# Atheist zealots annoy me to no end. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 22, 2008, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheist-zealots-annoy-me-to-no-end/438670 "2008-02-22T02:43:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_chao_goes_mu/32/3191_2.png) [@The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Chao_Goes_Mu)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheist-zealots-annoy-me-to-no-end/438670/101 "2008-02-22T18:33:59Z")
[QUOTE=red\_awning] What I am saying is that atheists like to only look at the Crusades etc and other ways that religion has damaged and killed. [/QUOTE] Cite? You just made a pretty damned broad generalization there pal. > [@](#): > > Take a look around at all the good that is done by Christians as well. The largest number of volunteers in the world are Christians hands down. Of course if all that you gague it by is money then you won’t see it. Again, cite? How would you know how much money is given how much time is spent by an atheist doing charity work? As atheists, the only thing we know we have in common is that we state that there is no god. We are not united by our not believing in sky ghosts. We don’t go to meetings or erect monsterous buildings in which to revel in our disbelief. > [@](#): > > But they ignore totally any good that has been done by Christian missionaries. Oh you mean like crashing some remote village in the Amazon, forcing the natives to cover their naughty bits and then force feeding them Xtian dogma? ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheist-zealots-annoy-me-to-no-end/438670/102 "2008-02-22T18:38:29Z")
[QUOTE=Czarcasm] I think I’d have better odds playing 3-card monty on the streets of Chicago with no cops around. While blindfolded. [/QUOTE] I dunno, man. There always seems to be at least one guy in the crowd who is pretty good at spotting the lady. Hell, I always am pretty good at spotting her - that is - until I put my money down. I wonder why that is? ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheist-zealots-annoy-me-to-no-end/438670/103 "2008-02-22T18:41:25Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] > [@me](#): > > Religious zealots: Fly airplanes into buildings, blow up abortion clinics, attempt to “cure” gay people, believe that everyone else is going to hell, want various parts of science to not be taught in public classrooms, (etc etc etc etc), are measured in double digit percentages in the US population. > > Atheist zealots: Are rude and condescending, want to remove “under God” and “In God We Trust” from the pledge and coins, are barely measurable in the US population. Save me from them! And one can apply the principle in so many of life’s affairs. Republicans: Napalm innocent villages, engage in scandalous sexual behavior, scare pregnant women, believe in God, hate science and negroes, carry guns and defend school shootings as a Second Amendment right. Democrats: A bit effete at times, but want the best for everyone. Intelligent, reasonable, and wise. [/QUOTE] Nonsense, for two reasons: (1) Please try to name the things that anything other than trivially tiny numbers of atheists are doing in the US right now thare are the equivalent of trying-to-get-creationism-taught-in-schools, outlawing-gay-marriage, trying-to-cure-gays and putting-the-10-commandments-in-public-places. And note that the examples I picked are NOT just the crazy fringe extreme, but large and powerful movements within Christianity. (2) Your analogy makes no sense. Democrats and Republicans are the same type of group. They are both organized political parties. It’s at least reasonable to make comparisons between them, and it’s likely (although not automatically true) that they share many of the same flaws and foibles. Religious people and atheists are NOT the same type of group, any more than “people who love gardening” and “people who don’t love gardening” are the same. ---
**Author:** ![catsix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@catsix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/catsix)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheist-zealots-annoy-me-to-no-end/438670/104 "2008-02-22T18:44:18Z")
> [@](#): > > **Don’t Call Me Shirley** said: > My sister is a christian missionary. Believe me, she has not done anybody any good. Unless you count convincing Africans that condoms are worse than AIDS as good. Ahhh the typhoid infected blanket of the 21st century. > [@](#): > > Oh, and also maybe show some evidence that those same people would not volunteer if not for christianity. And if the only reason they volunteer is because someone told you to, that does not say good things about their character. > [@](#): > > **The Chao Goes Mu** said: > Oh you mean like crashing some remote village in the Amazon, forcing the natives to cover their naughty bits and then force feeding them Xtian dogma? Then infecting their entire village with some virus that they’ve never been exposed to and have no resistance to thereby wiping out most if not all of their population in the name of helping them overcome their primitive ways which are of course not as good as the way of the xtian missionary who brings the genocide to them… ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheist-zealots-annoy-me-to-no-end/438670/105 "2008-02-22T18:44:30Z")
[QUOTE=Dinsdale] I dunno, man. There always seems to be at least one guy in the crowd who is pretty good at spotting the lady. Hell, I always am pretty good at spotting her - that is - until I put my money down. I wonder why that is? [/QUOTE] Not enough faith. ---
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheist-zealots-annoy-me-to-no-end/438670/106 "2008-02-22T18:48:36Z")
[QUOTE=Cat Fight] I _do_ occasionally encounter atheists so obnoxious I kind of get a taste of what ‘regular’ religious people must feel when they encounter fundies. [/QUOTE] Honest to God, the only place I ever run into obnoxious atheists – and I mean _ever_ – is here, on the Boards. But people use the cloak of anonymity to be dicks about a lot of subjects, not just religion, so I can’t even chalk their obnoxiousness up to atheism as opposed to (a) anonymity or (b) general dickishness. But there’s no getting around it: There are a number of people here on the Boards whom I have gone from thinking seem like nice enough people, to thinking are dicks, based solely on their IMO intentionally offensive anti-religionist posts. Meanwhile, in the real world, I’m pretty sure my dear friends and next-door neighbors are atheists, or at least strong agnostics, and I’m sure they know I’m a Methodist. We just don’t talk about religion. And since we have a real relationship we’re all invested in, we go out of our way not to be dicks to each other. Seems to be working out fine. ETA: When I hear people complain about overzealous atheists IRL, I tend to assume they (all of them) are in college. At that age, a lot of people conclude they Know The Truth (be it pro-religion or anti-), and are none too adept at sharing that Truth with others. And they haven’t lived enough of life away from school to have the corners of their certainty knocked off. My response is generally “Once you graduate, this problem will mostly go away,” because that has been my experience. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheist-zealots-annoy-me-to-no-end/438670/107 "2008-02-22T18:49:01Z")
[QUOTE=Thudlow Boink] Well, my impression is that **here on the SDMB** atheistic zealotry is at least as prominent as any other kind. Other places, the proportions probably are a lot different. [/quote] Sure… if only because there are tons of atheists here, and some atheists are assholes, thus there are as many atheist assholes here as just about any place you’re likely to be. > [@](#): > > My main objection to your objection is that it went something like this: > > OP: I Pit people who do X. > > First response: But people of type Y are so much worse. > > That may well be very true, but that doesn’t mean that it’s okay to do X or that it’s wrong to be annoyed at people who do X. Obviously what you’re saying is, at some level, unarguably true. But it strikes me as just a matter of scale. Sure, there are atheist extremists in the world. And sure they bring some unhappiness in the world. But they are so hilariously comically dwarfed – both in terms of numbers and in terms of the unhappiness that they bring – by religious extremists that I just can’t take a pitting of them very seriously. > [@](#): > > My second objection is that you were being far less careful to avoid lumping all religious people in with the kind of destructive zealots you were denouncing than the OP was to avoid lumping all atheists together with the kind he was denouncing. If you felt that I was lumping, I apologize. But I will point out several things: (1) I never said ANYTHING about all religious people. I said “religious extremists do the following”, which I think was basically true as long as you read it as “(many) religious extremists do (some subset of) the following” (although I guess it depends how you define “extremist”). And no point in any post this thread have I said anything about religious people as a whole. (2) I’ve posted plenty of things on this board (such as in the thread I linked in my first post) which make it very clear that I do not hate or disdain religion or religious people. I see no need to constantly disclaim that over and over and over again, particularly in the midst of conversational back-and-forth. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheist-zealots-annoy-me-to-no-end/438670/108 "2008-02-22T19:00:32Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] He probably meant the “God Hypothesis,” which is how the concept is commonly phrased in scientific discussions (Dawkins uses the phrase a lot). [/QUOTE] I know! Let’s pass a law requiring that the message “God is just a theory” be pasted in the front of all Bibles. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_chao_goes_mu/32/3191_2.png) [@The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Chao_Goes_Mu)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheist-zealots-annoy-me-to-no-end/438670/109 "2008-02-22T19:07:30Z")
[QUOTE=Voyager] I know! Let’s pass a law requiring that the message “God is just a theory” be pasted in the front of all Bibles. 🙂 [/QUOTE] I second that! Also, let’s require that all religious schools teach evolution in science class! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheist-zealots-annoy-me-to-no-end/438670/110 "2008-02-22T19:07:48Z")
Religious people have platforms to expound their faith. Atheists just shut up and watch. You do not go about telling everybody you are an atheist. Most would not dare. It is not safe. Atheists pretty much stay to themselves. Religious go on crusades and Fatwas and door to door trying to grow the business. Whos dangerous,atheists keeping to themselves of Christians,Muslims,Scientologists etc involved in conquering the people who do not believe properly. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheist-zealots-annoy-me-to-no-end/438670/111 "2008-02-22T19:09:56Z")
[QUOTE=red\_awning] I certainly don’t think anyone who believes in God does so out of ignorance but rather out of experience. Just because I or you haven’t had this experience doesn’t mean that the believer is wrong. [/quote] If you’re really an atheist, it does. Not about the experience, but about there being a god behind the experience. > [@](#): > > I do not need to disprove, disparage or debate it, in order to go on with my “not believing” stance. Nor do I need to acknowledge, accept or understand it for myself. In this regard I accept their experiences as THEIRS and mine as mine. > > I do not try to make MY experiences the 'world view." > > There is a reason that so many people believe in God and have since the beginning of our existence. I respect that FACT. I’m not sure what your definition of atheist is. Atheists don’t doubt that theists and others, have religious experiences. Atheists don’t doubt reasons for god belief exist. Flying saucer debunkers also don’t doubt people have abduction experiences, or that there is a reason people see odd things in the sky. That’s a lot different from believing in LGM, or thinking that god belief is justified. ---
**Author:** ![mckall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@mckall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mckall)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheist-zealots-annoy-me-to-no-end/438670/112 "2008-02-22T19:17:38Z")
[QUOTE=Really Not All That Bright] faith and religion, though often connected, are not the same. [/QUOTE] I couldn’t agree with that statement more. I understand outrage and disdain for organized religion, I can’t stand it myself. I’m not part of any it, I’m actually one of those ‘fence sitting’ agnostics. If I have faith in a god of some kind, what’s it to anyone else? Yes, the fundamentalists and the extreme religious right and Pat Robertson’s of the world are out of their fucking minds. They’re using a simple thing that was meant to give a person peace of mind when they needed it and have turned that into a fucking mess. What I have a hard time understanding is the furor some people have in regards to someone believing in god or anything else. I don’t give a fuck whether or not a person believes in the FSP or Thor or nothing at all. Faith is a personal choice, to either have it or not. If you choose to believe in something higher, great. If not, great. In the grand scheme of things it doesn’t matter anyway. You will believe what you want and so will I. And that’s all that matters, whether or not the individual is happy with their choice. Obviously there are more people preaching about religion and trying to convert everyone and blowing shit the fuck up, but there simply ARE more of them. Someone mentioned it earlier, atheism is a minority. It would follow that you’d run into more religious freaks than very, very passionate atheists. However, there are still those atheists that do go on about how there is no god as much as a person who believes will say there is. If everyone would just stay the out of everyone else’s personal choices, this wouldn’t be a problem. ---
**Author:** ![red\_awning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a87d85/32.png) [@red\_awning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/red_awning)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheist-zealots-annoy-me-to-no-end/438670/113 "2008-02-22T19:20:04Z")
This kind of stupid argument about who is better drives me nuts. Most Christians aren’t blowing up abortion clinics. Most Christians just go about their lives and that’s that. But most Christians do volunteer. By the way statistics show that Christians volunteer more but that’s sort of a moot point since there are more christians in the country anyway. But Martin Luther King Jr was a relgious man, and so were the many Jews that volunteered during the Civil Rights Movement. This isn’t tit for tat, yes there are people who make mistakes and people who are just nose crud, but there is a lot of good that has been done in the name of religion as well. Its part of our human profile. Here’s an interesting perspective on Atheism as a Belief. Again I am an atheist who has no belief. I don’t suggest that all atheists have belief. Some like me just stand there waiting for the “evidence” to show up and when it does it appears that the believers are misinterpreting the data. Because I get something totally different out of it. But here’s Penn’s take. > **[There Is No God](https://www.npr.org/2005/11/21/5015557/there-is-no-god)** > > As half of the magic act Penn and Teller, Penn Jillette enjoys challenging his audiences with the unconventional. In stating his personal credo, Jillette finds liberation in believing there is no God. ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheist-zealots-annoy-me-to-no-end/438670/114 "2008-02-22T19:20:05Z")
[QUOTE=Voyager] If you’re really an atheist, it does. Not about the experience, but about there being a god behind the experience. [/QUOTE] That’s not true. An atheist can admit that there may be a god responsible for religious experiences but also believe that there isn’t enough or any credible evidence to support any gods’ existence. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheist-zealots-annoy-me-to-no-end/438670/115 "2008-02-22T19:20:34Z")
[QUOTE=red\_awning] Believing that there is no God is a belief. I’m not saying all atheists believe this, but I think that’s what the OP is referring to. [/QUOTE] Belief but not a belief system, for one thing. Second, belief is far different from knowing in the theory of knowledge sense. One poster said that he knows there is no god but is willing to be convinced otherwise. That’s a much weaker use of know than me saying I know 2+2 = 4 (since I can prove it.) Given that atheism is a belief, it is a perfectly justifiable belief - and it is even falsifiable, unlike most god beliefs. All God has to do is pop down here and part some seas and write my message in the stars and I’ll believe at least as strongly as I disbelieve now. But every passing day with no god, with every archaeological discovery showing that the history described in the Bible is wrong, there is more evidence for disbelief in the Western god, at least. I’ll default to disbelief in the god of the planet 5,000 l.y.. from here, whose Bible might have gotten creation correct. ---
**Author:** ![red\_awning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a87d85/32.png) [@red\_awning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/red_awning)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheist-zealots-annoy-me-to-no-end/438670/116 "2008-02-22T19:28:56Z")
> [@](#): > > That’s not true. An atheist can admit that there may be a god responsible for religious experiences but also believe that there isn’t enough or any credible evidence to support any gods’ existence. Exactly. I don’t see any evidence but I don’t disregard that thousands of millions of people have claimed to have first hand experience that there is a God. I’m seeing it different. But I’m not going to disregard their experience. For me its all about proof. People say there’s no proof of god, well there’s no proof but there is evidence. If thousands of millions of people said they saw a UFO I’d still think they saw something else. I wouldn’t believe it until I saw it with my own two eyes. Right now I don’t believe that there’s a God. I’m not hemming and hawing and maybing it. Its full stop no until I see proof. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheist-zealots-annoy-me-to-no-end/438670/117 "2008-02-22T19:29:11Z")
[QUOTE=x-ray vision] That’s not true. An atheist can admit that there may be a god responsible for religious experiences but also believe that there isn’t enough or any credible evidence to support any gods’ existence. [/QUOTE] Lacking belief in a god, or even disbelief, does include the possibility that someone may demonstrate one someday. That’s why it is not knowing. My statement doesn’t preclude that - it only says we have no belief, or disbelieve, that there is a god behind the experience. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheist-zealots-annoy-me-to-no-end/438670/118 "2008-02-22T19:34:07Z")
[QUOTE=red\_awning] Exactly. I don’t see any evidence but I don’t disregard that thousands of millions of people have claimed to have first hand experience that there is a God. I’m seeing it different. But I’m not going to disregard their experience. For me its all about proof. People say there’s no proof of god, well there’s no proof but there is evidence. If thousands of millions of people said they saw a UFO I’d still think they saw something else. [/QUOTE] But the evidence supports disbelief in both cases. People experience god the way their culture says god must be. The experiences across cultures are mutually contradictory. In the same way, aliens people claim they have contacted change across time - strangely in sync with the latest sf movie, in fact. In the 1890s hundreds of people across the country claim they saw airships, piloted by men. There was no such thing, of course. If the believers were inspired to make testable predictions that came true, and if the saucerites got some physical evidence, they’d have something. The longer they don’t the more reason there is not to believe. ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheist-zealots-annoy-me-to-no-end/438670/119 "2008-02-22T19:35:13Z")
[QUOTE=Voyager] Lacking belief in a god, or even disbelief, does include the possibility that someone may demonstrate one someday. That’s why it is not knowing. My statement doesn’t preclude that - it only says we have no belief, or disbelieve, that there is a god behind the experience. [/QUOTE] red\_awning said: Just because I or you haven’t had this experience doesn’t mean that the believer is wrong. You said: If you’re really an atheist, it does. Not about the experience, but about there being a god behind the experience. No, it doesn’t. Being an atheist does not mean the believer is wrong about there being a god behind the experience. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheist-zealots-annoy-me-to-no-end/438670/120 "2008-02-22T19:44:16Z")
[QUOTE=Maureen] I do not know. I was in the hopes the OP would step back in and explain himself somewhat; it would appear that merely expressing one’s atheism is enough to be considered a “zealot,” but unfortunately we’re all playing with the new bridge dweller. Do you disagree with my assertion that there _are_ angry atheists? [/QUOTE] I absolutely agree that there are. And, if the OP had actually ranted about _them_, well, I probably would have stayed out of the thread because it would have been, well, this thread, and I have no real interest in being crushed between both sides in the “atheists are aggressive assholes”/“Religion is the anti-christ” shouting-fest that is the tragic yet inevitable conclusion of those sorts of threads. In _this_ case, however, the atheists the OP has a problem with are not specifically the assholes, but just, it seems, the ones who state how they feel in no uncertain terms. I would hope that the OP would come back and either correct and apologize if he didn’t communicate his thoughts clearly or answer some of the questions put forth, but he seems to be MIA. I thought that this rant would be one that most people could come in here and say, “well, you’re a little bit off, thanks for playing,” but I guess I was wrong. [QUOTE=red\_awning] Instead of ranting, make your point, instead of expecting others to make it for you. I love when people do this online. Chuckles. [/QUOTE] Go the fuck away. I made my point multiple times. Let me quote for you: > [@](#): > > If it’s ok to know that there is a higher power, then it’s certainly ok to know there isn’t one. Are you saying that the only people who don’t piss you off are agnostics, or that it’s ok to know there’s a higher power and it’s ok to doubt a higher power, but it’s not ok to know there’s not one? Sounds pretty fucking arrogant, to think that you know what’s right and what isn’t. You don’t know SHIT. > [@](#): > > My issue with the OP is that he claims to not have an issue with atheists, and yet an atheist who says he knows there is no higher power (which seems to me to be a very passable definition of atheist) doesn’t know SHIT and needs to STFU. > My question to you (and the OP) is, is a religious person who says, “yes, there is a God,” also a fool, because how could he or she possibly know? > [@](#): > > But, the OP says it’s ok to think there is no god, just that it’s not ok to know there is no god. Why is that? I assume it’s because the whole idea of god is that god is sort of outside of normal modes of detection, interaction, and comprehension. So, how can one say he knows there is no god when there’s no way to prove it? > > However, by that same logic, how can one say he knows there is a god? > > I mean, sure, it’s all belief, all perspective, etc etc etc, but unless you think that everyone in the world, theist and atheist alike, is agnostic, then you have to concede that at some level it’s absolutely fine for people to say they know something about god. And if that’s so, then what’s so inherently wrong about knowing there isn’t a god (aside from the fact that it’s a conclusion you disagree with)? > \ > I don’t see how you can on one hand admit that there is no way to actually know for a fact one way or the other if there is a god, and then demand that those who don’t think there is a god couch their statements in “I thinks” and “maybes” while giving people who believe a free pass to claim that god exists. > [@](#): > > Again, another poster who is demanding that atheists be unsure about something while not demanding the same of theists. > > Do you think most theists honestly sit around thinking that what they believe is not the truth? That if I go into a church on Sunday morning, most of the people in there don’t know that they’re doing what God or their religion calls them to do? > [@](#): > > And again, holy flying FUCK!!! I feel like I’ve stepped into bizarre-o world where nothing anyone says has anything to do with the responses of anyone else. The OP says he’s pissed off at atheists who say they know there is no God (er, higher power). That sort of atheist is a zealot, and is arrogant. > > I’ve asked numerous times for someone to explain exactly how it is that an atheist is meant to doubt his perspective (ie; not claim to actually know), while a theist is perfectly free to know something about this subject. Only one person even attempted to address that (bbs2k), while everyone else goes on about how atheists are the ones angrily foisting their worldview on others. > > The OP isn’t ranting about atheists who are aggressive towards theists!! So, four posts of fairly reasonable tone illustrating clearly (IMHO) a question I have about the rant in the OP and how I think it is flawed. After that question being repeatedly ignored (and it still is), I get a little pissed off. I’ve made my point multiple times. It is you and others who are more concerned with ranting and playing the ‘gotcha’ game than having a discussion. So, you need to put up or shut up. And, you really need to stop talking about atheists as if you are not one. How you can blanketly criticize all atheists while absolving yourself is beyond me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheist-zealots-annoy-me-to-no-end/438670.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheist-zealots-annoy-me-to-no-end/438670.md?page=7)