This Stand-Up Comedian Gets Just About Everything Wrong When It Comes to Atheists – Patheos (blog)

As a comedian, Neville Shah seems to be doing it right. He has the delivery and timing of a good stand-up.

As someone who wants to mock atheists, Shah is just God-awful.

His new special What Are You Laughing At? is now out on Amazon and it include a bit about the problem with atheists.

See if you can spot all the flaws.

Ill lay off on the jokes themselves. I have no problem with him mocking atheists. But when the premises of his jokes are wrong, the set becomes more frustrating than funny.

Here are my concerns:

He claims that atheists are certain about their disbelief. He thinks we said things like There is no God with absolute certainty. We dont. Even Richard Dawkins doesnt go that far.

He says atheism has become a religion. Thats the sort of insult you only hear from religious people. Were not a religion. We dont have a shared belief in anything. We dont all gather regularly. We dont knock on your door. Your salvation doesnt depend on you agreeing with us. As the saying goes, atheism is a religion like off is a TV channel.

He thinks atheists proselytize sometimes violently so. Like everyone else, we believe were right. But unlike religious people, most atheists would fight for church/state separation and refrain from pushing our beliefs on everyone else. Meanwhile, in India, a man was just hacked to death for posting pro-atheism messages on WhatsApp. Were not the ones who kill people who disagree with us.

Ill give him credit for one thing, though, even if it is unintentional. His final joke in that clip is all about pretending to be God when an atheist is on his deathbed. When Shah whispers in the atheists ear, Hi, I am God, the atheist in the story reacts as if God is real.

Which is exactly what we would do if we ever came across proof of Gods existence. It shows that were open to evidence. Shah probably wasnt thinking about it, but that joke contradicts what he said seconds earlier about how atheists have this dogmatic belief in our non-belief.

That concludes this edition of Lets dissect a comedy routine by taking every line far more seriously than intended.

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This Stand-Up Comedian Gets Just About Everything Wrong When It Comes to Atheists - Patheos (blog)