I honestly run into these arguments on a weekly basis on Slashdot, and rarely but not never in person. I do want to make it clear again that I'm not claiming this is the majority or even a large minority of atheists; but I run into it a LOT online, I'm guessing because of the "megaphone for crazy" factor of the internet.
My wife runs into it a lot in person, but she goes to a super-libertarian law school, so the well is somewhat poisoned as far as her environment goes.
It's not that theists don't understand the distinction, it's that the distinction doesn't prevent it from being offensive to them, just as the difference between someone saying "your atheism makes you immoral" and saying "atheism is an immoral stance" doesn't actually mitigate the impact on you.
I'm not saying that atheists should stop making the argument, or that if they played nicer, they would convince all the religious folks. What I'm trying to get across is that it's useless pretending that it's a polite stance to say "Religion is a mental disease" to the religious, any more than it would be to say "atheism is a failure of morals" to an atheist.
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chiming
Re: I wish this was true, because it's very well stated.
Date: 2011-03-16 12:25 am (UTC)From:My wife runs into it a lot in person, but she goes to a super-libertarian law school, so the well is somewhat poisoned as far as her environment goes.
It's not that theists don't understand the distinction, it's that the distinction doesn't prevent it from being offensive to them, just as the difference between someone saying "your atheism makes you immoral" and saying "atheism is an immoral stance" doesn't actually mitigate the impact on you.
I'm not saying that atheists should stop making the argument, or that if they played nicer, they would convince all the religious folks. What I'm trying to get across is that it's useless pretending that it's a polite stance to say "Religion is a mental disease" to the religious, any more than it would be to say "atheism is a failure of morals" to an atheist.