Atheism is an intellectual luxury for the wealthy

December 29, 2013 7:13 PM

Chris Arnade (previously), former Wall Street worker and current advocate/photographer of marginalized people of South Bronx, writes:

They have their faith because what they believe in doesn’t judge them. Who am I to tell them that what they believe is irrational? Who am I to tell them the one thing that gives them hope and allows them to find some beauty in an awful world is inconsistent? I cannot tell them that there is nothing beyond this physical life. It would be cruel and pointless.

In these last three years, out from behind my computers, I have been reminded that life is not rational and that everyone makes mistakes. Or, in Biblical terms, we are all sinners.

We are all sinners. On the streets the addicts, with their daily battles and proximity to death, have come to understand this viscerally. Many successful people don’t. Their sense of entitlement and emotional distance has numbed their understanding of our fallibility.

...Soon I saw my atheism for what it is: an intellectual belief most accessible to those who have done well.

posted by 2N2222 (4 comments total)

Bronx Exploitation, by Chris Arnade
written by a Bronx harm reduction volunteer
posted by avocet at 7:17 PM on December 29, 2013

Dumb and, hilariously, super racist.
posted by basicchannel at 7:19 PM on December 29, 2013

Let's condescend to poor people by insulting atheists. Awesome.
posted by spaltavian at 7:19 PM on December 29, 2013

Atheism is the opiate of the 1%.
posted by mr vino at 7:20 PM on December 29, 2013 [4 favorites]