[Vision2020] Say What? Everyone Deserves Death

[Chasuk]

On Sat, May 31, 2008 at 2:40 PM, Donovan Arnold
<donovanjarnold2005 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> If by your logic Christians are extremists because their view is not held by
> the majority of the Earth's inhabitants, then you must also by that
> definition accept that you are radical extremists because the majority of
> the world beliefs in one God, the same God, the God of David and Moses, not
> as you do. Only about 5-10% of the world is Atheist. So if Christians are
> extremists in their views, Atheists are the dangerous radical nut cases.

Your first assertion is correct.  Ted and I are logically extremists,
as we are in the minority.  Your second assertion is also correct,
but barely.  There are now over 6.8 billion people in the world, of
which roughly 3.6 billion fall into the Islamo-Judeo-Christian
category.

However, our numbers aren't insignificant.  Approximately 16% of the
world's population is non-religious, and 6% are Buddhist, who aren't
"religious" in the sense normally accepted in the West.  This gives
nontheists and nontraditional theists a 22% wedge of the world pie.
Islam only possesses a 21% wedge.

Yes, we are extremists.  I don't personally find extremism a useful
word.  It is loaded with pejorative connotation that other, equally
suitable words, such as uncommon or rare, lack.  Even "uncommon"
carries too much weight.  Atheism, agnosticism, nontheism, and all
flavors of nonreligious theism are less common beliefs, but we still
consist of between 1,088,000,000 and 1,496,000,000 persons, which is a
surprisingly large number, considering our easy demonization and
dismissal.

To revise, then: Ted and I are members of a largish minority.

There isn't anything wrong with that.

Chas