“The Peace Process Will Continue”

Last week, I authored a piece titled “A call for civil discussion, an end to the in-fighting” [140 comments, at the time of this posting, are attached to this popular post] concerning a very optimistic project devised by Lee Moore (A-News podcast) who is attempting to help put an end to the online ‘atheist in-fighting’ by — in part — hosting a candid civilized discussion. I will be a participant in this upcoming discussion and am, of course, supporting this initiative.

Moore wrote,

In order to facilitate this I am calling for representatives from both camps in these blog wars to sit down with me in what may be the first of many live and public google hangouts to discuss grievances and come back to the world of civil discussion and cooperation.  I am also asking for an end to the attacks from both sides as a show of good faith (and not the faith of the religious, but the faith that all atheists share: faith in ourselves—in our humanity and our ability to work together to create a more rational, understanding society).

So I invite you—no, I implore you—to join us in our campaign for cooperation.

There’s now an update.

A post titled “The Peace Process Will Continue” has been released with some interesting developments:

• Adam Brown and Amanda Brown of ‘We are Atheism‘ have pledged their full support. Amanda will be moderating the discussion.
• Aron Ra will also be moderating the discussion.
• Flash Kellish of the National Atheist Party has pledged support.

Moore also writes,

We have been asked repeatedly why we are making this attempt.  In short, many of our bloggers and activists have wasted a great deal of time and energy on these uncivil arguments with one another; time and energy that could have been spent making progress in the fight that brought us all together in the first place.  Not a day goes by without a story about why the Atheist community seemed interesting and inviting at first but then became a turn-off when the infighting was revealed.  This conflict is pushing away many who would be our allies, not because either side is right or wrong, but because there is a great deal of irrational mudslinging from members of a community that claim to have the final say in rationality.

Perhaps there is hope for a stop to the in-fighting? The conversation continues and this discussion is coming closer to a reality.

Consider leaving your comments below.