Re: The conflict between Agnostics and Atheists in a knowledge economy

[Yoshie Furuhashi <critical.montages@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 3/9/07, Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> For someone like me, an atheist by birthright
> rather than merit, atheism is simply the framework within which any
> question can be asked.

Unfortunately, for a lot of people in the USA (and many other parts of
the world), atheism is an "achievement" rather than birthright,
sometimes it's a costly achievement that involves an emotional break
with their families, communities, etc.  When it is a costly
achievement, there is an incentive to think of it as a personal merit
and, perhaps going a step further, to become a kind of evangelical
atheist like Ayaan Hirsi Ali.  I'd rather see more leftists follow the
path of the late Stephen Jay Gould, who wore his secular worldview
with a sense of humor, rather than that of evangelical atheists on a
jihad for secularism.
--
Yoshie
<http://montages.blogspot.com/>
<http://mrzine.org>
<http://monthlyreview.org/>