(January 18, 2018 at 10:52 am)SteveII Wrote: In a nutshell, New Atheists believe that religion should not be tolerated (which is not the same as "we lack a belief..."). There is no common ground to discuss. All religion is harmful and holds us back. Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens, Dennett are representatives of the ideology.
That's because you're confusing atheism with atheists. Beyond that very basic qualifying criterion - not being a theist - atheists are not much different from anyone else. Shocking, I know; but it's like tarring all vegetarians as militant animal rights activists based on a handful of the better-known ones.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'