Daniel Dennett, the least known of New Atheism's Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (with Hitchens, Dawkins and Harris) recently died. His 4 Rules For Arguing With Kindness, is in the new issue of the Skeptical Inquirer. If we could only restrain our emotional, apish ways and use his rules!

1. Attempt to re-express your target's position so clearly, vividly, and fairly that your target says, "Thanks, I wish I'd thought of putting it that way."

2. List any points of agreement, especially if they are not matters of general or widespread agreement.

3. Mention anything that you have learned from your target.

4. Only then are you permitted to say so much as a word of rebuttal or criticism. 

Here's a final piece of advice from his book, Breaking The Spell. It really sings to my endless search for awe and understanding:

"If you can approach the world's complexities, both its glories and its horrors, with an attitude of humble curiosity, acknowledging that however deeply you have seen, you have only scratched the surface, you will find worlds within worlds, beauties you could not heretofore imagine, and your own mundane preoccupations will shrink to proper size, not all that important in the greater scheme of things."

Should you wish to be a fly on the wall for Dan, and his atheist compadres get together, this 2 hour chat over drinks, and Hitchens cigarettes, is so entertaining, enlightening, and just plain cool! I return to it a few times a year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpiVkTvKCXU

Peter T.