40% of the noise is the churches, asserting themselves.
40% of the noise is the atheists, banging on about how the churches are wrong, and isn't it awful how they enjoy such a privileged position is society.
10% of the noise is idiots like me, going "why can't you just shut up? You're all wrong, and it's doing my head in. Let me tell you why you're both wrong..."

But I stand by the points made about atheists acting as if atheism is a religion, as it's a position I've come to of my own volition, not prompted by the evangelicals.

It's all the pagans fault, anyway.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Mon 9 Jan 2012, 9:58, 1 reply)

Banging on about the position of religion in society is secularism.
It originated with non-conformist christians rather than atheists.

There are ... what ... four notable mouthy atheists in the media and one of them recently died. Of the surviving three, Dawkins is the one who upsets people the most and he has written _one_ book about religion which was prompted primarily by a virulent reaction that included death threats to a perfectly inoccuous pop science book he wrote about evolution in the 1970s.

You might have reached your position independently, but it is still bollocks.
( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Mon 9 Jan 2012, 10:10, closed)

I can't really argue against your assertion that secularism has it's roots in Christian thought,
as it's not something I've ever looked into (it is counter intuitive, though).
My experience of secularism comes from organisations like the National Secular Society, which sounds like a good idea in principle, but then they bang on about how Thought For The Day is religious propaganda (and I'm sure I've heard something similar attributed to Dawkins), and that forces me to the conclusion that they're a bunch of frothing nutters. I like Thought For The Day.

[Edit: it's taken me far too long to work out that the recently deceased, notable atheist that you were referring to was Christopher Hitchens. I think this probably says it all. Hitchens is categorised in my brain as "essayist" (somewhere near Alistair Cook, probably), whilst Dawkins represents an unpleasant subsection of "atheists". Maybe he just needs to work on his public image?]
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Mon 9 Jan 2012, 10:24, closed)

Hitchens was far more virulent and outspoken an anti-theist than Dawkins.
The NSS are a tiny group of puritanical scots who lack belief so can't share the misery of the wee frees so have to conjure up their own grim persecution complex.

90% of what Dawkins has written is about evolution. He's been elevated to his position as Atheist Antichrist almost entirely by evangelical christians because he calmy tore apart their attempts to re-label creationism as "intelligent design" and sneak it into the pantheon of science.
( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Mon 9 Jan 2012, 16:37, closed)

Like I said, he needs a better public image.
He does himself no favours, y'know.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Mon 9 Jan 2012, 17:30, closed)