The Archbishop of Wales:

Any kind of fundamentalism, be it Biblical, atheistic or Islamic, is dangerous.

I think we can agree that fundamentalism, suitably defined, is indeed horrible. I’m not sure what atheistic fundamentalism is meant to refer to, but helpfully he spells it out. Here’s what we’re going to do: let’s pretend for a minute that it’s real. It’s not, of course, but we’ll give him a pass as he can’t be expected to research his Christmas messages and perform all his Archbishop-y duties. Here is his list of the things fundamentalist atheists are supposedly doing:

• Forcing councils to rename Christmas ‘Winterval’
• Making schools put on plays other than the nativity at Christmas
• Getting crosses removed from hospital chapels
• Advocating that religion in general and Christianity in particular have no substance
• Advocating that some view the faith as “superstitious nonsense”
• Making ‘virulent, almost irrational¹ attacks’ on Christianity
• Forcing schools to stop their children sending Christmas cards with a Christian message
• Making airlines refuse their staff permission to wear a cross around their necks

Holy shit. Those atheist fundamentalists are really pulling out the big guns. Councils are renaming Christmas? The humanity! Just for fun, here’s a list of the things Biblical and Islamic fundamentalists do:

• Kill people for not worshipping their deity
• Kill people for performing abortions
• Kill people for trying to convert to another religion
• Kill women for…pretty much anything
• etc.

Not a disgusting comparison at all, then. What a revolting thing to do.

1. Freudian slip [↩]