[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Cheese

First off thanks for the reply, apologies that you think the way I depict things is tired and ignorant, I think most atheists think the polar opposite. As you are aware I respect your education in this field, your use of the English language is a gift you should use in the same vein that Dawkins or Dennet do, it would be interesting to hear you in a debate.

It would be an underwhelming performance. Teaching is fun because my audience is a captive bunch of suck ups.

You are correct, you dont speak for all religions, or most I would suspect. Being raised in Canada likely provides a softer hue in that regard due to the fact that atheists are despised pretty much wholeheartedly in large swaths of the USA and certainly overseas (Some regions of Canada I would suspect hold the same distaste). It is such a stigma that to even announce you are an atheist while running for public office is an automatic rejection of the electorate. You can call it whatever you like, but the overriding fact is that religion has played a major role in this rejection in the past, and continues the fight to this very day. Tired and ignorant indeed.

I don't deny that in general, but do you really believe the solution is to propagate stereotypes of religion in your defence? As someone who is really interested in interfaith dialogue I don't see how such responses that attempt to "flatten" the issues are remotely productive.

Of course this is ok among the religious, as their moral ground allows them to condemn, however the moment an atheist stands up and says, wait a minute this is BS, we are the ones that appear to be exacerbating the issue.
Frankly, it is both sad and astonishing that in the 21st century, the populace of the most advanced civilization in history can still hold such backward views.

You opened this point of discussion by introducing results from a Pew study which shows that the vast majority of Americans would be unhappy if a family member married an atheist. You trivialized the results by equating them to much less complex and benign social matters as political persuasion and gun ownership. Then you marshalled that data to suggest that the huge disparity is somehow indicative of a broad based "hatred" of atheism. Religion is an extremely sensitive issue that will certainly evoke strong feelings especially within family relationships, and I would argue that the results of the study you shared are primarily affected by that.

Maybe this verse is better suited to the view of atheists by Christians

Psalms 14:1 The fool has said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that does good.

I had actually considered citing this verse in my last post! On the face of it it sure does appear to be a straightforward divine assertion about atheism. However, I tend to think that the writer—an Iron Age or Archaemenid Jerusalem priest who had likely never travelled more than 80 kms in any direction from his home—never even considered the possibility that gods did not exist. Why would he? Everything in his immediate experience and everyone he had ever met validated his primitive worldview. So, I rather tend to think that Ps 14:1 is not so much a criticism of "atheism" as we know it, but rather a criticism of those who ignored the abundantly obvious intervention of divine forces in the world.