[Oceao]

I'm from New England, so maybe that's it heh.

[RodeoRanch]

I've never had an atheist come to my door in the wee hours of the morning, while I still nurse hangovers, and try to convert to his way of thinking. Just religious folks. Sometimes the conversion attempts include fancy pamphlets and the always lovely arguments of "But...but...you'll burn in H-E-Double Hockeysticks!"

But that's just me. It's mostly Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses who pester me.

Anyone ever had an atheist come to their door preaching the..uhh..faith?

[Koryk of the Seti]

RodeoRanch;201931 said:

]
Anyone ever had an atheist come to their door preaching the..uhh..faith?

LAWL!!
but i know lots of atheists(im irish btw) and we often have debates about religion and its pro's and con's with my other religious friends. the only time ive ever rely had problems with my religion or lack of so to speak is when one dick weed started on about it and then transgressed into insults about my family(not sure how he got there:p) i think i broke his nose:rolleyes: didnt mean to though, he just got me angry! ive never seen athiests rail against religion or openly mock religious ppl. me and my friends sumtimes hav a giggle at some of the tings they teach us in religion classes but thats about it. on the other hand ive seen plenty of religious people verbally abuse athiests and sometimes physically.

[Dr Trouble]

RodeoRanch;201931 said:

I've never had an atheist come to my door in the wee hours of the morning, while I still nurse hangovers, and try to convert to his way of thinking. Just religious folks. Sometimes the conversion attempts include fancy pamphlets and the always lovely arguments of "But...but...you'll burn in H-E-Double Hockeysticks!"

But that's just me. It's mostly Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses who pester me.

Anyone ever had an atheist come to their door preaching the..uhh..faith?

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=lRmC0DaE6rE

Oh John Safran, you are a good Australian Prime Minister.

Oh, and on topic: I don't really see much Atheist hate In real life. But on the internets, oh my deity, some atheists are crazy. As are other religious people, but they are mostly (In my experience) on there own forums. Atheists pop up everywhere.

Me, I'm happy doing what I do and ignoring stuff that other people do

[Obdigore]

The ONLY discrimination against athiests that I have seen is in politics. (In the US). And you say you want a discussion about repressed athiesm without bringing politics in?

Ok, lets talk about how no religion has done anything bad, but exclude all wars started by, and other laws violated, by religion, or religious people.

I have much to say on politics and religion, and it can all be put into one long, rambling post, but you asked for that type of stuff to not be posted here, so what are you looking for?

[stone monkey]

What is interesting is that the so-called "New Atheists" appear to have adopted the same tactic that the so-called "Moral Majority" used in the 80s; which was to point out that the status quo is not supported by a large group of people who feel that their values were not represented within the US government and vigourously campaign for this representation. In this case it's about the disproportionate amount of influence that the more loony section of the Christian Right has on government policy - not just the lunacy in the Middle East but also things like the threatened withdrawal of funding from aid organisations who recommend the use of condoms to limit the spread of HIV in the Third World.

Presumably what the Christian Right's hatred for this development actually conceals is a fear that in the future the tactic may work as well for the "New Atheists" as theirs worked back in the day.

[Sandstorm]

::

Atheists are Anti theist , it's a typical anti momevement. So they bring not much new to discuss about.
There are some hardcore atheists but the most are just medium grilled steak. ..More like secularists or free thinkers with a atheist flavour.

::end Rant::

Atheist as whole are such a diverse group maybe even more diverse as christians it's difficult to say something about the hard times they get.

It's mostly the counter arguments about the despiritualzation and abbandoment of God that are thrown to atheist. And ofcourse dammnation by more fanatical religous people.

No sex before marriage, abortion, homosexuals are the main clashing points between the two groups in the more day tot day discussion

But really all depends on where and who

[ch'arlz]

Sandstorm;202861 said:

Atheists are Anti theist , it's a typical anti momevement.

'Atheist' is a term applied by believers to unbelievers. ab + theos = away from God.

-ch'arlz, fwiw

[stone monkey]

I thought the derivation was a+theos = without a god

Anyway, I would say that my atheism is just a realisation of the fact that whilst theism claims to have all the answers it actually has none of them. And that one's morality, place in the universe etc. is for the individual to decide upon and not to have imposed upon them. That theism turns out not to be about any form of humanity (or indeed reality) at all but about the supposed "triumph of the will" of the supernatural deity.

And don't get me started on the non existence of the supernatural....

[Gothos]

if you've seen some religion bashing please let me know and point me to it.
living in .pl, you can really get tired of all the catholics. the only purity they can think of is sexual purity, nothing about hatred or murder. you'll hardly see racist or sexist atheists, but there's plenty of them amongst religious fundamentalists that polish catholics are.
so, more than railing against religion, for me it's bashing organised churches and hypocrites. people who contradict themselves on every turn. people that despise logic and technological progress.

[rlfcl]

limiting the discussion to not include politics doesn't make much sense. Most atheists i've seen on tv, etc or in my personal life aren't railing against religion or a belief in god simply because they're angry that people could believe in god. They're "railing" against religion and god because of how these two things are used to gain support in politics (the gay marriage debate springs to mind), garnering support for unscrupulous politicians or discriminatory laws through this ready-made system of religion. They rail against religion because of how priests, evangelicals, etc suck up to the "religious" right wing (and alternately weild power through the "religious" right wing).

so again, if you want to talk about atheism you'll never get the full picture unless you include politics in the discussion, and you'll be left confused in the end.

[D Man]

An interesting topic.

It has to be pointed out (and has, but to re-iterate) there is no set of instructions for atheists to preach to anyone. There are instructions in religious texts to get out and convert people.

Some people are more enclined to preach than others. So some atheists will gte preachy. Thats just a matter of the personality invloved, its not intrinsic to being an atheist.

It is true that atheism is becoming more prevelant. As it becomes more widespread, and its more prominent champions become more vocal, published and covered by the press it will no doubt embolden your regular every day atheist to speak up. I dont support preaching at anyone, but if people can be made to think and given more information on which to base their life-choices, and in the US in particular where atheism is marginalised and associated with immorality then if the people that dont believe in god can be un-demonised it can only be a good thing.

However, I would like to point out (if it hasnt been already) that christians are too busy hating on gays, feminists, pre-marital sex, drugs, abortion and islam to spend much time on atheists. Muslims like to hate on christians, western society, free speech and danish cartoonists, they havent gotten round to atheists much yet. (Those seem to be the main players these days).

So your point is a little unfair. You seem to be assuming that its a contest over belief in god and that since atheism only pits itself against religion then the reversal is true. Its not. We have realigions that preach intollerance of vast swathes of the global population. Its not a 1v1 fight; the more aggressive religions are fighting their war on dozens of social fronts.

[councilor]

atheists don't get railed at because the major religions are too busy railing against each other, while the athiests rail against religion in general. to be more specific, the idea of believing in a ll powerful being.

[paladin]

whenever i talk to an atheist about religion i get the same type of vibe as when i talk to a mac fanboy about computers. basic gist "im smarter than you because you're not what i am"

[Nequam]

Oceao;201787 said:

I don't really see nearly as many christians / jews / muslims / zoroastrians railing against atheists than I do of atheists railing on religious people.

I don't see any reason to rail on someone because they don't believe as I do. I think that is how the majority of my fellow religous people feel. Sure we will defend ourselves if directly attacked, but for me and generally most christians, that is all we will do; defend ourselves. Not start attacking whatever it is your views are. If there is anything that I have personally gained from my religion it is to be tolerant and fair to my fellow man. They are entitled to their own opinion and beliefs.
See what I'm saying? This is why I think you don't see as many religous people ragging on atheist as you do the other way around. Which personally I'm not even sure I agree with you. Since I myself do not seem run into any 'bashing' of any sorts by atheists.

[D Man]

I also dont see athiests flying planes into buildings, blowing up abortion clinics, trying to control marraige and interfering in peoples sex lives, teaching myths as fact in schools, helping spread AIDs by forbidding condoms, fighting wars over whos non-god has the biggest dick or destroying cultural monuments out of spite.

[ch'arlz]

Atheists - and I am one - can be as prejudiced as anyone else. People are people no matter what labels they attach to themselves. It's self-awareness that is hard to come by.

[Nequam]

ch said:

Atheists - and I am one - can be as prejudiced as anyone else. People are people no matter what labels they attach to themselves. It's self-awareness that is hard to come by.

Yeah, I agree with you.

@ D Man
Those are good points, but you are generalizing too much. Those terrorist attacks are performd by pyschotic extremeists who have their views messed up. They are an incredible minority, and belong to all different types of religions. But just because there is a group of nutjobs who think they should kill people who don't believe as they, doesn't mean they represent the whole religion they claim to be part of. There are a lot of atheists who do horrific things, and a lot of religous people who do horrific things. That is because people do horrific things.

[D Man]

Nequam;271512 said:

Yeah, I agree with you.

@ D Man
Those are good points, but you are generalizing too much. Those terrorist attacks are performd by pyschotic extremeists who have their views messed up. They are an incredible minority, and belong to all different types of religions. But just because there is a group of nutjobs who think they should kill people who don't believe as they, doesn't mean they represent the whole religion they claim to be part of. There are a lot of atheists who do horrific things, and a lot of religous people who do horrific things. That is because people do horrific things.

Not that much.

"All things being equal, good people will do good things and evil people will do evil things, but for a good person to do evil requires religion"

Stephen Wienberg.

No matter what the proportions of the group, there are religions that have teachings that are conducive to and members willing to carry out vile acts. Not so with atheism. While any given atheist can be a lunatic murdering bomb planting nut job, its not because Atheism made them do it.

That is, all too often, the case with religions.

[Goaswerfraiejen]

D Man;271526 said:

That is, all too often, the case with religions.

How often do you think religion is the cause, and how often do you think it's the pretext?


You mentioned that only the religiously inclined fly planes into buildings. I'll not attack the generalization, because I don't doubt that you're aware that it is, in fact, a generalization--hell, you demonstrated as much in your last post. What I do want to point out, however, is that the men who flew into your WTC were not doing it because America is predominantly Christian/Protestant/Catholic/Mithraist/[insert religion here]. The fact that they shared a common religion had little--if anything--to do with the attack, which was entirely politically motivated. It is true that they might be able to find some succour or rationalization in their religion, but it's important to separate motivations.

Even with the Crusades, religion was simply the pretext for a far grander political play. While Timmy the European Peasant undoubtedly stabbed and killed Mohammed the Muslim because he thought it was God's divine will, Timmy the European Peasant was being manipulated for someone else's politcal ends. Is it really fair, then, to say that religion lay at the root of that conflict, or would it be better to say that it provided a convenient opportunity or outlet for human greed/[insert vice here]?