# Are militant atheists real? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 25, 2014, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-militant-atheists-real/686920 "2014-04-25T03:07:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2014, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-militant-atheists-real/686920/81 "2014-04-26T12:29:48Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > Not a problem, it doesn’t come across like that. As you say it is very common. to do exactly what we did. It is just cultural and the words mean nothing other than being pretty and the whole thing is just a celebration of birth and excuse for a party. The religious aspect is negligible to most but those that wish to can take solace from it. > > Understand that we are not “committing” the child to anything. They know nothing about it and I’ll never push them in any religious direction. It’ll be their choice in their own time. I don’t even consider them to be C of E and in any forms or census their religion is put as “none”. Should they choose otherwise in the future they can put something different. Thanks; glad no offence was given. As said, different personal takes on an issue. A small part of my position on the matter is, I think, that (unlike yourself) I feel no particular fondness for the general “props” of the C of E, despite having had a fair amount of not-directly-participating exposure to it in childhood. > [@](#): > > The one tangible benefit from baptism is that it allows them the option of being married in that (very pretty) church in the future. A perceived tangible benefit from long ago – involving my maternal grandparents, who had their first child of several, in 1916 (I’m in my sixties, and they started on the reproduction bit when relatively “elderly”). Said grandparents had grown up Anglican, but concluded in their late teens / twenties, that religion was bunk: rejected it, and continued to do so throughout their lives. They had their kids C of E-christened, though: being apprehensive that they might suffer discrimination re education / jobs / just socially, should they not have been christened. That might indeed have been a factor to reckon with in Great Britain, three-quarters of a century ago; nowadays, of course, it would matter re such considerations, to almost nobody in the country. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2014, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-militant-atheists-real/686920/82 "2014-04-26T12:43:26Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > [Madalyn Murray O’Hair](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madalyn_Murray_O'Hair) was about the most militant atheist in American history. WARNING: It is not a pretty story. > > I’m an atheist, but I’ll respect your right to believe what you want. No, you do not KNOW there is a god. You BELIEVE in that all stuff, but there is no way of knowing it. > > And yes, I am a moral person. The only time I get on my high horse is when people say without religion, there are no morals. It’s interesting that her son become an evangelical Christian. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2014, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-militant-atheists-real/686920/83 "2014-04-26T14:20:48Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > … I just don’t understand how some people are encountering such hostility to their private beliefs unless they seek out that conflict in some way. > > Religion plays no role in my life so there aren’t many religious people in my life at all. You’ve answered your question, there, sort of. They DO encounter religious people, and so the hostility. > [@BlackKnight](#): > > Militant atheists are a lot like militant feminists. They do exist, especially on the Internet. I like to think they are venting, because they are calm and civil in person. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2014, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-militant-atheists-real/686920/84 "2014-04-26T22:35:07Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > It’s interesting that her son become an evangelical Christian. William Murray has said on the record that the prayer he had to recite each day, the one that led to the Supreme Court case, was indeed unconstitutional. ---
**Author:** ![Rikules\_the\_Avenger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Rikules\_the\_Avenger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rikules_the_Avenger)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2014, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-militant-atheists-real/686920/85 "2014-04-26T23:12:28Z")
Polls indicate that atheists are considered WORSE than terrorists! And you can google it and find all kinds of people saying it; on message boards, fox news, christian sites, even so-called liberal biased news media like cnn and msnbc can be found disparaging atheists and atheism. ask rush limbaugh and roger ailles and david limbaugh ann coulter michelle malkin jeff jacoby glenn beck duck dynasty the duggars anyone at fox news and THEY will tell you; 1. christians are MORALLY SUPERIOR to atheists 2. atheists have NO morals perhaps this is your first time on a message board? maybe you just landed on the planet? I don’t know why you have not seen THOUSANDS of conservatives, christians denouncing atheists as being immoral and CLEARLY stating that christians ARE morally superior. I have no doubt that even on this message board, if you find a topic regarding atheists and immorality, you will find conservatives stating that very thing and wondering “where do you atheists get your morals if not from the bible?)” ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2014, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-militant-atheists-real/686920/86 "2014-04-27T00:27:02Z")
I’m a Christian, but I love those “be good for goodness’ sake” ads. I find the idea of doing good out of fear of punishment or hope of reward from some deity (not the kind I believe in, btw; I believe in the divine and demonic, but not deities or demons) repugnant. I have little patience for “non believers are immoral” or “believers are mentally deficient” attitudes. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2014, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-militant-atheists-real/686920/87 "2014-04-27T01:34:52Z")
> [@Rikules\_the\_Avenger](#): > > Polls indicate that atheists are considered WORSE than terrorists! > And you can google it and find all kinds of people saying it; on message boards, fox news, christian sites, even so-called liberal biased news media like cnn and msnbc can be found disparaging atheists and atheism. > > ask rush limbaugh > and roger ailles > and david limbaugh > ann coulter > michelle malkin > jeff jacoby > glenn beck > duck dynasty > the duggars > anyone at fox news > and THEY will tell you; > > 1. christians are MORALLY SUPERIOR to atheists > 2. atheists have NO morals > > perhaps this is your first time on a message board? > > maybe you just landed on the planet? > > I don’t know why you have not seen THOUSANDS of conservatives, christians denouncing atheists as being immoral and CLEARLY stating that christians ARE morally superior. > > I have no doubt that even on this message board, if you find a topic regarding atheists and immorality, you will find conservatives stating that very thing and wondering “where do you atheists get your morals if not from the bible?)” You will find a topic on just about everything on this board. You will find conservatives positing that atheists cannot be ethical on this board. You will find such opinions get very short shrift on this board. You will not find many people, even the conservatives, who credit the opinions of those you listed on this board. As for polls? Watch the BBC “House of Cards” trilogy, or at least post the actual questions in the polls. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-militant-atheists-real/686920.md?page=4)