A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the forum....

[vulcanlogician]

it really is "us vs. them" when it comes to the religious right in modern America.

There are bad people who are Christians, and they should be opposed. 

Using this fact as an excuse to pretend that "religion" is monolithic, that religious people are bad, and to develop an ideologically-based false view of history is also bad and should be opposed.

You can call it "nuance," but in fact many of the anti-intellectuals among the atheists are wildly wrong. It is hypocritical to give them a pass.

I'm not very much a fan of anti-intellectuals regardless of their belief (or lack thereof). I've seen enough "YouTube skeptics" to know that most 19th century Christian philosophers had a better understanding of (and appreciation for) skepticism than they do. I've even butted heads with some of the less intellectually inclined atheists on the forums. I may pick my battles, but I don't give anti-intellectualism a pass. It bothers me to no end, no matter where it comes from.

My motto is: "I'm a critical thinker first, and an atheist second." Critical thinking led me to atheism. (It doesn't work the other way around, as some atheists imply.) 

I don't think religion is monolithic, either. It's more complicated than that. But one way I've thought about it is this: if we ever did establish peace on earth, and were able to allow everyone to live and thrive, with no starvation or subjugation... the people calling such a world foul and irredeemable, (and maybe even blowing up subway trains with suicide bombers as a means to oppose it) would be the religious fundamentalists. 

We've both been moved by people who found the good in religion, taking the better parts of its nature and amplifying them, creating things which convey a profound love and a profound understanding. I dig these guys as much as you do, I bet. But religion can be quite destructive, too. I don't know whether the good outweighs the bad. If I had to put money on it, I think I'd say the bad outweighs the good.

***

"I have often wondered, that persons who make a boast of professing the Christian religion, namely, love, joy, peace, temperance, and charity to all men, should quarrel with such rancorous animosity, and display daily towards one another such bitter hatred, that this, rather than the virtues they claim, is the readiest criterion of their faith."

-Baruch Spinoza