Hemant Mehta has a suggestion for Kevin Smith, the atheist on the weekly religious panel for the Ottawa Citizen.
Just submit the same response every week:
Did you READ what the others wrote? You’ve got to be kidding me… Here’s some honesty for you: They don’t know the answers any more than I do. The difference is that I tell you the truth while they make stuff up and pass along the nonsense. Just skip down to my post each week. I got your back.
The same thing goes through my head every time I read the column. The stupid responses by the religious repeat every week.
Yet if the religious responses fly over my head, wouldn’t the atheist response also be equally ignored by our opponents? If so, what’s the point to these religious panels? Having an atheist voice is important but like debating creationism in science class we risk giving the other side false legitimacy when we pretend to engage them on equal ground.
Can these types of panels have other uses? Like the reoccuring “Does God exist?” type debates, the intent isn’t to convince your opponent but rather to argue your position to an audience who (you pretend) has an open mind. Kevin Smith isn’t trying to convince anyone- he’s just (politely with evidence to back up his claims) pointing out the silly things religious people believe so us atheists have yet another opportunity to laugh (or cry).
But according to Kevin, his few paragraphs every week don’t sit well with his copanellists. They’d much rather he be removed so they can pat each others backs without any opposition. This is, unfortunately, a common stance taken by other multifaith panels who don’t see the need to include an atheist voice even though most of the discussion focuses on politics and ethics. (The Globe and Mail’s multifaith panel is a good example. “Why should we have an atheist? This is a faith panel”, they say as we atheists offer to join. The panel then goes on to discuss the role religion should play in society as if atheists have nothing to say.)
So if religious people see our views as a threat, then I think that’s enough of a reason to want an atheist rep on every panel, even if you’ll never find anything interesting.