NEW ATHEIST: I'm an atheist.
ME: Me too! High-five!
NEW ATHEIST: I don't believe God exists.
ME: It's an absurd idea. May not have been so absurd 5000 years ago, but we keep learning. In the light of new information, it's absurd.
NEW ATHEST: Muslims support terrorism.
ME: What?! No! Studies show that Muslims feel just about the same way about terrorism as people in general do: it's extremely unpopular among them. And they keep saying so, but the Western media tend not to --
NEW ATHEIST: Islam is the greatest danger in the world today.
ME: Islam isn't even one unified entity. I know: Muslims are always talking about how the aim of their religion is to unify all of mankind -- one God, one religion, one humanity -- but in reality, that's sort of like Christians saying that their religion is about turning the other cheek: that is too say, it's not the reality. The reality is that Muslims are not unified.
NEW ATHEIST: Muslims are lying when they say that Islam is a religion of peace.
ME: No -- you ignore peaceful Muslims, and when someone finally manages to force you to take notice of them for a moment, you shrug them off with a "those aren't real Muslims" and go straight back to your fearmongering. There is no more striking example of No True Scotsman than your descriptions of Muslims: according to you, if it's bad, it's authentically Muslim; if it's good, it has dick-all to do with Islam. And --
NEW ATHEIST: You don't see a lot of Buddhist suicide bombers --
ME: Dude! THEY WERE CALLED KAMIKAZES! Thousands of them died in suicide bombing runs in WWII! You don't see what you refuse to see!
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