Oh come on Cerrone, it's got nothing to do with that. It's the same as moderate theists quite rightly not wanting to be associated with extremists - If the distinction is not somehow made clear then there are going to be even more instances than currently occur where people immediately assume that all theists or atheists have the attributes of the extremists.
That raving angry loon Aussiegobber will inevitably enforce the idea in the minds of some that he is representative of all, or at least a large portion, of Atheists.
Imo rather than referring to ourselves as something else or just not having a term (like Sam Harris suggests) I say we continue to use the word that actually and historically describes the position we hold regarding the existence of God and instead make the definition clearer to those who get it wrong.
In fact i would say that the suggestion that we don't refer to ourselves as Atheists (because we don't call ourselves afairiests) is one of the dumber of the many dumb things Harris has said.
That raving angry loon Aussiegobber will inevitably enforce the idea in the minds of some that he is representative of all, or at least a large portion, of Atheists.
Imo rather than referring to ourselves as something else or just not having a term (like Sam Harris suggests) I say we continue to use the word that actually and historically describes the position we hold regarding the existence of God and instead make the definition clearer to those who get it wrong.
In fact i would say that the suggestion that we don't refer to ourselves as Atheists (because we don't call ourselves afairiests) is one of the dumber of the many dumb things Harris has said.
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