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As an atheist with antennae tuned to unfounded claims about religion, and as a resident of "the East" sensitive to silly claims about "Western thought" and "Eastern thought", I had to reply to the following email letter received by The Atheist Experience from a visitor to their Facebook page. I'm humbly taking the liberty of reposting the letter here:

Don’t know if you guys know much about Eastern thought. Here is what I posted about your show on Facebook:

An interesting discussion. The two hosts are quite reasonable and logical. However, they assume Western ways of looking at religion and epistemology. For instance, the lady basically says, “Well, if there is a God, what sort of thing is this God, what category does it belong to?” But in the Orient, God is not seen as a thing belonging in a category, but universal awareness, underlying your and my awareness, and prior to all categories. Awareness can not see itself and put itself in an observed category and analyze itself.

The fellow on the other hand says “What evidence do you have for the existence of God?” But he sees this evidence as consisting of abstract facts. An enlightened oriental would say “Your question of how I know I am enlightened is like asking me to doubt that my hand I hold in front of me is mine.My knowledge is direct, not abstract or logical.” He has directly and experientially transcended the idea that awareness is limited to a supposed separate self.

Thanks for your consideration.

The Atheist Experience posted a short and nicely to-the-point reply; please give it a read (and if you're not regularly watching or listening to their show, start doing so immediately!). For the record, here's the reply I left on the comments, addressed to the good folks at The Atheist Experience:

Atheist Experience,

What a clueless letter you received. Its author is simply playing the “deepities” card: “Oh, you’re just not grasping the profoundness of my pet beliefs.”

More concretely, the doofus is engaging in the old “but that’s not my concept of God” sleight-of-tongue. It’s a demand that the skeptic somehow address every conceivable concept of God-blather in any response; otherwise, the believer will just skip to some other concept and shout “This is my God over here; you’re attacking a straw man over there.” However, I’ve been listening to The Atheist Experience for years, and am confident that if you good folks “assume Western ways of looking at religion and epistemology” in some discussion, it’s because you’re responding to specific claims that fall under that heading. The writer should not expect you to do otherwise.

More humorous is the sheer cheesiness of the letter. The writer comes across as having picked up his knowledge of “Eastern thought” from comic books or Hollywood. I’ve lived the majority of my life in “the Orient”, and can assure you that there is no blanket “Eastern thought” or universal “Eastern ways of looking at religion and epistemology” or singular “Oriental” view of God(s). Each of these comes in the vast multiplicity of forms that you would expect from literally billions of individuals. (I love the scripted response that the writer hands to “an enlightened Oriental”. That label is just precious!)

But while I would have rambled on about the above points in a response, you nail the most important point. The God concept that the writer presents may have been tangential to whatever claims you folks were addressing, but now that s/he’s brought up that concept, which I’m sure does exist in some form among many people, it can be addressed. Whether those people are many or few, and whether the concept is “Eastern” or “Western”, is irrelevant. What matters is precisely what you replied: Why would anyone believe this God concept?

“God is not a thing belonging in a category, but universal awareness, underlying your and my awareness, and prior to all categories.” All right. It sure has that “enlightened” deepity ring to it, but is it true? Alas, the writer is silent on that. Perhaps s/he’s out requesting clarification from “an enlightened Oriental”.

And that's that. Believers, saying "it's Eastern, so it's all on a deeper plane and you just don't get it" is no better than the common "um, quantum physics, and therefore magic healing crystals". True, one unfamiliar with some particular school of philosophy needs to tread carefully (and probably needs to learn much) before meaningfully critiqueing it – but nothing gets to escape the simple, universal criticism of "so where's the evidence for that?".

Seriously, that one trumps everything.