Scott Dikkers, Editor of The Onion . . .
This speech was presented at the 2008 National FFRF Convention in Chicago on Oct. 12, 2008. This is the transcript, minus a PowerPoint presentation of Scottās favorite irreverent Onion headlines and stories.
By Scott Dikkers
Iād like to start out, if I may, with a few insults. Iād also like to show you some articles from The Onion, the newspaper that I founded and then edited for 15 of the past 20 years. Then, Iāll tie it all together with a heartwarming defense of rational thinking.
So, I saw this U. of Minn. survey that came out a while back. Perhaps you saw it as well. It asked Americans, who do you trust? And they broke it down into categories: Do you trust a Christian? Most said yes. In fact, Christians were at the top of the list. Do you trust a black person? A Muslim? A homosexual? etc.
The group that came out at the very bottom of the listāand Iām talking about below terrorists, below sexual predators, below the guy who skins babies alive and wears the skin as a mask and then dances in the moonlight while gargling the blood of his infant victimsāafter that guy, was atheists.
(And when I say āatheists,ā I mean atheists, agnostics, freethinkers of every stripe, because the culture as a whole thinks of us as the same.)
We are the single-most reviled group of people in the country. Maybe the world. By far.
What we have to ask ourselves is, what can we learn from the terrorists and the serial killers? Well, for starters we need to find out who does their PR. Weāve got to ask the racists and the rapists, whatās your secret? Child molesters, how did you get to be Americaās sweetheart? Show us how itās done. Maybe we could move up a notch or two if youād share with us some of your winning people skills.
First of all itās the name. Atheist. Itās a cold and prickly word, like Recidivist. Rapist. Terrorist. Anal cyst. Itās a terrible word. Agnostic is no better. It sounds clinical. Itās two letters off from diagnostic. āIām sorry to have to tell you, Mr. Johnson, we got the results back from your agnostic, and weāre going to have to amputate your testicles.ā
Christian. Christianāit flows off the tongue like a crisp autumn breeze. Christian. It sounds like a guitar being strummed in the grass under a sycamore tree.
The words we use are important. The freethinking communityāa better term than atheistāis not doing well in the pr department. People still call us atheists. Theyāre still scared of us. Weāre losing the war of public opinion, and weāre losing it badly. On every front. All I can say to that is Iām so glad that weāre an invisible minority.
Atheists are good people. Historically, weāre an important check on religious excess. The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment brought us out of the Dark Ages. The secular nation of America saved us from religious tyranny and the divine right of kings.
Yet people say they would never vote for an atheist or an agnostic for president. Theyād sooner vote for Jeffrey Dahmer, evidently. What they donāt realize is that they have in the pastāthey just didnāt realize it. Thomas Jefferson was an agnostic. Abraham Lincoln was an agnostic. But I guess to get any PR benefit we have to wait until a good president is revealed to be an atheist or agnostic.
Itās not fair the way atheists and agnostics are treated.
Atheists are blamed for some of the greatest genocides of the 20th century. Hitler, Stalin, Mao. People think that these lunatics were simply fulfilling the dictates of the moral vacuum of atheism. These guys are an albatross around my neck every time I get talking to a religious person. Pointing out how many millions have been killed by religious extremists usually devolves into an argument where weāre just adding up numbers of dead in columns, and thatās not productive. Canāt reasonable people simply agree that human beings in the grip of any ideology can be real jerks? Especially if they are bat-shit insane?
We can do better. We can turn the tide of public opinion that runs so disproportionately against us. First, we need a mascotāa puppet, or some kind of lovable character. Christians have the character of God. Heās got a fuzzy white beard. Heās cuddly. He loves everybody. Heās like your grandpa. Heās like Santa Claus.
Now, he admits he is jealous and vengeful, and he has slaughtered entire cities full of people, wiped out virtually everyone on the planet in a great flood. In fact he set up his own son to be viciously beaten and tortured and killedābut he did it for us. So we should say thank you for that, I guess. Whatever the case, Americans love him. We need a lovable, old, child-killing curmudgeon mascot. And letās make him a cartoon character because everybody loves cartoons.
What else can we do? I was watching Fox News the other day and came up with another idea. (I hate Fox News because theyāre better at writing funny news than I am.)
I was watching Fox News, and some guy came on to promote a book that says evolution is false and creationism is true. He was an older guy, but healthy looking, wearing a suit. Well groomed. I was thinking, he probably lives a pretty modern lifestyle even though his beliefs are 200 years old.
Reasonable people know evolution is a scientific fact. Weāve mapped the genomes of several species. Chimpanzees share 96% of their DNA with humans. And the way you get DNA is from sexual reproduction. Ergo, chimpanzees and humans have a common ancestor. And thatās just the genetic science. Itās verified by every other science that we know.
For evolution to be false, some of the most basic facts of nature that we know to be true would have to be wrong. If youāre going to reject evolution, a lot of well-established science has to be thrown out the window along with it: Chemistry, genetic science, physics.
So I thought, we should, as a society, bar anyone who doesnāt accept evolution from partaking of any technological advance derived from the science that makes evolution true. No access to modern medicine, no access to basic biological, chemical products or knowledge. You want to heat up your food before you eat it? Sorry. Youāre eating your meat raw because you donāt believe in germs. And forget antibiotics. Youāre on your own. Youāre welcome to pray for a better life, but you canāt use science. Thatās cheating because you donāt believe in science. If people want to live in the 17th century, let them.
If we adopted this simple rule, this author on Fox News would come on dressed in a dirty burlap sack, with rotting teeth and matted hair, barking at the hosts like a dumb animal. And that at least would make sense, given his beliefs.
An idea like this would encourage people to appreciate all the good things that science and empirical evidence have brought to the world. It would give our PR effort a needed boost.
It would also incentivize more people to accept reality. The alternative is fantasy. People now have the option to just believe whatever they wantājust make something upāit doesnāt matter if itās not substantiated. And that hurts the rest of us.
To me, as a writer, whatās worse is that most people donāt even make up a fantasy for themselves. They actually take something someone else made up and believe that as absolute truth. I really donāt understand that. If youāre going to make up a reality out of whole cloth, at least be original. Come up with your own fantasy scenario. Something new. Catholicism, Mormonism, Islam, Hinduism, Scientologyāthese are all just somebody elseās made-up ideas. You canāt just take someone elseās idea and accept it wholesale as your cherished personal belief. Thatās like stealing someone elseās Halloween costume idea and showing up at the same party.
Let me take a moment now to tell you a little bit about the reality that I inventedāfor fun. I donāt really believe it. Itās a powerful newspaper empire. Our flagship publication is called The Onion. Itās the leader in news and information without any real competitor in any known medium. Through the centuries The Onion has covered all the major news events that have shaped our world:
1910s: Sears, Roebuck Plead āNot Guiltyā To Pornography Charges
1920s: Scopes Monkey Trial Raises Troubling Question: Is Science Being Taught In Our Schools?
1930s: New President Assures Nation, āThe Only Thing We Have To Fear Is A Crippling, Decade-Long Depressionā
1940s: War Rationing Board Restricts Nylon Use To Armed Forces, J. Edgar Hoover Only
1950s: Pentagon Develops A-Bomb-Resistant Desk
1960s: Holy Shit; Man Walks On Fucking Moon
1990s: Drugs Win Drug War
Today: Army Holds Annual Bring Your Daughter to War Day
See, atheists and agnostics arenāt scary. Listen to their laughter! Itās a joyous sound, like the laughter of innocent children. You can trust us!
Furthermore, I want to say to the world, you need us. As I hope Iāve demonstrated here, atheists are fun. Weāre fun to be with. We like playing make believe as much as the next guy, but we know the difference between fantasy and reality. And our crucial role in society is to remind everyone else of the cold hard facts.
We live in an age now that could easily turn into another dark ages. Itās a time when irrational beliefs that run counter to established science are accepted not just by a large percentage of the population but also by our elected leaders.
The religious like to say theyāre āsaved.ā But after eight years of their pick for president, itās the rest of us who need to be saved.
And the people who voted for this leadership are ready to do it again, because they are ideologues, who are incapable of learningāthey reject any factual information that contradicts their beliefs.
Whoās going to save the religious from their demonstrably terrible choice in elected leaders? Whoās going to save us all from the mistakes those leaders inevitably make when they base their decisions not on empirical facts but on made-up information, make-believe intelligence? Whoās going to save us all from living in a fantasyland and bring us back to reality? We are.
Thank you very much. (An animated Q&A followed.)
Scott Dikkers, a comedy writer and filmmaker, has been editor-in-chief of The Onion from 1989 to 2000, and since 2005. He has written and illustrated Jimās Journal, a comic strip about the mundane life of a college student. Dikkers directed the features Spaceman (1997) and Bad Meat (2003), starring Chevy Chase. He is the author of You Are Worthless, Depressing Nuggets of Wisdom Sure to Ruin Your Day (credited to āDr. Oswalt T. Pratt and Dr. Scott Dikkersā), a parody of self-help books, and a co-author of Destined for Destiny, a Fake Autobiography of US President George W. Bush. He is co-author of Our Dumb World and Our Dumb Century. He has been named by Rolling Stone as one of the nationās top-ten favorite writers, has made Time Magazineās list of top 50 āmovers and shakersā in the digital realm, and has been on many entertainment āItā lists.