https://www.dailydot.com/via/richard-dawkins-atheism-bigotry-problem-twitter/
Just a disclaimer in a possibly doomed attempt to keep this thread on topic , if you want to support the Richard Dawkin, et al problem, there should be plenty of other options available ...eg:
http://www.sciforums.com/threads/religious-nonsense.161034/page-11#post-3536083
To get a full overview of the "Richard Dawkins Problem", a reading of the whole article is warranted, but to surmise with an excerpt ....
Prominent secular thinkers like particle physicist Peter Higgs (of the Higgs boson) have also criticized Dawkins for a one-size-fits-all approach to criticizing people of faith, punishing the middle for its extremes. Higgs called Dawkins’ anti-religious furor “embarrassing”: “What Dawkins does too often is to concentrate his attack on fundamentalists. But there are many believers who are just not fundamentalists.” Here, Higgs important recognizes the wide diversity of practitioners in every religion.
In addition to being factually inaccurate, Dawkins’ methods are ideologically dangerous for atheism to be associated with in the current religio-political climate. Anti-Muslim sentiment is spreading across Europe—following the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January and the ongoing Syrian refugee crisis. In recent surveys, 43 percent of French citizens said they see Islam as a threat to France’s national identity, and between 66 and 74 percent of Germans also confess to having “negative attitudes towards Muslims.”
These are countries that are far more secular than the United States, yet they—like Richard Dawkins—seem to echo the worst sentiments of Christian conservatives. In recent weeks, GOP presidential contender Ben Carson has said Islam is not compatible with the U.S. Constitution and that the Founding Fathers would never have supported a Muslim president. He is currently polling second in the race.
Atheists should be wary of turning their disdain for religion into a disdain for the religious, especially at a time when reactionary bigotry is gripping both America and Europe. Dawkins is not wrong to call for a stronger defense of human rights in the Arab world—or anywhere else—but Dawkins, and atheists as a culture, should be aware of the slippery slope of their own fundamentalism. Whether he means to or not, Richard Dawkins is leading the rest of secularism down a hole of xenophobia and cultural bigotry.
IOW, if one can view atheism as an alternative to social dysfunction at the hands of demagoguery, it doesn't seem tactful to persecute a moderate majority for the transgressions of a fundamental minority.
I guess at the heart of the matter, is whether one views the function of atheism as a polemic, a rhetoric dictated by diametrical thought, or a means to an end, one that can choose its allies and enemies according to the problems at hand.
Just a disclaimer in a possibly doomed attempt to keep this thread on topic , if you want to support the Richard Dawkin, et al problem, there should be plenty of other options available ...eg:
http://www.sciforums.com/threads/religious-nonsense.161034/page-11#post-3536083
To get a full overview of the "Richard Dawkins Problem", a reading of the whole article is warranted, but to surmise with an excerpt ....
Prominent secular thinkers like particle physicist Peter Higgs (of the Higgs boson) have also criticized Dawkins for a one-size-fits-all approach to criticizing people of faith, punishing the middle for its extremes. Higgs called Dawkins’ anti-religious furor “embarrassing”: “What Dawkins does too often is to concentrate his attack on fundamentalists. But there are many believers who are just not fundamentalists.” Here, Higgs important recognizes the wide diversity of practitioners in every religion.
In addition to being factually inaccurate, Dawkins’ methods are ideologically dangerous for atheism to be associated with in the current religio-political climate. Anti-Muslim sentiment is spreading across Europe—following the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January and the ongoing Syrian refugee crisis. In recent surveys, 43 percent of French citizens said they see Islam as a threat to France’s national identity, and between 66 and 74 percent of Germans also confess to having “negative attitudes towards Muslims.”
These are countries that are far more secular than the United States, yet they—like Richard Dawkins—seem to echo the worst sentiments of Christian conservatives. In recent weeks, GOP presidential contender Ben Carson has said Islam is not compatible with the U.S. Constitution and that the Founding Fathers would never have supported a Muslim president. He is currently polling second in the race.
Atheists should be wary of turning their disdain for religion into a disdain for the religious, especially at a time when reactionary bigotry is gripping both America and Europe. Dawkins is not wrong to call for a stronger defense of human rights in the Arab world—or anywhere else—but Dawkins, and atheists as a culture, should be aware of the slippery slope of their own fundamentalism. Whether he means to or not, Richard Dawkins is leading the rest of secularism down a hole of xenophobia and cultural bigotry.
IOW, if one can view atheism as an alternative to social dysfunction at the hands of demagoguery, it doesn't seem tactful to persecute a moderate majority for the transgressions of a fundamental minority.
I guess at the heart of the matter, is whether one views the function of atheism as a polemic, a rhetoric dictated by diametrical thought, or a means to an end, one that can choose its allies and enemies according to the problems at hand.