Last night, CNN ran a special entitled Atheists: Inside the World of Non-Believers. Instead, the show should have been called Atheists: Inside the World of a Small Minority of Unlucky, Unhappy, Peculiar Folks Who Do Not Represent the Majority of Non-Believers. This title would have been more fitting for what turned out to be a misleading hour of poor journalism that portrayed atheists as outsiders. This common narrative of atheists as “other” permeated a show that failed to live up to its rich potential.
The show began with a segment about a young man still living with his parents, who consider their son to be “a dead person” because he does not believe in God. This man, in turn, sets up tables on his college campus and hands out pamphlets about being an atheist. This is similar to what religious folks do, perhaps in an attempt to try to “recruit” others into a certain belief system.
There are two problems here: first, most atheists do not go around setting up informational tables and handing out pamphlets. Second, most atheists have strong parental and familial relationships. Studies have shown that atheists have a lower divorce rate than Christians, and well-formed ties to the family unit. A respected study called the Longitudinal Study of Generations found that as it pertains to family, “The vast majority (of atheists) appeared to live goal-filled lives characterized by moral direction and sense of life having a purpose.”
Dave Silverman, a radical atheist, was also featured on the CNN show. One scene showed him walking around at some sort of convention, shoving flyers in people’s faces and shouting about how they should take his literature to learn about non-believers. In one scene, he pressures a man to take a pamphlet saying “the flyer will not hurt you!” This is certainly atypical behavior for 99 percent of atheists, most of whom are completely normal people living boring lives with no wish to convert anyone or hand out literature about their lack of belief. At least CNN made it clear that most people do not relate to Silverman, including famed atheist Richard Dawkins, who was also interviewed for the special. Dawkins did his thing, but he is not representative of “the world of non-believers” in general.
Next up, we have ex-but-not-really-ex preacher Jerry Dewitt, who used to be a charismatic, over-the-top, ranting Christian preacher and is now a charismatic, over-the-top, ranting atheist preacher at a “congregation” full of weirdos who answer back when Dewitt shouts “can I get a DAR-WIN?!” instead of “can I get an AMEN?!” Dewitt seems like a nice enough person, but most atheists probably have no desire to sit in a church-like setting on a Sunday and sing songs. Many atheists may find this to be rather odd, and are not drawn to such an environment. There is nothing inherently wrong with what Dewitt is doing, but he represents the minority rather than the majority.
By far the worst thing CNN did to mislead its viewers was to put a creepy “distortion” on the voice of a closet atheist that seemed as though it was coming from a straight-up demon from hell. The closet atheist, an anonymous religious leader, sounded like Beelzebub on steroids as he spoke about his inner misery. He stated that he tricks people into thinking he is pious when he is not. (Sound familiar?) The icing on the cake was the animalistic growling that emerged from his throat in between sentences. Nice touch, CNN. Religious viewers are most certainly going to think this guy is the Devil himself. That had to be purposeful, and it was just one of many subliminal messages CNN dished out during the hour-long show.
In addition to featuring mostly strange folks, the producers edited the footage to reinforce the false idea that atheists worship Satan. To be clear: atheists do not worship Satan, because in order to do so, they would have to believe in the supernatural. Since non-believers generally do not believe in anything otherworldly, the idea of there being a tangible entity called Satan is as preposterous to most atheists as is the idea of there being a God.
Despite this fact, CNN edited jokes the atheists on the show made about being Devil or Satan worshippers, and the editing excluded any clarification that the statements were actually made in jest. There is no doubt that religious viewers will come away from the show thinking that all atheists are indeed Devil worshippers when that is completely untrue.
CNN also included many subtle hints about how show producers really feel, including a shot of the Milky Way and the rising sun just as the words “no evidence of God” were being spoken. This obvious dig at atheists was meant to imply that the universe itself is evidence enough of a divine creator; an opinion held by many religious people. Unfortunately, science dictates otherwise. As Stephen Hawking says “the universe can and will create itself from nothing.”
Overall, CNN did a terrible job of representing “the world of (most) non-believers.” Most non-believers are average, mundane folks who do the exact same things religious people do, with the exception of getting up early to go to church on Sundays. Atheists raise children, hang out with friends, participate in their communities, give to charity, go to work, and live the reality of being “good without God.” The average atheist was not shown in the CNN special, and it was a huge disappointment to those hoping the program might have begun to educate and enlighten. Instead, the special reinforced myths and misconceptions about non-believers by misleading and manipulating its viewers.
