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Originally Posted by sundowning
Certainly there are cases where this is true, but not in all. Generalizing one way doesn't validate a generalization opposite.
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Fair point. However, I didn't at any point say "this is true in all cases". I said "many cases". I also remain unconvinced at just how much wicked behaviour would be stripped away without the convenient veil of religion to hide behind - but this is generally because I have a poor opinion of the human race, and I'm pretty convinced that people would find another set of excuses in one way or another
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Originally Posted by HilbertSpace
The less extreme you think the situation currently is, the more over the top you will find his behavior.
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Not so, not so at all. I'm a devout (excuse the phrase) atheist and have deep-seated objections to religion - I also see the current situation as ridiculously extreme, and nothing depresses me more than listening to some 'believer' attempt to justify their irrational hatred of another human being or explain why it's their job to strike the fear of god into a child. I'm just struggling to see how this documentary really helped to advance any cause - for people sitting on the fence I think that a lot of it would come across as preaching, and I don't personally see that as a healthy response to the growing influence of religious ideas. When people are caught between two sides shouting at each other they have a tendency to switch off (or, more worryingly, just side with the side shouting loudest).
To be honest it's pretty irrelevant to me if Richard impresses atheists, since we're not the group he should be (or is, if you read the preface to The God Delusion) concerning himself with.