Another general observation I will share. A lot of people don't have a particularly high opinion of atheists, and that includes a lot of people who define themselves as "agnostic." By "atheist" I mean one who believes "there is, and can be, no god(s)."
But the "low opinion" I have seen is not directed to the theological position (atheism) itself, really. It is more the practices of some of its more outspoken and fervent adherents than generates the "low opinion."
As I've noted in prior posts, "atheism" becomes virtually its own religion to some. And from that point on, it's hard to distinguish them from theists in some ways. It begins to take on the appearance of one know-it-all battling another know-it-all, and that is not pretty. As David Hume observed once:
Quote:“Disputes between men pertinaciously obstinate in their principles are the most irksome. The same blind adherence to their own arguments is to be expected in both; the same contempt of their antagonists; and the same passionate vehemence in enforcing sophistry and falsehood and, as reasoning is not the source from whence either disputant derives his tenets, it is in vain to expect that any logic, which speaks not to the affections, will ever engage him to embrace sounder principles.”
