Herein we will consider issued raised by John Loftus and American Atheists’ very own Georgia State Director, Al Stefanelli.
Stefanelli calls atheists to action in his article Taking The Gloves Off… which is subtitled, “When Diplomacy Fails, It’s Time To Fight Using The Law.” Very well stated as he knows that which many politicians know: when your views are so very, very unpopular that they utterly lack support, have judges force your views upon others.
So as to fairly contextualize American Atheists’ promulgations, as voiced by Al Stefanelli, let us note that he calls for, “the eradication of the doctrines that are espoused by the fundamentalists and radical extremists” and not for eradication of “living people.” This is a relief as it is a step away from Sam Harris who prescribed capital punishment for thought crimes, “some propositions are so dangerous that it may even be ethical to kill people for believing them” (The End of Faith, pp. 52-53).
Now, to which “fundamentalists and radical extremists” is he referring? To “fundamentalist Christian and radical Islamic doctrines,” but what are these doctrines? They are “beliefs and doctrines that serve only to promote hatred, bigotry and discrimination.”
With these qualifiers in place, who could disagree with his condemnation? Let us grant that no one in their right mind. However, just as in the previous segment it was asked:
…John Loftus appears to be condemning militancy…upon what basis does John Loftus condemn well, anything at all: meaning, upon what basis beyond his personal preferences which are themselves based on plagiarizing Judeo-Christian ethics?
The laws of physics? The laws of the majority de jour? Bio-chemical reactions in our haphazardly evolved gray matter? What?
Likewise, upon what basis does American Atheists’ Al Stefanelli condemn? He actually offers a basis which is that he condemns that which has “been proven detrimental to societies.” Ok, fine, this is just about the only thing that an atheist can claim as a basis, even though it does not answer why that is his standard in the first place.
However, he claims (without any stats) that there are “growing ranks of fundamental Christians and radical Muslims.” But if there are growing ranks then, obviously, that which he condemns is evolutionarily beneficial to fundamental Christians and radical Muslims. Their actions are assisting them to survive as the fittest and so they are reproducing—this is Darwinism at its best, their actions are not detrimental to their own societies.
Now, keeping in mind that he claims to be speaking of doctrines and not living people, here are his points:
…Sometimes, though, it [intolerance] becomes quite necessary. Intolerance toward beliefs and doctrines that serve only to promote hatred, bigotry and discrimination should be lauded, as should extremist points of view toward the eradication of these beliefs and doctrines.
In referring to “individuals who abide by fundamentalist Christian and radical Islamic doctrines” he notes:
Most of these people lack the maturity and intelligence to act in a socially acceptable manner. Many of them are sociopaths and quite a good number of them are psychopaths. All of them are clearly delusional.
Again, no stats but, why not, let us grant this. The issue is that he seems to be speaking in terms of well-within-the-box-atheist-groupthink-talking points-de jour. In other words, he offers up utterly meaningless statements without any statistical backing, without citations, in order to say things that are the sort which everyone knows to be true and so there is no reason to back up assertions with bothersome facts.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A plea: I have to pay for server usage and have made all content on this website free and always will. I support my family on one income and do research, writing, videos, etc. as a hobby. If you can even spare $1.00 as a donation, please do so: it may not seem like much but if each person reading this would do so, even every now and then, it would add up and really, really help. Here is my donate/paypal page.
Due to robo-spaming, I had to close the comment sections. However, you can comment on my Facebook page and/or on my Google+ page. You can also use the “Share / Save” button below this post.