I don't like SurferJesus' gross-out sex posts. I think they drive away readers (and we don't have much to start with) and are needlessly disgusting. I think they quite possibly pull emphasis away from the issues at hand.
But.
I don't have a problem with him posting like that. I've been trying to figure out WHY.
In tandem, I'm still in the middle of several books, The God Delusion and Why Darwin Matters inclusive, along with scattered texts and blogs on the internetz. I've run across a certain theme in a few places: How should we express our atheism? How do we (or should we) communicate with the other side?
I've had the opinion for some time that there usually isn't *A* right method to social change...not only do you have to come at it from many different angles, but there's no way to prevent people from coming at it that way. With any movement, or group, or idea, there's a spectrum. Some extremists on the conservative side, some extremists on the liberal side, and a whole lotta people everywhere in between. So SJ's a radical atheist - not even THE most extreme (hey, somewhere out there's gotta be an atheist putting together a pipe bomb). And somewhere on the other side are atheists so closeted they might not've even admitted it to themselves yet. Some will be more effective than others at moving the debate forward, but most of it's good for something.
Anyway, that's just what I think.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Closer to Home
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1 comment:
It took me a while to figure out when SurferJesus was using sarcasm and hyperbole to make a point and when he was expressing his own opinions. And there is a temptation to take the freedom of newly-acknowledged atheism and run with it.
Besides, would you really want him to keep all those ideas in his head?
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