Former pastor Ryan J. Bell went on a poorly designed experiment to live a year without god (?), something that came to be interesting because he was fired from his job and that was a great chance for atheist solidarity to save the day, and it did.
Now, word has it Bell actually became an atheist. Here’s why I don’t care.
About two weeks ago, I was asked what had happened to him, so in order to give an answer I had to do a little research. What I found is not pretty.
Bell’s been writing at his PuffHo blog and he has quite troublesome ideas — here’s a taste:
Black people can exhibit racial bias like everyone else, but as a structural problem, there is no reverse racism. It doesn’t exist. White people are privileged.
[…]
As a man, if I heard another man make the #NotAllMen argument, I would reply, “Yes, I agree. I try not to be ‘one of those types’ of men either, but lets face it, we are a threat to women.”
There you go: so when black people do it it’s not racism, is just “racial bias“; and by the mere fact of being born with a penis you’re a threat to all and every woman alive (it doesn’t matter if you haven’t raped anyone, if you’re gay or if you’re just asexual — penis = threat).
Sure, there’s no reverse racism, there’s just racism: discrimination on the basis of skin color, and no one should get a free pass just because they happen to belong to a group which has been historically discriminated. How difficult can it be? You don’t fight racism with racism, nor looking the other way when it’s done to ‘privileged’ people (Whatever that means; because I guess Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama are being oppressed by Bell himself, a white man).
After that, I don’t care if the guy believes or doesn’t believe in god: at end of the day, he just discriminates and stereotypes like the next pastor.
I will always rather a believer who does not discriminate than a homophobic, sexist, classist and/or racist atheist. It is of no use to get rid of religion if you don’t throw with it its most pernicious effects. The pseudoscience behind Bell’s claims should be of concern to people who think humanism and skepticism just got an ally (maybe, the Center for Inquiry), we didn’t.
(Image: GC Communication via photopin cc)
