Pat Condell and anti-theism

[Night]

For those unacquainted, Pat Condell is a YouTube personality who has gained recognition for his strident, anti-theist videos. In them, he frequently makes thorny claims against religion and religious influence, both in contemporary and historical culture.

For many, his language and technique have become controversial - those who support frequently offer his stance as refreshing and direct; naked of political correctness and liberal guilt without alienating an audience otherwise overly concerned with both. His opponents point to his bombastic, black-and-white stance as destructive and detrimental to the shared cause of establishing mutual ground between predominant, competing ideologies in our world today.

What do you think?

 

[Phoenix]

Literalists who don't let their religions evolve don't deserve to be respected imo. The one thing that separates this issue from being saved by political correctness is ultimately that religion and being religious really is a choice unlike things like race, gender and sexuality. I don't know about Pat Condell but I've seen a lot of videos by Potholer54 (the crocoduck awards), Thunderfoot, Thinkingatheist, and even though for them they are merely speaking out reason - sometimes that alone is enough to offend another person.

How can anyone determine what would be offencive to someone else because it's entirely subjective. Say if a group of people came out and started saying that "Travelling by buses is against the will of our god!" and then started disrupting society in order to keep people from travelling in buses --- should everyone stop taking buses as a show of respect to that random religion? Then what about all faiths that are sensitive to something or the other? Should they hold back their words at an obvious act of disruption of their way of life?

I'm reminded of Scientologist Tommy Davis storming off of that ABC interview because he was merely asked about Xenu and he found that offensive. To a lot of us non-believers, things that religious people find offensive are a little hard to understand and accept because they are taught and indoctrinated at a very young age to feel offended by certain things that are not offensive for non-believers. I can give another example of eating during the month of fasting in Islamic countries. Many Muslims take offence to a person who is not fasting if they happen to eat or drink in front of them and they call it "disrespectful". Ummm .. yah.

I do accept that at times language use itself can create a barrier between two groups having a meaningful dialogue. One side says "you'll be tortured for eternity for not believing in what I believe in" .. the other side says "you're crazy for believing that" ... Both sides are equally offensive to the other, no? How many religious people have stopped to think that their endless proselytizing by itself can be offensive and disrespectful. In their eyes, they're trying to "save" people. But in the non-believers eyes, they are clearly delusional. Hard to find a level of mutual respect there.

 

[KDude]

I don't think there's any point in taking strident positions unless you're also willing to kill. If you can't do that, then obviously, you have to be civil and/or learn to live with the differences.

If there is some other point, then I'd like to know.

 

[Nicodemus]

Three perspectives:

1. Is he allowed to say what he says? Of course. What a silly question.
2. Does his style serve his ends? Yes, but perhaps not as well as a less vitriolic language would. On the other hand, he may not have become known without it, serving no end.
3. Does he play an important role in defeating religion? No. It will not die in a fight, and he certainly does not want to be a diplomat. He may educate, but those who would benefit from education are unlikely to endure his message.

 

[lowtech redneck]

As an agnostic, I find anti-theists who gratuitously go about trying to offend innocuous religious sensibilities (unless they are simply bitching about religion, as opposed to religious people, with their friends) to be dicks.

 

[sleuthiness]

Pat Condell needs to readjust his side-view mirrors then be ejected into the sun.