It's unfortunate, but a number of atheists are defending or even supporting Larry Darby's Holocaust Denial and Anti-Semitic drivel. This is a sad demonstration that being an atheist doesn't make a person more rational or more moral than a theist, but at least not everyone is buying the nastiness he is selling.

A reader sent this in to me:

I am afraid I find myself in the same boat as Blair Scott. When Larry started down this road, I thought it was an aberration and we would soon get back to the issues that mattered to Atheists. Now he has started supporting white supremacists such as David Duke and others making his newsletter more into a White Power manifesto that no longer has relevance for an Atheist like myself. I have marched with Larry, supported his earlier campaigns in Alabama and considered him a great leader in the fight for our civil liberties.

While I do oppose groups like AIPAC for their lobbying influence over our foreign policy, it is too much of a leap to damn all Jews for the actions of a few political groups. Open healthy debate is always a good thing but when I get newsletters stating that we are under a ZOG (Zionist Occupied Government) I just have to say enough. The Holocaust is a well-established documented historical fact. To argue over such a reality does great harm to the cause of Reason and Atheism.
I wish we could have discussions about religion, politics and history without sliding into the quagmire of race baiting and hate mongering. I will not renew my support of the Atheist Law Center this year. I am saddened that Atheists have been tarnished by Larry's solidarity with David Duke, David Irving and the White Power movement. It is a sad day for our struggle to remain free under a secular Republic. Thanks for your columns illuminating this very sore subject. I hope you don't get too much hate mail from those who still support Larry.

I do hope that Reason will win the day and Larry will return to working for a just cause and will abandon this marriage with the far right.

The above author wanted to remain anonymous, and I can understand why. I haven’t actually gotten much “hate mail” on the subject, and what little I have received hasn’t been any more coherent than most of the creationist mail I receive. Denial of the Holocaust is no more rational, sensible, or reasonable than denying evolution. Both positions are examples of prejudiced ideology trumping evidence, logic, and reason. Creationists deny evolution because the truth doesn’t fit their religious ideology; Holocaust Deniers reject the Holocaust because the truth doesn’t fit well with their anti-Semitic hatreds.

 

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