I really like Hemant Mehta, better known as
the Friendly Atheist. He's not really into philosophy, but he's got a good enough head on his shoulders to be able to avoid the general mistakes of superficial internet atheism, and at the same time call out the bullshit of religious apologists.
He's also great at blogging, and is a generally a solid voice of moderation in "online atheism".
So I was kind of shocked to see him (or his team) share
this article on his Facebook page this morning, saying that he thinks it's "a pretty good list". Since Hemant is a good guy who may be falling prey to a
Golden Mean Fallacy, I wanted to write this post why I think he should re-evaluate the list.
EDIT#1: Hemant has kindly replied on Twitter. He didn't post the link himself, and agrees that many of the arguments are silly. He does think that atheists need to do a better job of communicating our answers to these philosophical questions. This is a position I wholeheartedly endorse. You can read Hemant's updated comments on this on his
Facebook page.
EDIT#2: I wanted to add an update based on what I'm seeing in reactions from someone I highly respect,
Justin Schieber. I can agree that for 3/5, probably 4/5 of these general principles are things atheists should do. I think that they are actually things people in general should do (well 3/5 of them anyway). We should make concessions, where warranted. We should be open minded to the existence of the supernatural, when warranted. And we should admit the weaknesses of our position, when warranted. This doesn't negate the fact that in the arguments that Patton tries to make following these general points are in fact terrible. Or that atheists are not following the relevant general principles.
Jump below to see why.
