Well Vinny and probably some others have come to wonder about the purpose of outspoken atheism, especially when it is presented in a rude manner. Here's my thoughts on the matter.
Many of us here will have relatives who are Jehovah's Witnesses. We want them to escape from that cult. Sometimes being tactful is the best approach, and we carefully plant seeds of doubt, hoping they they won't run away from our 'apostate' thoughts. But other times, just being blunt is better.
We don't say 'Oh, um well see the thing is, I completely respect your beliefs, but there's this thing with the two witness rule. I think it's a bit unfair to get a victim to find two witnesses before anything is done about the accused. It's doubtful they will be doing anything when even one witness is around to see. But um, yes, I don't want to take you away from your religion and I expect if the GB are being guided by Jehovah then it will all be okay in the end. I'm sorry I brought it up.'
No. We make it known in an outspoken way that this rule has led to many people going unpunished, and many victims not getting justice. We don't dance around the issue and sweeten it up. The JWs need to know about this rule if they don't already, and we shouldn't pretend it is a good rule. It is a barbaric, disgusting rule and hiding behind 'Well it's my religion' doesn't cut it with us. We do not respect their beliefs when things like this happen. Why should we?
You can probably see where I'm going with this. We all know what it's like to be in the position where we know a belief system is wrong, and we need to say something about it. The outspoken atheists just apply this exact same criteria (which is never frowned upon in these forums) to all religions. Being tactful sometimes works, being blunt can work too. A person who is told 'you are deluded and you need help' may be offended, but they take in the message, even if they don't agree with it. A person who is told 'I don't agree with you, but please, continue believing and converting others' will forget it was even said five minutes later.
In the last few years, the debate between atheists and believers has gained much popularity. Why? Because atheists are breaking taboo and being rude. More people are stopping and thinking about why they actually believe.
What also comes into play is blatant hypocrisy. Hiding behind a wall of religious respect has let parents frighten their children with hell fire, hold back science, kill people and keep people ignorant of the facts of life. Now THAT is rude. I don't want to have to defend reality, but I find I must. The religious people are the ones who cannot keep their beliefs to themselves, they have cast the first stone, as it were. Outspoken atheists are responding. We did not start the 'fight'.
It's also worth noting that we've limited things to words, not beheadings, burning, bombing and indoctrination. So I make no apologies for being rude about these issues in a public forum. It's got people talking about this for the first time in many years, so it obviously works. I and others are also open to any reasons to believe in a god. We don't just say 'you're deluded' and put our fingers in our ears singing la la la la la. I have tried my best to answer every question put to me about why I should believe in a god. A believer hardly ever asks about evolution or cosmology, etc and remain open themselves to being proved wrong.
Who is being more rude?