“ | Atheists think religion is a major social issue. Atheists -- many of us, anyway -- think religion is one of the major sources of social upheaval on the planet. From sex and science education in the U.S. public schools, to the violence and chaos in the Middle East, we think a lot of what's terribly wrong with the world would be better -- not perfect, but better -- without religion. This isn't trivial. Treating it as trivial is just an attempt to get us to shut up. | ” |
—Greta Christina[1] |
Greta Christina is a blogger at FreethoughtBlogs, and the author of Why Are You Atheists So Angry? 99 Things That Piss Off the Godless, and Bending: Dirty Kinky Stories About Pain, Power, Religion, Unicorns, & More. On her blog, she writes about politics, sex, kink, fashion, feminism, atheism, skepticism, and LGBT issues, among other subjects. She's uncompromisingly hostile over harm she believes religion causes and also over misogyny within the atheist movement. [2] [3]
Shut up, that's why[]
"Shut up, that's why" is the name Greta Christina gives to a category of rhetorical tactics aimed not at countering atheists' arguments, but at stopping argument altogether. While some of them are logical fallacies, others are not even structured well enough to qualify as logical fallacies.
Rhetorical tactics[]
Christina identifies several tactics that fall into this category:
- Why talk about atheism when there are much bigger problems in the world?
- Religion is not in the same category as science and politics, and should not be expected to prove itself the same way (aka Non-overlapping magisteria).
- Why do you care what other people believe?
- Religion is private. Why do we need to talk about this?
- Atheists act as though they're superior to everyone else.
- Atheists are whiny.
- I'm tired of hearing about atheism. Can't you give it a rest?
- Can't we just agree to disagree?
This section is adapted from Iron Chariots Wiki.
Cancer[]
Greta Christina suffered womb and ovarian cancer in autumn 2012 and probably has a genetic condition that predisposes her to other types of cancer as well.
Christmas[]
“ | Christmas; Solstice; Hanukkah; Kwanzaa; Festivus; “the holidays”; whatever. I don’t have a strong attachment to any particular name or date or occasion. Any mid-winter holiday around the end of December will do. Lately I’ve been calling it either “the holidays” or “Santamas” (in honor of what Bart Simpson has described as the true meaning of the holiday: the birth of Santa). I was brought up culturally Christian, though, with Christmas trees and Santa and all that, and I do tend to refer to it as Christmas at least some of the time. | ” |
Greta Christina feels late December is a good time to get together with friends and celebrate as it helps people get through the darkest time of the year. [4]Religion isn't necessary to enjoy these celebrations. [5]
See also[]
References[]
- ↑ Atheism and the "Shut Up, That's Why" Arguments
- ↑ Greta Christina
- ↑ When Firebrands Start Tone-Trolling
- ↑ In the Northern Hemisphere
- ↑ The True Meaning of Christmas