"Atheism will never use force or coercion on the religious"

Big call. Very big call indeed. Colour me, er, skeptical.

How true Mark Duffett. The author of this article would benefit from some history lessons methinks. Also, there is nothing happening in respect to oppositon to religion today that hasn't occurred many times throughout history. Militant atheism is not a new phonomenon.

If you turned around the point of argument in the article it could very well have been written by a fundamentalist Christian or any other person who holds the opinion that theirs is the only valid view of the world. The problem with religion generally does not lie in the fabric of belief, but in how human beings respond to that belief.

Whether a person has religion or whether they don't does not in and of itself determine whether they can do evil things. That is determined by their human nature.

...Militant atheism, the leading edge of the homosexual lobby...Welcome to the negative new-age marketing of political minorities; dominating agendas, eliminating mass traditions, riling against Christian morality, castigating Islam: Atheism, a confrontation to social stability, offering noting in return!

David lists numerous 'reasons' why the god haters and deniers need to comfort one another. The main truth is that they want their godless lifestyles validated. The pathetic misuse and abuse of science in still insisting on the evolution fantasy is clear proof of that. They also want to poison the minds of children with their anti intellectual garbage.

>>the very recent Reason Rally in the USA gathered a crowd of around 20 thousand of the non-religious who stood in the rain to hear speakers expounding on what this shift in thinking means.<<

“Mock them, ridicule them in public, don’t fall for the convention that we’re far to polite to talk about religion. Religion is not off the table. Religion is not off limits. Religion makes specific claims about the universe, which need to be substantiated.  They should be challenged and ridiculed with contempt.” - Richard Dawkins at the Rally.

He illustrated what he meant by a further call, ridiculing Catholics: ““Do you really believe that when a priest blesses a wafer, it turns into the body of Christ? Are you seriously telling me you believe that?  Are you seriously saying that wine turns into blood?”.

I am sure also Jews and especially Muslims have things - symbols (or facts you are not allowed to deny) - which are as holy to them as is the Eucharist to Catholics. I do not have the full text of Dawkins’ speech at this Rally to see if he found the courage to also ridicule things holy to religious Jews, Muslims, etc. in their understanding of their religion. I wonder, especially where Islam and Mohamed are concerned.

Oh gosh.

Please spare us from this nonsense.

We have an article written by the president of the Atheist foundation, and yet he doesn't even know what atheism is! (I took him to task on this in a discussion on this very website a while back, and this awkward truth quickly became evident).

And then this ignorant author comes up with baseless assertions such as....

"Atheism will never use force or coercion on the religious, as religion has done for centuries against atheists"

Someone who values evidence and thinking could surely not disregard the history of the 20th century in such a fashion as this....could they? Well, they just did. And the president of the atheist foundation no less. What is the world coming to?

But, by all means, support the atheist convention. To hear more, um, free thinking, rational speakers.