It wasn’t my intention to do a series of posts noting the most offensive reactions to the Virginia Tech slayings from our friends on the other end of the political spectrum; it’s just worked out that way. I keep noticing bizarre screeds and feel compelled to share.
Of course, if you’re anything like me, you’ve been wondering, What does Dinesh D’Souza have to say about the tragedy? Obsidian Wings’ hilzoy wrote a terrific post answering this very question.
D’Souza, you’ll recall, is the conservative activist/writer who argues that terrorists are right about the problems with the culture in the United States. Osama bin Laden and other dangerous Islamic radicals believe the U.S. is too secular, too permissive, too diverse, too free, and too tolerant … and D’Souza believes they’re absolutely correct. Indeed, D’Souza goes so far as to argue that liberal Americans are literally to blame for 9/11 — the left invited the attacks by reinforcing the beliefs al Qaeda had about the United States.
Yesterday, D’Souza’s keen insights were directed at the aftermath of the VT massacre and the role of atheists.
Notice something interesting about the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shootings? Atheists are nowhere to be found. Every time there is a public gathering there is talk of God and divine mercy and spiritual healing. Even secular people like the poet Nikki Giovanni use language that is heavily drenched with religious symbolism and meaning.
I haven’t the foggiest idea what D’Souza is talking about. Atheists are “nowhere to be found”? What does that mean? Atheists are right where they’ve always been. Does D’Souza think nonbelievers saw the news about the shootings, called their friends, and said, “OK, gang, you know what this means — time to go into hiding”?
As for the Giovanni poem, I read her speech from the memorial service — and there wasn’t a religious word uttered: “We are strong and brave and innocent and unafraid. We are better than we think, not quite what we want to be. We are alive to the imagination and the possibility we will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears, through all this sadness. We are the Hokies. We will prevail, we will prevail. We are Virginia Tech.” Moving words, but “heavily drenched with religious symbolism”?
But D’Souza seems particularly troubled by Richard Dawkins.
The atheist writer Richard Dawkins has observed that according to the findings of modern science, the universe has all the properties of a system that is utterly devoid of meaning. The main characteristic of the universe is pitiless indifference. Dawkins further argues that we human beings are simply agglomerations of molecules, assembled into functional units over millennia of natural selection, and as for the soul — well, that’s an illusion!
To no one’s surprise, Dawkins has not been invited to speak to the grieving Virginia Tech community. What this tells me is that if it’s difficult to know where God is when bad things happen, it is even more difficult for atheism to deal with the problem of evil. The reason is that in a purely materialist universe, immaterial things like good and evil and souls simply do not exist. For scientific atheists like Dawkins, Cho’s shooting of all those people can be understood in this way — molecules acting upon molecules.
Honestly, one might think D’Souza was trying to sound like an idiot.
The notion that Richard Dawkins had not been invited to the VT memorial service was of particular interest. D’Souza thinks this is proof that atheists are lost when it comes to “the problem of evil.” Of course, as hilzoy noted, it’s easy to extrapolate from D’Souza’s thesis.
* Dinesh D’Souza has not been invited to speak to the grieving Virginia Tech community. What this tells me is that if it’s difficult to know where Osama bin Laden’s responsibility for 9/11 leaves off and liberals’ responsibility begins, it is even more difficult for conservative hacks to deal with the problem of reconciling determinism and free will.
* Pat Robertson has not been invited to speak to the grieving Virginia Tech community. What this tells me is that if it’s difficult to know where God will send the next hurricane, it is even more difficult for Christians to deal with Zeno’s paradox.
* John Derbyshire has not been invited to speak to the grieving Virginia Tech community. What this tells me is that if it’s difficult to know the difference between fantasy heroism and the real thing, it is even more difficult for NRO writers to deal with the problem of other minds.
Perhaps the most striking mystery is not the role of nonbelievers in a community’s grieving process, but rather, how Dinesh D’Souza continues to get to write commentary.