I think outspoken atheist is a good thing, even though it does make some uncomfortable.
Most religions have enjoy the ability to oppress any train of thought that didn't agree with their view of the world for hundreds of years , even thousands
Case in point , my situation and being a JW
When you are brought up in the religion you are hardly taught to think for yourself, everything is from the FDS, questioning jw's doctrine is causes for maybe reproving etc.. You are told what to believe, told where to look in the bible to reinforce their doctrine.
Now when i left the organization, i really didn't have many self created thought process of what i thought, my entire belief was base don what the JW doctrine told me,
I had heard of people like Richard dawkins (as an example) but also seen how he is ridiculed by many in the JW religion. But his outspokenness and more importantly the valid argument he present, well quite frankly i couldn't counter.
Outspoken atheist is giving reason arguments and social thoughts out to the masses, which for the first time in history is allowing people to think for themselves when it comes to any god.
Yes you can't prove God exists neither disprove it, but that argument no longer holds water., thru some outspoken atheist you can look at the surrounding evidence and see if it points to a god or not. so even through the claim of not being able to prove god doesnt exist is somewhat valid, it is a pointless statement, its like saying I should still be able to believe in Thor as no one has disproved him yet. but the surrounding evidence shows no pointers to Thor or any other god.
People makes comment about how rude some atheist can be, but seriously think of it this way, is you have someone yapping at you that everything on this earth was created in a magically moment by fairies, and depending on how you lived your life, you would either enter into the fairy kingdom, and live a wonderful life flying around, how long would it take for you to get a little bit sick and tired of it, now times that by the length of humanity, and maybe you see why some atheist gets a little annoyed, about supernatural nonsense still being touted as a valid position.
my two pennies
steve
