Do you feel (new) Atheist culture?

[Alex K]

I'm not sure what to call myself other  than Alaina.  I've never liked Richard Dawkins he's always seemed a bit of a pompous prick to me.

Oh, he most definitely is a pompus prick, but he and his attitudes towards religion have also been an incredibly important life boat for atheists who felt isolated in mostly conservative theist societies - whether we like all of his actions and attitudes or not.

 I'm not saying he doesn't have a few good points, but he really shouldnt make it seem like he's the voice of all atheists.  I like Christopher Hitchens, but again he's like the drunk uncle who's really fun but needs to be let away from the party occasionally.  As both someone with a disability and a woman of color I have to work very hard to compartmentalize my views on Darwin.  Well he's for all intents and purposes the keystone of modern evolutionary biology my brain still has to get around his other views which are quite scary.

Can you elaborate? Do you perceive Darwin as unusually racist and ableist (or possibly a proponent of eugenics), or do you simply feel queasy about elevating any 19th century figure to hero status because of the zeitgeist?

 And which some people still believe in.  I do tend to feel a sense of camaraderie with other atheists,  being stuck in the south it's hard to remember sometimes that I'm not up shit creek without a paddle.  But I am also just myself.