Blacknad wrote:
"But the point here is that if Dawkins and Harris want to demonise moderates then they lose a key ally that they could work with to combat extremism."
Well put. The mistake the real extremists make is that they try to attack the problem like it is drug addiction by asking, no demanding, people go cold turkey. It is a losing strategy guaranteed to alienate, as you point out, more rational thinkers.
To me the place to start is by decreasing the severity of indoctrination of children. If they wish to make up their own, adult, minds to believe in the tooth fairy that is their right and privilege. But they should not be sold hell and damnation from birth.
It is pretty hard to tell someone that they have self-worth while simultaneously convincing them they were a sinner who must repent from the day they were born.
Can you ask a child repeat these words every night before falling asleep:
"If I should die before I wake,...."
and not know, too, the intent. It is no different from having children repeat a pledge of allegiance every day in class.
We don't talk about this in the US ... but the original salute to the US flag when children said the Pledge of Allegiance was the straight armed salute associated with the National Socialist Workers Party (Nazi).
