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One view on theism, two different reactions: [View all]
In the first quote, we have a man who, while progressive in his political opinions, hurts the feelings of the privileged majority. Because he's an atheist, this provokes an immediate libelous allegation of intolerance from the privileged majority who doesn't really care to understand what he's saying or what he actually is condemning.
The quote:
There is something feeble, and a little contemptible, about a man who cannot face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths. Almost inevitably some part of him is aware that they are myths and that he believes them only because they are comforting. But he dare not face this thought, and he therefore cannot carry his own reflection to any logical conclusion.
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
In the second set of two quotes, we have a man who says virtually the exact same things except with even stronger condemnations of certain behaviors, yet somehow manages not to hurt the feelings of the privileged majority. One has to wonder if it's because he never declared himself as an atheist.
The quotes:
“I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own -- a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotisms.”
The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weakness, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still purely primitive, legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation, no matter how subtle, can change this for me.
- Albert Einstein
The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weakness, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still purely primitive, legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation, no matter how subtle, can change this for me.
- Albert Einstein
My view is that theists tend to look for validation of their beliefs or for condemnation of non-believers before they consider what's actually being said. So what does it mean when you get one reaction from a declared atheist and another from one who makes no such declarations? While intolerance may be the inevitable outcome, this in and of itself isn't an example of intolerance, even after they insult and slander non-believers. It just means they are simply a slave to their emotions and allow them to trump their rational thought processes.
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