Dave Weinberger made me happy with this observation today about hearing Richard Dawkins speak at the TED conference: It genuinely irks me that he recklessly conflates all religions as if they all reject science, all insist on blind faith, and all appeal only to the weak-minded. Deepak Chopra followed up by suggesting Dawkins was a fundamentalist and a bigot, and, Dave notes: He then spent his twenty minutes trying to erase science's distinction between observed and observer, using indeterminacy and quantum leaps as his proof points.
Atheists who treat atheism as a religion irk me, too. I used to be arrogant enough to think that I could sort out all of reality through my own filter. Growing older has presented me with more insolvable propositions that have opened my mind into understanding that there is no possible way to understand all of reality, nor dismiss the beliefs of billions of people. I've also started to appreciate that every single person's expression of religious belief or spirituality is different than everyone else's, dogmatic theologians and zealots aside. Even the strictest observer has their own thoughts and spin; dogma tries to deny these differences.