Richard Dawkins Has a Posse

Posted by Siamang on: 11.06.2006 /

At my work, there’s a group of people you could call “Richard’s Posse.” I’m afraid I may have started it.

It started quite simply. Hemant linked from his site the URL of a place where I could download Richard Dawkins’ two-part special on religion, aired only in the UK, called “The Root of All Evil?”

I downloaded it and burned it onto a DVD.

This special includes a memorable scene between Richard Dawkins and the now infamous Ted Haggard, where Haggard seeths with barely-veiled hostility at Dawkins, and eventually orders him to be removed from the premises of the New Life Church for having referred to evolution (according to Dawkins).

The special, “Root of All Evil?” is not one I would share with my Christian friends. It pulls no punches, INCLUDING punches it really should have pulled. There are a couple of moments in it where my wife audibly gasped at Dawkins’ blatant disregard for polite conventions when one speaks of the religions of others.

This video is a graceless, tactless polemic, but also a stunning wake up for atheists. My wife remarked that it was just amazing to hear another person saying, right there on television (if not on American television) some of the things that she’s thought, but would never say.

I burned a copy of the video to share with a friend at work who I knew was an atheist. I did this surreptitiously, as there are a few friends at work who are Christian, and I didn’t want to do anything to upset the amity.

So I slipped him the disc, and a surprising thing happened. I got calls from a couple other people who wanted copies. These are people I’d known for years, but I didn’t know their beliefs. Within a few days, I found out that there were quite a few atheists here among my friends, and I didn’t know it. Suddenly we began to speak about Dawkins, and Sam Harris, and Julia Sweeney. All in hushed tones. All in our offices with closed doors, changing the subject when a friend outside the posse poked in.

A couple days ago, Boing-Boing ran the image above, “Richard Has a Posse.” The more I thought about it, the more I understood the feeling. After all, I had started a “Richard’s Posse” at my work without intending to.

A couple of weekends ago, our posse went to go see Richard Dawkins speak at Caltech. There, lots of other people waited in line for hours in the hot sun to get a chance at a cancellation ticket to the sold-out event. A huge line snaked through the building to get a chance at a signed book.

But if you asked me what was new or notable or special about Dawkins’ book, I’d be hard-pressed to tell you. If you asked me who my favorite public atheist was, I wouldn’t hesitate to say “Julia Sweeney”. But here we all were lining up for Dawkins like he was a rock-star.

I started to think about other people having my similar experience. Dawkins is popular because he has a posse. He has a posse because for one reason or another he’s caused people to signify as atheists, and stand up in the crowd and notice each other.

It’s like it’s the 1980’s and the closeted gay people have some coded imagery to notice each other in a crowd. “Wow, I thought I was the only one,” is becoming something less likely. Dawkins’ book, “The God Delusion” is on the bestseller lists, and with that comes some sense of “Gee, I’m not alone in my beliefs.”

Now, if I had to choose the person I’d want to be the banner-waver for atheism, it wouldn’t be Dawkins. I think his writing on atheism is poor, and his tone and arguments are so tone-deaf as to be nearly useless. I’d pick Julia Sweeney any day. Or the infinitely patient and well-mannered Michael Shermer. I haven’t read Daniel Dennett, but he strikes me as having the soul of a poet-philosopher.

But we’ve got Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins. It says a lot that I think that Dawkins is the lesser of those two evils. But Dawkins has a posse. To atheists, for better or worse, it’s Dawkins’ world and we just live in it.

I’ve been thinking about the need to signify. People really need to be able to say, “I’m with that guy.” They line up behind philosophical leaders. People have got the Jesus bumperstickers and Jesus fish… sort of to say “I’m with Him.” That helps, I think. I wish atheists had a better “him” for us to say we’re with.

But for now, all atheists, I think as far as the general public understands, are in “Richard’s posse.” We’re going to be lumped into Richard’s posse whether we like it or not.

Who are your recommendations for the leader of an atheist posse? What are your thoughts on the idea that people line up behind a philosopher, is that helpful or not? What are the advantages or disadvantages to having that person be historical rather than living now?

And for the conspiracy-minded among us, is there any truth to the rumor that Haggard was taken down because he crossed the Great and Powerful Dawkins (PBUH)?

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