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AndrewHickey comments on Recent de-convert saturated by religious community; advice? - Less Wrong Discussion

30 Post author: jwhendy 04 April 2011 03:25AM

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Comment author: David_Gerard 04 April 2011 07:33:16AM *  8 points [-]

The RationalWiki Atheism FAQ for the Newly Deconverted is for people approximately where you are. It probably won't tell you anything new, but does have it in one place. (Edit: The tl;dr version!)

Dawkins' The God Delusion is damn fine (and I see you've read it). Having actually read the thing, I conclude that its reputation amongst the religious is made entirely, 100%, of butthurt, including assumed butthurt from people who haven't read the book but parrot stuff people they think they agree with have said about it. I extended an offer to my theist friends who have complaints about Dawkins and haven't actually read it to give them a copy. No takers so far, though interest from the atheists ... you may try extending a similar offer.

As for the community: keep being an ethical person to deal with, behave like a good person. Honest, helpful, loving. People will in fact eventually realise they prefer, given the option, to deal with a decent atheist than a religious asshole.

Comment author: [deleted] 06 April 2011 09:52:50AM *  1 point [-]

I disagree about Dawkins here. Andrew Rilstone, one of my favourite bloggers and a devout Christian, did read The God Delusion, and did disagree with it, for reasons which you may well disagree with but which definitely don't amount just to 'butthurt': http://www.andrewrilstone.com/2007/04/where-dawkins-went-wrong-most-leading.html

http://www.andrewrilstone.com/2007/04/2-some-more-of-dawkins-greatest.html

http://www.andrewrilstone.com/2007/04/3-final-and-clinching-proofs-little.html

http://www.andrewrilstone.com/2007/05/4-who-is-this-dawkins-person-anyway.html

http://www.andrewrilstone.com/2007/05/well-that-just-about-wraps-it-up-for.html

http://www.andrewrilstone.com/2007/09/everything-you-never-wanted-to-know.html

http://www.andrewrilstone.com/2007/09/everything-you-never-wanted-to-know_24.html

http://www.andrewrilstone.com/2007/09/everything-you-never-wanted-to-know_27.html

And so on... (Rilstone's whole book, Where Dawkins Went Wrong, is to my mind essential reading especially for atheists, because it's a set of actual good arguments against some bad arguments from the atheist side.)