Christian missionary becomes atheist after trying to convert tribe

[Belacqua]

Listen yes, respect, no. People earn respect

Maybe "respect" comes across too strongly. 

I meant something like: not treat them as dummies before we have proof that they're dummies. Just the standard rule of thumb that everybody knows something I don't.

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Once they've spoken and you've listened, then it's okay to say "Fuck those dumbasses."

Yes, granted! 

Just because life is short, we can't devote time to bigots. There are harmful people. 

Yesterday on a different thread someone was saying to me that even the wisest of religious writers is "gullible" and never worth reading. (I had mentioned Martin Buber, a Jewish existentialist writer who wrote in reaction to Nietzsche.) 

I understand that nobody has time to read everything, but I think that refusing to listen to people like that is a mistake. 

Also the video in the OP tells us something about TED talks. If an anthropologist had gone to Africa, met a group of Christians, and been persuaded by their questions to convert to their religion, he would not have been offered a talk. Though a scientist's conversion the other way might be just as interesting and more challenging to established opinion on this forum. (Depending on the guy who converted.)