Atheist Badge: The design of the A-letter originates from the outcampaign.org - "Scarlet A" (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Are those who align themselves with Freethought Blogs/Skepchick/Atheism+ interested in seeing an end to the conflict? Adam Lee (Daylight Atheism) responded to Justin via TwitLonger by listing his demands for a "cease fire" (at least, it reads sort of like a list of demands). Not surprisingly, there have been quite a few responses, including these by uberfeminist, Atheist Morality, Background Probability (part 2 is here), and Justin Vacula himself.
Can the online atheist community become much more polarized than it is now? I'm not sure, but I find myself wondering how many valuable voices we've lost through all the infighting. Increasing numbers of atheists who are active online seem to be checking out after deciding that they want nothing to do with such squabbles. If we are lucky, they will turn their attention elsewhere and focus on promoting atheism, defending the separation of church and state, and the like. But I fear that some are giving up on a community that may not seem worth the effort at times.
Two questions strike me as relevant here:
- How can we end (or at least reduce) the infighting before it does additional damage?
- Do we really want to end (or at least reduce) the infighting?