Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Hate Mongoring at Baylor University

In reading an article in The Lariat online, Atheism's moral philosophy not consistent with Baylor's mission, I get a feeling that must like like that a Jew would feel upon reading a missive talking about 'blood libel' and all of the other lies that have been used to condemn Jews through the centuries.

Dr. Roger Olson's article is filled with the falsehoods and fallacies that have been used to condemn atheists through the centuries - claiming explicitly that no atheist can live a moral life consistent with atheism.

Atheists can do good deeds, he said, but unless they hang the term 'atheism' on their good deeds and does them in the context of an organization that has 'atheism' in the title - it doesn't count.

So, it does not matter that Bill and Mellinda Gates and Warren Buffett decide to spend $60 billion on the world's problems. They did not put the word 'atheism' in their name, so it doesn't count.

I have addressed arguments such as this in Why Atheists Don't Build Hospitals (They do, they just don't put the term 'atheist' in the title), and The Good That Atheists Would Not Do.

Yet, I still think that Olson's article warrants the type of response that an article containing the lies of 'blood libel' would generate. Otherwise, there would be no incentive in people to quit disseminating these types of lies, and no incentive for readers not to accept them.

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