This is a bit ranty. Hopefully I won't offend too many people, but I'm sure I will irk a couple people at least.
-Cary
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I have to say that I'm dreadfully tired of supposed rationalists, freethinkers et cetera who make ragingly dogmatic statements in their debates, blog posts, and so on.
Seriously people? Think a little. It doesn't take long to realize that saying 'no gods exist' is just as bullshit a claim to knowledge we don't have as 'my god exists' is. Don't get me wrong, I think the odds of any sort of activist deity being real are about a googleplex to one, but a) that's not zero, and b) there are assload of other conceptions of deities.
Next, must they paint all believers - who come in myriads (literally! there are apparently 30,000+ theologically distinct versions of Christianity alone) of levels of biblical literalness, evangelicalness, tolerance, and so on all - as fundamentalist, intolerant evangelicals? Are they paying any attention whatsoever to the real world and the people on it? Because if they are, they're apparently not on Earth.
Sure, fundamentalist/intolerant evangelicals are a blight upon the human race and moderates give them cover. But making blindingly inaccurate generalizations is hardly the way to convince anyone of that. No, that will in fact just let the listeners know that the speaker can't be bothered with facts.
But, the real kicker here is that these people people, who have now painted themselves into a dogmatic, factually lacking, over-generalizing corner, have the chutzpah to piss and moan about the dogma and dismissal of facts of believers. As if, for some inane reason, religious dogma deserves criticism while their personal brand of it does not.
Any bullshit dogma pushed on someone else deserves all the derision and criticism it gets regardless of whether it's yours, mine, your neighbors, religious, political, economical, sociological, medical or anything else.
It's the belief in bullshit that's the issue here, not the source of it. If we can get people thinking critically and rationally, that neatly undermines any of sources.
But the bottom line here is: THINK. Really think. Don't make bullshit statements because all they do is undermine your position and distract from the matter at hand.
