# Why Are Athiest Assholes? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 13, 2002, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-athiest-assholes/118771 "2002-07-13T11:27:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![butter\_pie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aca169/32.png) [@butter\_pie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butter_pie)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2002, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-athiest-assholes/118771/21 "2002-07-13T16:08:59Z")
I’m not an asshole, I’m a bitch, asshole. ---
**Author:** ![Dravin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@Dravin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dravin)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2002, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-athiest-assholes/118771/22 "2002-07-13T16:21:50Z")
Why is anyone an Asshole? It isn’t a function of the beleif but the person who holds that beleif. I mean look at Jerry Falwell, he’s an asshole and a Christian, doesn’t make Christian’s assholes. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2002, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-athiest-assholes/118771/23 "2002-07-13T16:23:02Z")
Atheists don’t knock on my door or hassle me on the street, telling me that I’m a bad and evil person because of my beliefs. Christians have though, multiple times. But I’m not a ignorant prick, so I’m not going to consider that the behaviour indicitive of all Christians. I’ve never heard of an atheist try to force their beliefs on anyone else, hanging signs in schools saying “God does not exist”, or add verbage to the pledge like “one nation, under atheism”. But some Christians sure seem to think putting “under God” in the pledge is a good idea. Apparently having the state formally make pledges to their belief systems is OK. It’s been my experience that if somebody is being an asshole about belief systems, at least 99 percent of the time it’s a Christian. But since I’m not an ignorant prick, I know that still the majority of Christian are NOT assholes, and hence I don’t start threads, even in the BBQ pit, saying “Why are Christians assholes?” ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2002, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-athiest-assholes/118771/24 "2002-07-13T16:28:19Z")
\*\* Revtim \*\* beat me to it. Damn. ---
**Author:** ![Squish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8797f3/32.png) [@Squish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squish)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2002, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-athiest-assholes/118771/25 "2002-07-13T16:38:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dreamer \* > **Yeah, there may be a lot of "Well, it must not be true if you can’t _prove_ it ;),** I just gotta, I just gotta: “Wearing purple socks is just plain _right_!” I’m joking, **dreamer**. _You_ are definitely not an asshole. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![airdisc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e19adc/32.png) [@airdisc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/airdisc)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2002, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-athiest-assholes/118771/26 "2002-07-13T16:42:01Z")
Go right ahead, Kwyjibo. ---
**Author:** ![reprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@reprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/reprise)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2002, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-athiest-assholes/118771/27 "2002-07-13T16:43:09Z")
I do find it interesting that the assumption being made here is that the OP is Christian. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2002, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-athiest-assholes/118771/28 "2002-07-13T16:56:12Z")
It’s a pretty safe bet **reprise**. He’s in California, so he or she is likely an American. The majority of Americans are Christians and the VAST majority of people who don’t like atheists are Christians. ---
**Author:** ![grendel72](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/91b2a8/32.png) [@grendel72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grendel72)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2002, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-athiest-assholes/118771/29 "2002-07-13T17:11:12Z")
Not all athiests are assholes. The fact that athiesm requires slightly more reasoning than believing what you were told as a child means that among athiests and those who converted to religion late in life there are _fewer_ assholes than among the general population. Why is someone who would defend a worthless bitch like [AnnCoulter](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=124989&pagenumber=2) calling athiests assholes. I have yet to hear athiests calling for the death or forcible conversion of christians, as Annie the cunt has for non-christians. Your priorities are so fucking out of whack that it’s scary, boy. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2002, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-athiest-assholes/118771/30 "2002-07-13T17:24:22Z")
Assholiness knows no bounds, regards personal beliefs. ---
**Author:** ![reprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@reprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/reprise)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2002, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-athiest-assholes/118771/31 "2002-07-13T17:27:57Z")
If I take this thread at face value, then an awful lot of people who hold the same beliefs as myself are reacting in an extremely negative fashion to what was an extremely vague OP, which the OP has only clarified **once** , and even then in a very non-specific manner. If being an atheist makes me an “asshole” in the OP’s opinion, then I’ll happily wear that label along with “heretic” and various others; what concerns me is how many people are now responding to accusations which were never made in this thread by the OP. If a Pit thread which uses the word “asshole” so vaguely is enough to get us all on the defensive, whatever will happen if someone calls us atheists “fuckdrops”? Way to start a shit fight on the SDMB without making a post which an admin could single out as being “trollish”. Our chains are being jerked here people, and we have better things to do. ---
**Author:** ![DarkWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee59a6/32.png) [@DarkWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarkWriter)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2002, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-athiest-assholes/118771/32 "2002-07-13T17:35:53Z")
So not only am I a [pin-headed pram pusher](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=124919), I’m an atheist asshole as well. Can’t wait to see what’s next. 😛 Sheri ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2002, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-athiest-assholes/118771/33 "2002-07-13T17:39:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ludovic \* > i think that atheism coincides only somewhat with assholism, but it does correlate. > > atheists are, in general, very sure of their beliefs and plenty are not afraid to make their beliefs known. In order to be perceived as an “asshole” you have to A)hold strong or shocking beliefs, and B)present them in a shocking or inept manner. Atheists generally are halfway there, having already fulfilled (A). > > After all, if an atheist were unsure in their beliefs, they wouldnt be an atheist, theyd be an agnostic, like myself. Therein lies the crux. After all, plenty of theists are unsure of their beliefs, but consider themselves theists anyway (“faith”). Since they dont fulfill criteria (A), we dont consider them assholes. Why are agnostics such… Oh, all right. Seriously, though, what’s with this smug attitude which pops up sometimes among certain agnostics? First of all, most self-identified atheists _don’t_ “know there is no God” (if that’s what you’re trying to imply). Mostly, we say we simply lack such a belief in the absence of compelling evidence to adopt it. Secondly, many of us mean, rude old atheists tend to have different levels of confidence regarding our lack of belief in differently defined “Gods”. About some extremely abstract notion of a “First Cause”, we may not be that far-off from the beliefs of a Smug Agnostic. But if you feel the same way about some generalized notion of a Creator as you do about the God of the Young Earth Creationists, you really haven’t been paying enough attention. 100 million billion points off from anybody who quotes the fuckin’ dictionary at me. ---
**Author:** ![happyheathen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5e925/32.png) [@happyheathen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happyheathen)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2002, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-athiest-assholes/118771/34 "2002-07-13T17:47:21Z")
I am what YOUR God made me. Problem with that? Take it up with Her/Him. Thank you [sub]you ignorant asshole[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Regina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d78d45/32.png) [@Regina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Regina)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2002, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-athiest-assholes/118771/35 "2002-07-13T17:49:03Z")
What, no one’s offering to visit **Apache** and personally give him/her the [ECT](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=124592) (s)he needs? \*\* Ludovic\*\*, I disagree with your comment that “In order to be perceived as an “asshole” you have to A)hold strong or shocking beliefs, and B)present them in a shocking or inept manner.” The lady who bumped me with her shopping cart in the cashier line the other day apparently to get me to hurry along didn’t express any strong or shocking beliefs presented in a shocking or inept manner. She was an asshole and didn’t say a word. She probably was a Christian, too. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![grendel72](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/91b2a8/32.png) [@grendel72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grendel72)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2002, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-athiest-assholes/118771/36 "2002-07-13T17:49:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by reprise \* > **If I take this thread at face value, then an awful lot of people who hold the same beliefs as myself are reacting in an extremely negative fashion to what was an extremely vague OP, which the OP has only clarified once, and even then in a very non-specific manner.** The problem is that the OP has shown himself to be an asshole in other threads, such as the one I linked. I still maintain that anyone who would defend Ann Coulter while calling _me_ an asshole is a truly worthless piece of shit, or at least his asshole radar is out of whack. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2002, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-athiest-assholes/118771/37 "2002-07-13T17:50:10Z")
Oh, an exception to the Dictionary Rule: It’s ath **e** _i_st, okay? A-T-H-E-I-S-T–“I before E, except in words referring to a lack of belief in a God or gods”, geeze, didn’t you pay any attention in grammar school? That always tempts me to go off on some bizarre Mike Fink routine: “Athiest? Why I’m the athiest man alive! I disbelieved in more gods before I could walk than Bertrand Russell did in his whole life! I read _Bullfinch’s Mythology_ before I was weaned, just so I could go through and disbelieve in all the gods in it! I don’t believe in gods you’ve never even heard of! Why, there was this one time a Protestant evangelist, a Catholic missionary, a Mormon, a Jehovah’s Witness, a Muslim, and a priestess of the Lithuanian corn-goddess Gabjauja all came to my door, and I…” **Don’t** use the dictionary to find the definition of terms in a serious philosophical argument, but **do** use a dictionary to look up how to spell stuff. And, finally, to the OP: We know you are, but what are we? ---
**Author:** ![reprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@reprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/reprise)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2002, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-athiest-assholes/118771/38 "2002-07-13T17:59:56Z")
This is starting to turn into a GD, in spite of the OP. I’m not going thread-hunting at almost 4am, but I seem to recall this (new, revised) issue being discussed before and many of us atheists stating that if you presented us with absolute proof of the existence of “God” right now, we’d oppose his rule just as we’d oppose the rule of any other “governing body” we regarded as being unjust and tyrannical. The mere existence of a “God” would not validate his “rules” anymore than the mere existence of a Hitler or Saddam Hussein validates their rules. When all those who believe in a deity can agree on what that deity IS and what its rules are, then perhaps we can negotiate the terms of the agreement and decide for ourselves whether we want to live under such conditions. In the meantime, ANY religion attempting to impose its constraints on those who do not willingly adopt them has far less relevance to my life than those who make the decisions and those who impose the laws in this earthly life. ---
**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:** [July 13, 2002, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-athiest-assholes/118771/39 "2002-07-13T18:13:09Z")
I am an atheist. No, I cannot prove that your god doesn’t exist, but you cannot prove that Zeus or Odin or Santa Claus doesn’t exist. ---
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2002, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-athiest-assholes/118771/40 "2002-07-13T18:18:29Z")
I have never heard of an atheist trying to stop religious expression. vanilla, who is a christian [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-athiest-assholes/118771.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-athiest-assholes/118771.md?page=3)