Comments on: Some Thoughts On Douglas Murray’s Advice For Secularists

By: Talk Of Human Rights Violates An Islamic ‘Safe Space’ | Godless Spellchecker's Blog

Tue, 01 Dec 2015 10:43:48 +0000

[…] too? Now, I’m sure many of my readers will have some disagreements with Murray’s viewpoints, I have had some myself – but throwing around terms like ‘fascist’ and ‘bigot’ is a perfect example of what […]

By: Hyde_Hill

Hyde_Hill — Wed, 27 May 2015 00:15:01 +0000

I think what Douglas was referring to was that he had hoped that Evan would have stayed on topic. As the topic was countering extremism and while the house of lords stuff is important Islamic Extremism internal and external is more important in Douglas’s mind I think. And the “It would seem to me” part includes a link to an entire explanation of why that would seem to him.

Its similar to his speech where he proclaimed “that as a gay man he would like to get married, but that he would rather have people reserve their ire for those that want to throw him off a cliff!”

The other error is more like this. One says: Souls exist, I save them, come to Jesus Other says: Churches don’t deserve tax exempt status. That is not directly discussing the point.

He is also using Evans as an example here to all secularists/atheists so he is extrapolating from one to the whole. So its not so much a critique of the NSS specifically but as Evans as an example of secularists/atheists in general.

Besides that I am sometimes under the impression that he still has some nascent wistfulness about his religious upbringing.

Sorry first time posting here and Non English first language so hope that I made myself clear enough.

By: Stephen Knight

Stephen Knight — Fri, 22 May 2015 13:11:49 +0000

Hi Adam. I was in the process of adding a footnote on this point when your comment landed. It should now be clarified. Happily, it doesn’t appear Douglas was making the point I’d feared he was. I think the wording of the point is problematic, but I allowed for the likelihood of misreading it in my piece.

Thanks for the comments

By: Adam Pack

Adam Pack — Fri, 22 May 2015 12:57:05 +0000

I think you may be misunderstanding his point about moral discussion. He seems just to be pointing out that religious people talk about right and wrong, or good and evil, whereas secular people are more concerned with ‘how do we make this society function better?’ Because if you say ‘I want gay people to be able to marry’, that’s a statement of fact (about what we want) whereas if you say ‘gay people have the right to marry’, then you’re invoking ‘rights’ which are just as imaginary as gods.
Not all atheists are humanists.