Norbert Haupt

Oprah Winfrey recently hosted Diana Nyad, the long-distance swimmer who recently completed a 53-hour solo swim from Cuba to Florida, on her talk program. During the show, Diana declared herself an atheist. Apparently, Oprah didn’t like that. When Diana explained, “I can stand at the beach’s edge with the most devout Christian, Jew, Buddhist, go on down the line, and weep with the beauty of this universe and be moved by all of humanity. All the billions of people who have lived before us, who have loved and hurt and suffered. So to me, my definition of God is humanity and is the love of humanity.”

Oprah answered: “Well, I don’t call you an atheist then. I think if you believe in the awe and the wonder and the mystery, then that is what God is. That is what God is. It’s not a bearded guy in the sky.”

The discussion prompted outrage from many prominent atheists. It certainly made me bristle.

Oprah insults me when she says that because I can feel deeply, I have a sense of honor and justice, I can enjoy beauty, I am entranced by the mystery of nature and the universe, and I love of humanity, therefore I can’t be an atheist. It attaches stereotypes to atheists as a group without any further thought and contemplation, and proves a total lack of understanding of atheism.

It’s like me saying, Oprah, you’re a successful television personality, a wonderful actor, a self-made woman, a network tycoon, and you are very rich, therefore you must be white.

I wonder if Oprah has thought about it from that angle.