Atheist Group: "Oprah's Got It All Wrong"
CABRERA: Bottom of the hour on this Sunday. Welcome back, everyone. I'm Ana Cabrera.</s>BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. It is a pleasure to have you with us, and the cold spots across the country this morning. So, if you're in one of them, stay in a little while with us. Here are five things you need to know for your NEW DAY. Up first, two inmates who escaped from a Florida prison were arrested last night. They're due in court this morning. Joseph Jenkins and Charles walker were found at a motel in Panama City, Florida. Family members deny helping them escape. Authorities released Jenkins and Walker based on forged documents.</s>CABRERA: Number two, a quick jail stint for the former mayor of San Diego. Bob Filner was booked yesterday morning and released a few hours later. It's really more of a formality related to his plea deal. Filner admitted to a felony and two misdemeanor charges in connection with his behavior with three different women. He also must serve three months of home confinement.</s>BLACKWELL: Three now, an eighth suspect is now charged in the clash between a swarm of motorcyclists and an SUV driver in New York. You've seen the video. The 7-year-old faces gang assault and other charges. He's not entered a plea. The SUV driver was chased down and beaten after he hit several bikers. And this conflict was caught on a biker's helmet cam.</s>CABRERA: Number four, two public transit workers are dead after they were hit by an out of service train. This is near San Francisco. The Bay Area Rapid Transit Union is on strike, of course, but officials say one of the men who was killed opted to work anyway. The other victim was a contractor. The train that killed them was being run by a computer at the time.</s>BLACKWELL: Number five, you know when I was a kid I played the flute. I think the flute was 200 bucks. But $1.7 million? That will buy you a violin. It's sold at a British auction. It's not just any violin. It's believed to be the same violin that the Titanic band leader, the Titanic band leader played to calm passengers as the ship sank. William Hartley didn't survive. He was pulled from the Atlantic days later with his violin case strapped to his back.</s>CABRERA: $1.7 million. For today's "Faces of Faith", we're talking about Oprah. Some atheists are demanding an apology from her after her interview with endurance swimmer Diana Nyad.</s>BLACKWELL: Now Nyad appeared on Oprah's program "Super Soul Sunday" to talk about, of course this, her historic swim from Cuba to Key West. Well, when Nyad described being an atheist, Oprah challenged that.</s>DIANA NYAD, LONG DISTANCE SWIMMER: 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 lived before us who have loved and hurt.</s>OPRAH WINFREY, TALK SHOW HOST: Yes.</s>NYAD: And suffered -- to me, my definition of God is humanity and is the love of humanity. And as we return to --</s>WINFREY: Well I don't call you an atheist then. I think if you believe in the awe --</s>NYAD: Ok.</s>WINFREY: -- and wonder and the mystery --</s>NYAD: Ok.</s>WINFREY: -- that that is what God is.</s>NYAD: Ok.</s>WINFREY: That is what God is. God is not the bearded guy in the sky.</s>NYAD: It's not bearded. But I guess there is an inference with God that there is a presence. There is either a creator or overseer.</s>CABRERA: So Oprah's response to Diana Nyad insulted some atheists. One group started a campaign against Oprah saying she's got it all wrong and now they want Oprah to invite an atheist onto her show to set the record straight.</s>BLACKWELL: Joining us to talk about it Chris Stedman he is assistant Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University he's also the author of "Faitheist: How an Atheist Found Common Ground With The Religious." It's good to have you with us.</s>CHRIS STEDMAN, AUTHOR, "FAITHEIST": Thank you. It's great to be on the show.</s>CABRERA: So, Chris, explain what Oprah is getting wrong here.</s>STEDMAN: Well, to me this incident underscores the fact there is a lot of misunderstanding about who atheists are and what we believe. You know, what I took away from this conversation between Diana Nyad and Oprah Winfrey is that Oprah essentially erased Diana Nyad's atheist identity. She said I know you identify as an atheist but I don't see you that way because my understanding of what an atheist is this and you claim to be that. Therefore, I don't see you as an atheist. So to me this really underscores the need for more dialogue and understanding about what our differences are. And what was beautiful about what Diana Nyad said, I think, is that she really emphasized the things that we have in common but also maintained her own position as an atheist and I just wish that Oprah had respected her identity and understood better where she and many other atheists are coming from.</s>BLACKWELL: Chris, I want to read for you and for our viewers a tweet from Diana Nyad. October 13th she tweeted to Oprah -- at Oprah rather, "The collective respect and awe of all living souls is my definition of God. So God is love in those terms." My question to follow up with from that tweet is how do atheists with the belief that there is no overseer, there is no God reconcile that belief with all the beauty that Diana Nyad just talked about, the seas, the gems, the sunset?</s>STEDMAN: Sure. Well to me, there's no contradiction there. There's nothing to reconcile. As an atheist, I believe that there is no God. There is no overseer. But to me, that actually increases my awe and my wonder for the natural world. If it wasn't created but rather is here, I still find a lot of -- a lot of wonder in that. And I can look out at the natural world and be amazed by what exists. And I don't need to connect that to the idea of a God or deity or any sort of supernatural force to derive inspiration from that. And what I really appreciated about what Diana Nyad had to say is that she really understood and articulated so well that we can get inspiration and awe from humanity, from the people around us and for me as an atheist and as a secular humanist, that is really where I derive my sense of awe and wonder from the most. In addition to the natural world and everything that's so spectacular about that. I find that when I see people of all different religious and nonreligious backgrounds come together and try to understand one another better, work together and buck our instincts to separate ourselves to remain separate and apart from one another, I find that to be awe inducing. And I thought Diana Nyad just articulated that so beautifully.</s>CABRERA: And what I think I'm hearing you say is there is a difference between religion and spirituality. So are you saying an atheist can still be spiritual?</s>STEDMAN: Well, Diana Nyad said that, and other atheists have said that as well. I personally wouldn't identify myself as spiritual. But I think the important takeaway from this conversation is that people identify in many different ways and our understanding of the world spirituality and religion are so different. And I think it really reflects the need for much more conversation about this. I mean we live today in the United States and perhaps the most religiously diverse society in the history of the planet. But religious literacy rates are incredibly low. We know very little about religion. We know even less about people who believe different things than we do. And when we don't know or understand very much about our differences and we're not in conversation with one another, fear and misinformation proliferate the dialogue around religion. And I think what this emphasizes for me is the real need for people to meet and to get to know people who are different from them. As a queer person, I know this very well that in the last decade 14 percent of Americans have gone from opposing same sex-marriage to supporting it. And according to a study, the number one reason why they changed their minds is because they had a relationship with someone who is gay or lesbian. Relationships are transformative. And in fact only two percent of people who change their minds did so because they came to believe that gay and lesbian people are born that way. So education matters but really relationships are the key. And so I think this, to me, underscores the real need for much more relationship building across lines of religious difference, particularly between those who do not believe in God and those who do so that we can come to better understand each other.</s>BLACKWELL: Chris Stedman from Harvard University the book is "Faitheist: How an Atheist Found Common Ground with the Religious". We of course, like to have the conversation. We appreciate you for being part of it. Thank you.</s>STEDMAN: Thank you so much.</s>CABRERA: And for more stories on faith, if you'd like to read Chris' blog on this issue, be sure to check out our belief blog at CNN.com/belief.</s>BLACKWELL: Ted Cruz goes home to the heart of Texas and gets a hero's welcome. He also sits down for an exclusive interview with CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION". We'll have a sneak peek just ahead.