if you stop lying, we'll stop being angry

Anti-atheist Vox Day responds to Greta Christina's piece about 'angry atheists' by attacking "the self-styled atheist" as "usually an intrinsically repellent individual for the very reasons that caused him to primarily identify himself on the peculiar basis of one very specific non-belief:"

The reason that believers, agnostics, and even other atheists all dislike atheists who identify themselves as atheists is because they don't like annoying, dishonest, and literally self-righteous people with social handicaps who reject every objective moral or ethical code. You don't have to be an asshole to call yourself an atheist, but it quite clearly helps.

I have to wonder, based on Vox Day's "self-styled" criterion, if being a closeted atheist is OK. If so, we could blend in with all the "annoying, dishonest, self-righteous, socially handicapped" Christian assholes who pontificate on the horrible character traits of atheists.

Also intriguing is his claim that "most atheists lie about the source of their atheism" and that we are "clearly not telling the truth" about having an honest curiosity about and interest in religion:

We can easily confirm this to be untrue on several levels. First, while most atheists claim that they gave religion a sincere try, it is patently obvious when they haven't because one can reliably expose an atheist's ignorance of even the most basic Christian doctrine...

Readers may remember this survey showing that atheists tend to be more knowledgeable about religion than theists are. Vox Day knows that reality has rebutted his argument, but he prefers to conclude with yet another torrent of anti-atheist invective:

The combination of ignorance, epistemic incoherence, and ill-founded arrogance that is necessary to label oneself an atheist is as distasteful to the average individual as it is contemptible to the intellectual. When one combines those qualities with the social autism and hate-filled evangelicalism that is all too commonly displayed by atheists, it is a wonder that they are tolerated as much as they are.

This is, sadly, very typical of religious argumentation: much assertion, but no evidence.

Perhaps he thinks we would be better off if our parents had anticipated Pope Ratzi's reminder about the importance of selecting proper Catholic names for our children (h/t: Melissa McEwan):

If you're Catholic and are expecting a baby don't even think of naming it anything like Crystal, Heather, Track or Chelsea unless you want to upset Pope Benedict.

The pope, who baptized 21 children on Sunday at a traditional annual ceremony at the Vatican, said afterwards that every new member of the faith acquires the character of a son or daughter of the Church "starting from a Christian name."

This, he said, was "an unequivocal sign that the Holy Spirit gives a rebirth to people in the womb of the Church."