Atheism and intolerance

Richard Dawkins told Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, “you shriek like Hitler… You shriek and yell and rant like Hitler…you periodically rise to climaxes of shrieking rant, and that is just like Hitler.”

Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines the word intolerance as:

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1: not willing to allow or accept something 2: not willing to allow some people to have equality, freedom, or other social rights”

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Merriam-Webster also provides “Word Origin and History for intolerance” as: “‘unwillingness to endure a differing opinion,’ 1765, from Latin intolerantia ‘impatience, unendurableness, insufferableness, insolence,’ from intolerantem (see intolerant). Especially of religious matters through mid-19c. Now-obsolete intolerancy was used in same sense from 1620s.” As a synonyms for intolerance, the term, “dogmatism” is included.

Oxford Dictionaries offers concerning the word intolerance:: “1 Unwillingness to accept views, beliefs, or behaviour that differ from one’s own: ‘a struggle against religious intolerance’ ‘an intolerance of dissent’”

The dictionary reference website Dictionary.com defines “intolerance” as

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“1. lack of tolerance; unwillingness or refusal to tolerate or respect opinions or beliefs contrary to one's own. 2. unwillingness or refusal to tolerate or respect persons of a different social group, especially members of a minority group.” Other definitions are relevant to the medical field, etc.: “3. incapacity or indisposition to bear or endure: ‘intolerance to heat.’ 4. abnormal sensitivity or allergy to a food, drug, etc.” 5. an intolerant act”

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Also, Collins English Dictionary offers: “1. lacking respect for practices and beliefs other than one's own.”

The Free Dictionary includes the following definitions: “Not tolerant, especially: a. Unwilling to tolerate differences in opinions, practices, or beliefs, especially religious beliefs.”

Atheism, as defined by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and other philosophy reference works, is the denial of the existence of God. This means that, by definition, atheism not only is intolerant, but must be intolerant. See also: Definition of atheism and Definitions of atheist and agnostic and Attempts to dilute the definition of atheism

Atheism and intolerance as a virtue

From this founding principle, the principle of intolerance as a virtue, atheists — from celebrity atheists to anonymous atheist websites and blog commentators — have turned expressing intolerance into a cottage industry that in pop-culture, politics and the internet.

The late ex-atheist C.S. Lewis wrote: “If you are a Christian you do not have to believe that all the other religions are simply wrong all through. If you are an atheist you have to believe that the main point in all the religions of the whole world is simply one huge mistake. If you are a Christian, you are free to think that all these religions, even the queerest ones, contain at least some hint of the truth. When I was an atheist I had to try to persuade myself that most of the human race have always been wrong about the question that mattered to them most; when I became a Christian I was able to take a more liberal view.”

Examples of intolerance from Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins

The New Atheist Richard Dawkins has stated that “we are cousins of chimpanzees, somewhat more distant cousins of monkeys, more distant cousins still of aardvarks and manatees, yet more distant cousins of bananas and turnips.” He states that scientists who “deny” this view of “evolution” are irreputable for doing so. He points out that, “The evidence for evolution is at least as strong as the evidence for the Holocaust, even allowing for eye witnesses to the Holocaust. It is the plain truth” and correlates holocaust deniers with evolution deniers and stated, “More than 40 per cent of Americans deny that humans evolved from other animals [and from bananas and turnips]…I shall be using the name ‘historydeniers’ for those people who deny evolution…I shall from time to time refer to the history-deniers as the ‘40percenters.’”

Richard Dawkins told Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, “you shriek like Hitler…You shriek and yell and rant like Hitler…you periodically rise to climaxes of shrieking rant, and that is just like Hitler.”

Dawkins refers to evolutionists who, he claims, are creationist appeasers, “the Neville Chamberlain school of evolutionists.” Chamberlain (1869-1940) was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from May 27, 1937 to May 10, 1940 and is infamous for declaring “peace in our time” after signing the Munich Pact with Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany which resulted in Hitler taking Czechoslovakia and invading Poland.

As for Hitler himself, Dawkins said, “What's to prevent us from saying Hitler wasn't right? I mean, that is a genuinely difficult question.”

Regarding parental rights, Richard Dawkins states: “How much do we regard children as being the property of their parents? It's one thing to say people should be free to believe whatever they like, but should they be free to impose their beliefs on their children? Is there something to be said for society stepping in? What about bringing up children to believe manifest falsehoods?”

He also said, “Catholic child? Flinch. Protestant child? Squirm. Muslim child? Shudder. Everybody's consciousness should be raised to this level…I could well imagine that this linguistically coded freedom to choose might lead children to choose no religion at all.”

Larry Taunton “What is the objective of your anti-religious campaign?” in his article, he wrote Dawkins’ reply like this, “‘I think my ultimate goal would be to convert people away from particular religions toward a rationalist skepticism, tinged with … no, that’s too weak,’ he said, correcting himself, ‘… glorying in the universe and in life. Yes, I would like people to be converted away from religion to skepticism.’” [ellipses in original]

Examples of intolerance from Sam Harris

Sam Harris

Sam Harris said “If I could wave a magic wand and get rid of either rape or religion, Harris explains, I would not hesitate to get rid of religion.”[13]

Harris actually blames the Jews for the holocaust: “The gravity of Jewish suffering over the ages, culminating in the Holocaust, makes it almost impossible to entertain any suggestion that Jews might have brought their troubles upon themselves. This is, however, in a rather narrow sense, the truth.”

Sam Harris agrees with Dawkins’ views on parental rights, “When we find reliable ways to make human beings more loving, less fearful, and genuinely enraptured by the fact of our appearance in the cosmos, we will have no need for divisive religious myths. Only then will the practice of raising our children to believe that they are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or Hindu be broadly recognized as the ludicrous obscenity that it is.”[15]

“making religious certitude look stupid will be exploited, and we'll start laughing at people who believe…We'll laugh at them in a way that will be synonymous with excluding them from our halls of power.”[16]

“Some propositions are so dangerous that it may even be ethical to kill people for believing them.”[17]

Miscellaneous examples of atheists and intolerance

American Atheists and intolerance

The American Atheists published on their website, “Atheists are NOT ‘secular humanists’, ‘freethinkers’, ‘rationalists’ or ‘ethical culturalists’…Often, people who are Atheists find it useful to masquerade behind such labels.”[18]

Evilbible.com and intolerance

Evilbible.com’s editor and website designer, Chris “Ali Baba” Thiefe, wrote: “The lack of public acceptance for a ‘lack of belief’ definition of ‘atheism"’is reflected in the fact that no reputable dictionary has a ‘lack of belief’ definition for either ‘atheism’ or ‘atheist’. However, this has not kept a few morons from incorrectly claiming that various dictionary definitions have a ‘lack of belief’ definition…I have posted some of the arguments these people have used, and I explained why why [sic] they are so damn stupid.”[19]

Other quotes from Evilbible.com: “The Holocaust was like a modern inquisition, killing all who did not accept Jesus”…[Hitler did not wage] “war due to being an Aryan supremacist”…“Nazism presents an embarrassment to Christianity and demonstrates the danger of their faith”…“Hitler wanted to form a society in which ALL people worshiped Jesus and considered any questioning of such to be heresy”…“Christianity has thus far been incapable of producing an unbiased, educated follower which speaks the truth”…[Hitler sought to] “exterminate the Jews for their sin against Christ”…“Hitler is admitting that his war against the Jews were so successful because of his strong Christian Spirituality”…“History is currently being distorted by the millions of Christians who lie to have us believe that the Holocaust was not a Christian deed”…“Through subterfuge and concealment, many of today’s Church leaders and faithful Christians have camouflaged the Christianity of Adolf Hitler.”[20]

Charlotte, whose articles are quoted by the Evilbible website: “This, from experience, is the best way to shoot down these idiots and bar them from getting away with their hypocrisy.”[21]

Other examples relating to atheism and intolerance

Dan Barker

Agnostic Gary Wolf related:

“At dinner parties or over drinks, I ask people to declare themselves. ‘Who here is an atheist?’ I ask. Usually, the first response is silence, accompanied by glances all around in the hope that somebody else will speak first. Then, after a moment, somebody does, almost always a man, almost always with a defiant smile and a tone of enthusiasm. He says happily, ‘I am!’ But it is the next comment that is telling. Somebody turns to him and says: ‘You would be.’ ‘Why?’ ‘Because you enjoy pissing people off.’ ‘Well, that's true.’ This type of conversation takes place not in central Ohio, where I was born, or in Utah, where I was a teenager, but on the West Coast, among technical and scientific people, possibly the social group that is least likely among all Americans to be religious.”[22]

Dan Barker said that Jesus was, “a moral monster.”[23]

Bill Maher said this on his cable TV show commenting on purity balls, where dad take their beloved daughters for a dance: “[It] is like a prom for a dad and his daughter, where dad gets in a tuxedo and the daughter gets in a gown, and they go to this ball, and he puts a ring on her finger and feeds her wedding cake, and she pledges to stay a virgin until she gets married. And then dad has sex with her in the car. [laughter] [applause]…[referring to t-shirt that he had made up] I'm not going to lie; these are the bull[expletive removed] ones we made up that are even funnier. [laughter] ‘World's Greatest [expletive removed] tease!’ [laughter] [applause]…‘I'm With Horny!’ [laughter] Oh, I love this one. [laughter]…‘My Father Went to Third Base and All I Got was this Lousy T-Shirt.’ [laughter] [applause] And my favorite.[laughter] [he holds up t-shirt which reads, ‘My (picture of ‘pussy’ cat) Belongs to Daddy.’ [laughter] [groans] [applause]…If you're slipping a ring on your daughter's finger and eating wedding cake, trust me, you're plotting to [expletive removed] the babysitter. [laughter].”

Christopher Hitchens

Daniel Dennett said, “We're just the beginning of a new wave of explicit attempts to shake peoples' faith.”

Christopher Hitchens said, “I didn't expect, when I started off on my book tour, to be as lucky as I was and I, Jerry Falwell died my first week on the road, that was amazing.” Sam Harris was very pleased with this statement and responded, “Yes, that was amazing luck!”

Christopher Hitchens about whether “all faith claims are in some sense equivalent”, “they're all equally rotten, false, dishonest, corrupt, humourless and dangerous.”

An atheist who goes by the pseudonym “Neo” explained his choice of pseudonym this way, “Neo saved humanity from the Matrix [referring the Matrix movie franchise]. I hope to do no less (I like to dream big).”

Some comments made to the ExChristian.Net site: “my passion” is “seeking to abolish legendary thinking from the face of the earth”…“ridicule works just fine for Me, thanks”…“You still cling to your sky-daddy, as a child clings to it's [sic] teddy bear”…“Holy mackerel!....all sorts of stupid, that Christian philosophy is!”

See also

• Militant atheism

• Atheism and the suppression of science

• Suppression of alternatives to evolution

• List of atheist and agnostic pseudosciences

External links

• Intolerance of New Atheists

• Atheists Express Their Intolerance and Hatred of Anything Christian

References

[13] Jörg Blech, “*THE NEW ATHEISTS - Researchers Crusade against American Fundamentalists,” Spiegel, October 26, 2006 [15] Sam Harris, “*Science Must Destroy Religion,” Huffington Post, May 25, 2011 [16] Blair Golson, “*Sam Harris: The Truthdig Interview,” Truth Dig, April 3, 2006 [17] Harris, pp. 52-53 [18] THE WEBMASTER, “Atheism - What It Is, and What It Isn't,” American Atheists [19] Chris “Ali Baba” Thiefe, “*Definition of Atheism - Evil Bible,” Evil Bible [20] Quoted within the series, “*Adolf Hitler Was a Christian! Was Adolf Hitler a Christian?, part 1,” TrueFreethinker [21] Charlotte, “The Church of Theists Suck” [22] Wolf [23] Dan Barker, Losing Faith In Faith-From Preacher to Atheist (Madison, WI: Freedom from Religion Foundation, 1992), p. 213