(no subject)

[dreamer_easy]

Letter in today's SMH: It's time for atheists to start defending humanism, with the core tenets of compassion, scepticism and scientific logic, with the same fervour that Billy Graham pushed evangelism in the 1950s. What does she mean, "start"? :-) Smart-arse atheists are no less smug and obnoxious than preachy religous leaders, and damage an important cause. (And atheists who show tolerance, understanding, and a little humility are as laudable as people of faith who do the same.)

ETA: This is in the context of people struggling with theodicy in the, er, wake of the tsunami catastrophe. Natural disasters must be one of the greatest challenges to faith - terrible human evil can at least be blamed on its perpetrators. My own comfort, such as it is, is that the same planet that causes such devastation is the same planet which creates the most beautiful and varied life; it's all part of the same system.

Comments

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

I think most theists, of every stripe, as well as most atheists, are basically quiet and tolerant.

But those are not the ones we notice.

The loudest atheists and the loudest religious fundamentalists, although they are convinced they are at opposite ends of the spectrum, have one basic belief in common:

That those who don't agree with them are either fools, or deluded.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

But those are not the ones we notice.

It's like teh Interweb, or fandom, really.

Another thing irksome atheists and fundamentalists have in common - identical definitions of God, faith, and religion.

[zazuomgwtf.livejournal.com]

Another thing irksome atheists and fundamentalists have in common - identical definitions of God, faith, and religion.
Excellent point, and one of the main reasons I am agnostic and not an atheist. I reject the conventional Judeo/christian inter[retation of God, but leave open the possibility that there is a force in the universe that I have no knowledge of.