Hey, "Fundamentalist" Atheists!

[vertigo25]

Dan Gardner of the Ottawa Citizen wrote a brilliant piece yesterday called "Those Fanatical Atheists." It's kind of answering all of the recent cries of "the atheists are just as fundamentalist and extremist as the terrorists."

The entire thing is really fun and well written. It's also pretty much dead-on with a lot of my views; only he words it much better than I ever could. My favorite part, I think, is when he sums up the idea that "moderate" religion only encourages radicalism:

Between the two extremes are sensible moderates who take the Goldilocks approach to faith and reason. Not too hot. Not too cold. Lukewarm, please, keep it lukewarm.

The appeal is obvious. "All things to moderation," the Greeks sensibly advised, and this looks perfectly moderate. Whether it can withstand a little scrutiny is another matter.

The first problem for the moderate believer comes from those who like their faith hot. You've agreed God exists and that He mucks about in the world. You've agreed this book contains His holy commandments. So how do you respond when the mad religious zealot says, "hey, here on page 23, it says we should slice open unbelievers and use their guts for garters. And over here on page 75, it says we should bury homosexuals up to their necks and stuff olives up their noses. If God exists and these are his holy commandments, then shouldn't we get serious about the gutting and stuffing?"

One response is to make like a Philadelphia lawyer and spin plain words ("and yea, the Lord saith, the nose of the sodomite shall be stuffed with olives ...") until they don't say what they plainly say. But the more common response is to simply pretend the garters-and-olives passages don't exist and prattle on about how God is merciful and loving.

This is neither faithful nor reasonable. Still, as a practical matter, it will do in times of religious quiescence. But with religious zealotry in the ascendant, this non-answer is not going to keep the ranks of the nutters from swelling. And that's dangerous to us all.

In this short article he manages to summarize some of the main points of Dawkins, Harris, Dennet and the other "leading" (oops... I mean... "fanatical") atheists, and does it in a humorous and appealing way. He also responds to some of the most irritating arguments against atheism in such a succinct and straight forward way, it makes me wonder why anyone has ever bothered to write pages upon pages of replies.

You should definitely go read the whole thing.

[Hardcoregirl]

Don't you know Stalin was an atheist? That's the way it goes. First you read Richard Dawkins. Then you have an abortion. Then you're putting a fresh coat of paint on the Gulag.

Bwahahahaha!

Thats a very amusing article....

Do you ever wish you lived in the future when maybe people weren't so backwards? I have such a hard time seeing how more people don't question their beliefs and find it absolutely ridiculous.

My 12 year old son has been reading Greek mythology and he even understands how there is just as much proof those gods exist as THE God exists, that the bible is the word of god or that jesus rose from the dead.

[Sir Diddimus]

That has to be one of the best articles I've read in a long, long time!
Thanks Andy.



Oh, off subject, we were talking at Mikey and Rachel's reception about putting some of the Sonny's BBQ in an envelope for you. But, I don't have your address.... LOL

[vertigo25]

LOL

I wonder what the post office would think of that.

I can just see some over zealous terrorist fighting postal worker freaking out: "Oh my God! I think it's human entrails!!!! Call Homeland Security!"

I get a knock on my door and it's some sunglass wearing secret-agent type and he says, "Mister Standfield, we believe your life is in danger. Come with us."

Then we all get thrown in jail for our "Hoax," like the Aqua Teen kids up in Boston.

Good times.

You should do it.