow in triumph when they find something that they can sort of line up with their experiences. "They want more people to think rationally — why, that's evangelism!" Never mind that you could, with the same legitimacy, argue that when one person mentions to another that it is raining, they are attempting to evangelize their precipitational worldview. "They are so damned sure that they are right — they're fundamentalists!" Jebus, but I'm tired of that "fundamentalism" claim: it's the surest sign that you're dealing with a clueless, dissembling, frightened apologist for religion when they start flinging the "fundie" accusation at atheists. And yes, it is exactly like accusing the fellow who walks through the door in a wet raincoat, to the sound of raindrops pattering on the roof and the occasional distant boom of thunder, of being a fundamentalist rainist because he can show you the deluge.

The latest entry in the dead-eyed zombie moan category of the standard atheism-is-a-cult criticism is John Gray's complaints about "the atheist delusion". There is no thought, no creativity in it; it's simply another tedious retread. By finding a few opportunities to stretch the meanings of words, he wedges atheism and religion into a forced propinquity; then he tells us how awful, wretched and wicked this amalgamated godless religion is; and then, of course, he complains that atheists dare to find religion unpleasant, never mind that his entire critique depends entirely on labeling atheism a religion. I swear, sometimes I think it's the defenders of the faith who have the lowest opinion of religion, since they all seem to believe that all they need to do is tag anything with the label of "religion" or "belief" and presto, they've killed all of its credibility.

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