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Originally Posted by sspadowsky
Here's what I was getting at with my statement: I see Dawkins and his cohorts much in the same way I see Pat Robertson: a loudmouthed fringe douchebag who claims to represent the majority of his group, but doesn't even come close.
Live and let live, baby.
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I wouldn't put Dawkins on the same level as Pat Robertson, but I do kind of agree wtih you on that part. Robertson has an unabashed political agenda, and I think Dawkins at least has good intentions for what he does. I don't like the evangelistic stance he's been taking lately but on some level I guess I can see it as necessary to accomplish any kind of goal of bringing atheists together as a recognized minority, which desperately needs to happen when we're getting reports that atheists are far and away the last trusted minority group in America, beating out Jews, Muslims and even homosexuals. Most families would let their Christian children marry Jewish or Muslim or what-have-you faiths before they would let them marry an atheist. I wanted to link to the actual article but the site's being a cuntjob right now. In the event that it comes back up, here it is:
http://www.ur.umn.edu/FMPro?-db=rele...&ID=2816&-Find
I am worried that this evangelistic stance may end up turning a lot of atheists into the quasi-religious bigots that a good portion of theists make us out to be. But you could argue that that kind of coherence is what atheists need to make any kind of social progress for themselves. The Christian mainstream in particular have a difficult time thinking of a group of people without some kind of "stereotype of ideas" that they all share -- for themselves it's the Bible, for Muslims it's the Koran, soforth. It's arguable that any minority group you can present has at least some kind of coherent culture that pulls them all together as a group, but atheists don't have that. The only thing any atheist has in common with any other atheist is that they don't believe in God. Any of their other beliefs can be as radical as anybody else's.
I think what I'm getting at is that yeah, Dawkins and the rest of them are loudmouthed, but MAYBE something good could come of it if they can get atheists to become a recognized minority group.