PZ Meyers responds to Sam Harris

Earlier I wrote about Sam Harris telling atheist we should stop using the word atheist to describe ourselves. I still agree with that point of view and actually this response by PZ Meyer is exactly the kind of infighting it can cause.

You say you never thought of yourself as an atheist before. And there, I think, is the major rebuttal to your own thesis. It doesn't matter that you don't call yourself an atheist. Sam, they're going to call you an atheist anyway. Your friends might be willing to accede to your wishes and stop calling you an atheist, but your enemies won't, and the media, which has promoted you as an atheist, probably won't … and if they do, you'll vanish from your influential position rather quickly. You don't get to choose what other people will call you.

Sure he's got a point, but I think the essential thing here is not caring what other people call you and committing yourself to reason so that eventually someday labels like "Atheist" won't matter. People are called lots of things they are not, it doesn't mean they have to accept that because someone else calls them that. Terrorist call me "white devil" but I don't nod my head and go okay I'm a white devil. This is really about being an individual and not being part of a group. The whole idea being reason and dis-belief is making your own decisions. And I think Sam is trying to discourage GroupThink (if I can coin my own doublespeak, unless it already is one, I don't remember).

A group does provide streagth and presence, but at the same time it demands a set of belief's that in the case of non-belief not everyone agrees with. It reminds me of this passage in the Humanist Declaration:

Secular humanism is not a dogma or a creed. There are wide differences of opinion among secular humanists on many issues. Nevertheless, there is a loose consensus with respect to several propositions. We are apprehensive that modern civilization is threatened by forces antithetical to reason, democracy, and freedom. Many religious believers will no doubt share with us a belief in many secular humanist and democratic values, and we welcome their joining with us in the defense of these ideals.

It's a fine line to walk. And I think Sam is just trying to keep us on that line.