Disaster Captialism of the Unbelievers

Atheists ramming "humanism" down the throats of Haitians?

The recent earthquake in Haiti has inspired a long-overdue outpouring of public sympathy for the impoverished country.

That certainly hasn't been restricted to religious believers. But anyone familiar with academically dubious pseudo-economics is familiar with Naomi Klein's shock doctrine, and may even recognize lements of it within the approach of various atheist groups to the Haitian disaster.

The shock doctrine holds that free market capitalists exploit disaster in order to impliment their programs. Where there are disasters, they exploit them. Where there are no disasters, they create them.

Atheists certainly didn't cause the earthquate in Haiti. But some may raise the argument that they've proven more than willing to exploit it.

It began shortly after the earthquake, when Richard Dawkiins launched his Non-Believers Giving Aid project.

The idea seemed to be that with all the religious-based aid organizations providing aid to Haiti, what was really needed was a secular alternative. (One wonders why it is that the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders, among others, weren't sufficient.)

According to Dawkins the point of this is -- quelle suprise -- proving that atheists are morally and intellectually superior to believers.

Likewise, various universities are sending "humanist chaplains" to Haiti to help administer moral and spiritual support for the victims of the earthquake.

One may question the wisdom of sending atheist chaplains -- however an oxymoron this may seem to be -- to a country like Haiti. Haiti is one of the most predominantly religious countries in the world. An intriguing combination of Catholicism and voodoo is practiced by up to 85% of Haitians.

Some could view all of this to nearly force-feeding atheism to Haitians after a disaster. In all likelihood, it really isn't, and is merely born out of naivete.