Progressive Radio

I was listening to the new "progressive radio station" here in Chicago yesterday. They have Stephanie Miller, Rachel Maddow, Ed Schultz, Thom Hartmann, Richard Greene, and other notable liberal voices. I was listening to the Thom Hartmann show, and he got to the point where he was taking comments from callers. I didn't hear the beginning of the show, but apparently he made fun of Atheists for saying they "know" there is no god.

So he takes a call from a well spoken guy who wanted to clarify what most Atheists mean when they say "know." The man calmly and rationally explains that Atheists do not believe that god exists because it can't be proven. So when they say "I know god does not exist." They mean that they know that no un-shakable proof has been shown. The existence of god is still just a theory. It is an intangible theory, but there is no actual proof. The guy was nice and just trying to explain to the host where they are coming from. So the host, Mr. Hartmann starts attacking the guy, and basically telling him he is an idiot for not believing in god. He said things like, Well, if you lived before electricity, would you say you KNOW it doesn't exist? The caller said, "yeah. There was no proof at the time of the existence of electricity, so yeah. I'd have said I know there is no electricity." And Mr. Hartmann scoffed and said, 'well you'd have been wrong there too, wouldn't you?'

I was really put off by this exchange. I happen to believe in god, but I also happen to believe that making fun of people for thinking differently than you is wrong. What was Mr. Hartmann trying to achieve? I think it is awfully out of place for a "progressive" station, that is all proud of itself for backing beliefs that go against the tight-assed conservative Rights, to belittle another minority belief.