Yesterday, Atheist Ireland took stand against PZ Myers:
Atheist Ireland is publicly dissociating itself from the hurtful and dehumanising, hateful and violent, unjust and defamatory rhetoric of the atheist blogger PZ Myers. The final of many, many straws were his latest smear that Ayaan Hirsi Ali is ‘happily exploiting atrocities’, and his subsequent description of Atheist Ireland’s chairperson as ‘the Irish wanker’. We are also asking all ethical organisations and individuals to consider how you can help to reverse his harmful impact on both individuals and the atheist movement generally.
[…]Atheist Ireland has previously given PZ Myers public platforms in Ireland, both at the World Atheist Convention in 2011, and at our international conference in 2013 on Empowering Women Through Secularism. We now apologise for doing this. We believe his behaviour is unjust to individuals, increases prejudice against atheists, and is harmful to the promotion of an ethical society based on empathy, fairness, justice and integrity.
I won’t bore anyone with listing the tons of evidence about the self righteousness of Myers and his ridiculous dogmas.
I can’t see how he could be an ally of secular humanism, secularism, secular values, liberal values or the Enlightenment project.
I can only speak for myself, so I’ll just invite anyone who cares about social issues, religious privilege and the separation of church and state to follow suit and support Atheist Ireland in their stand.
It’s a shame other organisations such as American Atheists and the Atheist Alliance International haven’t said a word on this issue: there’s plenty of evidence PZ Myers is a bully and he will actively promote and engage in all kind of harassment and defamation of anyone who dares to disagree with him.
I don’t know what secular values other organisations hold, but I think we should ask ourselves how can we trust them with doing the right thing when religious bullies start peddling their bigotry, when they can’t even bring themselves to stand up to a bully in their own backyard. Hey, guys, take a stand!
As of now, I have removed any ‘Freethought’ Blogs blog from my feed. So far, their admin, Ed Brayton has failed to answer three e-mails by Michael Nugent about Myers’ behaviors and defamation. I can only understand that as a tacit approval of said behavior; I won’t participate on that and I wouldn’t understand how any so-called freethinker would. (Yes, dear Maryam Namazie, by remaining with them you’re enabling this behavior.)
To sum up: I’d like to congratulate Atheist Ireland for taking the lead in dissociating from a person that hurts our cause and thinks he’s entitled to just because he got readers.
