[extropy-chat] Atheism in Decline

[Damien Broderick]

At 12:20 PM 3/5/2005 -0800, Mike wrote:

>it can credibly be said that
>atheists actions against science in the 20th century have at least
>equalled or exceeded the actions by the faithful against science in
>previous centuries.

The assertion might be true (or might not), but so what?

Leaving that aside, I am struck by this quaint phrase "the faithful", in 
this forum of all places, as a synonym for "theist". The contrary of an 
atheist, by definition, is a theist. The contrary of someone who is 
faithful is someone who is faith*less*, and hence by implication 
untrustworthy, devious, two-faced and generally not nice to have around. 
Some of my best friends are atheists; deluded or otherwise, they are 
certainly not faithless wretches. But I don't think that implication was 
Mike's contention, just a rather touching hangover from parochial school days.

Damien Broderick