Same post I wrote on the Hibernia Times site...

I'm an atheist and I quite enjoyed this article up until the penultimate paragraph. I'm not sure if this point has already been brought up as I read only a few comments, but the penultimate paragraph really got to me for the way it groups atheists together.

For example, the previous paragraph tells us the position of atheism, tells us it's not a belief and also that it's not a faith. These are all statements I agree with, but I fundamentally disagree with several of the statements in the following paragraph. For instance, I find it quite ridiculous to say that atheists recognise that we need evidence. I'm sure many, including myself and the writer of the article do, but to suggest atheists as a group recognise that we need evidence in order to come to reliable conclusions about reality is quite absurd.

The same goes for the comment that atheists care about reality. How do we know that all atheists care about reality. It seems to me that while there's a lot of talk about evidence in this article which is absolutely right, what evidence do we have to support the factual statement made in the article which suggests that "atheists care about reality" ?

As an atheist, I think that perhaps this is a very bad move to make, grouping people together and essentially giving it some sort of ideological basis, when the paragraph before seemed to refute that.

Finally I disagree with the title. Reason, rational thought, critical thinking and scientific study are surely closer to the embrace of reality, no? Perhaps atheism is a by product but to suggest it is the true embrace of reality is absurd in my opinion.