It’s good advice because you and your Muslim friends have been mostly wrong about atheism and what atheists actually believe. Many of us have told you in detail what you’ve been wrong about, and what atheists actually believe (hint – atheists only necessarily have one belief in common). There have been calm and rational recitations in detail, in addition to the mocking snark.
You’ve also said some contentious stuff, and refused requests to expand on it:
Please respond – in what occasions do you feel that atheists are ‘rotten apples that may bring suffering and destruction to the whole group’?
You should disregard hollow advice. This is not hollow advice. It’s solid advice.
First, You have made many assertions about how atheists think and what they believe, which are wrong. Thus, you should be calling into question the accuracy or your education on this matter.
Second, atheists are an incredibly disparate group. I, for one, am a practicing Jew. Have been an atheist my whole life. Others come to atheism later in life. Some fully disdain organized religion, some find enjoyment in non-theist spiritualism, etc. Thus, any statement that begins “atheists think…” Is inherently flawed because there is no unifying set of thoughts or beliefs that cover atheists. Nor should you expect there to be.
So any statement with an underlying generalization beyond “atheists don’t believe in g-d(s)” is generally going to be wildly wrong.
Guerilla warfare and terrorism are not the same thing. Terrorism, as defined by that paper, is the strategy of trying to exact policy concessions from governments by attacking their civilian populations. It very rarely works.
Attacking the military forces of an occupying army in unconventional warfare is completely different, and can indeed be effective.
I can’t speak to South Africa’s experience except to note that such tactics failed consistently until the peaceful-reconciliation approach was tried by the ANC, but slave revolts were a losing strategy for American slaves. They resulted in vicious crackdowns, and the formation of slave patrols and other enforcement mechanisms, and served to dehumanize blacks, which served pro-slavery rhetoric.
Killing everyone in a city isn’t terrorism either, since there’s no one left to agree to whatever policy change was sought.
One way to prevent terrorism is to make its perpetrators understand that it doesn’t work, and that they should pursue other strategies.
Not your pocket. Mine. And it’s totally preposterous. But I believe it, and you’ve done nothing to dissuade me from killing you. Why should I spare you?
I strongly doubt it if only because few people would spend time considering what philosophy an atheist could have and whether or not it justifies their murder.
Yes, many will probably not even grasp the concept of not believing in God.
Therefore if someone presents them with (false) charactirisation and that they are not more than panting dogs, it will be accepted at face value.
It is the kind of meme that can spread reasonably quickly and one that really should be countered.
The attitude of “what do I care what crazy people think” is not one we can afford.
It’s not a meme. I’m still not sure anyone actually thinks this. But we already know what believers think of unbelievers or wrong-believers, that’s nothing new.
It is. The priority is making sure our rights are protected. Arguing with dumb people or loons is a luxury or a waste of time.
I find it difficult to believe that any institution offers a course of study concentrating on “I lack a belief in gods”. Can you expound on which institution offers this course and how many class hours are devoted to that quite simple concept?
I also meant to point out that you said you never argue with the religious beliefs of your Muslim friends when they say atheists aren’t people and you insist atheists need to come up with a better anti-murder argument. But here you spend the whole post explaining why this obviously ridiculous belief is ridiculous (and then you find some reasons it’s not so ridiculous) without ever getting into a reason I shouldn’t kill you if that’s what I believe.