Atheism and public speaking
The news website Vox reported about Reason Rally 2016:
| “ | It is clear, too, that almost nobody who takes the stage at Reason Rally was ever trained as a preacher. The whole thing is languid, urgent words in measured tones. The goal is an "end to bigotry," in the pitch of a polite request, to "reject" a supernatural worldview with all the force of tepid applause. Jamie Raskin says the job of politicians is to "listen to scientists" and closes with "Put your thinking caps on America!" Penn Jillette struggles to get a video playing, chokes up over Hitchens, then plays a Bob Dylan knockoff about his love for all people. The Amazing Randi devotes half an hour to a muted jeremiad against the obscure "facilitated communication" hoax. Peter says he does not know what "FC" is, but he'll look into it.[2] | ” |
The atheist Jerry Coyne said about atheist conferences which he attended:
| “ | But to me the speakers and talks have often seemed repetitive: the same crew of jet-set skeptics giving the same talks.
...a few things bothered me, most notably the air of self-congratulation (which I excused on the grounds of enthusiastic people finding like-minded folks for the first time), the “fanboyness” directed at some of the famous atheists (they hardly let poor Richard alone, and I’m not sure he liked that!), and the lameness of quite a few of the talks. Again, how much new can you say about atheism?[3] |
” |
Contents
Soviet Union and oratory
Atheism was a part of communist ideology (see: Atheism and communism).
According to the University of Cambridge, historically, the "most notable spread of atheism was achieved through the success of the 1917 Russian Revolution, which brought the Marxist-Leninists to power."[4]
Professor Robert Service says about the public speaking skills of Joseph Stalin, Leon Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin:
| “ | [Stalin]...didn’t have all of the skills - he was a pathetic orator. Well, I say a pathetic orator, he was good at doing the simple things. He was a sort of barking speaker. Not in the sense of being mad, but he barked like a dog. Now, he didn’t have any of the flights of fancy of Trotsky or the eloquence of Lenin, so even as a speaker he wasn’t at all bad...[5] | ” |
Mao Zedong and oratory
See also: Mao Zedong
David Ernest Apter and Tony Saich wrote in the their book Revolutionary Discourse in Mao's Republic: "At first, Mao was no great platform orator. Some describe his voice as squeaky and high-pitched... His less adoring admirers note the flabbiness of his speeches - a lack of precision, a lack of sureness about a point."[6]
Fidel Castro
In his prime, the communist Fidel Castro was an exceptional public speaker and he had a booming voice.[7][8]
One hundred people walked out of an atheistic lecture at Oxford University
A hundred people walked out of an atheistic, evolutionary psychology/sociology lecture at Oxford University.[9] Richard Dawkins' website reported about the lecture, "By the time I arrived at a slide calling religions (Richard’s fault!) ‘Viruses of the mind’, the lecture hall was looking rather empty."[10]
See also
Notes
- ↑ Stalin’s personality
- ↑ [American atheists are on the rise. They have radically different visions of the future], Vox
- ↑ Are there too many atheist meetings? by Jerry Coyne
- ↑ "Investigating atheism: Marxism". University of Cambridge (2008). Retrieved on July 17, 2014. “The most notable spread of atheism was achieved through the success of the 1917 Russian Revolution, which brought the Marxist-Leninists to power. For the first time in history, atheism thus became the official ideology of a state.”
- ↑ Stalin’s personality
- ↑ Revolutionary Discourse in Mao's Republic by David Ernest Apter and Tony Saich, 1994, page 86
- ↑ Fidel Castro's role in Cuba is chiefly offstage as he turns 87, Reuters
- ↑ Fidel Casto: Now and Forever
- ↑ A hundred people walked out of Darwin/evo psych indoctrination lecture at Oxford?
- ↑ A hundred people walked out of my lecture
