[ExI] Tolerance

[Brent Neal]

On 7 Dec, 2009, at 6:13, Stathis Papaioannou wrote:

> Is one who insists that ridiculous things are untrue as bad as one who
> insists that ridiculous things are true?


It depends on why they insist. I find the so-called "new atheists"  
whose arguments against religion amount to little more than "Religion  
Sucks! Nyeah!" to be incredibly tiresome people.  Compare and contrast  
the eloquent, rational atheism of Russell and Hitchens, to the  
emotionally-charged atheism of Dawkins ("Hur hur hur if you believe in  
God you're stupid, so we're going to call atheists 'Brights'!  Get it?  
Huh? Hur hur hur.")

You can hold a rational position for completely irrational reasons.  
"Rational" and "irrational" are better suited for describing the  
process used to attain a position than the position itself. While I  
agree that the term "fundamentalist atheist" contains some connotative  
dissonance, the label is nonetheless appropriately evocative.

B

--
Brent Neal, Ph.D.
http://brentn.freeshell.org
<brentn at freeshell.org>