Britt Hartley´s dangerous idea

 

I somehow managed to miss this Britt Hartley video. It´s called "The ugly side of atheism / 5 things I hate about atheists (as an atheist)". The most sensational move is when Hartley uses secular psychology and evolutionary theory *to undercut the claims of atheists to rationality*. How can atheism be "rational" if our senses are fundamentally unreliable? Exaaactly...but this is of course a popular *Christian* argument against atheism! Here used by a fellow atheist to cut the perfectly "rational" (male) on-line atheists down to size.

I suppose we could call "Britt Hartley´s dangerous idea"...

The main reason, I think, why Hartley is so controversial in (male) atheist on-line spaces is that she "wants to both have the cake and eat it". In a very real sense, she wants spirituality without Spirit and religion without God. Differently put, she wants to keep the social and psychological dimensions of religion without the metaphysics. I think her (male) atheist detractors (and presumably her religious detractors, too) see this as a kind of LARP. A quasi-religious LARP, to be exact.

Could it work on a mass scale? Maybe. After all, civic religion is a thing. Still, since the LARP is supposedly rooted in our most basic psychological make-up, sooner or later the participants might feel drawn to actual religion, seeing it as "the real thing" or "the missing ingredient". Why not assume that a psyche molded by evolution to "feel" or even "see" Spirit *actually feels or sees Spirit*? The metaphysics are real. Especially if the LARP is very self-consciously modelled on explicitly religious communities (say Christian ones). I think Hartley´s (male) opponents see her as in some objective sense too "spiritual" or religious.

As usual, there is also an discussion on how atheism is male-coded (it´s cold, hard, rational yada yada) whereas religion and spirituality are female-coded. Hartley never says it out loud, but I think she suspects that her male critics see her as "the weak and confused woman" who can´t let go of her emotional support blanket.

Hartley has controversial takes on a few other topics, too. Would secularism really turn the United States into "Norway"? (I assume she means Sweden!) Do atheists really have higher IQ than religious people? 

Could be interesting to watch.