When the New Atheists round up the religious folk and send them off to the concentration camps, I’ll be sure to put in a good word for you.

I haven’t read that much steampunk, so I’ve missed out on the New Adventures of Queen Victoria.

But I have read some of Robert Ingersoll’s works from the 1870s, which I thoroughly enjoyed. He covered much of the New Atheist material back then.

The New Atheism is only new in that it has got a lot more attention in recent years, probably because of a reaction against religious bigotry as represented by George W. Bush, the September 11th attacks and the moral collapse of the Catholic church.

Are you coming to Melbourne for WorldCon?

My own feeling about the New Atheism is that it’s better than the New Romantics, New Age or New Cuisine, but probably not up there with the New Adventures of Queen Victoria, the New York Times or the New World primates. The fact is, a lot of what it says is a true, and a lot of the criticisms are well founded.

Seriously, a lot of what you say is what we’ve been saying since the 1830s. It would probably surprise you how much.

Organised religion, like the afterlife, like atonement, like a God who punishes sex, like so much else we have inherited, maybe served a purpose at some stage in history, but it’s difficult to imagine it serving any purpose for us now.

Anyhow, drop in next time you’re in Adelaide – even in fire ban season.

BDC

My uncle whom I have great respect and admiration for is a Catholic priest in small-town America. I’ve never seen anyone as admired and popular in their own community.
I have plenty of friends of various religious persuasions, your good self included.

As we’ve discussed before, the majority of people, religious or otherwise are good people. We might disagree over where to place the edges of what we view as the unpleasant extremes.

Organised religion itself (as opposed to religious people) is what I don’t like. The behaviour of the Catholic church at the moment is an example of that.

I am interested in religions and mythology from their storytelling point of view. I did philosophy of religion at university and I’ve been to Jehovah’s Witnesses meetings and taught English to Buddhist priests.

Buddhism I have mixed feelings about. Some people would argue it’s not even a religion.
There are plenty of admirable ideas in Buddhism, but there are still dubious practices (usually linked to ways of making money) and evangelical cult-like Buddhist groups like SGI.

Of course I respect the right for people to join whatever religious group they please. (And religious groups do provide good work through their charities and fostering sense of community and so on. I think on average they do more harm than good though). But I also reserve the right to make fun of said religious groups as well.
I don’t think certain topics should be designated as off-limits to humor.

You know you want to admit it was you that set off the fire alarms. Confess and you shall be absolved.

I know the fire alarms at Clarion went off a couple of times, but it wasn’t me.

BDC