Wanted: Better atheist PR

Most reviews of the movie The Golden Compass have come in negative. The movie is an adaptation of the first book in Philip Pullman's famous His Dark Materials trilogy; both that series and Pullman himself are famous for being virulently anti-religious (the major villains of the series are A) the Church, and B) God). Most reviews agree that the movie doesn't do the book justice.

I have one problem with that criticism, however - I read the books, and they suck! The first novel takes place on a wonderfully creative, interesting parallel Earth - and then rushes through each plot element so quickly that we don't get to experience it fully. The sequels abandon this interesting world entirely in favor of a number of other, far more boring parallel worlds. The youthful protagonists themselves are fairly unsympathetic and insipid - there's a lot of talk of "love" and "gentleness" and other embarrassing words, but the kids fail entirely to live up to this reputation (the main character, Lyra, is known for her talent for lying). Similarly, the evil Church fails to live up to all the evil that's ascribed to it - it mostly just chases the protagonists around ineffectually. The author repeatedly fails to "show instead of tell." In the end, the paper-thin fantasy world gets turned upside down, but I'm still left with the feeling that nothing really happens. All in all, the story feels bitter, cold, and alienated, the work of a man who blames the Church for his emotional problems.

As a critique of religion, His Dark Materials thus fails miserably. And in doing so, it fits in quite well with the recent barrage of atheist manifestos, from Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion to Christopher Hitchens' God is Not Great. These squawking, condescending diatribes against religion are unlikely to convince even a single person to abandon their beliefs in favor of science-based rationalism. Of course, that hasn't stopped the authors from trying to catch flies with vinegar.

The first reason that strident atheism fails is that people don't like to have their beliefs insulted. The second is that people would rather believe something silly than believe nothing at all - it is up to atheists to make the case for atheism, not simply to tear down Christianity. And the third reason is that, so far, all the people standing up for atheism recently seem to be motivated by bitterness against society rather than a genuine desire to see society improve. Christopher Hitchens for example, spends a lot of his time defending the Iraq war and the Bush presidency in general (An atheist for Bush? No wonder he's bitter, the man must have no friends!). And Matt Yglesias points out that the European atheist movement has strong anti-Islamic overtones. As Yglesias says, the new atheism "is mostly like the old atheism but involves people acting like jerks."

So, the atheists need better PR. You aren't going to get people to ditch something they've love for centuries just by ridiculing them and calling them stupid. In fact, you're probably hurting your cause.