When Atheists Attack

[pokerfan]

A noted provocateur rips Sarah Palin—and defends elitism.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/160080

The point to be lamented is not that Sarah Palin comes from outside Washington, or that she has glimpsed so little of the earth's surface (she didn't have a passport until last year), or that she's never met a foreign head of state. The point is that she comes to us, seeking the second most important job in the world, without any intellectual training relevant to the challenges and responsibilities that await her. There is nothing to suggest that she even sees a role for careful analysis or a deep understanding of world events when it comes to deciding the fate of a nation. In her interview with Gibson, Palin managed to turn a joke about seeing Russia from her window into a straight-faced claim that Alaska's geographical proximity to Russia gave her some essential foreign-policy experience. Palin may be a perfectly wonderful person, a loving mother and a great American success story—but she is a beauty queen/sports reporter who stumbled into small-town politics, and who is now on the verge of stumbling into, or upon, world history.

[dmallind]

1. I am not a Sam Harris dittohead but he's right here

I wonder why the headline however manages to be dismissive, condescending and inaccurate in just three words. That's quite a feat. None of Harris's objections are rooted in atheism, relate to atheism or push atheism. So whenever, say, Fiorina, savages Obama in a column why is the headline not "When Golden Parachutist CEO failures attack"? Of course the answer is simple -= it's OK in the US to marginalize and sneer at atheists alone amongst any minority group.

[southpaw]

2. The title floors me, as well.

It marginalizes Harris and frames his critique of Palin as nothing more than the anti-theistic ravings of a venomous God-hater.

I have wondered if the "When Atheists Attack" title might be Sam Harris' standard header when he writes for Newsweek, but I can't say for sure... as I don't often find myslef reading Newsweek.

Anyway, I'm an athiest who has read pretty much all of the 'new atheist' writers and, like you, I disagree with Harris on a number of things. Most notably, torture.

This is a good article, however, and is drawn from the aspects of Harris' thought that I tend to agree with.