Towards a Refutation of New Atheist Rhetoric: The Uncle Joe Analogy

The amount of misinformation that is ushered in a single missive of the pillars of New Atheism is staggering.  The seminal work of Dawkins' The God Delusion is centered on creation of a figure of God as misanthropic, self-possessed, egocentric, intolerant.  This is the strategies of Hitchens in god is not Good.  Most approaches to New Atheist argument is the classic creation of strawman.  It is based on the simple premise that such a personal God as conceived and created by the minds of the pundit of New Atheism is totally unworthy of worship and praise.  I would agree, to the extent that such depictions would be accurate, and if they are not, the whole of these arguments are worthless.  The God of The God Delusion is nothing but a poor caricature.

This is the point of the age of misinformation that is soon to be the New Atheism.  This is the core concept of the following analogy.  If the New Atheist cannot substantiate their depiction of the Godhead, crass and biased as it is, we must only surmise why such depictions are the stock and trade of this movement.

Read and ponder.

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THE UNCLE JOE ANALOGY

You are the member of a wonderful family, filled with many noteworthy members of kindness and charity.  As you contemplate the rationale of the generosity of this clan, you come to realize that the foundation of this virtue is that of the family patriarch, Uncle Joe.  In all your dealings within the family, all the uncles, aunts, cousins, parents (grand and great-grands, as well as the mothers and fathers) have nothing but praise for this relative.  You are acquainted with this wonderful man from childhood visits.  Members of the community gush with appreciation for the gentle deeds of Uncle Joe.  For many years for have encountered nothing but commendations for Uncle Joe.  In the long and short of this matter, Uncle Joe is a paragon of all that is good, as acknowledged by the vast number of the general populace.

Then you meet with a viewpoint of those who have been critical of Uncle Joe.  In fact, more so than critical, it is vindictive.  You have heard reports of these men from others, and you have had the opportunity to listen in on their conversations.  You know the events of experiences you have had with Uncle Joe, and it seems unreasonable to make such ill-reports about the valued uncle.  As you hear these messages, you try to understand the reasons for such malicious words:

1.  Uncle Joe, for all his merits, has made enemies.

2. Uncle Joe, for all his merits, has caused people to envy him.

3.  Uncle Joe, for all his merits, had done things to offend others.

4.  Uncle Joe has no merits.  It is all sham.  These individuals who despise him are correct.

Of these initial options, the fourth one has clear deficits.  You could make a list of such merits.  You can clearly witness the times Uncle Joe had performed with honor.  The other three have one common theme, a negative reaction to the meritoriousness of Uncle Joe.  The first variation has Uncle Joe perform actions that has disenfranchised others, in spite of the virtuousness of the acts.  The second variation has others in competition with Uncle Joe's merits; the only matter here is that Uncle Joe has out-performed these others, who resent him for this.  The third variation has Uncle Joe in dutiful performance of his meritoriousness, but somehow that this has possibly harmed or insulted individuals.

As you try to contemplate other reasons, you cannot derive another reason.  You are convinced of Uncle Joe's kindness and humane relations with others.  If others despise Uncle Joe, it is for a lack of understanding Uncle Joe's true nature.  It results in an attempt to poison minds and upset people in questioning the gentility of the patriarch.

The weakness of this analogy is finding a fifth (or more) reason(s) beyond those expressed in this post.  But this reason must begin with the true nature of Uncle Joe; anything more than this is unsubstantiated rumor-mongering.  Uncle Joe is good, undeniably so.  This has been recognized for ages.  To refuse this opening foundation reduces all vitriol against Uncle Joe as baseless.

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If there is a sound base to the conceptualization of God by New Atheists, they have not discovered it.  For them to argue against God, they must envision Him as malevolent.  But this is rudimentary strawman argument.  But it defeats the purpose, as it posits the idea of an ability to envision Him.  It may well be that they have not done so properly.