PZ Myers have tried to clarify his position at pharyngula at some length to put some of the critisism to rest, but even though i agree with most of what he says there are some quite disturbing parts.
For instance, anyone else tried to have these long, pointless discussions with a theist who tell you that because you are an atheist, you must accept X,Y,Z which are unrelated to simply not accepting gods existence, and you tried to explain atheism is simply lack of belief in god? Well pz Myers has an oppinion about you. PZ myers quote a reader:
Im in that awkward position where i do agree with most of the values and dislike the misogynist idiots but see no value or reason to mix atheism and the other values. For me atheism just is the simple disbelief and my political values stand apart? from it.
And replies:
Now you see, that’s just stupid. There are lots of atheists who take this blinkered stance that atheism is just one specific idea about rejecting god-belief, and it has absolutely no philosophical foundation and should have no political or social consequences. And that’s nonsense. This commenter is deluding himself as thoroughly as any god-walloper
Not only are you wrong for not connecting disbelief in god with political values, you are delusional and stupid. Well thank you very much PZ.
The article contain plenty of reasoning which quite frankly worries me. For instance PZ quote a reader:
My whole point is that not everyone dismissed as a “misogynist” or “hate and rage filled asshole” by the Atheism+ crowd is actually anything of the kind. Sometimes that kind of? response is aimed at people who simply have a reasonable disagreement with them, rather than the genuine trolls who are sending threats and abuse.
PZ replies:
We get that a lot. In fact, I’d say it’s the source of most of the anti-atheist+ reaction: It’s a whole lot of cranky people saying that they aren’t sexist at all…they just think it’s fine to call women “cunts”, that Jim Jeffries is a hilarious comedian when he riffs on his contempt for women, that they just hate feminists, that we’re all just killjoys and cockblockers who want to interfere with their right to hit on women whenever they feel like it. But oh, no, they’re not misogynists . How dare we challenge their masculine privilege?
I am not convinced at all you can have reasonable disagreement on issues Atheism Plus has a "sceptic" oppinion about without being put in the same category as cranky sexist people.
In terms of the atheism/religion debate, i saw this tweet: "Atheism plus is not a religion, it is a personal relationship with pheezus." .
