The Efficacy of New Atheism

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CommieGIR: Aug 22, 2006; The blue glow is a feature, not a bug; Pillbug

As an athiest: Don't buy anything Hitchens and Dawkins are selling.

The ones who tend to use their religion as a battering ram to call for violence and hatred usually follow their religion the least, or take it to such extremes that chances are they really are not acting in the method their religion prescribes.

We have to find some middle ground between ensuring religion has reasonable restrictions placed upon it (i.e. not allowed to condone or enact violence and violent methods) versus ensuring they have reasonable allowances to practice said religion.

# ¿ Jul 7, 2016 21:27

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 22:40

CommieGIR: Aug 22, 2006; The blue glow is a feature, not a bug; Pillbug

khwarezm posted:

Who are New Atheists and what are they doing.

Kinda like New Pepsi. But with all natural hipster.

# ¿ Jul 7, 2016 22:11

CommieGIR: Aug 22, 2006; The blue glow is a feature, not a bug; Pillbug

TURN IT OFF! posted:

I haven't really been following atheism since "elevator gate", but isn't the new New Atheism, Atheism Plus? Like a direct response to the perceived xenophobia and sexism of New Atheism?

Like in response to Reddit level MRA Athiesm poo poo?

# ¿ Jul 8, 2016 16:52

CommieGIR: Aug 22, 2006; The blue glow is a feature, not a bug; Pillbug

TURN IT OFF! posted:

More like Richard Dawkins, but yes.

Same thing almost, what with Dawkin's actions towards female presenters at conferences:

quote:

Between Dawkins' rushing to the aid of poor beleaguered Sam Harris and propping Christina Hoff Sommers, it started to dawn on everyone that Dawkins might have a cartoonish understanding of feminism. This has lead PZ Myers to write an open letter on FtB to Dawkins[57], where he tried to explain to him what feminism is about and his own journey to understanding it. It fell on deaf ears, as Dawkins instead went on Twitter to rant about "Feedingfrenzy Thoughtpolice Bullies"[58] and "clickbait"[59].
Things backfired on Dawkins after he retweeted a link to a video by noted antifeminist Sargon of Akkad. He later deleted his tweet but the damage was already done, as he was swiftly uninvited from the NECSS 2016 conference by majority vote of the leading panel. Since then, however, the NECSS panel had both publicly and privately apologized to Dawkins for acting unilaterally rather than first expressing their concerns, and he has been re-invited to NECSS to discuss both his prior planned talk, as well as being part of a panel discussion about feminism/diversity and free speech within the skeptical community. Unfortunately, this was just prior to his stroke, and cancellation of this and other talks due to his health.
In early 2016, Dawkins re-tweeted a meme juxtaposing a picture of Matt Taylor's shirt[wp] and a still frame of a fully-veiled Muslim woman about to be executed that, instead of making a point about the lack of Western media reporting on the latter or calling for more humanitarian aid/intervention, ridiculously tried to suggest that feminists don't care about the fate of Muslim women (ironically missing the fact that said still frame featured the logo of an Afghan feminist organization that was spreading awareness about it), while also appearing so unseasoned on feminism as to conflate fringe radical feminists with the broader movement of feminism. This prompted PZ Myers to strongly criticize him � as he did in the "Dear Muslima" situation years ago � and Myers announced he would cancel his plans to attend the Reason Rally, featuring Dawkins (among many others).[60] Material opposing types of feminism is a small part of what Dawkins writes but gets disproportionate attention, which isn't surprising due to how loudly Dawkins promotes them. [61][62] [63][64][65]
Anyway, Dawkins predictably responded by doubling down, in the process even promoting a meme which inadvertently featured Neo-Nazi propaganda embedded in a QR code.[66][67][68] Hemant Mehta thinks Dawkins is ignorant rather than sexist or misogynist,[69] which is quite charitable of him.

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Elevatorgate

Granted, three years later Dawkins apologized for his 'Dear Muslima' letter, but his reaction in the first place was abhorrent.

# ¿ Jul 8, 2016 17:22

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