Who is the best advocate for atheism in Australia?
No I don’t think its Hitchens or Dawkins…
This week while driving I was doing a bit of listening to Tim Minchin and I would suggest he is possibly one of the most alluring voices for contemporary atheism. His songs are very funny, his lyrics insightful and acidic, even if they are often completely and blatantly offensive. I found myself singing ‘White Wine in The Sun’ this week as I was working, a song that begins ‘I really like Christmas…’ and then goes on to mock the idea of faith and a belief in the divine.
‘Storm’ again delves into the existential/metaphysical but this time from a different perspective as he tells the story of being at a dinner party with an opinionated and naive woman who has some belief in a spiritual (not Christian) realm. The song slowly increases in vehemence and ridicule, but at the same time is wonderfully and wickedly funny.
The good book is a rockabilly style tune that ridicules the possibility of the Bible having anything useful to say to a 21st C world. And so it goes on…
If Minchin wrote of Islam I think he’d likely be dead by now, but seeing as its Christianity (and we can apparently laugh at ourselves) he continues to trot out lyrics that demean and despise.
I’d suggest Minchin is a compelling voice for atheism not necessarily because his arguments are compelling, but moreso because his method of communication is one that sneaks past your defenses and stays with you. Perhaps he won’t unseat many Christians with his virulent tirades, but if you are a ‘default’ secularist / atheist (because you haven’t really delved into questions of faith) in any depth then his songs will affirm what you claim to believe.
Humour and music are a much more potent medium than text and debate and while Minchin does get tiring with his objections, I’d say he has more than likely given plenty of people reason to sign up for a secularist worldview
If I were an atheist I’d pick Minchin as my ‘voice’ rather than the intellectuals as he can be hilarious, disarming and incredibly violent at the same time.
I feel so, so sad for Tim Minchin. He is amazing and funny and thoughtful and clever and SO UNBELIEVABLY angry about Christianity. I can’t help but think that people don’t have such vehement feelings against Christian faith unless they’ve been very hurt by some representation of it in their past. Your average non-Christian won’t spend much time at all thinking about it, let alone spending an extensive amount of time writing multiple songs to disparage and deride Christians and our faith.
He is a man with SO MUCH, and so many gifts, and God could do unbelievable and eternal things with his life, but instead he’s standing on the sidewalk, going nowhere, and throwing stones at anything that looks like a Christian driving by. And, you’re right, it most likely won’t be the Christians in the cars getting hurt, but the passers-by who haven’t quite decided where they’re going yet.