Witty Australian brawl

Photo: Ben Rushton"

Fencing theologically: Theists are the new crybabies, moaning pitiful ad hominems at the new atheists, sneers Jewish Michael Brull at Australian Catholic University vice-chancellor Greg Craven.

For example, Craven wrote in provocation:

Just now, we are facing one of our largest and least appealing infestations. Somewhat in advance of summer's blowflies, we are beset by atheists. Worse, they are not traditional atheists. These tended to be quiet blokes called Algie with ancillary interests in nudist ceramics, who were perfectly happy as long as you pretended to accept a pamphlet in Flinders Lane.

...

... the new atheism ... is so banally derivative of every piece of hate mail ever sent to God that I am amazed Satan has yet to sue for copyright infringement.

Brull's critique included:

Rather than confronting (say) [atheist Richard] Dawkins' arguments with counter-arguments, people like Craven, and many others like him, instead cry out: why are you picking on us? All we want is for you to respect our beliefs. And so, the crybaby theists hide behind the demand for respect, which sounds reasonable enough. The more shameless – and their ranks are represented in many religions, such as Muslims, Christians and Jews – complain that when someone criticises their religious faith, the people who belong to that religion are being subjected to abuse.

Theirs is a witty, enlightening Australian brawl that at no point descends to anything like ERLC chief Richard Land's ham-handed misappropriations of Nazism.

In Australia's The Age, read in order:

1. Craven here.

2. Brull here.