Be careful what you wish for

If you don’t like the tone, please remember who set it:

Those of us who have for years politely concealed our contempt for the dangerous collective delusion of religion need to stand up and speak out.
– Richard Dawkins

I quoted it after Beslan, my moment of having had enough of being polite.
– Ken MacLeod

It was just the time for the atheists to take the gloves off.
– Lynn Garrett, Publisher’s Weekly

I say, screw the polite words and careful rhetoric. It’s time for scientists to break out the steel-toed boots and brass knuckles, and get out there and hammer on the lunatics and idiots.
-PZ Myers

Metallica put it well:

Careful what you wish
Careful what you say
Careful what you wish you may regret it
Careful what you wish you just might get it

I find it amusing how many atheists are very quick to whine when they treated in a similarly impolite manner. They’d better toughen up quick, as the backlash hasn’t even begun yet. Can you imagine how much they’ll cry when people laugh at them for quoting Dawkins or Harris? There’s a reason Russell fell out of favor, after all, and once you’ve read Russell and Meslier, you realize that the New Atheists aren’t saying anything new at all.

Their strategy, such as it is, is arguably worse than George Bush’s; I wonder where they think they are going to find an atheist Charles Martel in the 21st century in the battle for Europe’s soul? Of course, you can’t expect much out of any group dumb enough to pick a fight with literally everyone when they are somewhere between .5 percent and 10 percent of the population. Of course, these are the same people who think that telling others how stupid they are is the best way to win them over.

I initially used it in a metaphorical sense, but the more I learn, the more I suspect my theory of social autism will turn out to be correct. I predict the end result of all this is going to be more agnostics and fewer people willing to admit their atheism. I mean, I never once wrote about atheists in two full years of column writing, now, thanks to Dawkins and company, I actually put the fiction aside long enough to write an entire book ripping them apart.