Sydney Morning Herald, Sat 13 Feb 2010:

Atheism’s true believers gather

(I thoroughly dislike that egregiously distorted title for a start!
But what better can one expect from a newspaper religion reporting hack?)

The new age of activist atheism, which began with the publication of bestsellers such as Richard Dawkins’s The God Delusion (2006), and Christopher Hitchens’s polemic God is Not Great (2007), has grown into a loose global coalition of civil libertarians, liberals and gay rights activists.

Next month the incipient Australian movement will come together for the Global Atheist Convention in Melbourne. Speakers include Dawkins, the movement’s supreme deity; the philosopher Peter Singer; and Dan Barker, a prominent American atheist activist and former Christian preacher.

Jacqueline Maley is the Herald’s religion reporter, and she should be re-educated into the world of reality.
“Dawkins, the movement’s supreme deity…” is either a pathetic attempt at ironic humour, or another gross distortion of reality.
You decide…

Organisers say it is the largest such event to be held in Australia, and perhaps in the world. The 2500-capacity convention is sold out and there is even a waiting list.

More…

Something you will never see: an atheist boarding a plane with a bomb strapped to him, waving a copy of On The Origin Of Species, before he blows himself up in a violent attempt to further his cause.

— So says David Nicholls

I have a small issue with the confidence of this assertion, and it leaves David open to attack.

One needs only consider the case of Tamil terrorists to get an idea that the concept of an atheist suicide bomber boarding a plane with a bomb is not at all out of the question. (And is, in fact, a distinct likelihood.)

Granted, the trivial omission of waving said book gives David an ‘out’, but one that does not impress me at all with it’s maturity, considering the grim topic at hand.

I think that he should cease using this analogy in future.