In a guest post on BoingBoing, Paul Spinrad proposes big tent atheism as an alternative to the absolutism of “New Atheists” like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, who, he argues, may not be more interested in asserting their own superiority than making a convincing case:
Any successful new belief system must appreciate the beauty of what it’s replacing and strive for backwards-compatibility. If Matthew 1:1-16 hadn’t explained how Jesus’ lineage fulfills the prophecy in Isaiah 1:1-5, it wouldn’t have gotten where it is today.
So I put it to declared atheists– the ones who fly the flag about it, not the ones who are quiet or closeted: Do you think that most of humanity is A) hopeless and doomed to kill each other because of their stupid religious beliefs, or B) capable of coming to and benefiting from your views?