An Atheist on popular atheism

This is a very good article (HT: Sullivan) from an atheist critiquing some of the recent atheist literature:

The End of Faith starts well and then becomes a bit predictable, because it begins to follow the rules of its rather thin genre. Letter to a Christian Nation, which is an open letter to the many Christians who wrote to Harris in complaint, is even thinner. I have an almost infinite capacity for the consumption of atheistic texts, but there is a limit to how many times one can stub one's toe on the thick idiocy of some mullah or pastor. There is a limit to the number of times one can be told that the Bible is a shaky text, and that Leviticus and Deuteronomy are full of really nasty things. Ratio vincit omnia, but the page-by-page demonstration of this rationalist conquering can become wearisome. This may be no especial insult to Harris so much as to his family; Bertrand Russell's Why I Am Not a Christian made a great initial impact on me when I was a teenager--it was like seeing someone in the nude, for the first time--until I began to get bored with its self-exposure. Russell complaining that Jesus was not a moral teacher, that he was really rather a bad example because he threw the money lenders out of the temples and cursed the fig tree, seemed somehow a little undignified. Russell is reliably at his least philosophical when he is at his most atheistical.

I thinkthe article does a good job of pointing out some of the dismissiveness that authors like Harris, Dawkins, and Dennett exude (and which I feel myself sharing--they are some of my favorite authors-Dawkins and Dennett in particular). It think it is very hard for us atheists to get ourselves into an empathic space regarding believers. I can much more easily identify with political positions I disagree with than theological ones I don't believe in. I can see how someone would be anti-immigration (I don't feel threatened by it, but I can see why people would) much more easily than I can see how someone would believe in a loving, omnipotent God.

For me, the most useful book in bridging this gap has been William James' classic The Varieties of Religious Experience. It is very light on theology, and just tries to explain what it is like to believe, to have a mystical experience, to be saved, as well as what it is like not to believe, not to feel anything religious, etc. This focus on human experience gets away from theology and metaphysics and concentrates on what is going on inside the person.

If I had some of the experiences described in that book, I can see how I might find belief in God much more compelling. I still don't think these religious experiences prove God's existence; I find psychological explanations more convincing. But I can understand how someone who, in response to prayer, felt an overwhelming wave of comfort, love, release, and serenity, would come to think that there's definitely something to this whole God business. Since I don't have such experiences when in religious settings, I hope theists can understand why I'm a bit skeptical about the whole supernaturalist racket. Aside from all the reasons not to believe it, it also just doesn't work for me. It feels good to sing gospel music, but it also feels good to sing other kinds of music, and the Gospel part doesn't "turn it up to 11" for me the way it does for many.