We don’t know right from wrong because we don’t fear retribution from an almighty.
That actually makes me boil, cause i remember the live interview with a religious dude around 2008. In which he said and i quote “i don’t fear the law of man, i only fear god”, the bastard said it after killing someone in the name of jehova (i don’t even remember if it was only one victim or more, my monkey brain was just baffled at his response to the question).
They don’t play with the same social rules at all, and then they rage because “us” r the crazy ones.
I think that’s the sum of it all
Ah, this one always makes me smile. I store it right next to the assumption we haven’t read their holy book, and the assumption we didn’t learn anything good from doing so that we can share as common ground.
If those are the only assumptions I have to get past, we can friends shortly!
If we just hear “the gospel” enough, we’ll come around. In reality, I hear street preachers, and see “Jesus loves you” stickers on street corners, and it turns me off even more.
Honestly, as an honestly pretty unspiritual Christian, Street preachers make me unnecessarily angry. Because it feels like they’re just bible bashing and aren’t actually doing anything to further Christianity’s goals, despite the fact they think they are. Individuals can’t win people over by shoving their beliefs down people’s throats.
I feel like the only people who listen to these guys are people who agree with them. Most people ignore them in my city.
Perhaps not exactly what you’re asking but one thing many religious people don’t seem to get is that they’re “atheists” aswell when it comes to all the other gods out there. The difference to atheism is that we just don’t believe in their god either.
I don’t know how many gods there are but for the sake of an argument, lets say 500. A Christian believes in 1 out of 500 gods and an atheist believes in 0 out of 500. We’re not that different from each other after all.
Atheism means you believe in no god whatsoever, not that you don’t believe in a particular set of gods.
We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further. - Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion
Where I am in Australia, if as a group (say of coworkers) talking about a new person, we might be like ‘maybe don’t say “Jesus fucking Christ” in front of Lisa, I’m pretty sure she’s extremely Christian’ or ‘let’s do lunch instead of drinks to celebrate the milestone, I’m pretty sure Vish is Muslim so we don’t want him to feel left out’.
Majority of my peers are atheist. Religion only comes up in our lives when we’re trying to be inclusive or respectful of the religious minority.
It’s funny how some places can’t do the same in reverse.
Edit to say, the thing is, to the majority of us, belief in a god is silly hocus pocus, drummed up by humans when we just didn’t understand how things worked and the scientific method didn’t exist. But as a respectful person living in a society, I live by the rules that you don’t make fun of those silly ideas, and also that religion is intrinsically linked to people’s cultures too. So I have a live and let live attitude to it.
Pity many Christians can’t be that Christian.
This is where I’m at. It’s “you do you” so long as it doesn’t harm yourself or others.
I rarely eat babies
That’s the best way. Well done is a sacrilege
That we despise people who have religious faith. I don’t despise people with religious faith - I despise what religion does to people who have faith.
That I can’t do religious stuff! I don’t have to believe in the religious components to participate in an event that holds meaning to you. To me it’s not sacred – all just normal words being said and ordinary matter being handled according to some rules. I do that every day at work at the direction of a different kind of “higher power” (clients) without anger or discomfort, it’s really not a big deal!
I’m not angry at god for not existing, nor am I angry at all the people who believe otherwise. If the invitation to your religious event is in good faith, I’m honored to attend, and will just keep to myself or make small talk. Plus I’ve studied enough faiths I can probably fake it, if keeping the situation under control requires it ;)
I’ve discovered that in practice, many people of different faiths are not sure what to think about this position. Most are OK with it, some not (I just give them their space). With the interesting exception of Buddhists! They’ve always been super excited to bring me along to the pagoda somehow. No one ever tried to convert me, and the monks often speak a surprising number of languages and are interesting and well traveled. It’s become a set of surprisingly wholesome memories (I immigrated to a primarily Buddhist country)!
That it’s a religion. Except for a few groups, which I find kind of strange, being an atheist is the lack of religion and belief in a god. It’s not a religion or anything like a religion and so often I see atheism discussed by the religious in religious terms l, as a monolith, and other ways that just totally miss the mark.
If religions and beliefs are like the different broadcast channels you see on TV, you get Atheism when you turn the TV off.
It’s easier to group it up as a religion for information purposes, the amount of atheists are relevant if someone’s researching which religions people believe in.
Not parent poster, but I don’t think that’s what they were getting at.
Atheists are often generalized in the same way one might make generalizations about Catholics; the problem is that, while Catholics share a common set of beliefs and values (generally) based on doctrine and scripture, atheists don’t necessarily have anything in common about their beliefs or values, aside from an absence of theistic belief.
There is this strange idea that atheists are just rebellious against God because they don’t want to be responsible for being moral, kinda like disobeying your parents and sneaking out to party.
Also, lots of theists assume atheists used to be religious, they don’t really consider that people are raised without religion sometimes.
Yeah, the first one is really frustrating.
No, I don’t need the threat of everlasting punishment to be moral. I’m a secular humanist, and the idea that the only reason you’re not evil is because of threats of going to hell is way scarier than just being kind because it’s the right thing to do.
That we care about religion and are constantly thinking about religion. Or that we hate all religious people and judge people simply based on religion. Sure, some atheists do but not all of em. I can only speak for myself but the only time I ever give a fuck about religion is when a religious person reminds me about it. I dislike evangelists and it’s not an attack on all religious people.
Additionally, atheism isn’t a religion nor a group, movement, etc. The only common denominator between us is a lack of religion. Even our beliefs on atheism are different. Therefore all of the above.
That we have to have faith to be an atheist. Complete nonsense, of course.
Faith and belief are the root of all evil.
It is obvious if you look at the core definitions:
- belief is the uncritical acceptance of a premise when no evidence for or against it exists or is immediately available.
- faith is the uncritical acceptance of a premise despite the existence of evidence that invalidates it.
Both of these are used to make people ignore reality in favour of fantasies and lies. Because if something was a verifiable fact grounded in reality, it would require neither faith nor belief.
That we don’t have sympathy or empathy for religious people.
Speak for yourself /s
I been told that if god was 100% proven is real, I would have to bend the knee and love and worship him.
Fuck that, if he is real I am going to make it my life mission to kill god. He ain’t looking like much of a good guy to me.
🤘
(Ex-atheist here) That our beliefs are rigid, and won’t change.
What made you religious?
Not OP, but for me it was realising I was dronegender. I could either be an atheist whose identity was valid but not “real” as I conceived it, or I could embrace a religion that said my identity was achievable. That said mind melding with a swarm was possible and I could be who I am in a physical sense and not just a personal one.
Also I met a god. She’s nice.
Sorry, I didn’t really understand that. Can you please eli5?
I need magic in order to feel like myself. I couldn’t keep being an atheist once I started using magic.
How do you define magic?
I won’t use that word. From atheism, I went to igtheism.
Oh, I would still consider that a form of atheism, colloquially if not formally.
I know nothing colloquial in the concept of igtheism. Formally, by its very existence, igtheism proves that atheism can only be conditional - hence it is not even a proper concept.
I know that, formally, you can’t lack a belief in a god that isn’t properly defined, and I agree with you that many religions’ gods aren’t properly defined. But I think the colloquially definition of atheist or agnostic could still cover igtheism.
As for theists, the gods are equally undefined for atheists/agnostics. For an igtheist, beliefs of atheists/ignostics (or lack of belief) cannot be taken any more seriously than those of theists, until definitions are provided.
Take an example. There are people who say that god is nothing but merely energy. Can someone call herself an atheist if this is definition of god?
Sans definition of god, theism/atheism do not make sense.
That we’re smug knowitalls that just goes around looking for logical debates.