Irrationality. A strong term. I could go 'questionable judgment' perhaps, irrational...well...I dunno.
Questionable judgment, as in, "Why, Mr. Atheist, venture on an extremely religious person's turf if you're not looking for a pie fight?"
YouTube - Ted Haggard in "Root of All Evil?"
OTOH, we have pie fights around here all the time, and wouldn't we just love it if we were famous and people bought our books because of it? Hey--maybe we're all irrational too!
From the Wiki on him I linked above, it sounds like 911 scared the p-waddin' outta him...like a lot of the rest of us, and he's reacting to that...like a lot of the rest of us.
Yeah, I guess fear makes us do and say irrational things. After I heard the cougar in the back yard, I wouldn't even burn the trash for weeks. I guess that was irrational. I dunno, was it?
I couldn't tell you about the history part, but I'll take your word for it.
Yeah, I think he's going to have to eat his reductionist words one of these days, for true.
And I totally agree, there are lots tastier things to bring to the table than animosity.