This is an absurd parody of an atheist as a monster that hides under the bed, and leaps out to steal people’s bollocks.
I’d never do that…it’s too cramped under there.
Besides, atheists don’t leap out to steal people’s balls.
They skulk out.
Well, it’s pretty difficult to have a rational discussion with believers about anything touching their religion because almost invariably they retreat into the “I believe what I believe” fortress and debate breaks down. And because they’re not accustomed to having to rationally defend their religious beliefs, believers tend to take any criticism of their theological position as a personal attack. It’s maddening to talk to most believers about their beliefs, which eventually leads many atheists to adopt an attitude of dismissive contempt.
“I’ve never been so offended or insulted in my life…”
“Be that as it may…”
Hey obbn, I’m one of those atheists who is okay with people having a belief in the supernatural. Many people need religion to get through their day, like some need a drink or other controlled substance, or even a medically prescribed one. As long as their malady doesn’t affect me or mine I’m okay with it.
The challenge I and many other atheists have is that religion does impact our lives, and there’s not much we can do to escape it. The US is inching toward a theocratic state. And before the usual suspects respond by dumping their surfeit of ::rolleyes:: into the thread, I say inching toward as opposed to inching away. I’m not saying a theocratic state is inevitable or even likely; I’m saying we’re heading slowly in that direction. It was bad enough in the '60s and '70s that a presidential candidate had to be a Christian, now they must bend over backward and proclaim it, loudly and often; I don’t believe Obama is any where near as religious as he expressed during the 2008 presidential campaign. Christians have resorted to novel and insidious methods of getting around the establishment clause to attempt to inculcate children with religion in schools in a, in my opinion, cynical ploy to indoctrinate them from an early age. Continuing and new legislation that prevents gays from having the same rights as any other human being in the US are, at their core, attempts to promote religious perspectives and biases into law. These are just a few examples.
I believe that, because we are, at least in the US, strongly encouraged to treat religion, especially Christianity, with respect and a certain amount of reverence, unlike other psychological disorders, religion is especially dangerous. Even on the SDMB I’m amused to have seen how differently moderators respond to posters who mock or ridicule those who express a belief in, say, aliens from other worlds versus the Christian god, his savior offspring, and the religion’s attendant miraculous events. That we must take seriously completely unproven and unprovable assertions is, in my opinion, worrisome, and detrimental to the intellectual advancement of the human race.
If it were just Christians (or adherents to other religions) believing as they will, in a vacuum, I truly wouldn’t have a problem with it, but it is not.
Cite? 'Cause I’d really, really like to see verification of this.
In comparison: I’m an atheist. A few years back my car vandalized (both of my “atheist fish” emblems were broken), and the year before I was nearly run off the road by someone who was offended by those very same emblems.
So, yeah, I’d love to see a few quotes from you about how someone has actually threatened your life or liberty for the crime of being religious.
Your own biases are part of the problem. Your feelings and fantasies described above colour everything you read. Your own mind is attributing negative qualities to anyone who disagrees with your belief systems, it’s a defense mechanism.
Think about it, how do you react when someone tries to convince a racist that their belief is absurd? Do you think “So what if they believe?”. You probably think the the racist is the one in that case who is rabid. I’m not equating racism and religion, the point is that people view arguments disagreeing with things they do not believe positively and argument disagreeing with things they do believe negatively.
You will be luckier to find a winning lottery ticket in the gutter…
Cite please that there is a sizable subgroup of atheists that want to kill you or otherwise take away your rights.
Please note that one or two ranting nuts on the internet do not comprise a “sizable subgroup”, otherwise I will claim that a sizable subgroup of Christians believe that God hates gays and likes to protest funerals
To the OP: either ITR champion’s post is a parody, or it can serve as an example of why some atheists can get a little testy in discussions when they are accused of wanting to kill people.
The idea that atheists persecute believers is just another silly, irrational belief of religious people. The United States is one of, if not the most, religious developed nation. I have seen Christians trying to prevent mosques from being built, but I can not remember an atheist trying to prevent a church from being built. The only opposition to religion I ever see is when it intersects with the public sector. You may disagree, but picking one religion over another is not the job of the government.
I’m an atheist, and I often go out of my way to defend religious people on this MB. I can understand there point of view without sharing it. And I’m not the only one around here who does that-- there are quite a few. We have a small number of very vocal anti-theists on this MB. I can’t speak for what you encounter on other MBs.
Confirmation bias, as noted above, is most likely the correct answer.
I agree with you. Sorry, I was responding to the OP. I should have made that clear.
I don’t believe that you’ve seen this very often without provocation.
Passing references to a belief in a god really don’t trigger “rabid” responses from atheists.
If there have been any such instances then it should be trivially easy for you to post references to them.
Then we can have a discussion about each case.
What I suspect is that you are mistaking an atheist lack of deference as an attack. That of course is not the case.
I can’t help it if you are offended by my out-of-hand dismissal of your religion, but if you ask me, that is what you’ll get. It isn’t personal but as Christopher Hitchens said…“that which can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence”
and no, this isn’t an example of an attack or a “rabid” posting.
It’s not a parody. I’m sure most of the religious people on this forum have much the same experience.
False. Especially on the internet, this board included.
Well, the free exchange of ideas requires occasional bruised feelings.
This is all just speculation, but I suspect that many if not most of these rabid atheists have had bad experiences in their lives with religion or religious people. So they have a lot of anger toward religious belief.
Great. So it’s not a parody.
Perhaps you can find some examples of:
“a sizable subgroup of atheists that want to kill you or otherwise take away your rights.”
And while you’re at it, please find examples of:
"(posts on the) Straight Dope Message Board (by) atheists telling me that I am insane or stupid or brain washed and demanding that I be killed or castrated or imprisoned for the crime of not being an atheist.
You say that MOST of the religious people on this forum have had this experience.
This is the Great Debates forum, so… cite please?
I would say that persecuting is a strong word. It really doesn’t seem to matter what arena the discussion is. Someone will mention God for some reason or will be discussing a news article where reliegion is a topic and BAM … here it comes.
And as mentioned above, I don’t care if they do protest, make their views known. I just get this sense of intensity that I haven’t seen with other opinions. Actually, I take that back. I have seen it before, I have seen it when Democrats start talking about Rebublicans. ITR seems to brought both to the table here.
ITR (no offense meant) makes a great example of what I have seen out there. I asked a question that mentioned religion/God and in return I get a flurry or words that appear to be written by someone on the verge of hyper-ventalating. He doesn’t say something to the effect that he is strong in his belief and is trying to engage in a reasonable and respectful conversation. Instead he launches into stereotyping all people that believe in God as ignorant, Gay bashing Republicans. The hate is obvious.
The sad part is the out of all the insults and “truths” about believers that IRT typed out the only one true in my case is that I am a Republican. And I am that for fiscal issues, not social ones concerning this subject. I certainly don’t dispute that there are Christians out there that are intollerant on the subjects that** ITR **mentioned, but it is hardly the norm.
ITR, the majority of the people I know in life are Christians. They for the most part don’t make it known that they are and I can’t recall but one who is an intorllerant bigot that preaches the hate that you attribute to all of us. I think that the Crown Prince is correct that both of us are hearing the loudest and most vocal of our sides and attributing to those people what seems like that whole groups view. Funny, I started this thread asking about others and found out a little about myself in the process.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=12565900&postcount=1
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=13066691&postcount=30
And in this thread Sage Rat argues that some religious groups should be legally banned from having children, which is normally accomplished by castration. (The other option, forced abortion, is also a violation of human rights.)
As far as atheists telling me that I am stupid, brainwashed, or mentally ill, that’s already happened in this thread, so I presume there’s no need for links to other threads, though they could easily be provided. It’s a simple fact that in any thread on any religious topic, some atheists will arrive and say at least some of the things that I listed, and further they’ll often interrupt threads that have nothing to do with religion in order to declare how much they hate religion.
The point I was making is that if I read the SDMB, which gives me a cross-section of views from various groups, I constantly see this sort of language from atheists and never from holders of any other viewpoint on religion.