The Atheist Experience: totalitarian atheists

This is an excerpt from the Atheist Experience TV show, episode #747, with hosts Matt Dillahunty and Beth Presswood.

The caller here demonstrates - if we ever doubted it - that not all atheists are wise. Honestly, how crazy is this? Beth is right to call people like that "totalitarian atheists." If they had their way, they'd be just as damaging to our country as any religious nut.

The fact is, the end does not justify the means. If we've learned anything from history, we've learned that, haven't we? In general, in fact, the means tends to be far more important than the desired end, not least because we never know for sure if the result will actually be that particular end.

At the very least, atheists should realize that they'd be the first people targeted if America really did abandon freedom of religion and freedom of speech. But that's not the main reason I'm against it. And I am against it. Like Matt and Beth, I'd fight to defend your right to teach your children what you believe, whether I agree with it or not.

This episode was just from a couple of weeks ago. I watched the whole thing then, and I'd been hoping that someone would post this excerpt on YouTube, since I really did want to embed it here. (I suppose I need to learn how to do that myself.) I'm an atheist, but I think it's important to remember that individual atheists can be just as batshit crazy as anyone else.

And we need to be the first people to say that. Matt and Beth handled this exactly right, as far as I'm concerned. Those two, at least, have their head on straight.