Thankyou both for your intelligent replies. A few things:
[please don't fool yourself into thinking that your .. [views on respect for life] are a reflection of the majority of atheists, because you are not.]
Ok maybe I'm being a touch arrogant insisting my views represents those of all atheists, but then again Christianity is not exactly unanimous of opinion on some crucial issues in this context (e.g. birth control, abortion, euthanasia, stem cells etc). I was merely pointing out that atheism does NOT prevent you, in principle, from respecting life to the same extent the theists do, and should not be shunned in the way described.
[do you buy into the "bleak view described"?]
Yes. Totally. I reject the notion of free will, and see myself as the "descendant of a tiny cell of primordial protoplasm washed up on an empty beach 3 1/2 billion years ago". My view of the world is no darker or less splendid as a result.
[You think that your view "speaks volumes" about your inedependence of thought, but really, do you think that your thoughts are really all that special? You seem to contradict yourself. On the one hand, you value your views and independence of opinion, but on the other, insist on your own insignificance of self.]
Not sure what you're getting at here - Why should my admission of such humility make me too humble to express an opinion? Surely I'd value all people's opinions equally less as my own. My point was that I can take this bleak opinion despite it sounding rather bitter, and that this stands to my credit - whereas the sugary theistic views have, in this way, diminished authority.
[Most of my objection [to the proofs for evolution] rests on purely logical grounds.]
I'm not asking you to accept the theory of evolution, merely to accept that science DOES have to power to credibly attempt to explain our existence, and that scientists ARE indeed qualified to address the issues of our origins, unlike Quinn's opinion.
[Questioning foundational assumptions seems to be the very last thing a doctrinaire neo-Darwinist wants to engage in]
I would argue that theists are infinitely more guilty of this - however stalwart doctrinaire neo-Darwinists come across, they will question such assumptions with more open-mindedness than most theists will - I assure you.
Oh my. Does that mean if I told you to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge, you'd do it? If not, why not?
Thanks for writing, TrisB!