With all the bombastic rhetoric about militant “new†atheism that’s being shoveled around like so much fresh fertilizer, I found this (somewhat old) blog post to be about the most succinct answer to those claims I’ve read, and more than worthy of being spread as far and wide as possible.
Cheers to the The Secular Backlash for this…
Balancing precariously back on the point again, I might add that I was inspired in my choice of theme by Tobias Jones, whose piece in the Guardian a while back can be read here. He writes that us secular types are a new form of fundamentalist, and that what we want is the “eradication of religion, and all believers, from the face of the earthâ€.
He’s right about our goals, of course. What he doesn’t get is that, uniquely in the history of humanity’s grand metaphysical projects, we plan to do this by consent. Our strategy is partly to persuade one believer after another, but much more importantly to speak to the waverers, and to catch the young before the faithful can indoctrinate them. We understand that it will be necessary to wait for the recalcitrant remnants to pass away in the fullness of time. As long as we leave the Earth with less true believers that we found it with, we will be content to hand the torch on to the next generation, and the next after that, until religion is as historical an idea as human sacrifice or the divine right of kings.
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