In yesterday's Guardian - Stuart Jeffries has an article drawing parallels with what he calls 'secular fundamentalism' and religious fundamentalism. In particular he cites Richard Dawkins.
Dawkins is an academic with an abrasive polemical style. It's not the style I would use to challenge religious belief with any well-intentioned but basically deluded individual that I came across on a personal basis. But to put him in the same category as bible-bashers and mad-mullahs is a crazy kind of relativism.
Here are a random ten things that assertive atheists HAVEN'T done:
1. Burnt anybody at the stake and told them that their body must suffer so that their soul might be saved.
2. Proclaimed a Crusade or Jihad and then invaded a foreign country because it wasn't atheist.
3. Forbidden certain books that suggest that atheism isn't the only acceptable belief system.
4. Stoned anybody or publicly whipped anybody for offending the 'laws of atheism'.
5. Destroyed historic works of art for the same reason.
6. Specified that only certain kinds of food can be eaten, or a certain type of beard be worn by atheists .
7. Insisted that the state pays for atheist schools in which there is no teaching of any other kind of belief, and where only teachers who are atheists can be employed.
8. Demanded that one day a week is set aside when businesses and shops shut and trains and buses don't run out of respect to atheism.
9. Got on a bus with explosives strapped to them and blown up themselves and everyone else for the glory of atheism .
10. Sought the protection of the law if anybody ridicules atheism in any way.
... and so on. See the difference ?
Dawkins is an academic with an abrasive polemical style. It's not the style I would use to challenge religious belief with any well-intentioned but basically deluded individual that I came across on a personal basis. But to put him in the same category as bible-bashers and mad-mullahs is a crazy kind of relativism.
Here are a random ten things that assertive atheists HAVEN'T done:
1. Burnt anybody at the stake and told them that their body must suffer so that their soul might be saved.
2. Proclaimed a Crusade or Jihad and then invaded a foreign country because it wasn't atheist.
3. Forbidden certain books that suggest that atheism isn't the only acceptable belief system.
4. Stoned anybody or publicly whipped anybody for offending the 'laws of atheism'.
5. Destroyed historic works of art for the same reason.
6. Specified that only certain kinds of food can be eaten, or a certain type of beard be worn by atheists .
7. Insisted that the state pays for atheist schools in which there is no teaching of any other kind of belief, and where only teachers who are atheists can be employed.
8. Demanded that one day a week is set aside when businesses and shops shut and trains and buses don't run out of respect to atheism.
9. Got on a bus with explosives strapped to them and blown up themselves and everyone else for the glory of atheism .
10. Sought the protection of the law if anybody ridicules atheism in any way.
... and so on. See the difference ?
1 comment:
Also, atheists:
1. Don't tell women they're unclean and untouchable at certain times of the month
2. Don't make women cover their hair or wear certain clothing
3. Don't have laws that say a woman's word is worth less than a man's
4. Don't dictate a woman's choices over contraception and reproduction
5. Didn't force women to give up their babies if they weren't married
Shall I go on?
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