I used to like Bill Maher. He's smart and funny. I've always known that he has no personal use for religion and that's fine. But I just heard him on the Larry King show - attacking Mormonism, attacking Catholicism. And then arguing that he's not a bigot... because he's against all religions.
Right. Equal opportunity hate.
Maher is a smart man who sometimes has the nerve to say what no one else will say. So I am all the more disappointed that he's fallen into the "you're either with us or against us" mentality that is so pervasive these days.
The great irony is that people like Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens... and Maher are every bit as intolerant of difference as the fundamentalist religionists whom they despise.
These guys aren't just criticizing a set of ideas, which people have every right to do. You can question the veracity of the resurrection if you want (tho I personally find such arguments to be a waste of time). But to attack people, en masse, for being religionists... that leaves the very realm of rationality that they claim to uphold.
Of course people are always going to think that they're way of thinking is the right way. I have no illusions about Catholics and Mormons and others believing anything other than that they are the one true faith and Mormons can believe they are the one true faith. And so, it is not a problem that atheists also believe that they are the only ones who got it right. Heck, we UUs sometimes think we have it right too. But there is a difference between thinking you're the only one who is right and trying to convince everyone else. The definition of tolerance is being willing to put up with people whom you think are wrong.
This happens to be a matter of faith for me, I am theologically a pluralist. But I can argue that you don't even have to be a pluralist to object when people start spouting their intolerance for other beliefs. It's a matter of pragmatism. If we are to live peacefully in a diverse society, we simply have to be tolerant of people who think differently from us.
