Hemant does plenty of good stuff, but his promotion of himself as a “friendly atheist”–implicitly denigrating an awful lot of other people as “angry atheists”–has always bugged me. Recently, Hemant did another post on the subject, and Vjack pointed out the problems with the argument:

As someone who has frequently been accused of aggressive atheism, I don’t think it is about not caring who I offend as much as it is recognizing that someone who believes ridiculous things has no reasonable expectation of people pretending otherwise.

I certainly do care who I offend, and I go out of my way many times each and every day to conduct myself in a less offensive manner… [snip]

Does any of this make me friendly? No. I am probably one of the least friendly people I’ve encountered, and I’m content with that. When it comes to atheism, I am perfectly willing to place myself on the aggressive side of the spectrum. At least, I would be if I thought it was meaningful to talk about “aggressive atheism.”

It sounds to me like what Hemant is really claiming is that “friendly” atheists choose their battles while “aggressive” atheists do not. But that is an absurd generalization. Nobody has the time, money, and energy to fight every battle. We all choose our battles.

I do like the reference to Brian Sapient at the end of Hemant’s post, though.