God Squad Misleads Readers About Atheism, Agnosticism

Rabbi Marc Gellman and Monsignor Thomas Hartman are the so-called "God Squad" and they write a regular column extolling the virtues of religion, theism, faith, and everything related. It's probably no surprise that they seem to take delight in also encouraging anti-atheist bigotry at every opportunity, even when it's completely irrelevant to the point of the column. Despite having their bigotry pointed out on numerous occasions, and despite being asked to debate their hatred of atheists, they continue to abuse their position by promoting misinformation and misconceptions about atheism, atheists, and being irreligious

Recently, someone wrote to the God Squad to ask if perhaps they were an atheist:

I wonder if I'm an atheist. I often hear of people who say God talks to them. I often talk to God, but he never talks to me. I definitely don't believe in a hereafter; I feel it's just wishful thinking.

The answer to this is easy and obvious: if the letter-writer believes that some sort of god exists, then they are some sort of theist. If after some introspection and reflection they find that they don't truly believe in any gods, then they are an atheist. Such a simple answer doesn't allow for presenting theism as superior to atheism, though, which may have been relevant to why the God Squad wrote something much longer and filled with errors:

Those who cannot find a way to believe in God fall into two general types.

Agnostics simply say they are not certain if there is or is not a God.

Atheists believe the non-existence of God can be conclusively proven.

We don't know which you are, but we expect that over time, you will find God.

People who search for God almost always end up finding God.

It's curious that they would misrepresent agnosticism as well as atheism, though that frankly isn’t unusual when it comes to efforts to denigrate atheists. Contrary to what the God Squad says, agnosticism is not mutually exclusive with believing in some sort of god. It's true that agnostics say that they aren't certain if any gods exist or not, but how hard is it to notice that saying "I'm not certain" is not only compatible with "I believe," but in fact that two go together very frequently and in many different contexts. It's obvious that their reasonably accurate description of agnosticism does not exclude also being a theist, so why don't they notice it?

After the expected misrepresentation of atheism (I doubt they define theism as the belief that the "existence of God can be concessively proven," so we have to wonder where they came up with this) is where they get into their passive-aggressive attacks on atheism itself. First, they are confident that the letter-writer will "find God." Why? They don't know this person and have no reason to expect anything at all — unless it's because they dismiss atheism as being a reasonable position.

That seems to be the case when they further say that people who "search for God almost always end up finding God." This allows them to suggest that most atheists have never even tried to "find" God at all, implying further that they are perhaps lazy or, if they say they tried, then they were never sincere seekers at all. This, in turn, allows them to present theism and theists are superior to atheism and atheists without quite coming right out and saying it, though they have been willing to be clearer in their anti-atheist bigotry in the past. Is this a sign of progress or just a fluke?