We've had this discussion at least once before, and probably more than that, so I'm not sure what the point is in going over it again. But I'll summarize:
Eh.. probably.
1. Most atheists don't publish books or make speeches. They just want to be left alone.
True, most don't. If they don't want to be bothered, they can simply keep flipping the channel, refuse to come to the door and/or dismiss those trying to speak with them. We can't stop people from exercising their rights to speak about what they believe no matter how much we "want to be left alone".
FWIW, non-believers have every right, and I support it, to criticize people like myself as well. I don't think they should stop, nor would I advocate such a thing.
You came out of your way to post a smart remark in this thread, so who's engaging who?
There are no victims, here.
2. Whether something exists or not has nothing to do with whether or not people talk about it. Millions of people talk about Star Trek and Harry Potter and Greek mythology and Romeo and Juliet and John Galt and a thousand other things that never existed. It's simply a non-issue.
Not talking about it isn't what I am saying -- its the "trying to disprove" it part. No one that I know of is trying to disprove Star Trek and Harry Potter, nor Greek mythology, etc, but you have folks trying to disprove what they call a "negative".
3. People who don't believe in mythology are forced to deal with it anyway because it is shoved in our faces constantly. Every winter, it's two months of Christmas this and Christmas that; a pope dies and it's at the top of every news broadcast for weeks; preachers and similar are all over the media; and even politicans fall over each other to have their gods "bless America". It's even written on our money now.
Now this we can agree on to some extent. I, personally, don't care for nor celebrate Christmas for a number of reasons, nor do I think any religious figure should be anywhere near political office, IMO. So in this instance they ARE forcing their beliefs on others.
But the fact is, many Atheists help their cause by celebrating Christmas for
traditional reasons and this, IMO, contributes. If you don't like what a store is selling, don't buy it... don't watch it. It's highly ironic how folks complain about this while doing massive Christmas shopping and watching these media coverages of said pope news.
People don't write books like "Why Unicorns aren't great" because we don't have a society where a huge chunk of the population believes in unicorns and thinks everyone else should too. We talk about your god because you guys won't stop talking about it, and we can't avoid it.
I think my point is that it won't really change a thing. One thing I know about Christians is that they traditionally stand up and get louder when they feel "persecuted".. so to speak. So writing books and ridiculing their God and beliefs wouldn't improve anything -- they'll just think they have to fight this sort of persecution and move their religion underground if need be. History has show us that frontal attacks are ineffective.
Ask yourself - how has religious attacks on non-believers worked on you? From what I can tell, they haven't done much to change you -- I think it only made you stronger, Charles.
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