Being in the atheist community means being exposed to the way disbelievers handle the believers. There is a wide array of behavioral patterns ranging from the sorts of immature crowing that lends some credence to the accusations that we atheists are so "angry" and "miserable" all the time to the broadly academic and thorough. People who throw out the clever insights and people who make idiotic misappropriations that are no better than religious nutbars accusing us of wanting to sin all the time. It's all over the place. And yes, this is largely a sign of the fact that atheism as a community flag has nothing unifying it beyond a common lack of belief. At the very least, a religion has a large set of overarching dogma and therefore multiple things you have to share with your fellow believer to be part of the same club.
Well, even Answers in Genesis goes as far as to include a wide array of common YEC arguments that YECs should stop using. So that at least says that they are willing to recognize that some arguments just don't work, or at the very least need some sort of modification to bring them up to a meaningful status. It's a little ironic to think that even the side which is run by a man who unwittingly brags about the inherently illogical and irrational status of his position would be willing to apply at least some criticism to his own brothers-in-bollocks.
In theory, atheists are supposed to be the side that shows more reason, rationality and skepticism on the whole, though that is at best a loose generalization. Nonetheless, we, as a community, tend to get things wrong quite often. Atheism by itself is not really tied to intellectual rigor in particular, but the reverse is typically the case. Those of us who are more open and out there about our atheism (and as such, will be active in the atheist community) will be those who are more likely to make silly mistakes as well. It's no surprise really, because these are the people who are most vocally frustrated with the venom in religion's bite. That kind of frustration only leads to errors in thought processes clouded by the righteous ire that is so abundantly roused by the idiocy with which we are adversarial. That coupled with the nature of internet community dynamics means that one can very easily fall prey to memes and patterns that other people used just because they were there. The very same people we usually might see as critical thinkers (e.g. Thunderf00t, Jaclyn Glenn, PZ Myers, Matt Dillahunty, et al) all make the occasional slip-up because they're just too angry and too fuming to temper their thoughts. It's only natural. We're human, too. What becomes problematic is when those little missteps spread more than the better, more well-thought out arguments. So here are a few arguments that I feel are really being misused, misstated, or are just plain wrong and just too popular. Note that I'm largely avoiding the more rare or obscure ones, so this is about those that appear to be a little more widespread than, say, 2nd decalogue arguments.
Well, even Answers in Genesis goes as far as to include a wide array of common YEC arguments that YECs should stop using. So that at least says that they are willing to recognize that some arguments just don't work, or at the very least need some sort of modification to bring them up to a meaningful status. It's a little ironic to think that even the side which is run by a man who unwittingly brags about the inherently illogical and irrational status of his position would be willing to apply at least some criticism to his own brothers-in-bollocks.
In theory, atheists are supposed to be the side that shows more reason, rationality and skepticism on the whole, though that is at best a loose generalization. Nonetheless, we, as a community, tend to get things wrong quite often. Atheism by itself is not really tied to intellectual rigor in particular, but the reverse is typically the case. Those of us who are more open and out there about our atheism (and as such, will be active in the atheist community) will be those who are more likely to make silly mistakes as well. It's no surprise really, because these are the people who are most vocally frustrated with the venom in religion's bite. That kind of frustration only leads to errors in thought processes clouded by the righteous ire that is so abundantly roused by the idiocy with which we are adversarial. That coupled with the nature of internet community dynamics means that one can very easily fall prey to memes and patterns that other people used just because they were there. The very same people we usually might see as critical thinkers (e.g. Thunderf00t, Jaclyn Glenn, PZ Myers, Matt Dillahunty, et al) all make the occasional slip-up because they're just too angry and too fuming to temper their thoughts. It's only natural. We're human, too. What becomes problematic is when those little missteps spread more than the better, more well-thought out arguments. So here are a few arguments that I feel are really being misused, misstated, or are just plain wrong and just too popular. Note that I'm largely avoiding the more rare or obscure ones, so this is about those that appear to be a little more widespread than, say, 2nd decalogue arguments.
