I have to say, it went much better. This time I was actually told that I was supposed to have a presentation prepared, and I was told the accurate topic (yes, last year was bad). I had limited time for my presentation, but here's a brief outline of what I talked about.
- Definition for atheism and agnosticism
- Demographics of atheists in US
- Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, I can be convinced
- Secular humanism and general ideals some atheist have (search for truth, reason, evidence, concern for this life, ethics)
- Why atheism is not a religion
- Not all atheists hate religion (though some do), and we don't hate religious people. In fact, most atheists were at one point religious.
- Atheists are not depressed, angry, hopeless people
The Muslim speaker (a recently graduated student) did an excellent job at explaining exactly what Muslims believe and some of their traditions. The Christian speaker (a pastor for Alpha Chi, the group with the zombie event), while very nice, was one giant facepalm. I really shouldn't be allowed to be on panels or do debates, because I make a very obvious "What you're saying is stupid and annoys me but I have to look polite" grimace, like so:
It wasn't her description of her belief that annoyed me. I disagreed with her just as much about there being proof of Jesus rising from the dead (uh, care to share that with us atheists?) and Intelligent design being proof for God's existence (No) as I did with the Muslim talking about Mohammed being a prophet. I've heard the arguments before and I don't agree with them, but the whole point of the panel was diversity, so they were totally appropriate.What annoyed me is that she felt the need to comment on people other than Christians. Namely, atheists. To summarize her argument:
You know how when you were a little kid, and your parents forced you to go to bed at a certain time and eat your vegetables? And at the time you hated them and whined and resisted, but now looking back you thank them for being good parents? That's God. Atheists don't like that God's a meanie and makes them do things they don't like, so they rebel and go to the extreme and say he doesn't exist. Atheists need to realize that God is all loving, and he makes rules in our best interest.
...
First off, when I was a little kid I went to bed at my curfew and ate whatever my parents told me to ate and never threw tantrums.
*ahem*
Really? Did she even listen to the talk I gave? I had just got done saying how atheists usually come to that conclusion after many many years of thought and introspection. That we weighed the evidence, and it wasn't even enough to jiggle the scale. That we live by many of the same moral rules as religious people. That if given sufficient evidence, we would totally not hesitate in believing in God.
But no, atheists are just rebellious, selfish people who don't want to conform to God's rules. It's just so fucking condescending, which is highly ironic considering it's always the atheists who get labeled as the pompous jerks. I don't think she was saying this to be mean, or even consciously aware of how bad it sounded - she really seemed like a legitimately nice woman. I didn't go up and say how only atheists use reason and logic, and that theists are dumbasses. Blaaarrgghh.
One of the questions during the Q&A for me was what sort of evidence it would take to convince me that God exists. I gave my standard quip, that "If God is all knowing, he'll know what will convince me," which the pastor actually liked and agreed with. Then I added "Or he could make a trout materialize in front of me right now." I paused, but no trout. Sadness. That was your chance, God!
Most of the other questions for me were pretty standard - Do you believe in a soul? (No) Where do you think you'll go when you die? (In the ground) What do you think the purpose of life is? (There isn't a preordained purpose, but we chose to give our lives purpose). How do you get along with religious people? (Just like someone with different political beliefs, you try to put it aside and find other things you have in common). I wish we had more time in the Q&A, because there were good questions we ran out of time for (exactly where do you get your morals, and how can morality evolve?). But since the class seemed so interested, the professor is going to email me the questions and let me answer them, and then she's going to give my answers to the students.
I also really would have liked to address all the arguments the pastor was making. When she feels down, she asks God for strength and it makes her feel better (feeling better doesn't mean he exists). When she looks at nature, she knows it couldn't have come about by chance (it's evolution, not chance). She hears the voice of God speaking to her, therefore she exists (you might want to get that hearing voices thing checked out).
But more importantly, atheists aren't just some rebellious cranky kids who want to be able to run around having promiscuous sex and drunken parties! The ironic part is that she agreed that we have similar morals and care about the well being of others and want to live happy lives...so what exactly are we rejecting? An all loving God? Heaven? Yeah, I would just hate to have those things.
All in all, I still think the panel was a success. At the beginning of the talk, one girl said she didn't know what the word "atheism" meant - hopefully now she does. And while I probably didn't make any converts, I think it helped for them to see that an atheist is just a normal, happy person. They might think I'm wrong, but hopefully they won't hate me.
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