[ExI] Atheism again

[Ben Zaiboc]

On 30/04/2020 06:04, Rafal wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 23, 2020 at 12:51 AM Giulio Prisco via extropy-chat 
> <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org 
> <mailto:extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>> wrote:
>
>     Hi Keith. I think atheism is, as you say, "a lack of religion rather
>     than a religion" in non-militant atheists. But in those militant
>     atheists who passionately want to convert others, and even more so in
>     those militant atheists who discriminate against believers in academy,
>     culture, media etc., atheism becomes a religion, and of the worst
>     kind.
>
>
> ### Militant atheism might fill up the god-shaped hole some people 
> have in their minds, thus taking the place of religion as a focus of 
> social and organized activity, but it still is not a religion. Same 
> with communism, environmentalism or social justice - they are mental 
> constructs that organize the activity of many people, just like 
> religions, but although they may replace religion in their minds, they 
> are not religions themselves.
>

Could anyone who feels the desire to use the term 'militant 
atheist/atheism', please at least read this before they do so?

https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Militant_atheism

In particular, the part about the term promoting a double-standard?

Derogation is fair enough, but I do object to misrepresentation.

Being outspoken is not militancy. If it were, every church and religious 
apologist would be a militant, and it would be more difficult to 
distinguish between people who talk a lot about their convictions, and 
people who shoot (and bomb, and behead, etc.) a lot about them.

-- 
Ben Zaiboc

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