It turns out Oprah Winfrey still has a show where she interviews people, and it's on her OWN network,
literally her "own" network.
It's called Super Soul Sunday.
And recently she invited the swimmer Diana Nyad on her show.
And you may have heard of Diana because she was the swimmer who went from
Cuba to Florida in like 50 some hours a while back.
And again, by herself she swam, unaided, no protective gear,
and she's like 64 years old. Just an incredible feat.
So, Oprah had Diana on her show and they were talking about swimming.
And they veered their conversation into spirituality at some point.
And Nyad said to Oprah like, "Yeah, I believe
this world is an amazing place. I have this awe
about the world, and people, and humanity,
and animals, and plants, and everything around it."
"But I don't believe in God."
And Oprah responded by
-- and I'm slightly paraphrasing here -- Oprah said:
"Well, I don't call you an atheist then,
if you have-- if you find that beauty in the world."
I couldn't believe it when I heard Oprah say that, because to me it was so dismissive
of what Nyad was saying. It was ignorant and it was offensive, right? Like,
it's just completely saying,
"You know that thing you label yourself, well, I don't care, because you don't fit
my vision of where you belong."
And again, as someone who spent a lot of time wondering,
what do I call myself?
and I know a lot of atheists have this thing.
They don't want to use the word atheist. They might use humanist, agnostic...
Even jokingly Pastafarian or something.
It takes a lot of time to kind of wear that label on your sleeve.
Even if you're gay or lesbian or you know, queer...
Whatever label you use for yourself,
it takes a while for you to figure out what that is, but then you embrace it.
And here you have the swimmer who embraced the label of atheist. She knew she didn't believe in God,
and she's explaining it, and Oprah is like, "Oh, well, you're not really an atheist,
because you don't fit my description of what that should be."
And maybe that's just ignorance on her part, because
you know, the truth is atheists
do often experience awe and wonder. Like, if you're a scientist,
you feel that sort of religious sensation that Oprah's referring to. You feel that
when you're gazing into the stars,
or when you're looking through a microscope.
If you're an atheist who just had a child,
like you look at your newborn baby
and you know God had nothing to do with the birth of your baby, but it's like,
"Oh my god, that's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. That's my baby."
That's that feeling of awe and wonder. And what if you love music and you're an atheist? You could hear
this beautiful concerto,
or you could play a piece of music that really moves you,
and you-- Again, you get that sense of awe, and mystery, and wonder, and
just amazement at how amazing life is.
And Nyad was saying that. She was experiencing all of that.
And for anyone to say,
"Well, that means you're not an atheist, because you love
stuff and you find beauty in the world," and for Oprah, of all people, who has such a huge megaphone to say that,
that's kind of hurtful.
And again, maybe it's just Oprah's ignorance. I would get it if she never had this conversation,
or if she just didn't understand why that was offensive.
But what I haven't heard yet
is for Oprah to say, "You know what? I heard from all of you
who said that, you know, it was wrong of me what I said."
"I understand why it's wrong."
"And I apologize. I didn't mean to suggest that atheists can't find beauty in the world. Of course they can."
"And I understand that, and I'm sorry."
"And in fact, I would like to make, you know, this formal apology to all the atheists out there."
I think if she did that, it would actually be a huge step forward.
I think it would be a good step for her personally.
And just to admit, you know, "I made a mistake,
I shouldn't have said that,
and I'm sorry that I did, but I didn't know any better."
"But now that I've heard from all of you, I do know better."
I would love it if Oprah did that, but she hasn't done that yet and that's disappointing.
Because we all know Oprah
has peddled a lot of things that are supernatural and superstitious.
And she never apologized for that. She had Jenny McCarthy on her show pushing
anti-vaccination stuff.
Oprah pushed that book The Secret that says, like, if you want things to happen, then they will happen.
This positive thinking. Like there's no evidence for that.
She pushed Dr. Oz on her show, and Dr. Oz has been peddling the same sort of
not evidence-based medicine.
So, you know,
Oprah already has this sketchy relationship with the atheist community.
This didn't help.
But again, she would make things a whole lot better if she issued some sort of formal apology.
But she hasn't done that yet.
My name is Hemant Mehta. I write at FriendlyAtheist.com
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