Dave Silverman, president of American Atheists, was invited to be a guest on FOX Business’ “Varney & Co.” Friday morning.
He was brought on to talk about “what Atheists do during times of crisis and how they will prepare for Hurricane Irene.”
Dave knew exactly what he was going to say. Something to the effect of: Atheists will stock up on goods, batteries, water, etc. We will evacuate if necessary. We’ll help our family and neighbors stay safe. What we won’t do is sit around and pray that God will make everything better.
Not surprisingly, the three other panelists attacked him for that… with the weakest arguments you’ll ever see.
If Dave said praying to god was a waste of time, they called it mockery. When one panelist said Roman Catholics can prepare for a disaster just like atheists can, she cited how they would get candles, water, and pray to god — though only two of those three things might actually improve her situation. When another panelist gave an example of a priest who wants to help his congregation, he said that the priest would pray for them… and board up the windows of his church. (Hello?!)
They’re all confusing good intentions with practical usefulness.
All the while, I thought Dave handled it beautifully, as he so often does. You *have* to see this video. It’s worth the 5 minutes. And just look at the awesome screenshot they use to introduce the video:
Dave summarized the whole conversation afterwards on Twitter:

While watching that, I had all kinds of nasty words running through my mind to describe the female panelist… but I won’t mention them here. Because that wouldn’t be very nice. And the feminists would slaughter me.
Not that any of the other panelists had decent arguments to counter Dave, either.
What he says is good advice for anyone, atheist or not: Stop praying and go take care of yourself, your family, and your neighbors. When the hurricane arrives, God’s not going to help you.