Why are Atheists Militant?

My wife’s cousin visited us today. I was telling her about my new blog and that I was hoping to have people challenge my positions and beliefs.

We got on the topic of Militant Atheists led by Dawkins and Chris Hitchens. I told her that I listened to the Hitchens-D’Souza debate (and others) and thought Dinesh D’Souza did the best of any of the other Christian debaters against any of the Atheists (including against Dawkins).

I said that one of the reasons the other debaters did so poorly was that Hitchens asked a plethora of questions that required more than a bumper sticker reply and that there was not enough time in the debate to answer all of them sufficiently. D’Souza took Hitchens overall points and hammered them (I’m not getting into the details; that’s for another post on this blog).

My wife’s cousin said that she heard of the Hitchens-D’Souza debate and the Militant Atheists. She wondered why the Militant Atheists want to convince everyone that they’re right. She thought that most people don’t try to change any one else’s belief.

I said that I didn’t know why Atheists in general would want to convince others that they were right: what would be the point since nothing really matters (including the other people besides themselves)? However, I said that I respect other people’s beliefs, or faith because no one can prove their position with 100% certainty: we all need faith since our basis for belief is found outside our empirical domain. In other words, say for Christians, they can’t know with 100% certainty, without a doubt that Christ was raised from the dead. For some Atheists (they all have different beliefs), they can’t know with 100% certainty that anything was not created by God and that everything either evolved or just is (like rocks, planets, and the stars). We all need faith and we should all respect each other’s faith. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t talk to others about our faith, but we shouldn’t ram it down their throats (i.e., evangelization versus proselytization).

I also said that I went on Dawkins’ extensive official website and noticed that most of the commenters were of an Atheists persuasion. In general, most sites have people of the same beliefs on them. Further, the Atheists consistently put down Christians, Theists/Deists, et al. I would love to see people of other views get a point-counterpoint going. (I will get there soon. Any other Christian/Theist/Deist want to join me at Dawkins’ site?)

I would love if people visiting Wondering Zygote Emeritus (this blog) could get a point-counterpoint going about anything on this blog so that we can learn about each other.