Style Complementarity in Atheist Activism

Carnival of the Godless #76 linked to this post on Greta Christina's blog: Good Cop, Bad Cop: Atheist Activism.

Greta compares the current rise of vocal atheism to the queer activist movement of the '80s and '90s and argues convincingly that different styles of atheist activism are both individually appropriate and, more important, complementary.

But when it comes to the basic question of "sympathetic compromiser versus passionate idealist" tactics, I think we'd all be better off if we stopped spending our time and energy squabbling with each other, and left each other the hell alone to do what we're good at and what we're inspired to do.

In saying this, Greta echoed something that Russell Blackford said in a comment on a post by Jason Rosenhouse.

If we are going to expend energies typing, then we might have better results through criticizing theistic illogic than debating other theists on whether or not Christopher Hitchens is a tad too acerbic, or whether Richard Dawkins actually accused all theists of suffering from a mental disorder. (I think that religionists actually enjoy their chosen brand of cognitive disorder.)

atheismpoliticspsychologyreligionRichard DawkinsChristopher Hitchens