But you see, Gould was never uncivil when he discussed religion. Nor is Dawkins, at least never that I have seen. He is pointed, and can sometimes use overblown rhetoric but he is not the uncivil monster that he is often portrayed to be. He was even quite gracious to the people he interviewed in “Root of All Evil.” They were threatened by his viewpoint, and that is why they call him “nasty.”

Yes, I’ve called out many extreme religious people. In fact I’ve had my facebook account shut down three times … the first because of death threats *I* was getting, the second because my account was being bombarded constantly with christian hatemail and the third time because a bunch of muslims kept putting in “reports” about me.

i’ve never said its okay for religious leaders to be militant. I can probably dig up at least 10 posts I’ve written in my past about how much I despise Ron Luce and the way he has framed Acquire the Fire as “march for god” and “join the army” and actively encouraging militant sentiments in young adults who are confused about their life… and then Ron invokes emotions in them and tells them to be militant, so they do. It’s my main criticism about christianity, and my main criticism about atheism.

people seriously need to get it through their heads that simply because someone omitted a group of people or neglected to mention it because it had very little to do with what they were writing doesn’t mean they have no opinion on it – and really people shouldn’t make their opinions up for them…. or insinuate what the writer’s opinion might be without actually asking them just because they’re pissed off.

I really don’t understand what “insecurities” i’m projecting onto other people. I’m an atheist, and I’ve stood beside that to the point where I’ve lost multitudes of friends, 2 jobs, 3 facebook accounts, 1/2 of my family’s support and love and still deal every single day with the disgusting internalized guilt that was been conditioned inside of me from being a christian. So I hate religion and its forceful, socially detrimental and child abuse ways just as much as any other atheist out there, if not more. I’m just not going to tell my mother that she is irrational, stupid, or condescendingly tell her there are no “fairies” in her garden, and I certainly won’t tell her “religion … teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world.” simply because I don’t understand the meaning and understanding that she has found in the world.

Have I taken a stand when government favors religion?… yes? I work for CFI and every single day I write a press release against religion in the government, or a call to stop the oppression of free speech etc.

I am happy for you that you feel comfortable with Nica Lali, and indeed she does sound like a nice person and that she would be a good person to know. But your post was quite contradictory to your call to stop using “lables.” The term “poster boy atheist” is itself a nasty label.

I am sure that if the liberals and the democrats weren’t so outspoken then the conservatives would come round to our way of thinking. If we were only nice about calling for an end to the war in Iraq, then yes, I am sure that they would finally see reason and bring the soldiers and sailors home.

It’s great to get along with people. I get along quite well with many religious people, but they know my stand on their religious beliefs. While Dawkins’ personal life may not get much press, I am sure he gets along quite well with many people. With this sort of rear guard attacks on the people who are sticking their necks out are weakened.

Have you called for those who have sent death threats to PZ Myers to stop it? Have you called for those who criticize atheism to be nicer? Have you taken a stand when government favors religion? Religion always seems to get a free pass in society, even in Britain where they are allowing Shari’ah courts.

Should atheists not respond? Should we just sit back and watch, just so we can get along?

If you’re uncomfortable being an out atheist, fine. You don’t have to tell anyone in our society. Most people just don’t care. There are more important things to talk about, especially with a new season of American Idol only a few months away. And perhaps you’re fine with the major political parties putting on the mantle of God just so they can gather more votes. Perhaps you’re okay that the Democratic Party (yes, I know you aren’t American,) made the recent convention a religious event and purposely excluded secular members from many events (unless they were willing to shut up about their atheism.)

It’s probably a lot easier to be an atheist in Canada than it is in the United States or even Britain, where the Anglican Church has so much influence over the Universities and the schools, and where they are afraid to stand up to Muslim clerics. So, fine, be a comfortable atheist, but stop projecting your insecurities onto other people.

It’s quite all right for religious leaders to be militant, isn’t it? But, if an atheist is to point out their folly, then by gosh, he is a nasty poster boy.

Someone has to take the hits, but not from behind.

I wish I could defend Dawkins; as a scientist he’s done so much, and totally in the spirit of science: without arrogance, with an open mind, but ever since this latest book of his, it seems that his publishers have forced him to become something else. In the early days of his book release, he was still modest, he would often state he does not think religion is bad etc, but now he seems to be purely delving in the the militancy. As for Gould, he’s always been noisy.

But Nica’s talk was soo cool! She spoke in such an articulate and flowing manner.