Thanks for clearing that up, Jack. My point in mentioning my Muslim friend was that atheists and religious people can argue and still get along. I'm not sure if I used the word "delusion", but I was arguing the general atheist line against Ibrahim at the time - I would certainly have used a word like it . He answered by saying that ,if I imagined I was a monkey , what was the point in arguing with me. "Go away monkey!"

Things have soured over the past ten years , and I'm not sure if I could have the same debates today as I did thirty years ago. Steve's agnostic positions have been politely expressed as far as I can see , and I don't think they would have evoked such a hostile reaction here ten years ago . But Steve is wrong to think that there is no such thing as a new militant atheism out there that is goading religious people , getting their backs up . The same atheists that published the anti- Islam Danish cartoons in 2005 in Ireland in the name of toleration , a few years later started organizing crucifixion parties on Good Friday - again in the name of toleration . Some of the images they published last year were worse than the ones on the indymedia site here:


http://www.indymedia.ie/article/99569?search_text=crucifixion%20party&userlanguage=ga&save_prefs=true