Over the last day my good readers have drawn to our attention a couple passages on Peter Boghossian which are worth spotlighting on the main stage.
To begin with, Derek M pointed out a truly bizarre fact that Boghossian’s promotional blurb mentions that he was kicked out of a doctoral program. For example, in the section “About the Author” at his publisher Pitchstone Publishing’s website we read:
“Dr. Peter Boghossian is a full-time faculty member in Portland State University’s philosophy department. He was thrown out of the doctoral program in the University of New Mexico’s philosophy department.” (http://pitchstonepublishing.com/site/a_manual_for_creating_atheists.html)
As Derek M observes, it is difficult to know what to make of this. It is equivalent to the promotional literature of a marriage therapist including the fact that “Dr. Smith was recently divorced”. Why would Boghossian include reference to his personal academic failings if not to highlight, as Derek M surmises, his own persecution complex?
(Incidentally, in case you hadn’t heard of Pitchstone publishing before, neither had I. Apparently it is an obscure publisher that focuses on the evangelistic propagation of new atheist literature.)
The next passage is significantly more ominous. Thanks again to Markpm who confirmed that the following passage appears in Boghossian’s book:
“There is perhaps no greater contribution one could make to contain and perhaps even cure faith than removing the exemption that prohibits classifying religious delusions as mental illness. The removal of religious exemptions from the DSM would enable academicians and clinicians to bring considerable resources to bear on the problem of treating faith, as well as on the ethical issues surrounding faith-based interventions. In the long term, once these treatments and this body of research is refined, results could then be used to inform public health policies designed to contain and ultimately eradicate faith.” Peter Boghossian A Manual for Creating Atheists (Kindle Locations 3551-3555).
In this passage Boghossian advocates treating religious people as mentally ill so that “academicians and clinicians” may begin to “treat” the mental illness. The end goal is to “eradicate faith” from society altogether. Obviously since religious people do not agree with the question-begging assertion that they are the ones suffering “delusion”, they will not submit to the “treatments” intended to “eradicate their faith”. This leaves wholly unaddressed how Boghossian envisions religious people will ultimately be brought under treatment to deprogram them. But one suspects he’s got some good ideas…
In my opinion, this garbage is inching toward the legal definition of “hate speech” in the Canadian Criminal Code:
Hate Propaganda
Marginal note: Advocating genocide
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318. (1) Every one who advocates or promotes genocide is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years.
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Marginal note:Definition of “genocide”
(2) In this section, “genocide” means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy in whole or in part any identifiable group, namely,
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(a) killing members of the group; or
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(b) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction.
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Marginal note:Consent
(3) No proceeding for an offence under this section shall be instituted without the consent of the Attorney General.
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Definition of “identifiable group”
(4) In this section, “identifiable group” means any section of the public distinguished by colour, race, religion, ethnic origin or sexual orientation.
- R.S., 1985, c. C-46, s. 318;
- 2004, c. 14, s. 1.
Marginal note:Public incitement of hatred
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319. (1) Every one who, by communicating statements in any public place, incites hatred against any identifiable group where such incitement is likely to lead to a breach of the peace is guilty of
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(a) an indictable offence and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years; or
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(b) an offence punishable on summary conviction.
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Marginal note:Wilful promotion of hatred
(2) Every one who, by communicating statements, other than in private conversation, wilfully promotes hatred against any identifiable group is guilty of
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(a) an indictable offence and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years; or
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(b) an offence punishable on summary conviction.
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One thing is clear. Fanatical ideologues like Peter Boghossian are enemies of the open society. I haven’t been this disturbed at fanatical secular rhetoric since I read Nicholas Humphrey’s chilling 1997 Amnesty International Lecture “What Shall We Tell the Children?” As Humphrey wrote:
“we should no more allow parents to teach their children to believe, for example, in the literal truth of the Bible, or that the planets rule their lives, than we should allow parents to knock their children’s teeth out or lock them in a dungeon.”
Boghossian and Humphrey want to protect the children, apparently. But who shall protect the children from them?
