Go God Go
Go God Go XII
So who of you knows the real interpretation of Dawkins' words, can you be an atheist without being mean and what should atheists call themselves.
"The first thing Fascists usually try to do is silencing the opposition."
Dawkins is often criticized for being mean, shrill, strident, etc... As someone who is very familiar with Dawkins I honestly can say these charges are unfair.
There is a taboo against challenging peoples religious beliefs and so when someone dares to do so there tends to be a knee-jerk overreaction. Really, there isn't anything he has to say regarding religion that is any meaner than what we are used to in our political and normal social discourse. It's a double standard.
In the preface to the paperback edition of The God Delusion Dawkins addresses this. In it he reads a random restaurant negative review from the newspaper that was way more shrill and strident than anything he says. Think of how much we are used to shrill and strident speech in our political discourse. I mean, you're a TYT fan, right? Society accepts such speech in stride. What Dawkins or anyone else has to say regarding religion should be no different.
People start to criticize the tone when they are not assured of their own believes. I'm very confident in my philosophical and religious believes and have no problem with anybody attacking it. In fact I would encourage that, because it helps me to fine tune my positions. People who think that God would mind insults must be extremly petty.
