Good will to all men? Not from the grumpy atheists! (Thank God not all atheists are grumpy but there sure seems to be a lot of them)
Why is it that so many in the atheist community cannot bring themselves to get past their anger whenever they engage in discussions? The language of many of their contributions in public debate is laced with invective and dripping with sarcasm and bile. There are exceptions of course, but they tend to fall more into the category of being the 'exception that proves the rule' when compared to the hostility of many of today's atheist posters. Comment offered by the theists in the public square is often depicted as being 'malicious' or 'venomous' and intended to enslave the 'feeble minded and weak' by those who post. Nothing could be further from the truth. Venom is something that is oriented to death. Christians are oriented in a 180 degree different direction. We speak not to the culture of death that grips our world but rather for the culture of life and light which ends with the gift of eternal life. For example, the Catholic Church in its hum...
Hi Tim,
ReplyDeleteFull disclosure: I am no fan of Michael Coren. Seems he is just pushing his book sales and not advancing civil discourse around the proper role of religion in the public square. Quel surprise!
Some North American Christians like to portray themselves as victims. In their defence, a lot of other groups also like to portray themselves as victims - as there are few other tactics that are as effective in garnering sympathy. Such Christians are merely mimicking an effective tactic.
IMHO, there is nothing wrong with examining the content of Christianity, Islam, Judaism etc..and criticizing it. I would even go farther and state that some theology is so ridiculous that it is entirely worthy of ridicule. To cite such criticism as evidence of persecution is stretching the meaning of "persecution" to the point of being meaningless.
Having said all of that, I also believe that every person deserves to be treated with respect. Consequently, I would never criticize or ridicule a neighbour, a friend or a colleague for their religious beliefs. The content of their beliefs may be silly to me, but I still think individuals deserve to be treated with respect. Mr. Coren appears to adopt the same stance when he speaks of not denegrating his "gay" friends by hurling Catholic catechism at them.
By all means - attack ideas...but do not attack people.
I will stand to toe to toe with Mr. Coren (or anyone else) and happily explain why Catholic catechism on homosexuality (and many other issues) is without a foundation in reality.
One place where Mr. Coren and I do part company, is that I do not agree with his assertion that those who criticize Christianity often do cartwheels to rationalize Islamic terrorism. To my mind, he is just playing a game of poor us .... we Christians are the biggest victims. I criticize both (and all other religious ideas and spiritual modalities). Coren offers nothing in support of his assertion, and when it comes to atheists in general - you will find that they lavish no special exemptions upon Islam. I refer you to Sam Harris if you want a scathing critique of Islamic terrorism.
Cheers...Martin