(A fitting poster for this post…)
Throughout my ‘career’ as a ‘professional atheist’ [a label, expressed with derision, that WILK Newsradio host Steve Corbett used to dismissively refer to me on a recent episode of his radio show] many people — no matter how mild my tone is or how much I write that persons should not interpret disagreement as disrespect — claim that my work is offensive. Some people even go so far as to assert that I should cease publishing content, criticizing religious ideas, and simply just ‘sit down and shut up.’ I’ve posted several responses to these concerns in the past, but wish to, in this post, hopefully put this issue of offense and objections to my work to rest.
The general responses of “you shouldn’t talk about that” or “you should just leave these ideas alone” that often seem to come from those who object with offense to certain content are often quite short and without explanation or argument (and hopefully I’m not a victim of confirmation bias here). When these comments are made, I typically ask for persons to explain their reasoning and elaborate, but they fail to do so. If persons respond — after I defend myself, expand on my ideas, and further clarify my reasoning pertaining to the issue at hand — original objectors continue to, instead of responding to the content, object to a discussion about certain matters even taking place (while the discussion is taking place).