RE: 8 atheist leaders actually worth listening to
July 12, 2015 at 7:01 pm
(This post was last modified: July 12, 2015 at 7:22 pm by Regina.)
I think atheist speakers can be a good thing in popularising secularism and encouraging more people to come forward. It creates a solidarity among atheists and gives us food for thought. Having said that, I don't know if we need "leaders" who organise atheism and dictate what atheists should do, since that's just religion without a God.
If we're done playing semantics and are adding to the list of "atheists worth listening to", I'd add Maryam Namazie to that initial list. She doesn't say all that much about atheism in itself, but she's amazing in taking down the pro-Islamist left and for her commentary on Islamism. She's great for some arguments for when people cry "Islamophobia" and I guess she's good listening for ex-Muslims.
I don't think there's anything wrong with Dawkins, Harris or Hitchens, there's a place for them in the discussion. I do think it's good to get more variety though, especially when talking about Islam, get some ex-Muslims and/or Muslim secularists talking about it, they have the inside experience, it's raw and honest with them.
If we're done playing semantics and are adding to the list of "atheists worth listening to", I'd add Maryam Namazie to that initial list. She doesn't say all that much about atheism in itself, but she's amazing in taking down the pro-Islamist left and for her commentary on Islamism. She's great for some arguments for when people cry "Islamophobia" and I guess she's good listening for ex-Muslims.
I don't think there's anything wrong with Dawkins, Harris or Hitchens, there's a place for them in the discussion. I do think it's good to get more variety though, especially when talking about Islam, get some ex-Muslims and/or Muslim secularists talking about it, they have the inside experience, it's raw and honest with them.
"Adulthood is like looking both ways before you cross the road, and then getting hit by an airplane" - sarcasm_only
"Ironically like the nativist far-Right, which despises multiculturalism, but benefits from its ideas of difference to scapegoat the other and to promote its own white identity politics; these postmodernists, leftists, feminists and liberals also use multiculturalism, to side with the oppressor, by demanding respect and tolerance for oppression characterised as 'difference', no matter how intolerable." - Maryam Namazie
"Ironically like the nativist far-Right, which despises multiculturalism, but benefits from its ideas of difference to scapegoat the other and to promote its own white identity politics; these postmodernists, leftists, feminists and liberals also use multiculturalism, to side with the oppressor, by demanding respect and tolerance for oppression characterised as 'difference', no matter how intolerable." - Maryam Namazie
