Dawkins and Christianity

[mordant]

When it is posted at us, or to generalize us, it feels accusatory. It feels like "See? See???? Look at what your people are doing!!"

Sometimes it IS accusatory but in reality it's fair game because Christianity claims to have a superior morality.

Also I think this quote of Dawkins in the link referenced in the OP is very relevant:

"I seem to be perceived as aggressive and strident and I don't actually think I am strident and aggressive. What I think is that we have all become so accustomed to seeing religion ring-fenced by a wall of special protection that when someone delivers even a mild criticism of religion, it's heard as aggressive when it isn't. I like to think I'm more thoughtful and reflective," he said.

I would add as a former evangelical that evangelical culture (especially midwestern and Bible Belt) is very much "make nice -- if you don't have something 'nice' to say, don't say anything at all". In other words, there's TREMENDOUS social reinforcement for faux gentility where NO ONE, not even a fellow Christian, feels anything but guilt for calling out bullshit. The result is that bullshit abounds and the shame people SHOULD have for promulgating bullshit is instead felt for opposing it. And it makes sense that things have evolved this way, because the failed epistemology of religious faith DEPENDS on bullshit for its very survival. So agency inference, confirmation bias, ad hominem, ad populum, and similar things must not be debunked or disrespected, at least not in the service of apologetics.

Stephen Fry once said something to the effect that the religious effect to be "offended" as if it gives them some special rights. "You're offended -- so fucking what?"

It took me the better part of two decades to overcome my operant conditioning to avoid offending others merely because they FEEL offended -- even if all I'm doing is stating simple impersonal facts.

Oh what a tangled web we weave ...