Reply #29: Couple of things...

[varkam]

Foremost, I never said that attacks only come from one side. There are, however, some pretty good recent examples of the type of thing which I posted on that got in the way of any sort of meaningful dialogue.

Also, when you use the fundamentalist moniker, you are engaging in an ad hominem - which is the point that I tried to address in the OP. As I wrote, there are better ways to describe behavior without resorting to such tactics that are not likely to improve the situation any.

But I’m telling you frankly, as a non American agnostic, this board is (moreoften) a shitfest of “fundamentalist or evangelical atheism” that cannot tolerate even the suggestion that a religion made historical contribution to humanity without responding with hostility and bizarre attack.

It is a discussion board, and there are going to be people with a ride range of opinions, and some will be strident in their expression of said opinions - nevertheless, it still doesn't justify using the terms fundamentalist or evangelical (which, again, was the point of the OP).

Can you likewise see that when people speak positively of a religion that “some will feel that they personally are being attacked”?...that their atheism is thereby threatened or challenged?...and that whoever speaks of religion in positive terms must be a believer and (no doubt) a fundamentalist to boot and thereby becomes an immediate target…?

I believe that I have spoken of religion in positive terms at times, and I have not been called a fundamentalist and become an immediate target. Most of the posts that I read on DU (and I read a lot of them) that speak positively of religion are not pulled through the muck. There are some asshole atheists, to be sure, as there are with any group of people.

Even still, it doesn't justify evangelism or fundamentalism (which is the point of the...yeah).

For my money, I only think I have personally been called that once or twice, and it doesn't bug me too much personally. My investment in this topic stems from my belief that we should use language as accurately as possible, and that we should try to be respectful of one another (even when people are not respectful to us).