Favorite famous atheist?

[Forseti]

Derren Brown

[nikkmichalski]

Dawkins, Twain, Vonnegut, Douglas Adams, Penn Gilette, and  Greg Graffin.

My beef with Nietzsche (and I own almost all of his books), especially in The Antichrist, is that he seems to have a problem with the virtues of Christianity (e.g. charity) rather than the vices (scientific denial, increased correlation with being a douchebag, proselytizing). Could anyone shed some light on this?

[AlP]

My beef with Nietzsche (and I own almost all of his books), especially in The Antichrist, is that he seems to have a problem with the virtues of Christianity (e.g. charity) rather than the vices (scientific denial, increased correlation with being a douchebag, proselytizing). Could anyone shed some light on this?

Nietzsche used rhetoric to maintain a certain distance from his subject matter. It can be difficult to decode.

He considered Christianity to be nihilistic. He often uses Christianity as a metaphor for other kinds of nihilism. The title of this book sums up his position: "the anti-nihilist".

When he talks about God, he's using it as a metaphor for objectivity. So "God is dead" means "objectivity is dead".

He does have an issue with Christian vices. The difference is that what Nietzsche recognizes as a vice (like having pity), a Christian might very well see as a virtue. Nietzsche's alternative justification for altruism is his "excess of power".

Disclosure: AlP is not a Nietzschean  

[Ninteen45]

Stalin has the best 'stache!



Uh, Is stalin the Atheist's version of Godwin's law?

"The longer a discussion of atheism continues, the probability of Stalin being mentioned approaches 1."

[elliebean]

Uh, Is stalin the Atheist's version of Godwin's law?

No, we get compared to/associated with Hitler all the time, too.

[theTwiz]

I cannot allow a discussion on beards to go without this:
[youtube:s83vad02]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYi24D9lHqc[/youtube:s83vad02]


And so I'm not being off-topic:
Douglas Adams
Gene Roddenberry

[Ninteen45]

Uh, Is stalin the Atheist's version of Godwin's law?

No, we get compared to/associated with Hitler all the time, too.

Not as often though.

[nikkmichalski]

My beef with Nietzsche (and I own almost all of his books), especially in The Antichrist, is that he seems to have a problem with the virtues of Christianity (e.g. charity) rather than the vices (scientific denial, increased correlation with being a douchebag, proselytizing). Could anyone shed some light on this?

Nietzsche used rhetoric to maintain a certain distance from his subject matter. It can be difficult to decode.

He considered Christianity to be nihilistic. He often uses Christianity as a metaphor for other kinds of nihilism. The title of this book sums up his position: "the anti-nihilist".

When he talks about God, he's using it as a metaphor for objectivity. So "God is dead" means "objectivity is dead".

He does have an issue with Christian vices. The difference is that what Nietzsche recognizes as a vice (like having pity), a Christian might very well see as a virtue. Nietzsche's alternative justification for altruism is his "excess of power".

Disclosure: AlP is not a Nietzschean