De Dora is the director of the Office of Public Policy at the Center for Inquiry, an organization dedicated to fostering secular society. He’s also the organization’s United Nations representative. He lives near D.C.’s Eastern Market, contributes to two blogs and describes himself as a secularist and atheist. Do you believe it’s necessary, as famous New Atheists Richard Dawkins and the late Christopher Hitchens did, to attack religion?
No, I don’t think it’s necessary for atheists to be hostile toward religion. I think it’s necessary for any human being to be hostile toward other human beings trying to make you live according to their religious dogmas. We should all be bothered by that kind of thing. But that’s not unique to atheists. I think there is some room for atheists to be harsh regarding religious ideas and beliefs. I think there’s room for that in the sense that it gets the word out there. It’s more likely to get noticed by the media. That said, if atheists are going to take that route, I think it’s important to focus on religious beliefs, not believers. We shouldn’t be attacking people for believing in things; we should be attacking the beliefs they hold. We only live once — at least that’s what atheists believe. So why not try to be nice to each other during this one life?
