The Newer, Smugger, Crappier Atheism – Here’s a “New Rule”… from RPGpundit
I usually find the RPGPundit pretty smug and obnoxious when he writes about roleplaying games – he is after all the guy who consistently labels anyone who enjoys, discusses, plays, or designs hippie/indie/story games as “SWINE”.
But I’ve gotta go along with him on this one – people who use a belief system (including absolute belief in non-belief) as an excuse to be a dick to other people are equally dickish, whether they’re on the theistic OR atheistic side of the fence. I just wish that Pundit realized that when he flatly paints all of my friends and peers with the “SWINE” label, he’s kinda doing the same thing, in my opinion.
Boy, I can’t count how many times I’ve forced myself to shut up and/or walk away when I see fellow gaming peers just lash out with atheist self-righteousness. Maybe I shouldn’t, I don’t know.
I choose to believe there is a G-d, and I’ve no problem with them choosing to believe there is none. Have the same decency towards me.
In my circle of friends there has been this sudden rise in hostility against faith. I identify myself as an agnostic, not claiming any knowledge about or belief regarding the existence or nature of God, and find the phenomenon to be utterly bizarre.
Also: Pundit should write intelligent posts more often. He is good enough at it.
Amen!
RPGPundit isn’t smart. Or rather, this isn’t an example of him being smart. This is an example of him stealing an argument from elsewhere, running it through the standard “RPGPundit Rant Filter” to make it fit his online persona, and then reposting it without attributing the original.
I’ll give him credit — he’s obviously intellectually curious enough that he reads ScienceBlogs, and he does put his own spin on things. Fair enough. But intellectual honesty would have required that he at least mention David Sloan Wilson’s scienceblogs post from two days earlier.