There are two reasons why people start shouting at their opponents:
one is that they think the opponent is so strong that every weapon
must be used against him; the other is that they think their own
case so weak that it has to be fortified by noise. Both these
motives can be observed in the evangelical atheists. They seriously
believe that religion is a danger, leading people into excesses of
enthusiasm which, precisely because they are inspired by irrational
beliefs, cannot be countered by rational argument. We have had
plenty of proof of this from the Islamists; but that proof, the
atheists tell us, is only the latest in a long history of massacres
and torments, which – in the scientific perspective – might
reasonably be called the pre-history of mankind. The Enlightenment
promised to inaugurate another era, in which reason would be
sovereign, providing an instrument of peace that all could employ.
In the eyes of the evangelical atheists, however, this promise was
not fulfilled. In their view of things, neither Judaism nor
Christianity absorbed the Enlightenment even if, in a certain
measure, they inspired it. All faiths, to the atheists, have
remained in the condition of Islam today: rooted in dogmas that
cannot be safely questioned. Believing this, they work themselves
into a lather of vituperation against ordinary believers, including
those believers who have come to religion in search of an
instrument of peace, and who regard their faith as an exhortation
to love their neighbour, even their belligerent atheist neighbour,
as themselves.