Middlebrow has a good piece on the subject. I too have noticed how unsophisticated the thinking is about religion for those who haven't been adequately exposed/educated. I never see the sneering in my personal life, but maybe folks are being polite. I hate to be presumed stupid: at least give me a chance to prove it. A quote:
Lately, secularists have taken to sneering rather than arguing. They simply assume all thoughtful people agree . . . and move on.
When is a “silly” belief disqualifying? Very great men have believed very odd things . . . I would love to be tutored by Socrates (!) whatever his views on government.
But the new secularism has no time for nuance or self-doubt. If a man is religious, then secularists know him to be a fool, an idiot, or a cad. If a secular writer is bright enough, then he might get away with calling a believer all three!
To such folk there are good religious, folk like Cornel West, whose religious views are secularism with God-talk added.
and
Secularists who are fools, idiots, or cads (the dear leader of North Korea, the Hollywood secularist of the moment, and Stalin in no particular order) are merely misguided . . . or not true secularists to the modern writer of such rot.
Christianity may have helped invent modern science, the University, and produced much of the world’s great cultural treasures, but living Christianity is only to be despised, though to be fair any other religious group is hated just as heartily by these thoughtless secularists.
