Civility in the public eye

Another of the big net fooforaws going on lately has been whether or not the “New Atheists” are being civil enough in debating against religion, e.g. by suggesting that science does actually contradict religion. Folks like Chris Mooney may be okay with atheists getting all warm and squishy about science and religion coexisting, but not every religious person is okay with the idea of people being secular and living quiet, private lives outside of the sphere of influence of their chosen religion.

The “New Atheists” are atheists who are unafraid to discuss religion and have shed their fear of doing so with others when confronted, much like the “militant gays” are simply gay people who no longer feel it necessary to hide their homosexuality. There are no “New Atheists”. There are only atheists who are out of the closet.

And being out of the closet means we can now counter ridiculous billboards like the following (click them to get where I found them):

With ads like this:

(This one actually got replaced with a sign from the sign company saying “In God We Trust” and “The previous sign posted at this location does not reflect the values or morals of our company”, by the way)

Now I ask you, who’s being uncivil?

I wish I had more hours in the day. There’s so much that needs to be blogged about!