Atheists in Bubbleland

JewishWorldReview.com ^ | 10/28/2009 | Rabbi Yonason Goldson

[TopQuark]

Did you miss it? Last month the country celebrated national Blasphemy Day!

According to NPR.com, atheists marked Blasphemy Day last month at gatherings around the world, celebrating the freedom to denigrate and insult religion.

Activities included de-baptizing people with hair dryers and an art exhibit in Washington, D.C., which showed, among other titles, Jesus Paints His Nails, in which "an effeminate Jesus after the crucifixion [applies] polish to the nails that attach his hands to the cross." The atheist group Center for Inquiry hosted the exhibit.

Addressing a capacity crowd at the University of Toronto, columnist Christopher Hitchens elicited enthusiastic cheers by commenting, "I think religion should be treated with ridicule, hatred and contempt, and I claim that right." He told NPR that religion is "sinister, dangerous and ridiculous," because it can prompt people to fly airplanes into buildings, and it promotes ignorance.

Hitchens defended atheist incivility this way: "If I said to a Protestant or Quaker or Muslim, 'Hey, at least I respect your belief,' I would be telling a lie."

THE IRRELIGIOUS DIVIDE However, not all atheists should be painted with the same brush. Stuart Jordan, who advises the Center for Inquiry on policy issues, explain to NPR that Blasphemy Day is symptomatic of a debate among traditional atheists and "new atheists" over whether people of faith should be treated with respect or derision.

Paul Kurtz, who founded the Center for Inquiry three decades ago, was ousted in a "palace coup" last year. "I consider them atheist fundamentalists," he says. "Merely to critically attack religious beliefs is not sufficient. It leaves a vacuum. What are you for? We know what you're against, but what do you want to defend?"

[TopQuark]

"The new atheists counter that they believe in reason, science and freedom from religious myth. And, as Ronald Lindsay, who replaced Kurtz, puts it: "We take the high road, the low road, country roads, interstates, highways, byways, - whatever it takes to reach people."

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Where was the “Koran in a bucket of urine” exhibit?

Or the “caricatures of Muhammed art gallery”?

[frogjerk]

I don’t have enough faith to be an atheist.

[left that other site]

A true atheist can’t believe in “Blasphemy” since the very definition of “Blasphemy” assumes the existance of a God to Insult!

[left that other site]

A true atheist can’t believe in “Blasphemy” since the very definition of “Blasphemy” assumes the existance of a God to Insult!

[demshateGod]

There are no true atheists. No one can ever convince me otherwise.

[YankeeReb]

According to NPR.com, atheists marked Blasphemy Day last month at gatherings around the world, celebrating the freedom to denigrate and insult religion

I was thinking of attending their gathering in Mecca, but there wasn't one in that city for some reason.

[GL of Sector 2814]

Of all the strange "crimes" that human beings have legislated out of nothing, "blasphemy" is the most amazing — with "obscenity" and "indecent exposure" fighting it out for second and third place.

---Robert A. Heinlein, from "Time Enough For Love"

[DLfromthedesert]

If they were truly secure in their non-belief, they would not have to resort to this ridiculous behavior.

[dog breath]

Christianity is safer for them to pick on then Islam. They didn't risk anything by playing the fool with a relatively tolerant religion. I had heard about this and had thought the same thing, that they really didn't have any balls. Which is for the greater good actually, for the followers of the, "religion of peace", would of killed some poor innocent souls somewhere to show their outrage.

[GL of Sector 2814]

There are no true atheists. No one can ever convince me otherwise.

Just as the existence or non-existence of a God (or gods) is not dependent upon whether or not they are believed in, the existence or non-existence of atheists is not dependent upon your belief or non-belief in them.

[Tribune7]

Hitchens defended atheist incivility this way: "If I said to a Protestant or Quaker or Muslim, 'Hey, at least I respect your belief,' I would be telling a lie."

And now that that's out in the open, I guess they can't whine when the vice-versa is applied.

Atheism is a delusional faith. Honest skepticism is a different subject, but to declare with certainty that God does not exist and that this declaration is not a statement of faith, is delusional.

[Tribune7]

Or the “caricatures of Muhammed art gallery”?

Or even in the book about the caricatures of the Big Mo.

They not only are delusional, they are gutless.

[Loyalist]

An atheist secure in his belief that God does not exist would not waste his time with the exhibitionist pranks of the “Blasphemy Day” celebrants.

I suspect that many of these people have little philosophical or theological education, else they would be engaging in serious debate about the question of God instead of sloganeering.

[dmz]

There are no true atheists. No one can ever convince me otherwise.

<><><><><><>

Well, at least you do anyone so inclined a favor, by letting them know up front that discussion on the topic is useless.

I tend to think that there are no true monotheists. We all serve so many masters.

[Mrs. Don-o]

"[Religion] can prompt people to fly airplanes into buildings."
-Christopher Hitchens

And atheism can prompt dictators to kill one hundred million people.

I do not mean this as a serious polemical hit against my valued atheist friends, who are fairly numerous. But I am disappointed at Hitchens, whose good writing I have enjoyed many a time, for making such a foolish and bigoted argument.

[left that other site]

I hear you.

[Liberty1970]

We know what you're against, but what do you want to defend?"

Atheism is always on the attack because it has no defenses.

Seriously. How can someone like Hitchens talk about "religion" "poisoning" everything? That implies that there is an objective right and wrong, and that religion is somehow 'corrupting' things from what 'ought to be'. But as the 'old atheists' know, it is nonsense to talk about 'ought to be' in a godless universe. If there is no God then the universe has no "right" or "wrong" state. It just is.

[-YYZ-]

“The new atheists counter that they believe in reason, science and freedom from religious myth.”

Yeah, I beleive in that, too. What I don’t believe in is insulting people merely because they happen to hold a different world view - something that many on both sides of this issue could stand to consider IMO.

Blasphemy is, or should be, my right however. If I want to go around and say that God is a fairy tale, or insulting (i.e. telling the truth) about Mohammed, or saying that Jesus was just a man, that’s my right. Still doesn’t mean I’m going to go out of my way to insult and offend people, though.

[a fool in paradise]

"I think religion should be treated with ridicule, hatred and contempt, and I claim that right."

Spoken like a true bigot.

His faith in the no god god takes presendence over all other faiths. Bow mere mortals to the superiority of Atheism. So dictates Christopher Hitchens.