PZ Myers writes about a faitheist.

[trotsky]

He's too smart to be anything but an atheist; but all the little people out there, the dull dumb mob, why…they need religion so that they'll obediently maintain his life in the style to which he is accustomed. There are plenty of idiot atheists like that, and they're usually conservative/libertarian assholes. Personally, I would rather not live in a society of pious rules-followers; I want everyone's intelligence respected and nurtured and encouraged to flower. My ideal society is one that is getting better and discovering new ideas and bringing everyone along, not just some smug elite that thinks they're better than everyone else.

...

Mr Myers (oh, how it pains me to use that name in this context!) has another peculiarity: he's a self-loathing atheist who also thinks, along with the Pope and a host of other deluded souls, that secularism has been the great evil of the 20th century.

More...

Gee, how nice we have some folks just like this hanging around in R/T too! Why, they even share the "Hitler was an atheist" lie and harp on Stalin/Mao/Pol Pot!

[charlie]

1. "Shallow theology"

Don't forget that one. As if the likes of Dawkins never heard, let alone gave due consideration to, high flown religious wankery. Important crap like this:

http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2007/06/antinomies-of-limbo-some-histo

Centuries of fevered hairsplitting that drew in even the mighty Augustine, only to have Mother Church say: Whoops. It was all made up. Sorry. Nevermind.

I watched a recent debate Hitchens had with this grim undertaker apologist. The guy was sharper than most, though his arguments were boilerplate. But, there was something off about him, like he was a grumpy automaton. Then, in summation, he says this:

Finally, I've argued that atheism, in so far that it removes from the human context, a brute sense of obligation based on fear... a brute sense of obligation based on fear... removes from the moral calculus a profound and powerful reason not to do evil. I think there's no escaping this. It's unpleasant, I don't particularly like it and to be perfectly honest, I haven't lived my life that way, but I recognize that it is a fact. And I think we all must.

What the hell? The guy's a fucking unbeliever?

Yes, turns out he is. And an employee of the Discovery Institute. Where the fuck do these cranks keep coming from? It seems there's no end to them.

[trotsky]

2. LOL, another one.

"a brute sense of obligation based on fear"

Yes, that's exactly what we need to move forward as a species.

[realisticphish]

3. This argument amuses and scares me

It always seems to imply that the person making the argument is saying, "Well, obviously I WANT to rape and murder you, then steal your belongings, burn down your house, and sell your children into slavery, but God says no, so you're golden"