Brainstorm

[Excited Penguin]

Your being against religions does mean you're against religious people as well - insofar as they are religious. I'm sorry, but P.C. culture has brainwashed you into ridiculous language games.

If you don't know the difference between being against what a belief represents and being against a person then you're not only not as smart as you think you are (you already certainly aren't) but you're far less smart than you think.

Seriously?

And I thought you could see Sam Harris' point that it's possible to feel compassion for individuals and not hate the individuals despite being firmly against their beliefs.

Here's an example: I'm against the belief that abortions are wrong in 100% of circumstances, does this mean I'm against all individuals who are 100% pro life? No way, it doesn't represent the person as a whole. I can be extremely strongly against something that someone believes, but that doesn't make me against them because it doesn't make them a bad person at all.

Good intentions matter. I like to believe you have good intentions too but... I have great difficulty continuing to believe that...

You answered your own questions here. I don't disagree with any of it. You're just on my case and unable to think clearly about what I'm actually saying. You overreact and you assume I hold positions I never said I hold.

Just to be clear, this isn't the same when I say I wouldn't like to be friends with a Muslim or have a beer with them. In their case, you can actually tell what kind of people they are by what they believe. It's the same with Christians and Jews and other religions. You can't tell what kind of person an atheist is just because he's an atheist. You can however tell whether they are a good person or not, to a certain extent, if you inquire into whether they are also an antitheist.

I claim this. There's only three things a person can be. An antitheist, evil, or stupid.