Just as we're having this intense yet rather polite disagreement here (and getting singed for it, a bit, by "bad cop" Michael Reynolds), the much-read (and pro-life) Raving Atheist repents of his former attack-dog blogging -- and gets umercifully flamed for it in his own comments section.
I'm extending my pledge not to malign God to people as well. From now on The Raving Atheist will be a malice-free site.Arrogance, egotism, condescension, sarcasm, bullying, rudeness and downright cruelty have permeated many of my posts. Not merely the ones directed at the religious, but at other atheists, at agnostics, pro-choice advocates, anyone who disagreed with me. [ ... ]
And as I have argued before, the arrogance of an advocate is irrelevant to the truth of his or her argument. Often it serves a purpose, acting as a form of shock therapy for those whom civility will not penetrate. To be noticed at all in the Blogosphere often requires a certain level of obnoxiousness.
But in my hands, I now conclude, arrogance was not handled well. Overall, its benefits were outweighed by attempts to prove my superiority and other forms of self-aggrandizement. The truth suffered and often I was outright dishonest. [ ... ]
[T]his is not a stunt. It is a sincere effort at change. Those of you who are waiting for the other shoe to drop will be waiting for a very, very long time.
Some commenters approved (and some speculated that the atheist had become a theist), but others barely waited for the first shoe to hit the floor before throwing rotten eggs:
I was waiting for you to spread the other cheek.pussy
RA loses his fortitude. This blog used to validate my hope that other strong, unforgiving atheists existed. But now, we'll all be forced to endure his politically correct, tip toeing, polite rhetoric rather than the forceful, unrelenting analysis we've come to admire. Even worse, the moronic God Squad will only be dismissed as illogical rather than philosophically sodomized and then mocked for their mind-numbing inanity.
The new RA is just like the old RA, but without balls. where he might previously have ridiculed some asinine argument from the God squad, now he will respectfully decline to mock weapons grade idiocy so as not to offend some cretins who are too fucking stupid to care in the first place? That's like a penis that cannot become erect. No, it's worse than that . . .
Lovely. Nice place we've got here. Who was it who told me the nonviolent don't attract any more violence than the violent? I beg to differ. The violent understand each other. The terms and protocols of battle are clear. They are a shared enthusiam bonding enemies in one big fight club. But the nonviolent break the rules. Those who refuse to hit back arouse a baffled rage far deeper than the familiar ritualized blow-trading.
(H/T: The Uncredible Hallq.)
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