Nihilitarianism

I think the reason Richard Dawkins is so worshipped by atheists (pun not intended) is that he pushes the envelope: he shows us much we can get away with in being disrespectful, dispelling our old fear that we would be burned at the stake for irreverence. He's a symbol of free expression, because with the diversity of opinions in the world there is room for every possible extremity, and if there were no person like him celebrated, that could only mean that they were being censored, either explicitly by politics or implicitly by culture. He doesn't represent atheists as much as freedom of speech, as most atheists would not actually go as far in their militancy — the more militant are merely the more vocal. So I can appreciate the fact that this militancy exists, as it deserves the right to exist: so I can think of the militancy he advocates as a good influence on our culture, even if I don't think it's a good influence on the dialogue between science and religion per se. That irreverence is just an experimental way of probing our freedom of expression… much like conflict in a relationship can be a way to probe whether the other person still accepts one when one vents all one's emotions or even simulates emotions just to see the effect.