Australia’s atheists are a happy bunch

March 17th, 2010 • all posts

There’s no doubt that many of Australia’s atheists came to Melbourne last weekend expecting to attract a bit of unwelcome attention.

With all the pre-event press the Global Atheist Convention got (including an ill-fated attempt to take down its website), many were predicting the entrance to Melbourne’s gorgeous new convention centre to be blockaded by representatives from one or more of the various religions that do believe in the divine.

Of course, while these early fears quickly evaporated into thin air, the conference did indeed cause a fair bit of controversy. Keynote speaker Richard Dawkins predictably landed in Monday’s newspapers with his cryptic mention of “Pope Nazi” and his opinion that the pending canonisation of Australia’s own future saint Mary MacKillop was “pure Monty Python”.

Some of the follow-up commentary has also been less than flattering. TV celebrity Tracey Spicer, in an opinion published today on News Ltd blog The Punch, took Australia’s atheists and Dawkins in particular to task for denigrating believers’ intelligence. And at least one religionist did show up at the conference itself, to ask Dawkins loudly during question time for his definition of DNA, to jeers from the audience.

However, if you were to believe that all of this surface sound and fury accurately represented what really went on in Melbourne last weekend, you would be deluded indeed.

I’m not an atheist, I’m a Zen Buddhist and agnostic on the question of God, and so I didn’t really know what to expect from a conference attended by thousands of Australian atheists. I went along with no pre-conceptions and because, well, as an Arts graduate I love debating questions of religion and philosophy in cute Melbourne bars at 4AM.

What I found was one of the warmest, most welcoming and accepting events I’ve ever been to — and as a journalist, I’ve been to thousands.
As a rule, I found Australia’s atheists a polite, intelligent and respectful bunch who enjoy rational discussion about life’s mysteries and the pursuit of science and free thought.

As we sat down for morning and afternoon tea and lunches at the Convention Centre, I would find myself having deep and meaningfuls with random people of all ages and races over a cup of tea and cookies that had the appearance of being home-baked.

During the sessions, I would see bunches of atheists nodding thoughtfully and listening attentively as speakers made salient points, and generally asking intelligent questions of them when they had the chance. Atheist jokes generated scores of smiles and belly laughter at the better ones, while some of the real comedian speakers made many atheists laugh so much they were wiping away tears.

When it was discovered that the power points in the hall had been turned off, some atheists found one that worked, connected it to a power board and cheerfully advertised its existence on Twitter with a view to prolonging the life of everyone’s laptops and iPhones.

Some have mockingly said that the appearance of Dawkins on stage on Sunday night generated a mood akin to a Church congregation. But I didn’t find it had that sort of atmosphere.

Instead, it was more the good-humoured excitement of a group of individuals who had come together over a weekend of discussion and good Melbourne food and were anticipating meeting one of their intellectual leaders who had long guided their insights from afar. There was a happy feeling amongst the crowd that they were enjoying being in “the majority” belief structure for once.

Dawkins’ pronouncement about Mary MacKillop, I believe, was an extremely brief response to a direct question from a journalist about the good lady. The other 99 percent of his presentation was a dry discussion of the origins of universes and life with respect to statistical improbability and even psychology.

I could follow most of it, but at times I felt as if I were back in university struggling to follow an ageing professor’s monologue on James Joyce. It was hardly the fiery lecture about the evils of religion that many probably believe it to have be.

And Dawkins even shushed jeers from the audience when the aforementioned religionist got up to ask her loaded question about DNA. His answer was respectful, considered and above all, educational.

Sure, some speakers were not quite as genteel. US biologist PZ Myers wasted no time in satirically attacking those who, he clearly feels, are fools to believe in a god of some form. His every comment was a journalists’ wet dream — pithy Atheist witticisms in bite-sized chunks that demolished his critics.

And comedian Jamie Kilstein’s fast-paced rant was nothing short of abusive towards anybody who could possibly even consider trying to restrict his fast-paced atheist lifestyle.

Tracey Spicer is right to say that Atheists can do better than saying believers are stupid. The far better path for Atheists to promote their argument is one of gentle, respectful questioning of the basis of others’ beliefs.

And this is exactly what many Atheists — including speakers such as Australia’s own Phillip Adams — stated firmly at the conference.

Every time someone crossed the line and described all believers as “drongos”, there were those that agreed with them, but there were also many Atheists there — in person or on Twitter — who questioned whether that was really the best approach, and hadn’t we all better calm down a little and have a nice chat over morning tea?

After all, many argued, they didn’t want to fall victim to the dogmatic zeal that many atheists criticise religions for using as an evangelical tactic. To do so would be hypocritical.

Many journalists, and I would include myself in this group, eventually get tired of the sort of repetitive and argumentative rhetoric that powerful figures in society constantly push. It was refreshing at the Global Atheist Convention to see so many people resorting to reason, rather than emotion, and respect, rather than ranting, to get their point across.

Australia’s Atheists aren’t the society-destroying retrobates some have made them out to be. I’ve had coffee with them. Overall they’re a happy bunch with a penchant for applying their razor-sharp minds and wicked senses of humour to thorny philosophical and scientific questions over a nice cup of tea.

Tags: #atheistcon, global atheist convention, mary mackillop, pz myers, richard dawkins

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