I consider it a matter of conscience that as an atheist I can have a dialogue with any Christian or other religionist without resorting to verbal abuse or name-calling (oddly enough I’ve been given more grief with atheists in this regard!). But to keep things fair and balanced, I’m going to have to have a little discussion with my Christian friend Gregory Dickow after comments he made on his Friday edition of Ask the Pastor. It’s a call-in show in which I occasionally participate.
I took my kids to the mall on Friday. On the way I tuned in to Ask the Pastor (AM 1160 M-F, 5-6 PM in Chicago). My kids are old enough now that I don’t shield them from listening to Christian radio with me. I think it’s informative for them, and often leads to interesting discussions. I definitely don’t make excuses for fundamentalists, nor do I try to marginalize religious viewpoints (except perhaps the insidious purulent movement, Dominionism, what I call Christian Supremacy), when I discuss religion with my children.
But I have to admit that I beamed with pride at my indirect approach, when my 12 yr old made the comment, “Dad, he called us ‘unintelligent!’”
Most of the time my kids tune out Christian radio, but my son sat up and took notice when Dickow mentioned good ole ChucK the AtheisT as among his friends that call in to his show to offer the atheist perspective.
“Dad, he’s talking about you!”
Dickow was debating the absent straw man atheist as he often does. Not seeming to know much about science or indeed how evidence is actually obtained and weighed, he once again made the statement that the onus is on the atheist to scan the observable universe, every possible “corner” of it to prove that his god does not exist. My son then made the astute observation that it was up to Dickow to provide evidence for god.
“Good little man,” I thought. But then Dickow went through the litany of the lame evidence for god: the transformative and revelational truth that Dickow and other Christians have experienced and the “obvious” design in nature that should be self-evident to all. He believes it’s unintelligent not to see this truth.
“Dad, he called us ‘unintelligent!’”
Good little man.
