Well, not me, Ian. You seem to be making sense on this thread, even if not on another where we are currently exchanging posts!

Re the thread question. Well, "militant" is a bit of an emotive boo-word; but it would surely be idle to deny that some atheists [of whom I am one] are more anxious to demonstrate, let us say, the intellectual superiority of their position to that of some religious people, than are others.

A little story re a late dear friend, well known to readers of this forum. During a middle-aged period in my 40s, during which I thought I would test out my beliefs [after which, as I say, I returned to my default position, atheism], I mentioned to Peter Bellamy, who was staying over with us as he always did when gigging around Cambs, that I had got adult-baptised and confirmed and was church-going regularly in my [then] new village.

"Oh yes," he replied truculently, "well then I've got a couple of questions to ask you."

"OK, Pete," I replied. "But just ask yourself a couple of questions first. Why do you want to ask me these questions? Is it to try and deprive me of my faith? And, if so, what do you want to do that for?"

Pete thought for a moment. "You're right," he said."I won't ask my questions after all."

I think there are some atheists who might do well sometimes to ask themselves these questions before {'militantly' or otherwise} questioning the beliefs of others.

~M~