Atheists: What Is You Attitude Toward Religion

In My Humble Opinion
1

From what I’ve seen of atheists on the Internet their attitude toward religion seems to be categorizable into one of the following three:

  1. These atheists are largely against fanatics rather than believers in general. They believe for instance the Bible does allow homosexuality or other liberal views and thus that religious liberals are right. They sometimes slightly envy religious people for their “faith” and think of Jesus or Buddha and so on as good moral teachers.

  2. These atheists are against religion but are mostly concerned about fundamentalists. They do think if we go accurately by religious Scripture the fundamentalists/Evangelicals are right. But they still do encourage liberals as a bulwark against fanatics as long as they don’t take the Bible literally.

  3. These atheists are against all religion. They strongly agree that going by religious Scripture that the fundamentalists/Evangelicals are right (ie if we take the Bible literally we should stone adulterers) and that liberals are not much better and just cynical panderers who have modified their positions to appeal to their public. They think all religious belief are dangerous and delusional.

2

This is closest to my opinion, although I don’t think that the moderate believers are all “cynical panderers”; most are just deluding themselves about the actual effects of what they do and believe.

3

I don’t think one has to vote in a poll to see the results. And I’m a 3.

4

That’s a rather narrow scope of choices. I think this would have been better as an open ended question.

As an atheist, it’s very important to me that we should have freedom of, and from, religion.

5

I’m an atheist, but I tolerate religion and even take part in some religious rites (I don’t believe, but I do fast on Yom Kippur, for instance). I don’t tell them what to believe and, as long as they don’t tell me what to believe, they can believe what they want.

6

Yeah, these are pretty darn limited. Like, there should be a
"These atheists are largely against fanatics rather than believers in general. They believe for instance the Bible. . well, they don’t really give a shit what the Bible says; the “accuracy” of scripture isn’t even on the radar, as long as no one fucks with their lives, any more that the numbers in the appendixes of 4th edition Dungeon Master’s Guide.

7

I think religion is tremendously silly, everyone who believes in it is factually incorrect on issues such as the existence of God, for most people their religious beliefs are mostly harmless, and I don’t really have any position on what counts as “accurate” scriptural interpretation (any more than I have a position on what counts as “accurate” interpretation of Hamlet or In Search of Lost Time or The Godfather). Where do I fit in your poll? I’m against religion in that I would like people to be less religious, but of their own free will; I’m not against religion in any more coercive sense, and the reality of the world’s demographics doesn’t chafe me on a regular basis.

8

Those choices define atheism in relation to Christianity, which IMO is a bit weird stance to take. I can’t speak for other atheists, but I don’t define my lack of faith by what I think of the Bible. I’m not against anything, I just don’t believe in any of that stuff, whatever brand of religion it might be.

I’m not voting, sorry.

9

I am a 4. I pay no attention to religion until it causes trouble . It does way too often though, like the ground 2 mosque stupidity and the idiotic religious leader who wants to burn the Quaran. What the hell is wrong with people who cause deaths in the name of religion? That action disqualifies it from being a religion and makes it a political cult.

10

This.

11

I think we should have the right to be religious. Although in my perfect world almost no one would be.

12

Interesting that you qualify that. In your perfect world, would you keep a few religious folk around? If so, why?

13

Mostly this, although I do kind of care about the numbers in the 4th edition DMG.

14

Curtis, this had a potential to be a good poll, but your choices are too narrow. I wish you could recast it based on the responses you’ve gotten so far.

I guess I’d fall closest to #3, but my philosophy just skirts this choice. I’m an atheist who is against all forms of religion, because I believe all theistic religion is dangerous, delusional, and inhibits our ability to progress as a species. However, if people want to believe in a mythical being, that’s fine with me. It’s none of my business as long as it doesn’t affect me, mine, or negatively impact the world at large. I believe religion, or lack thereof, is a personal choice, and has no place in the public arena.

There also seems to be somewhat of a misconception by conservatives that Liberal = Anti God, which is very far from the truth. There are many liberals who are just as religious as conservatives. I think the difference is religious conservatives tend to wear their faith on their sleeves, always seeking validation, whereas religious liberals are more circumspect, which I think is about right if one is inclined to believe in a mythical being.

15

I picked #1. It’s not a perfect fit, but it’s close enough. I’m not sure why I’m generally more sympathetic to believers than many of my fellow atheists. Maybe it’s a personality issue, or maybe it’s my background. My parents are atheists and it’s how I was raised, so I don’t have a religion to rebel against. No one in my family cares that I’m not religious. No one ever forced me to go to church and I’ve never had anyone whose opinion I care about worry that I’m going to hell. In college, I majored in anthropology and particularly focused on religion and culture.

So I tend to find religion interesting and like hearing about believers’ experiences with their faith. I don’t believe in it, but I don’t automatically think it’s bad.

16

My attitude to religion is, I’m doubtful most people who say they believe in god(s) actually do. To me, there is an actual reality out there, that doesn’t revolve around my beliefs. So my beliefs had better revolve around reality.

There are many religions. Quite a few have lots of rules, which you should follow. If you succeed, you’ll end up in an eternal paradise, or some other sort of good situation. If you fail, you’ll die, or be tortured for all eternity, or some sort of other bad situation.

I can’t help but feeling that if I truly believed that was reality, then I’d actually make achieving the first result and avoiding the second a pretty damn big part of my life. If I believe someone is going to set fire to me and torture me FOREVER if I don’t do something, then honestly I’m gonna do it, and it’s gonna be something which is in my mind quite a large percentage of my mind.

And the reverse, if someone is going to reward me in a way that infinitely surpasses any other reward, then I’m going to make some effort to get that reward, by being good, praying, going to church or whatever.

I look at religious people from around the world, and the vast majority of them don’t live their lives as if they’re on a line between horrifically tortured forever or massively rewarded. They frequently only have the vaguest knowledge of the details of their religious books. They rarely go to churches or temples or whatever. They virtually never have religious discussions.

This isn’t a matter of life or death, it’s much more important than that! Yet people who call themselves religious largely ignore it. I just have a difficult time believing that if they truly believed in god(s), that most people would be happy leaving avoiding being tortured for eternity as an afterthought.

And there’s the second part, that some people seem to be picking their religious beliefs on what feels right to them. What’s nicest, or the most good.

If I’m crossing the street and a car comes speeding towards me, I move out of the way. I don’t stop believing in the car because I don’t like the idea of being crashed into. If god is a reality, I can’t pick god. god exists, it’s my job to find out what he is and what he wants. I can’t just not believe he wants X because I don’t like X.

I even know an atheist who said she became atheist because she had bad experiences with her church. Which to me is just bizarre. I have a bad experience with something, so therefore that something must not exist, so I won’t believe in it.

Does it work for walls? I want to get over there, this wall is in the way, so I’ll not believe in the wall and just walk over there. How about disease? My dad had cancer, should we all have not believed it, so it would go away?

So, sorry for going on a bit. But I just can’t help the feeling that if people who call themselves religious truly believed, they would behave like they believed. And that people know reality doesn’t change to match their beliefs, so wouldn’t pick a religion or belief based on what is nice, but based on what is most likely to be real. So, I voted “other”

17

Pets!

18

Delusional yes, dangerous some.
I look at it this way.
Assume there is a God / Gods - which one(s) would you choose?
There must be at least 3000 mutually exclusive religions and sects out there - that is belief systems that believe all others will lead to damnation.
How are you going to choose?
It is not possible to choose between all these different systems - there isn’t time, and anyway how would you know if you missed one?
So, if there is a God, he/she/it/them is/are making it impossible - so you’re wasting your time.
If there isn’t - you’ve wasting your time.
Don’t waste time - enjoy yourself and help others less fortunate as best you can.
And don’t waste time arguing about God - it’s a waste of time for the above reasons.

19

What’s wrong with religion is that it encourages people to hassle others in the hopes of saving them from something that doesn’t exist. It promotes ignorance as well. The world needs more science and LESS religion.

Excessive religiosity encourages things like :
the Terri Schiavo controversy
arranged marraiges of immature girls to middle-aged men
ethnic cleansing
The Crusades
preventing people from using vacccines for cervical cancer and polio
burning and bombing of girls schools
Abstinence only “sex education” spreading falsehoods about birth control

20

#3 is the closest to what I believe, but not completely accurate. I don’t think liberal believers are cynical panderers. I think they simply lack the will to think their position through to its logical conclusion. (In a weird way, I actually have MORE respect for the fundamentalists … they at least live in a way that is consistent with their premises.)

And while I think religion is delusional, I don’t think that it’s universally dangerous. There’s a lot of good mixed in with the bad. A lot of theists believe the right thing, unfortunately for the wrong reason.