"Internet Atheism look more and more like a sort of mental virus"

Mark Shea, reacting to this Bad Catholic post, is taking on what he's calling the New Atheists:

Seriously, what strikes me again and again about Internet Atheist culture is how, well,dumb these guys are who constantly trumpet their immense intellectual superiority.  They can’t even get elementary facts right, much less construe the meaning of those facts.  Moreover, they are stupefyingly incurious when you point that out.  And this is in addition to the legendary lack of social and affective skills that allow normal people to navigate ordinary human interactions without looking like clueless gits.

As this pattern continues, Internet Atheism look more and more like a sort of mental virus (why, one might almost call it a “meme”) whose sole purpose is simply to mindlessly propagate the thought “I am smarter!” like the ancient mob shouting “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” again and again.  The Internet Atheist huddles with his peer group, repeating the same cherished legends over and over, safe in a bubble of epistemic closure in which shibboleths like “Flying Spaghetti Monster!” and “Galileo!” and “Stem Cells” are repeated like old nuns telling their beads.  Nothing is allowed to intrude on the smooth worn repetition of this little mental treadmill.  No actual questions are asked, on fake questions masking dogmatic negations.  No new knowledge is sought because it is imagined that their knowledge is complete and unassailable.  And this, these people call “Science, Reason, and Intellect”.  

There's more.

If only these Internet Atheists could be more like our own tim, aka The Godless Heathen.

Right tim?

Comments

[magicjack fan]

The Internet Atheist huddles with his peer group, repeating the same cherished legends over and over, safe in a bubble of epistemic closure in which shibboleths like “Flying Spaghetti Monster!” and “Galileo!” and “Stem Cells” are repeated like old nuns telling their beads

[tim aka The Godless Heathen]

What the hey?!?! I totally missed this one.

You ‘re correct, Rick. The oh so smarter-than-every-else-internet-atheist give all of non believers a bad name.

Unlike them I’ve never felt the need to put down or belittle anyone for their faith. In so doing they only make “our side” look petty. If “we” are truly correct, than the facts, such as they are, should/will stand on their own. Just as the opposite is true.

At the end of the day, nobody knows. I’m suppose to believe that the cosmos is pure happenstance? That the complexities that is Man is but a wonderful accident of nature. That an all knowing, all powerful God lets innocent children suffer the most unspeakable of horrors. Who knows.

Discuss and respect differing opinions. Isn’t that enlightenment? If one is true in their convictions than they should be able to demonstrate their righteousness and convince the other side.

At the end of the day, for me personally at least, the topic is so far down the totem pole of importance of what is important regarding what I have in common with and appreciate about someone’s company. Most of my friends are pious, and they certainly don’t mind that I’m not. Their not offended when I don’t join them in Grace, and I’m not offended when they get spiritual. And we move on…with life.

I wonder who do the internet atheists hang out with. And are they truly happy being so miserable?

[like id tell you]

listen you a-whole i didn't even read your whole paper i only had to read on part "how dumb they are" and i went right down here i have 135 iq i'm in advanced classes and have accelerated logic skills i am a internet atheist

[Zoe]

Ad hominem and straw men are the norm for believers of shaky fairy tales.

What else is new? What else do they really have?