How Polite Should We Be?

The debate is now is being expessed in terms of pragmatism and tactics, like we should be trying to convert the believers to a scientific and skeptical world view.  As in this talk by Phil Plait, entitled “Don’t Be a Dick”.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2010/08/17/dont-be-a-dick-part-1-the-video/

I admit to being a dick about religion.  I’m an opinionated asshole.  But in real life I try to keep the name calling and ad hominems to a minimum. 

The thing is, I’m not trying to convert any fundamentalists to my world view.  I’ve given up on that.  I’m just trying to express my world view.  This is something religious people feel they have a right to do, and do constantly.  I’m simply demanding the same right for myself.

So if somebody tells me they believe in god, or fairies, or pyramid power, or astrology or homeopathy, I can simply say “That doesn’t make any sense to me and I can’t understand how an intelligent person could accept those ideas.”  Okay, I’m telling them that they sound stupid to me. 

They need to know.

A Dip Into the Bible Belt

There’s no getting around it.  Religion has America by the balls.  I just did a tour of the American west from Colorado down to New Mexico and up through Arizona, Utah, and Montana.  That means I was subjected to an impressive number of inconprehensible messages about Jesus and sin and being born again. 
Here’s what really made my irony meter go spoing:  We stayed one night in a Mormon motel in Manti, Utah.  Mormons say that the body is the temple of God, and thus they don’t smoke or drink alcohol.  With this ideology, you’d expect Utah to be the very center of the fitness craze.  Yet I don’t think I’ve ever met a Mormon who didn’t have a weight problem. The nice man who checked us in weighs about four hundred pounds.  Mormons might not drink coffee, but they apparently see no problem with baked goods or jelly donuts.  I guess a big temple is a better temple.