Respect is not a thing that only shows up among believers or non-believer. There are believers who are very disrespectful and rude and they should be condemned as well. And, both groups have people who pride themselves on being respectful.
[div class="excerpt" style="margin-left:1em; border:1px solid #bfbfbf; border-radius:0.4615em; box-shadow:3px 3px 3px #999999;"]My intention is to help my new friend get past his rankling prejudice, and I hope against hope that this may inspire other intolerant atheists to do likewise.
Why just atheists? Why not everyone? There are disrespectful people from every group. I greatly support being polite and civil but unfairly focusing on one group is not the way to do so and it only furthers a stereotype against us.
I get wanting to separate oneself from those of one's own group expressing views we disagree with, but if you want to be taken seriously you need an even handed approach. The way in which the author goes about it not only furthers a specific stereotypes against us, but reinforces them in that the people who want to promote such bigotry against us will now go "Look they even admit it is a problem among atheists themselves."
Imagine someone from any other minority generalizing their own group and criticizing them over a stereotype. This is the same thing.
I would rather the author had talked about respect in a universal way and held up himself and his friend as examples rather than chide all of us when many of us strive to be polite and respectful.
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