Kathryn Joyce has a good piece on atheism over at The Revealer. In contrast to modernist predictions of the decline of religion (and the rise of atheism and secularism), we’ve seen a rise in popular spirituality and fundamentalism. With author Alan Wolfe, she wonders what atheism has done to contribute to its own demise.

The truth is most atheist evangelists I’ve run into are pompous, self-assured little shits. That can’t help.

Then there’s the question of whether an intellectual position that self-defines in opposition to another intellectual position (“a-theism”) can really expect to blossom. There are other terms, of course. There’s “secularism,” but its historical meaning involves the removal of religion from this or that institution or public sphere—another opposition. There’s “freethinking,” but it seems designed to imply that everyone not in the club already isn’t thinking freely. “Brights” was proposed just in the last year or two. Which would make everyone else dull, I would assume. Not how to win friends and influence people.

Then there’s their choice of rhetorical combatants. Atheist rhetors seem to think that only fundamentalists (of whatever stripe) represent what people believe about god. What do they have to say to mainline Protestants, who do not appreciate being lumped in with Bible beaters? What do they say to nontheist Buddhists? To Jungian polytheists? No one knows, because they converse with only one kind of theist, the kind they already disagree with.

The whole question of theism is tired. That we should all be expected to place ourselves in relation to this one theological question is absurd. If that were “atheism’s” position, I’d be tempted to send in a check. I’ve found myself resorting to terms like “nontheism,” “panentheism,” and even “untheism” to get around the whole silly debate.

It’s not that I’m completely opposed to being a pompous, self-assured little shit. It has it’s time and place, and it can be a gas. But no one wants to get religion from folks who only have that one song to play.