I was a little disappointed by a recent post of John Loftus on his Debunking Christianity blog. Usually, he has pretty sound reasons for the arguments he makes. "There is No Atheist Community, No Atheist Movement," is certainly an exception. His main points seem to be that there is no one single leader among atheists and that we are willing to criticize each other. So? I don't see him stating there is no Humanist community or Skeptical community. There are multiple leaders for each of those and there is most certainly criticism within them.
Perhaps, he meant it is not a religious community. It isn't. Let's face it, the various sects/denominations are good at criticizing each other but fail miserably at viewing there own critically. If that is what Loftus really meant, fine. But the notion that atheists do not have a community is foolish. He does mention communities. I did notice the plural and even get that to some degree but still don't think it implies what he seems to think it does. There may be very little that unites all atheists but that does not make us less of a community. Especially, since when push comes to shove we tend to defend each other far more quickly and resiliently than any other "community" I can think of.
As fractious as we may be we are a community. Our individuality makes us stronger not weaker.
PS: I still like and respect John Loftus and strongly recommend people read his books and his blog. Differences of opinion happen. There is no perfection so it is not even remotely possibly that we will ever 100% agree with anyone or anything. That's just the way it is.
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