Thursday 17 December 2009

Request for views.

I'd like input before writing an extended blog post, provisionally called "The (New?) Atheist movement, a personal perspective"


I'm not sure (as with most of these rants) why I'm writing this. I'm sure many of you know or can predict what I'm going to say, and the rest doubtless dont care. I'm possibly writing this to myself, but if I am I would sure love to know what you guys reading this think. Because issues around religion are a staggeringly large part of world politics, and if my thinking on this is cock-eyed then I'm on the wrong side of a debate that has the capacity to be one of the defining arguments of this era... and that would suck. So more than normal I'm going to ask for responses to this.

Plan: I never plan essays but here's a rough idea for what I'm doing here, I'm going to try and analyse the atheist movement from the perspective of someone who hangs around the edges of the movement, occasionally explaining what I think to the 3 people who want to listen, but who none the less tries to keep up to date with big political movers and shakers. I'm going to try and focus on what I see as the misunderstandings of it that a lot of people in the mainstream media have, and to try and reflect the diversity of opinion within it. Part of this will be influenced by my own views inevitably, but I'll try and make it clear when I'm talking as an individual with opinions and when as an analyst of current affairs observing what people say.

So before I get too far into writing this a few questions for you guys:

  • Is anyone interested in this? If not I'll just write it to myself, those I've tagged please feel free to de-tag yourself if this doesn't look like it's your cup of tea.
  • Do any of you have any opinions about how atheism or atheists act in public? Do you find that atheism seems to come with a particular sort of attitude? Or that things done in the name of atheism invoke outrage/joy within you?
  • What about the way atheism is portrayed in the media or on the internet? Is too much or too little time given to such issues? Too much attention on a small group of people? Is the coverage too supportive, too confrontational?
  • What about atheism as a political movement? Do you see it as such? If not how would you define it? What do you see as a the goals of this movement? Do you think these goals or good? Or do you think that the idea of such a movement isn't sensible?
  • Any other thoughts? Should I not be doing this? Do I as a person fall into anything above? Do I talk about this too much? If so should I shut up or is there something I should be talking about instead?
Being tagged in this doesn't mean I would be offended if you dont care/want to talk about this. I've simply tagged people who are active on facebook who seem interested in politics etc and might possibly be interested. I would of course love opinions from people of all religions and non, but if you dont want to talk about this for whatever reason please feel free to untag yourself so I know not to bother you with this stuff again.

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