Continuing with the theme...

... of atheism vs. Christianity, here is Tom Krattenmaker, who "specializes in religion in public life", writing in USA Today:

Critical thinking might be to secularism what faith is to devout religious believers. Thinking rationally, questioning assumptions, embracing complexity and eschewing the black-and-white — these habits of mind are, to the champions of non-belief, a keystone of the secular worldview and a crucial part of what separates them from religious people.

So why, when it comes to matters of religion, do secularists so frequently leave their critical thinking at the door?

As the atheist writer and religion scholar Jacques Berlinerblau recently put it, "Can an atheist or agnostic commentator discuss any aspect of religion for more than 30 seconds without referring to religious people as imbeciles, extremists, mental deficients, fascists, enemies of the common good ... conjure men (or) irrationalists?"

I'm sure they can, but they probably won't be a best-selling author or sought after speaker. And here is some confirmation for that perspective:

It is unfair and just plain wrong to equate secularism with immorality or insufficient patriotism. Nevertheless, secularists would do well to listen to Berlinerblau, one of the few atheist voices calling for secular engagement with religious believers and more rigorous understanding of their religions.

Berlinerblau, a Georgetown University professor and author of The Secular Bible: Why Non-believers Must Take Religion Seriously, says he has made little headway in persuading his fellow atheists to try understanding religion in its full complexity and to make alliances with moderate religious believers around issues of mutual concern. Apparently, it's more satisfying and commercially advantageous to preach to the converted and launch one-sided diatribes against religion.

Yep. The most, uh, thoughtful quote appears in the comments section:

My personal opinion is that it is as irrational to believe there is no god as to believe there is. Nevertheless, those who believe in god generally pose a greater threat to others than those who don't.

So...it's irrational to believe in a god and irrational to not believe in a god. That's a rather a-rational way to think of it. Hey, wasn't someone just saying something about critical thinking?

Comments

[AKFox]

What really strikes me is the common assertion that Christians are to be feared while nothing but sweetness and light comes from atheists. I guess they forgot to tell that to the atheistic regimes of China, the USSR, Nazi Germany and sundry other leftist utopias.

[AKFox]

What really strikes me is the common assertion that Christians are to be feared while nothing but sweetness and light comes from atheists. I guess they forgot to tell that to the atheistic regimes of China, the USSR, Nazi Germany and sundry other leftist utopias.

[LJ]

Agreed AKFox.

"Nevertheless, those who believe in god generally pose a greater threat to others than those who don't."

There's the big lie, and what's so vicious about the lie is that most of us lived through at least part of the bloodiest century in history, bar none, and we know for a fact that it is a lie.

To quote Colonel Kurtz, "They lie and we must be merciful..."