By Madison S. Hughes (10.03.2011)
One has no choice but to ridicule religious belief.
The character House in the television medical drama of the same name once said, “If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people.” That is profoundly insightful. Any attempt to address religious belief with reason and logic to a believer will leave one with the same frustrations Sisyphus must feel.
In sum, address the rational with reason, and the irrational with ridicule.
Always Question Authority 
I wholly agree. It took me years before I realised I was wasting my time using logic & reason! Don,’t even think about trying because you end up nowhere but frustrated & often angry. Realise that they are suffering from a full strong dosevof Menticide, so just walk away!
Also, it’s counter-productive, because not only will the ignoramus debating you think your point invalid, but anyone reading/listening/watching the discussion will too. It’s simply the nature of the beast.
“In sum, address the rational with reason, and the irrational with ridicule.”
So are you saying the above sentence refers to beliefs and not people? Because that was my impression, and if I was wrong, I apologize for the confusion.
I emphatically disagree. Ignorance does not deserve ridicule. Willful ignorance is completely different. People who have no true understanding of their own beliefs, people who haven’t been taught to think properly, aren’t capable of logical thought. So to respond to their ignorance with ridicule? You may as well ridicule a legitimately retarded person. This is a disgustingly elitist perspective, and I’m thoroughly disappointed that an atheist, someone who purportedly prizes knowledge, logic, empiricism, et al above all else could espouse such a belief.
I don’t think their views deserve respect, but ridicule is ENTIRELY counter-productive. People will dismiss any point you make as ad-hominem. And yes, that’s an irrational perspective (assuming you make legitimate points along with the personal attacks), but if your life goal is to make the world a better place, then being a dick has no place. And yes, ridiculing religious people for their beliefs is being a dick.
Hello there truelibertarian,
Great comment!
We certainly agree on willful ignorance deserving ridicule; however, one’s ignorance was not the topic of the post. So the entire first paragraph is another topic of discussion.
“ridicule is ENTIRELY counter-productive. People will dismiss any point you make as ad-hominem. ”
Counter-productive how? One cannot expect to have a productive argument when arguing an irrational belief.
“People will dismiss any point you make as ad-hominem.”
If one were to do that, they would be ignorant of the ad-hominem fallacy, for this post did not personally attack anyone. This post attacked an abstraction, i.e., a religious belief, not the one that holds the religious belief. A slower, more critical read may have made for a more rational response.
I agree with you that ” ridiculing religious people for their beliefs is being a dick,” but the ridiculing of said religious belief is not.
In Reason,
Madison