Religious Bigotry of "New Atheists" UPDATE 12/14/10

I have taken part in a discussion on one of the anti-nazi groups at Last.FM. It's about left hostility towards religious people.

The discussion is here. Below is the main contribution I made to it.

Also, antifa is a reference to militant anti-fascism.

UPDATE 12/14/10 I just posted a second comment of significance. It is below the first comment in this post, and you can see what I am responding to by clicking the link above.

Tom

"I generally agree with the post above. There's a lot of people in various religions who are not fundamentalists, they're not bigots. I mean, a survey by one of the Pew centers, found about 45% of American Catholics support gay marriage. Today, I believe that islam IS going through a period where the fundies and bigots are some kind of large majority, but there are plenty of exceptions (for example I've heard that Bosnian Muslims are generally not fundies).

You can oppose their bigotry and pro-life politics without attacking their religion completely. In fact I can think of ways to do that without discussing their religion at all. One problem with the new Atheist approach is that the fundies will have more success convincing people that opponents of homophobia (for example) are anti-Christian, which will strengthen their position. The New Atheists, to whatever degree they are progressives or leftists, are promoting division among those communities and are distracting us from important work that needs to be done.

So, it isn't helpful. And as the poster above says, it is bigotry. If you're hostile towards someone because of their religion, you're a bigot.

And to the person who started this, who is "strictly antifa." You can hate their bigotry without hating their religion. I don't know why you think you can be "strictly antifa" and hate Muslims and Jews because of their religion.

Actually I guess that if you want to attack the fundies FUNDAMENTALISM, go ahead. I say that partly because they're making a big deal about their religion. And I'm sure religiously motivated leftists would be happy to debate you about their religion, but this hatred towards EVERYONE who believes in religion is bigotry. Speaking about myself and millions of others, our faith is something we don't advertise and only talk about it when it comes up. it's not nice knowing that there are people out there who hate me because of my religion.

I think that's about all I have to say.

Tom"

New comment:

"When you say that Atheists are oppressed, to some small degree I agree. Looking at America, they don't have the political representation they should have; there's harrassment based on Atheists' beliefs about God (that harrassment isbigotry); Possibly some other things, although I wouldn't be surprised if atheists are above average financially and are more likely to have gone to College. So, to some small degree, they are oppressed as atheists.

That hostility doesn't justify hostility to all religious people because they are religious.

In response to The Dark Silence:

I don't think you have a good grip what most religious people seek in religion. I am religious as a Catholic and get the following out of it:

1. A theory to explain what happens when we die.
2. Reading the Bible when I was young planted the seeds that became my socialist beliefs about 15 years ago.
3. A sense of community (the church that I used to go to was very liberal, and more or less not fundamentalist) (haven't switched churches, just haven't been going to church for a while).
4. I think there's another one I'm forgetting, or it could be what i'll say right here- it's easier for me to deal with my mom's death believing that she is in Heaven.

Tom"

 

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 UPDATE 6/15/21 An article here details how the New Atheists merged with the far right.