Oprah’s “secret”
One would think that an atheist would view all illogical and unproven religious philosophies with equal disdain, but this isn’t the case. I find Mormonism to be sillier than Christianity, for instance, because its believers must reach a new level of intellectual dishonesty in order to believe the things they do. And I think “The Secret,” a new philosophy that is being endorsed by Oprah, to be especially harmful and ridiculous. In a recent Salon article, Peter Birkenhead tears Oprah a new one:
Books like “The Secret” have created, and are feeding, an enormously diverse market of disciples, and they’re thriving in every corner of the culture, in megachurches and movies, politics and pop music, in sports arenas and state boards of education. Oprah has far more in common with George Bush than either would like to admit, and so do the psychics of Marin County, Calif., and the creationists of Kansas. The believers come from all walks of life, but they work the same way — mostly by bastardizing and warping source materials, from the Bible to the Bhagavad Gita, to make them fit their worldview. On Page 23 of “The Secret” you’ll find this revealing doozy: “Meditation quiets the mind, helps you control your thoughts.” Of course, the goal of meditation is precisely the opposite — it is to be conscious, to observe your thoughts honestly and clearly. But that’s the last thing the believers want to encourage. The authors of “The Secret” sell “control” in the form of “empowerment” and “quiet” in the form of belief, not consciousness.
The writer argues that this particular brand of snake oil is more harmful than its predecessors because it has such a powerful and influential figure behind it. Hell, even my brother has purchased the book and read it.
