Interesting article here about the recent atheist rally in Washington D.C. Richard Dawkins, always the statesmen, kept it classy as usual with his urging of all those there to, "Mock them (religious people), ridicule them in public..."
Sounds a lot like the "tolerance" and civility that will make this country great!
4 comments:
For what it's worth, other atheist writers have taken Dawkins to task for that attitude.
Here is a good example, from Robert Wright:
[T]here is one thing about this rally that bothered me: the intermittent lack of reasonableness evinced by its most famous participant, Richard Dawkins.
[W]e both oppose a bill recently passed by the Tennessee legislature that allows teachers to challenge the theory of evolution--that is, to "teach the controversy."
But is Dawkins really pursuing our common goal in a reasonable way?
[S]uppose you're a conservative Christian in Tennessee, and a fellow conservative Christian is trying to convince you of the merits of that anti-evolution bill. You're on the fence--you'd never really given much thought to whether your child's religious beliefs would be threatened by the teaching of Darwin. Then you hear Richard Dawkins, probably the most prominent Darwinian in the world, advocating displays of contempt and ridicule for your religion.
Mightn't you sense a threat from Darwinism that you hadn't sensed before?
And is it really reasonable for Dawkins to expect otherwise--to expect that contempt and ridicule will be productive?
I don't think so.
To turn the issue on its head, sometimes us Christians have a tendency to excessively ridicule those without faith. I personally have always been annoyed by the book title "I don't have enough faith to be an atheist" (merits of that book notwithstanding).
My preacher yesterday made an excellent point I had never before considered (at least, not in exactly this way). Without God, human desires are evil and ultimately destructive. Of course non-Christians will believe things we think are wrong or silly or ridiculous. Likewise, we believe (by God's grace) things that, to the world, are just as silly and wrong and ridiculous. We can't be surprised by either of these outcomes, and we can't demonize (or ridicule) others who hold those opinions. Even when they (like Dawkins) do it to us.
And this isn't a new "civility"--the ridicule and hate of the world towards Christians has always been there and will always be there.
It's sad that Richard Dawkins cannot be as reasonable as he claims to be. But it isn't surprising.
Recent post on the similarity between Militant Atheism and Islam at CARM-
http://carm.org/militant-atheism-and-islam
Enjoy, but keep it civil!
"Love your enemies"
Jesus
They seem more like "Religious Fanatics" than anybody
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