A Place at the Table for Atheists

Atheism 1 -  Religion 2,978,333

There was an announcement recently that appears not to have been widely circulated so I will let you know that the study of atheism will now be more openly pursued at one university. I say ‘openly’ since I am sure there are courses that touch upon atheism, secularism and non-belief buried among the listings of Phil. Departments and we all know that campuses are full of Godless commies.

Given that a majority of universities have departments devoted to the study of religion and most universities and colleges in the United States were founded by one type of religion or another, one would think that the announcement  does not constitute much of a threat. The situation is generally the same in Canada, although we are blessed with far less of them. Western University, here in London, was founded by an Anglican Bishop and the affiliated colleges, Brescia, King’s and Huron are all religious-based. The latter,  an Anglican establishment, has a large Faculty of Theology and within it, even a Chair in Islamic Studies, the founding and funding of which caused some concern. Which brings me to the Chair.

While the larger number provided above may be off by a little, I think it is correct to say that there is now 1 Chair for Atheism in all of the colleges and universities in North America -  the “Appignani Foundation Chair for the Study of Atheism, Humanism, and Secular Ethics” which will be located soon in some room on the campus of the University of Miami which is looking for someone to fill it. The donor is  Louis J. Appignani who is providing $2.2 million. The focus will be on the subjects mentioned: atheism, humanism and secular ethics.

Since  the word “Atheist” is almost as unpopular as  “Islamist”, the University was understandably reluctant to allow it to appear in the course catalogue. At the last moment, Mr. Appignani refused to capitulate and allow the chair to be labelled the “Chair of Philosophical Naturalism”, but the addition of the words “Humanism” and “Secularism” does serve to deflect some of the attention to more acceptable subjects. Still somewhat nervous, the University made this statement and I am sure they would want me to repeat it for them:

“We didn’t want anyone to misunderstand and think that this was to be an advocacy position for someone who is an atheist,” he said. “Our religion department isn’t taking an advocacy position when it teaches about Catholicism or Islam. Similarly, we’re not taking an advocacy position when we teach about atheism or secular ethics.”

Every year around this time I used to send a taunting email to my nieces, who graduated from Miami, and to their mother (my sister), who is also a huge ‘Cane’s fan, in which I pretended to be rooting for Notre Dame in the upcoming football game. The subject heading has usually been “The Convicts vs The Catholics”. Toward the end of October I will now send one which says “The Atheists vs The Christians” and they are likely to find it even more insulting.

See: “University of Miami Establishes Chair for the Study of Atheism,” Laurie Goodstein, The New York Times,  May 20, 2016.

By the way, perhaps the University should not be too worried about the reaction (at least from the students) since the article above notes that:

The percentage of Americans who claim no religious affiliation has risen rapidly in a short time, to 23 percent of the population in 2014, up from 16 percent in 2007, according to a report by the Pew Research Center. Younger people are even less religious, with 35 percent of millennials saying they identify as atheist, agnostic or with no religion in particular.”