# Is there a word for \[people that hate religions\]? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 12, 2016, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-people-that-hate-religions/751993 "2016-04-12T10:57:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2016, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-people-that-hate-religions/751993/41 "2016-04-13T15:38:49Z")
Yes; there’s plenty of evidence, on this very board and elsewhere, that atheists’ attitudes toward religion and religious people vary widely from atheist to atheist. The OP of this thread even acknowledges this. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2016, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-people-that-hate-religions/751993/42 "2016-04-13T17:30:10Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Who gets to define those elements? Can the those of one religion(or none) define the elements of religiosity for all religions? Who defines any particular word? We call suicide bombers “suicide bombers” because it would be ambiguous to call them simply “religious people”. The vast majority of religious people aren’t suicide bombers, and the vast majority of people, religious or not, would agree with me. If you feel like “suicide bomber” is a defining element of being religious, you’re welcome to try and convince everyone else that they’re using the term “religious” wrong. Good luck. > [@Czarcasm](#): > > I’m talking about hating actions taken against those not of their religious persuasion, and those that do not follow their particular religious codes, not things they do amongst themselves(barring child abuse and the like). But none of those actions are defining. No one would say “you persecute Muslims, therefore you’re religious” or “you practice circumcision, therefore you’re religious”. But many people would agree with something like “you pray to God and attend church services, therefore you’re religious”. Persecuting Muslims doesn’t make you religious. But praying to a god and communing with others who believe in the same god does. So hating the persecution of Muslims does not make you anti-religious. Hating people who pray and/or believe in god _does_ make you anti-religious. Which was the point of my homophobia analogy. If you hate bodybuilding and mustaches, that doesn’t make you homophobic. If you hate the very existence of gay sex or homosexual romance in general, you’re homophobic. The difference is that bodybuilding and growing mustaches, while often practiced by gay people, does not make one gay. But participating in gay sex does. Who defined what “homosexuality” means? I don’t know. Who defined what “religious” means? I don’t know. But I can use the words just the same. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2016, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-people-that-hate-religions/751993/43 "2016-04-13T17:57:23Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Yes; there’s plenty of evidence, on this very board and elsewhere, that atheists’ attitudes toward religion and religious people vary widely from atheist to atheist. The OP of this thread even acknowledges this. In my life I went from being an atheist, to being an agnostic, to becoming a Christian. At no point did I ever hate religions in general or a particular religion. I did hate some things people did in the name of religion but that’s even true now (probably even more so). ---
**Author:** ![spamforbrains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@spamforbrains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spamforbrains)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2016, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-people-that-hate-religions/751993/44 "2016-04-13T21:05:48Z")
I don’t hate religion either. I think it is a bad thing we should try to remove from society, kind of like gum disease, gun violence, and gangs, but hating it? It’s kind of like a computer virus that has attached itself to us and uses us to reproduce itself at our expense. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2016, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-people-that-hate-religions/751993/45 "2016-04-13T21:10:32Z")
Again, “anti-theist” isn’t the word that the OP is looking for. A man who hates (fears, discriminates against) women is sexist. A woman who hates (fears, discriminates against) men is also sexist. A white person who hates black people is racist, as is a black person who hates white people. What is the general term for a Christian who hates Muslims, or a Muslim who hates Hindus, or the like? It’s not anti-theist, because those people are themselves theists. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2016, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-people-that-hate-religions/751993/46 "2016-04-13T21:15:55Z")
> [@spamforbrains](#): > > I don’t hate religion either. I think it is a bad thing we should try to remove from society, kind of like gum disease, gun violence, and gangs, but hating it? It’s kind of like a computer virus that has attached itself to us and uses us to reproduce itself at our expense. **Moderator Warning** I’ve instructed you already to drop this. This is an official warning for violating moderator instructions. Don’t do this again. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2016, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-people-that-hate-religions/751993/47 "2016-04-13T21:23:26Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Sane? > [@Shamozzle](#): > > Exactly. > > The first thing that came to my mind was “Smart”. How about “bigot” ? That’s a good term for people who hate. And bigots are rarely sane or smart. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2016, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-people-that-hate-religions/751993/48 "2016-04-13T22:11:01Z")
Let me try to get back to the original question. It is certainly possible that a person believe in god or gods and hates organized relgion. So anti-theist or theophobe will not do. The only thing I can think of is religiophobe. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2016, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-people-that-hate-religions/751993/49 "2016-04-13T22:32:16Z")
And again, it’s not a question about hating organized religion in general. It’s about people who hate one specific religion. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2016, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-people-that-hate-religions/751993/50 "2016-04-13T22:36:29Z")
I suggested “sectarianism” upthread. ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2016, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-people-that-hate-religions/751993/51 "2016-04-13T23:18:45Z")
> [@Blaster\_Master](#): > > And if anti-theist doesn’t work, perhaps because one really is against religion as a whole even ones that don’t have gods, I’d go with the less catchy, but unambiguous anti-religionist or anti-religious or something similar. As a pretty hard atheist and participant in a variety of atheist forums/FB groups anti-theist is the term the OP is seeking. In my experience it is the concept of “supernatural deities” that get us all riled up making it a very appropriate term. Buddhists and such who may have great reverence for a figure who was an actual man don’t really trip our triggers so much. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-people-that-hate-religions/751993/52 "2016-04-14T04:16:16Z")
The only term I’ve seen in the wild is just “anti-theist” or “anti-religionist.” The former is usually contrasted with atheists, while the latter I’ve only heard from people who are religious themselves. I personally sometimes use the phrase “anti-religious bigots” to describe those who cross the line between hating religion and hating the people. Or that demonstrate similar patterns to bigots in other areas, like using a few as enough to condemn the whole. I would think a theophobe would be someone who feared God, or at least the concept of one. Homophobia and transphobia are both based on actual aversions. Not necessarily fear, but at least discomfort in being around such people. I don’t think the OP is describing the same phenomenon with regard to the anti-religious. It’s the difference between homophobia and being anti-gay. ---
**Author:** ![Ignotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecc23a/32.png) [@Ignotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignotus)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-people-that-hate-religions/751993/53 "2016-04-14T09:29:11Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Again, “anti-theist” isn’t the word that the OP is looking for. A man who hates (fears, discriminates against) women is sexist. A woman who hates (fears, discriminates against) men is also sexist. A white person who hates black people is racist, as is a black person who hates white people. > > What is the general term for a Christian who hates Muslims, or a Muslim who hates Hindus, or the like? It’s not anti-theist, because those people are themselves theists. People who believe that their own religion is superior to others are, I believe, commonly known as “religious”. If you want to emphasize their hatred of other religions, that’s “religious fanatics”. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-people-that-hate-religions/751993/54 "2016-04-14T10:45:53Z")
Anti-religionism is the hatred of religions _per se_; you can still love religious people, even if you think they are misguided. > **[Antireligion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antireligion)** > > Antireligion is opposition to religion. It involves opposition to organized religion, religious practices or religious institutions. The term antireligion has also been used to describe opposition to specific forms of supernatural worship or practice, whether organized or not. The Soviet Union adopted the political ideology of Marxism–Leninism and by extension the policy of state atheism which opposed the growth of religions. > Antireligion is distinct from deity-specific positions such as atheism... Anti-theism can be a hatred of theists; this risks taking the dislike to a personal level. But not all anti-religious people hate theists. Misotheism is a hatred of gods, or of God. This takes the dislike out of the range of human interaction altogether; you can hate God and still like theists, or even be a theist yourself (in fact you can’t really hate gods without being some sort of theist). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-people-that-hate-religions/751993.md?page=2)