Dealing with the condescending...

[Melmoth]

Hitchins is very much a 'Marmite', character. There are times though when it's good to have a storm tooper up front.

So true, he is entertaining to listen to linguistically but I always get the feeling he really really loves the smell of his own farts.

Also, great public speaker though he is, he's a terrible writer. God is Not Great, especially, could be condensed into a leaflet. He just waffles on and on, around and around the same point, describing very simple ideas in overly complicated ways.

edit.

[Sweetdeath]

how do you guys deal with it (if you find it frustrating as well)?

I try not to take my own ideas too seriously. That way, first, I can remain a fairly cool and neutral thinker and, second, I don't mind so much when people are dismissive. A lot of atheists are more emotionally invested in their world view than they realise, I think.

I acually don't run into trouble until people distriminate or say untrue, ignorant things about homosexuals.

I agree with Mike. I'm not expecting them to change their religion, but if you could just open their eyes a little to the lies beyond their church.  Sometimes pepple find their own way  out of religious superstsion.

[MinnesotaMike]

I agree with Mike. I'm not expecting them to change their religion, but if you could just open their eyes a little to the lies beyond their church.  Sometimes pepple find their own way  out of religious superstsion.

This, right here, is exactly what happened with me. Perhaps that's why I choose to interact the way I do; it's the only way I can see them changing.

[Sweetdeath]

That's how I feel. Being assertive and forceful only pushes people closer to religion and its lies.

[xSilverPhinx]

I think that trying to find the common ground with some groups of people to be tough, but it comes down to if you want or need them for any reason (and unfortunately, theists do outnumber us and are better organised) then you have to take a more diplomatic approach to things. It's counter productive to do what Dawkins, Hitchens and those who identify with the 'new atheist movement' as they call themselves do.

Doesn't mean that you have to sit and listen to what idiots have to say.

[Melmoth]

I think that trying to find the common ground with some groups of people to be tough, but it comes down to if you want or need them for any reason (and unfortunately, theists do outnumber us and are better organised) then you have to take a more diplomatic approach to things. It's counter productive to do what Dawkins, Hitchens and those who identify with the 'new atheist movement' as they call themselves do.

I quite like Daniel Dennett. He's always struck me as diplomatic and polite, yet interesting enough to pull it off. Critics of 'new atheism' also tend to avoid grappling with him, I think, because he's the most well-informed and his area of expertise is the most relevant. We can dismiss Dawkins for being philosophically shoddy, Hitchens for being so aggressive about religion that it borders on hysteria, Sam Harris for being a wet cabbage leaf, but I can't think of a good criticism for Dennett.

[Tank]

I think that trying to find the common ground with some groups of people to be tough, but it comes down to if you want or need them for any reason (and unfortunately, theists do outnumber us and are better organised) then you have to take a more diplomatic approach to things. It's counter productive to do what Dawkins, Hitchens and those who identify with the 'new atheist movement' as they call themselves do.

I quite like Daniel Dennett. He's always struck me as diplomatic and polite, yet interesting enough to pull it off. Critics of 'new atheism' also tend to avoid grappling with him, I think, because he's the most well-informed and his area of expertise is the most relevant. We can dismiss Dawkins for being philosophically shoddy, Hitchens for being so aggressive about religion that it borders on hysteria, Sam Harris for being a wet cabbage leaf, but I can't think of a good criticism for Dennett.

Spot on, getting upset with Dennett would be like getting upset with Father Christmas when he's just brought you a great present.

[Melmoth]

Can you imagine getting a hug from him? It'd be amazing. You'd get lost in that fuzzy beard and come out a different person.

[OldGit]

My beard would be OK!

[xSilverPhinx]

I guess that's why you hardly hear apologists mention him that often.

[Sweetdeath]

Can you imagine getting a hug from him? It'd be amazing. You'd get lost in that fuzzy beard and come out a different person.

Just like my trip to Narnia.

[MinnesotaMike]

Closet joke?

[Melmoth]

What's a "closet joke"?

[Tank]

What's a "closet joke"?

One gets into Narnia through a magic wardrobe (aka closet), hence closet joke 

[Sandra Craft]

-"A pair of hands at work will accomplish more than a thousand folded in prayer."

This actually sounds like an atheist saying to me -- wouldn't it be the other way around for a theist?

In any case I don't discuss religion with most people, it's just not worthwhile to me.  I have no issue with what theists believe unless it affects the law somehow (breaking it, or trying to base it on their religion, that sort of thing).  In any case, when I do come up against condescending crap I just remind myself that they're entitled to their opinion, and sometimes I remind them of that too, if I think it needs to be made clear that their opinion is not mine.