Having no grounds to speak to it, nor have I even gotten Dawkins new book yet, I'll give it a shot (also, I note some import differences between Dawkins and the other profiled, so I'm going by how the article defines the "movement". Rather than any one guy):
My guess? You're more against them than with them. Maybe even "worse" than the hardcore believer, depending on how you spin it.
From the articles perspective: At best you give power to the religion you believe in. You may have no problems with gays or condoms, but when your church speaks against them, it's credited with having you in it's numbers. They don't say: "There is X amount of Catholics/Christians in the word and X% of them are partial believers". You may not want to stone gays, but you help give power to those that do.
This could be solved by me just getting away from organised religions and believeing what I will on my own, right? If I ask the church to take me off the list, won't that eradicate my support fo them? Or will I still be counted among the supporting ones, just like I'm supportive for this New Atheism-movement, which at least tried to be decently polite abut it all?
Ah, what a comparison. Harsh, man!
But I guess I agree. I don't view organised religion as evil, nor do I choose to go against it and try to exalt others to my view. I understand the arguments against the "halfway" approach to this, since I'm doing more bad than good, right? Yet, I wouldn't want to really get into this argument at all, since it would cause me to question my beliefs even more. Hahhah, I guess one could argue that it is the lack of blind faith that really keeps you going, the will and thought to question your beliefs every day and yet keep them. Unbenign obedience is an antediluvian subject. However, I do not wish to question my more than what I do every day. I fear what would happen if I didn't believe at the end.
I think that religion...no, not religion but faith, is one of the principle things that make me what I am. I used to be an atheist, not a strong one, but one still. And when I found my faith again, I felt changed. In every way that matters. I feel good when praying, really good. Even if is a stupid thing I'm praying for. Yet, praying doesn't feel right anymore and everything that happens in the world, what happens to me, keeps me on my toes. The "Teodikean problem" is just a funny way to label something and toss it aside, since it cannot be explained. Established systems ask for blind faith, while there are serious problems with that. "You just need to believe!" Well, what if I don't know what to believe in anymore?
If I choose to believe in all possibilities of gods and supernatural, like I used to, I have a pretty big chance of going to hell, or to Hel. That is, I if I choose to believe in those things. And why would I, doesn't the promise of eternal happiness no matter what tickle everyones fancy? ****, I used to argue against that, based simply on the idea of having to earn everything, equivalent trade, you could say. There's no point of gaining something without consequences, without the journey. But nowadays that feels pretty hollow. Yes, in principle it is a good notion, but when it comes to practice; everything fails. The only way to get to heaven by Lutheran standards is to have faith. To accept God and Jesus as your saviors and believe. All your sins are already forgiven and anyone can get in that way. So, like 3 billion buddhists will rot in hell? And what about fanatic murderers? Do they get in?
I could, of course, just adapt my faith somewhat to get better results, but that just means that religion for me is something like a trinket to bring happiness. A toy, you can snap and whose hair you can cut to your liking. And that kind of thinking, my friends, sucks. With all this in mind, you'd think it would be easy for me to just go unbeliever on the church. But I don't think I would be myself anymore. I read somewhere that every major change in ones life has several periods of acceptance and denial, like sorrow and blind denial and finally comfort and growth. I don't think I could emerge from the first period. Not yet, anyway.
Mus going overboard yet again. Have a cute puppy to rest your eyes.
