Comments by Clemens

Comment #85529 by Clemens on November 6, 2007 at 4:23 am

I really liked this talk and I agree wholeheartedly with the basic premise.

There is only one issue that I think was not really considered fully. There must be a good many people who are only casually religious. Perhaps they are also a little uncritical about their own beliefs but the point is that these people regard religion as a natural part of their lives (by tradition/upbringing) and might see the rise of the 'new atheism' as somewhat threatening, maybe preventing them from seeing its true merits (even without it having to be too agressive). I think this is a legitimate scenario (originally coming from a moderate Christian background myself) and should not be discarded as fast as Richard appeared to do. These people (and I think there are quite a lot of them) might have the largest potential to develop a critical sense of their belief and their world, rather then the 'extremist' side where much attention has been directed.

Of course I fully agree with Richard that much of the so called 'agressiveness' is blown way out of proportion. My personal concern is that such characterisations may be harmful to the central message.

I'm interested to see where Richard and the other proponents of this new movement will take us.

Best,

Clemens
The Netherlands