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Julia Sweeney's "Letting Go of God"
Gary — (archived)

The other day, I was doing some late night grocery store shopping and had the car's radio set on NPR. NPR was playing Julia Sweeney's "Letting Go of God". I was very impressed by her performance! I've been a dictionary definition agnostic since I was child. When I was a university undergraduate, I did the usual 2nd year dorm room thing of arguing religion with classmates. I've heard most of the standard arguments so I can appreciate a master at religious disputation when I hear one. Julia Sweeney's arguing strategy is devastating. Often times, hard core atheists have a shrill, sophmoric debating style that is counter productive. Julia Sweeney does none that. She's funny and intelligent but low key. She hooks your interest with her account of a religious discussion with some Mormons who came to her house and pestered her with their religion. Starting in against the Mormons (a popular but very silly religion) is a smart way to launch a general attack against religion. She then extended the conclusions drawn from her discussions with the Mormons to an attack upon the validity of her own Catholicism. She then did an amazing job of deconstructing the Bible, first starting with the easy targets in the Old Testament and then working her way to Jesus. I was impressed that she directly attacked Jesus (normally he's left alone). After she was finished, she left religion as a blackened smoking crater and took no prisoners. As I said before, I was very impressed.

Gary

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