How to Be an Atheist Without Being a Dick About It

[MrModerate]

125. I think the article goes too far . . .

In turning the other cheek to the retail misbehavior of religionists (by which I mean you don't have to be engaged in wholesale genocide to be oppressive).

But the author's (presumed) practices make a lot of sense to me: in the context of simple human interaction, where the stakes of life and death are not on the table, I follow the Brass Rule: if you can't say something nice, say nothing at all.

However, I have no beef with the Dawkinses and Harrises of the world, because I don't consider them at all dickish when they engage in public debate upholding the proposition that religion is foolish, evil, destructive, etc., etc.

This is because audiences are completely free to ignore them at will. Activist atheists are no threat to the peace and tranquility of believers unless those believers choose to engage the atheists. Dawkins on your TV? Change the channel. Old videos of Hitchens tearing some poor clergyman a new one on YouTube? Search on 'LOLcats' instead. 'Jesus is a Fraud' billboard on your way to work? Drive by.

Nor do I think it out of line in discussion boards (like this) to be absolutely honest: to meet sanctimony with snark, holiness with hyperbole, and faith with fart jokes. People — believers and nonbelievers alike — come to discussion boards specifically to duke it out. Saying it's dickish to do as the Romans do strikes me as small-minded in the extreme.

So, while I have no intention of walking up to your maiden aunt on her way into the church of her choice and shouting 'fool' in her face, if you come here and begin to ladle on the 'inevitability of god seen in the world around us,' well then I'm going to consider you a fool and call you one too.

And yes, my lack of a personal savior and related baggage *does* make me superior to the godsmacked . . . but I'm not going to bring that up at your kid's birthday party (heck, I'll even stand respectfully if you call for a prayer).