Atheist Fundamentalism

[genkaus]

So, Bill Maher has been on the new quite a bit recently with his "anti-Islam propaganda". Looking through the news articles, I found this bit form Reza Aslan

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[quote = 'Salon' url = 'http://www.salon.com/2014/10/10/exclusive_reza_aslan_on_bill_mahers_anti_islam_crusade_frank_bigotry/']
What that makes me think of is the argument I’ve seen from Harris and others in that clique which is, more or less, that they have a better handle on what Islam actually mandates — and that the millions and millions of Muslims who would disagree with their interpretation are in reality shirking elements of their faith that make them uncomfortable.

Well, here’s the thing: That statement is indicative of the extreme lack of sophistication that is exhibited by people like Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins and Bill Maher when it comes to religion in general and Islam, specifically.

There is a fundamental misunderstanding among these critics of religion in that they believe, first and foremost, that people get their values, their morals from their scripture, when in reality the exact opposite is true. You bring your morals and your values to the scriptures; you don’t extract them from them. You learn that on day one of the study of religion — day one, that’s the first thing that you learn!

And to a larger extent it indicates a real fallacy in the New Atheist movement, that is part and parcel of the lack of a religious education among these critics of religion, which is that they tend to read the scriptures more literally than any literalist I know. And when confronted by some particularly savage line in the scriptures, their conception forces an understanding [that says], “If you do not follow that little bit of savagery, then you’re not really a Muslim, you’re not really a Christian, you’re not really a Jew.”

You know who else makes that argument? Fundamentalists. And that’s why this notion that what these guys represent is a new kind of fundamentalism, an atheist fundamentalism, is so real. Because that’s precisely what’s being exhibited here in their utter sense of certainty; in their literalist, simplistic, exoteric, absolutist interpretation of religion; in their inability to recognize the diverse ways in which religion is lived rather than what we would refer to as top-down religiosity.[/quote]

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Tl;dr? Here's the short version.

Atheists often forget the myriad of ways a religion can be followed. NOT extracting your morals from the holy book is the basic lesson of religion - something you learn on your first day.

The idea of following the holy book dogmatically and taking it literally are forms of fundamentalism. Since that is what atheists expect religious people to do, they are proposing another kind of fundamentalism - one that applies to others, not themselves.



On one hand, I agree with his idea of the diverse ways of following religion. But then, we are not the ones making this shit up - Muslim's are the ones loudly proclaiming that the quran tells them how to live, Christians are the ones saying how they get their morals from the bible and so on. Atheists are taking them at their word.

Tbh, if I meet a devoutly religious person who says "I'm religious because [insert some feel good reason like 'culture'], but I don't condone applying or following the outdated values of the religion in past, which means, no, I don't follow the scriptures strictly - just the parts that suit me" - I'd probably shrug and move on. In fact, I believe most of the 'modern atheists' would too. But then, we rarely meet someone who'd say this.


Your views?