Oprah and Atheism - my take

I'm going to go ahead and be the nine thousandth internet atheist that comments on the recent Oprah interview of  Diana Nyad, hopefully my take is just a little bit different than others.

The reaction of the atheist I'm in contact through twitter seem to fall in to two categories "Who cares what Oprah thinks" and the "Oprah is a ignorant bigot" crowd. I firmly fall into the former (with the obvious glaring exception of me writing this blog, yay hypocrisy!)  

Let's look at the exchange that seems to have caused all the "outrage"

“I can stand at the beach’s edge with the most devout Christian, Jew, Buddhist, go on down the line, and weep with the beauty of this universe and be moved by all of humanity. All the billions of people who have lived before us, who have loved and hurt and suffered. So to me, my definition of God is humanity and is the love of humanity.” Nyad said

“Well, I don’t call you an atheist then,” Winfrey said. “I think if you believe in the awe and the wonder and the mystery, then that is what God is. That is what God is. It’s not a bearded guy in the sky.”


 A majority of the outrage I've seen towards Oprah quotes her as saying "You're not an atheist" when this isn't what she said. What she did say I can almost agree with based on Nyad's definition of "god". When Nyad says "my definition of god is humanity..." that does come across as quite similar to that of a pandeist. Now I'm not trying to say or imply that Diana is a pandiest, but when she describes her definition of god I could see how one (in this case Oprah) could be confused.

Oprah's reply almost mimics what Nyad says. If Nyad's definition of god is "humanity and the love of humanity" and Oprah's is "awe and wonder" really what is the difference? They are both using a slippery version of the term "god". When Oprah goes on to say "God isn't a bearded man in the sky" she kind of outs her self as a non theist. Both women identify with some sort of  spirituality the only difference is how they define it. Diana seems to not have a belief in any sort of supernatural element, but Oprah (who has had psychics and the like on her show) does.

So what is the outrage about? Because Oprah has a different definition of atheism (one commonly held)? Or are we just looking to be "offended"? If it's just about the latter we could surely find a more obvious offender, if it's the former then lets take the opportunity to educate not belittle.
Without trying to sound too authoritarian we shouldn't be so wrapped up in a label that we have to be offended anytime someone disagrees with what that label means.

comments welcome
thanks for reading