CNN Special Report on Atheists

This Tuesday, March 24th at 9ET/PT, CNN is airing a special report, Atheists: Inside the World of Non-Believers.

"Just when you thought it was safe to believe in something; they came out of nowhere.

Atheists: coming to a cinema near you."

Rival said:

I don't believe in the CNN Special Report.

Click to expand...

I really like that. Lol.

Moni_Gail said:

This Tuesday, March 24th at 9ET/PT, CNN is airing a special report, Atheists: Inside the World of Non-Believers.

Click to expand...

Hold on... We have a whole world?? I've been conducting all of my Godless rituals and gatherings in the basement of a local pub, and now I find out that we actually have a whole dang PLANET to ourselves?!

Seriously though, I'm sure it'll be reasonably fine. The teaser looks like typical eye-catching fare, designed to grab the attention of a majority religious audience with phrases like "They lost their faith" read out in a dramatic voice in a similar cadence to a movie-trailer voice saying "and then he lost his daughter to European gangsters, and now he's gonna get her back!". But that's just advertising. Hopefully, it'll be perfectly even-handed and looks to at least touch on the incredibly enlightening and ludicrously progressive idea that *gasp* atheists are humans and the horrible stigma that may people in some communities attach to them might *gasp* be somewhat unfair and excessive!

Don't forget that Richard Dawkins' documentary series "The God Delusion" was at first called "Religion: Root of all Evil?" in a cynical attempt to grab viewers. Still, I welcome anything that at least hints at the possibility of greater understanding of atheists and atheism.

I'm holding out hope. CNN was one of the few (in addition to Comedy Central during The Daily Show and The Colbert Report) to air Freedom From Religion Foundation's ad. CBS, ABC, FOX, and NBC (including MSNBC) all declined to run the commercial.

A special all about us?
I wonder if any of us are involved?

I think Soledad O'Brien is doing it, and I have faith (hyar!) that she will treat non-believers respectfully. She may even pull the rug out from under hardliners, she's been known to do it.

In other news, I really wish CNN was still allowing her to "interview" politicians. She seems to be one of very few who still "journalist".

Rival said:

I don't mean to be rude, but it seems to me like America is petrified of Atheism. In the UK it's pretty much taken for granted that the person you're talking to is a non-believer.

Click to expand...

That's not rude. It's just a statement of fact. We are a society with no rainbow, the world is either black or white with zero middle ground.

We are also a society of extremes; where we keep swinging the pendulum of myriads of issues from one extreme to another and never finding the working balance. We see this in everything from religion, to gay rights, to politics, to religion, to crime and punishment. We correct the errors of our predecessors by repeating the errors of their predecessors.

Rival said:

I don't mean to be rude, but it seems to me like America is petrified of Atheism. In the UK it's pretty much taken for granted that the person you're talking to is a non-believer.

Click to expand...

Yes, I can't believe that a country like America is so backward in their thinking, of superstitions like religion, and yet so advanced in technology.

psychoslice said:

Yes, I can't believe that a country like America is so backward in their thinking, of superstitions like religion, and yet so advanced in technology.

Click to expand...

Atheism seems pretty normal everywhere I've lived in Americastan.
I didn't like the blue laws (no Sunday shopping) in Baltimore though.

Revoltingest said:

Atheism seems pretty normal everywhere I've lived in Americastan.
I didn't like the blue laws (no Sunday shopping) in Baltimore though.

Click to expand...

Yea I hate when they push their laws such as holidays onto the public, when most of the public don't give a damn about the religious significants.

psychoslice said:

Yes, I can't believe that a country like America is so backward in their thinking, of superstitions like religion, and yet so advanced in technology.

Click to expand...

We're rapidly losing that technological advantage.

Americans avoid religious discussions in public by default since rarely is anyone we are speaking to going to be a member of our denomination or philosophy.

I'm going to watch it....it'll be very interesting.

Why Inside the world of non-believers? I take exception to this term because I believe in a gazillion things. Just because I cannot concede that a super human being has the magical power to create an entire universe, yet has to fashion a man out of mud & a woman from a rib bone, doesn't make me a non-believer. Surely with all that power at its disposal this "being" could simply have snapped his fingers and got the same result.

Also why are believers not called non-Atheists?

I'm an Atheist ... NOT a non-believer.

Thank you very much Latka.

Going by the Youtube comments, it seems to have been a fairly good special, despite some questionable, even biased choices.