I’ve decided that it would be a fun excercise to continue skeptically examining various atheist memes which come across my Facebook and Twitter timelines. Up next, a bit of inter-generational blame-casting:
I’ve seen a few variations on this meme floating around, and honestly I’ve never quite understood the appeal. Maybe there are a few religious apologists somewhere arguing for a return to the Middle Ages, when the Catholics and Protestants could on the proposition that witches and apostates should be tortured and killed. To be honest, though, I see as little in common between modern Christian apologists and their theocratic forebears as I see between modern Secular Humanists promoting social justice and the exuberantly murderous 20th century Communists who also claimed to be moving humanity forward without god.
Maybe there is a good argument for strongly identifying any and all modern Christian apologists with the worst abuses of their forebears, as if Christianity itself hasn’t changed significantly while Western society as a whole evolved away from torture and violence as broadly acceptable means of achieving social ends. If so, I’d be happy to give it a fair hearing. Any takers?
p.s. I’m betting Notung will drag Dr. Grayling directly into this somehow, to my eventual chagrin.
