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____/ Homer on Friday 01 Jul 2011 20:10 : \____
> Verily I say unto thee, that Roy Schestowitz spake thusly:
>> ____/ Homer on Friday 01 Jul 2011 11:30 : \____
>
>>> And moreover, it should be the subject of /civilised/ debate, not some
>>> kind of Jihad to terminate people who merely hold a different opinion,
>>> as the anti-religious movement seems determined to do.
>>
>> You must be thinking of Dawkins or Pat Condell.
>
> Yes, and many others in the "militant atheism" movement, which is fairly
> obviously an extremist ideology:
>
> [quote]
> Militant atheism, also referred to as atheist fundamentalism, is a term
> which refers to the ideology of hostility towards religion. British
> philosopher Julian Baggini defines militant atheism as "atheism which is
> actively hostile to religion", which "requires more than strong
> disagreement with religion â it requires something verging on hatred and
> is characterised by a desire to wipe out all forms of religious belief.
> Militant atheists tend to make one or both of two claims that moderate
> atheists do not. The first is that religion is demonstrably false or
> nonsense and the second is that it is usually or always harmful.".
> Militant atheism was an integral part of the materialism of
> MarxismâLeninism
> [/quote]
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Militant_atheist
Militant atheism is not Dawkins's style, it is maybe Christopher Hitchens, who can be
rather abrasive at times although he does make some valid points.
http://www.hitchensweb.com/
> Ironically, Dawkins is a supporter of the Great Ape Project â a movement
> to extend certain moral and legal rights to all great apes, and yet (as
> a self-described "militant atheist") he apparently doesn't believe he
> should extend the same courtesy to his fellow man, if they happen to
> believe in God. Maybe I should start a "militant anti-ape" movement and
> ask him what he thinks of that.
I think you're addressing this at the wrong person. Many things get falsely attributed
to him, such as calls for arrest of the Pope when he visited the UK. One of the actual
points he makes invariantly is that pushing children to inherit a patent's dogma
is unreasonable. It defies freedom of choice, maybe freedom too (in general).
> As for Pat Condell (whom I'd never heard of until now), from the very
> brief research I did, it appears he's nothing more than a racist thug
> using the pretext of atheism to expound his bigoted views.
That's a nice way of putting it. But as a standup comedian he does make
some good jokes.
> It's hard to believe that the simple premise a benevolent deity could
> invoke so much hatred towards its believers. These militants apparently
> fail to appreciate the irony that their hostile behaviour only confirms
> their malevolent nature, and thus completely undermines any credence to
> their arguments. They're not academics with a valid opinion, they're
> just vicious thugs who gain a sick pleasure from attacking people. If
> they had a valid point, they could debate it civilly, without militancy.
That depends. Dawkins was an academic for many years (he is almost 70 now) and he wrote
many technical books. It is the attack on his work and on himself too (think
along the lines of the trolls here, attacking Linux and its proponents) which
I believe led him to preaching about the dangers of religious indoctrination.
- --
~~ Best of wishes
Dr. Roy S. Schestowitz (Ph.D. Medical Biophysics), Imaging Researcher
http://Schestowitz.com | GNU/Linux administration | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
Editor @ http://techrights.org & Broadcaster @ http://bytesmedia.co.uk/
GPL-licensed 3-D Othello @ http://othellomaster.com
Non-profit search engine proposal @ http://iuron.com
Contact E-mail address (direct): s at schestowitz dot com
Contact Internet phone (SIP): schestowitz@xxxxxxxxx (24/7)
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