Understand, ye brutish among the people: and ye fools, when will ye be wise?
Psalm 94:8
"A new movement, Atheism+, has prompted non-believers to spit venom at one another rather than at true believers- In the passionate world of American atheism, the venom usually directed at believers has now been turned against the wrong kind of atheists.
The cause of this freethinking furore? A new movement called Atheism+.
A+ was born when Freethought blogger Jen McCreight made a passionate call for a "third wave" of atheism, one that extends atheist activism into progressive politics... The founders of Atheism+ say clearly that "divisiveness" is not their aim, but looking through the blogs and voluminous comments in the two weeks since A+ was mooted, trenches have been dug, beliefs stated, positions staked out and abuse thrown. A dissenting tweeter is "full of XXXX", while, according to one supporter, daring to disagree with Atheism+'s definition of progressive issues and not picking their side makes you an "XXXXXle and a XXXXXXbag".
Fellow Freethought blogger Richard Carrier goes further. When one commentator suggests "atheism does not have the luxury of kicking people out of its movement", Carrier gives him a rare old quilting in most splendid prose:
"Yes, it does. Atheism+ is our movement. We will not consider you a part of it, we will not work with you, we will not befriend you. We will heretofore denounce you as the irrational or immoral scum you are (if such you are). If you reject these values, then you are no longer one of us. And we will now say so, publicly and repeatedly. You are hereby disowned."
Those of us who do not wish to extend our atheism into someone else's definition of progressive politics may take rather unkindly to being described as immoral scum, useful but unsavoury body parts, and outdated contraceptive devices. In the week when American atheism made its appearance in the Economist's editorial pages, it seems to have been sowing the seeds of that most religious of events – a schism." TheGuardian (UK newspaper)
So atheism is splitting into schism over politics--interesting...
