Elevatorgate, an incident described here is the latest faux controversy to rock the Atheist Community. I had already written about similar situations that had arisen among this group of loosely affiliated individuals.
My understanding of the events is the following: guy hits on female blogger in an elevator asking if she wants some coffee, next day she is scheduled to speak and says that what that person did was inappropriate and asks other men in the audience not to do the same, this causes all hell to break loose dividing camps into those who defend the female blogger and those defending the right to ask women if they want to have coffee.
My opinion on the matter is irrelevant but I’m going to mention it anyways. If you reverse the genders, a girl asks a guy if he wants some coffee in an elevator, and the next day the guy tells the girls attending that that is inappropriate and asks other females not to make advances towards him and other men attending, then he’d be laughed at and ridiculed. So absolutely I’m with Team Dawkins.
But the point isn’t which side is right, it’s that it highlights something deeply wrong with the New Atheism and the community that can’t be explained in words. That tendency for high school drama being elevated and amplified to a point of absurdity. A lack of adultness, seriousness or maturity. It’s not possible for me to identify exactly what that problem is and fix it.
In the wake of the Anders Brevik shooting rampage, an act of terrorism clearly influenced by faith and irrationality, I’m reminded of the desperate need for the use of reason and rationality. We need people to be strong advocates for this secular humanist worldview and as it stands these people are busy arguing about elevators.
