Atheists The New Theists ?

Which? There's like five polls/studies on that page and every one has atheists more hated and denied from public service.

The thought that 35% of the people here think that atheists can't be good people is downright frightening.

LOL! In turn, that 35% may not be the best people on the planet either.

you're right, the muslims come out better than the non-religious, not atheists, i didn't realize they weren't using the terms interchangeably, my mistake.

No, you said "Except atheists(or agnostics, more appropriately) are right" which reads like "Both Atheists and Agnostics are right, but specifically Agnostics are right" I didn't copy/paste pre-written anything, I read your reply, not my fault if your ideas aren't correctly conveyed in the wording you chose to use. It's up to you to specify and elaborate on your stance, it's not up to me to try and guess what you mean.

Wabam. Your witness.

"Atheist fundamentalism" is to be expected, and shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.

For centuries, atheists have had to hide themselves while living in religious societies. They weren't worried about being frowned upon...they were worried about being killed.

So when atheists find themselves in an age where they are able to speak up without fear of being exiled or murdered, it's unsurprising that some would go overboard, and become religion-hating, atheist fundamentalists.

Why? Because Christianity, like most organized religions, is capable of being twisted into a -smug- religion.

Those of us who are "unbelievers" have almost all had to tolerate Christians who smiled sadly and said, "We'll pray for you"...as if we have a disease.

Most of us have had to deal with people who said we were a lost cause, or we had no morals, or that we were the products of Satan.

Some of us have even had our own families disown us, all because their belief in a sky god came before love for their own flesh and blood.

Who -wouldn't- become angry at constantly being told how evil, immoral, intolerable, and horrible they are?

In fact, emotional abuse can be partially defined as being told one is worthless, and useless, and beyond redemption.

So, as an atheist, I can understand where the most rabid of our shared non-belief are coming from...but I still denounce the way some of them are going about it.

Neil deGrasse Tyson is so awesome! I love to listen to his lectures on youtube (yeah I know, odd). He is so excited about his subject matter and he explains everything so clearly, plus he is just hilarious. His books are pretty good too ^^

Meh, they're right, I'm an atheist (or perhaps agnostic, I'm undecided) and I'm an ***!

I'm really not surprised that people hate atheists. Anyone that actively labels themselves as an atheist is preaching. If I'm asked what religion I am (or I'm participating in a debate such as this) I'll say I'm atheist, but I'm NEVER going to bring it up otherwise.

I do think religious people (and yes, I chuck them all in one big group) are wrong, and I know so many of the wars in this world have been started because of religion, but I don't go around preaching the fact. Because just as there are atheists who don't advertise the fact, the majority of religious people also don't advertise it. It's the people who do that give either party a bad name.

So yeah, people hate atheists for the same reason that people hate *insert religion here*. Because of the minority of people within that religion that actively preach how everyone else is wrong. I couldn't give two shits what religion you follow, but if I somehow learn what religion that is in an otherwise regular conversation, you're doing it wrong.

I feel the need to reiterate that, while it may be one piece of the source of all the hatred non-theists receive, there's something inherently wrong with definitively telling people incorrect information, while there's absolutely nothing wrong with telling them the truth. I'm certainly not saying that I or anyone else is likely to maintain any sort of significant friend-base by telling every theist that their beliefs are unfounded and, well, stupid, but there's a big difference between telling people there is a god and telling people there probably isn't.

But on the real, lets not pretend that theists generally hate non-theists because of their advertisement of being such. Most theist hatred comes from their religious doctrine instructing them that non-theists are evil.

The hating atheists thing makes a lot of sense to me and why religious people don't hate other religions as much as they hate atheists.

I've listened to talk show hosts who think that anyone who is an atheist must be a unmoral unethical person, because how can you have morals without religion telling you whats moral?

I wonder if atheists used to have club meetings and a secret handshake back in the day.

One thing I've always wondered is why those that follow a particular religion are more appalled to those who don't simply participate in any particular religion more so than those that follow one that oppose their beliefs; in the sense of others worshiping false idols, as opposed to none at all.

Dunno, just food for thought.

Similarly, though, there are times where I can't go 5 minutes without hearing how much cooler and smarter and better atheists/agnostics are, and how much more stupid and worthless people with religion are. In reality as well as on the internet. I often just wish they would understand that I am not interested in hearing about what they believe - I just don't care.

Oh wait. That feeling is a little familiar...

What's more, is that when some kind of crazy religious person does something idiotic ANYWHERE in the world, it's as if all of the atheists EVERYWHERE need to point it out to everyone.

And finally, having directly dealt with jihadists, the Westboro Baptists, and just plain harmless Christians in general, it's the wannabe hipsters and circle-jerking agnostics that have caused more strife in my life than any of those.

"Look at me! God isn't real! LOL U R DUM!!! HAT WATCH THIS VID the proves it!! LOLoL look at teh Christians!!!" That's kinda what I hear anytime anyone feels the need to point anything out.

And you know what? I don't even think a God exists.

Last edit: And yet, I am always sucked into these kinds of talks... I suck.

You're holding a green marker. Are you going to be more hostile toward someone genuinely suggesting the marker is blue, or genuinely suggesting you're not holding anything at all?

Kind of an odd example, but I would like to think of the atheist point of view in that example isn't an outright declaration of there being no marker, but rather lacking acknowledgement to a marker being of any particular significance. So rather than saying you have no marker, it would be more of a "what marker?".

I love this post.

I'm actually in the same boat and I'm pretty sick of it too.

I have a friend who's agnostic and he talks about how religious people are evil and stupid all the time.

I've been an atheist all of my life (literally) and I think this point of view is pretty ignorant. People are religious for all sorts of reasons and believing in religion obviously doesn't make you stupid or evil and I'm just sick of hearing about it.

Not that I'm interested in discussing whether I personally am for or against declarations of non-theism, but genuine belief in the supernatural requires a large deficiency in one's ability to think critically. If inability to think critically doesn't make you an idiot, I'm not really sure what does.

At the very least, I think drastically less of the intellectual capacity of anyone that can be swayed into believing something without any factional reasoning behind it.

Oh GOD(pun), this again!

I thought the agnostic POV was "I don't know", not that other stuff.

There's a monumental difference between "despite the overwhelming evidence against <blank>, anything is possible, so I can't be absolutely certain" and "I really have no idea".

Non-theistic agnostics know that there's little to no chance that a god exists, but they're rational enough to acknowledge that anything is possible.

basically "I don't believe any gods exist because there is no evidence to support that they do". That's all Atheism says. Atheism is the stance that they have no belief in a god or gods. That's a perfectly fine thing. There is no evidence to support the idea that there is an invisible man in the sky with a huge hammer that can shoot lightning bolts out of his ***.

I mean stick me in a rood with a Buddhist, Jew, Hindu, Muslim, Christian and I'll be more than willing to listen to them talk about their god. However without any actual evidence other than "this is what I was told and this is what this book says"... lets be honest... that's not really gonna hold any water.

By all means believe that there was an almighty creator of the universe. You have every right to believe that. However don't be surprised if people think you are dumb because you are following a book that says some really dumb things that are dumb because they have already been disproved.

Once again you are free to believe whatever you want to believe - but its not fine to believe in things that have been disproved - that's called intentional ignorance (I'm sure there is better wording for it). Live and let live yea? Just don't go openly against science and everything that we have discovered and found to be true to the best of our knowledge and say "nuh uh!"

Don't try and push your PERSONAL religion against others. No organized religion is right. But as an atheist I believe I have the right to educate you based on knowledge that is found to be true against the stuff you believe because you were told to in order to attempt to free your mind. Why would I want people to go around looking like morons when there is data and evidence to prove otherwise?

Christian says "Jesus is with me! I feel him!"
Muslim says "Allah is with me! I feel him!"

Both feel the exact same thing. They feel that their is a god walking with them and its their god that they were told to believe in as a child. You see how silly it is that they can argue against each other? How can each both be right? Now take into consideration that there are probably about 1000+ religions that have ever existed. Is YOUR religion still correct? How come the ones that didn't come before it aren't correct? How come your religion had to break off and evolve from another religion? How come that one inst the correct one?

Believing in something because someone TOLD you or because you FEEL it doesn't make it true. This is why its called belief - And believe doesn't make it true. The brain is a computer. And like ALL computers every brain can have an Illegal operation which must be shut down. These are called delusions.

I'm aethist, and I sure don't push my lack of religion on others, but when people preach to me about "God" and "His Love", I tend to be rather.... kurt with my rebuttals lol

Shut the hell up, nobody cares.

This is a stupid debate, just shut up.

Please allow us to block threads.

I can't say I've had anyone actually try to push their religion on me outside of the internet. I don't get butthurt if someone says "bless you" when I sneeze. I thank them. (Around friends I'll say "I'd rather you not", but that's a bit of an inside joke) Someone tells me they'll pray for me, I thank them.

One of my coworkers actually said something like "I don't know if you do or not." All I responded with was a smile and "I'm not much of a religious person, but thanks."

People should focus less on the words, and more on the intent.

(I also said "so help me, God" at the end of my enlistment oath every time I've said it simply because of tradition.)

Bolded for truth.

I agree completely.

Well sir, then you haven't had the luxury of Jehovah's Witness asshats walking on your soft pimp *** grass repeatedly to knock on your door trying to "convert" you or whatever. Even after you have told them calming that you are 100% not interested and to please stop coming to your home and on your property. Then the very next week, those same two fellers come knocking on your door. There be the point that the garden hose comes out and shouts of violence upon their persons in which will result in them seeing their god up close and personally begins as you chase them with your garden hose. They and their god doesn't pay my mortgage or my property taxes so they can gtfo! I'm not gonna lie, I now hate these fellers and it has nothing to do with their religion at all at this point.

By the way people, I thought Tom Cruise set the world straight with god being aliens or something didn't he? Eh, religious people, all a bunch of nutjobs in my opinion but to each their own. Everyone can beleive what they want in my eyes but I don't want the crap pushed onto me as much as they don't want mine pushed onto them.

EDIT: AND GTFO MY LAWN!

Wouldn't it be more along the lines of "I may or may not be holding a green marker. I can't see it or show it to you, but I know I'm holding it"?

There are people who would say that if you can't prove it, it doesn't exist (atheists), there are people (other religions) who would tell you the marker is blue, and then there are people who couldn't give two shits if you have a marker or not (also atheists I guess).

It's called faith. What you say makes perfect sense, but it also kinda discounts peoples right to decide for themselves. It's scientifically impossible to prove that something doesn't exist, so there's not now, nor will there ever be any evidence against religion.

I think the bible is a sack of ***, as it was written by so many different people, passed on and probably retranslated so many times over so many years, of course it's not going to be 100% correct. So even if elements, or all of the bible can be or have been disproven, it still proves nothing either way about the existence of god. I dislike people that follow religion that strictly, and kind of agree with you about people that believe in it that strongly being stupid. But, and this is a very big but, I dislike them in the same vein as I like atheists who don't shut up about it.

I think it's perfectly possible, and reasonable to believe in god without believing in him to the exclusion of common sense or to the denial of proven fact. I personally don't, but I sure as hell don't begrudge that right to others, as long as they stfu about it and don't try and tell me my beliefs are wrong and theirs is right.

Beliefs, and opinions for that matter, are like ***, everyone has one, but no-one wants yours (not aimed at you Dodu) shoved in their face.

Exactly the point I've been trying to make. The only reason I dislike anyone of religion is not because of religion itself, but because of their attitude/behaviour regarding it.