Why Religious People Are Scared of Atheists

Oh, man don't get me started. Something happened with someone religious very close to me recently regarding me being an atheist and if I start ranting about it, I'll get banned from here and probably put in every available terrorism watch list.

Tease.

Did you mean to start us out on page 3? Check your link.

You didn't torch their house, did you?

That article is pretty bush-league... I mean the band was marching in a Christmas parade, I think there's a legitimate argument that they didn't belong. I'm an atheist (of Jewish heritage!), and even I find that a little obnoxious.

I think the author is right that many theists find us inherently offensive (though I don't think it has anything to do with consciously or unconsciously desiring a theocracy), but it should be obvious why: We take everything they hold most significant and fundamental about the nature of reality and call it a delusion.

Nah, just the cross on their lawn.

I haven't done and will not do anything that falls under the authority of the Criminal justice system.

And what JuddL said is right. The atheist guys were mostly trolling. Hilariously in my opinion, but I can see why the religious people might get offended. And of course religious people are offended by atheists. Have you read the Ten Commandments? By denying the existence of God you violate almost half of them at once. Judging with a points system you're worse than someone who breaks into a neighbor's house, rapes and murders his wife and them burns it down.

For fun. I didn't mean they were malicious.

With gays on the road to acceptance (it's going to be a long road, though), atheists have become the new group that it's okay to publicly hate. Would any of these people have written to their papers in protest if a Jewish band had played in the parade?

1) It's Texas.
2) They weren't trolling because they're athiests. They were trolling because they are a fucking VUVUZELA MARCHING BAND.

I say let them hate. Atheism isn't going anywhere. Its eventual victory, to borrow a term from another ideology the conservatives love to hate, is a historical necessity.

And what Ryan said.

Man, when I was a kid I remember swearing to my parents I was going to be a Shriner when I grew up because I wanted to drive one of those so bad. That means vuvuzelas are worse. The cars are cool to kids at least. Vuvuzelas are hated by adults, children and leprechauns.

Playing it with basically the equivalent of giant monster kazoos. The whole thing gives off a whiff of sarcasm and baiting. To be honest the majority of my friends my age are atheists, and of that group, half are generally fine with other peoples' religious beliefs, accept them for who they are and move on. The other half, however, are generally more intensely evangelizing than any evangelical I've ever met. If some atheists I know attacked people based on their sexual preference with the same level of intensity that they did people for their religious preference they'd be met with gasps in most circles.

Granted, it goes without saying that there's plenty of religious people who attack atheists with just as much if not more intensity. But I think as liberals we tend to have blinders on when it comes to hypocrisy.

Can open, worms everywhere.

I love that you're so adamantly denying the obvious trolling effort they put into this.

Yeah, that shit screams "internet meme". They knew what they were doing. Plus, it's fucking TEXAS. And Brazos County, too, which ain't exactly Progressive Central.

How exactly do you switch notes on a vuvuzela? Was it just:
DRONE DRONE DRONE
DRONE DRONE DRONE
DRONE-DRONE DRONE DRONE-DRONEEEE
?

Just thinking about that makes me want to Spanish Inquisition them to death.

Yeah, I'm not a God person at all but I can't guarantee that I wouldn't have jacked a car and run them over. It's not you, guys, it's the vuvuzelas.

As someone from the town this took place who was forced into marching in that awful parade for a few years, I can guarantee that droning awfulness would be enough to make me snap and start cracking a few skulls, regardless of religious orientation.

A couple months ago, three gay men got kidnapped and had the shit beat out them about a mile from my house. There's a difference. Not to be a dick, really, but let's not make too big a deal about this.

The vuvuzela atheist band were clearly being assholes. To my mind, this is generally the problem with the modern atheist movement. We're dicks about it. The most visible atheist there is, Bill Maher, is about as nasty and condescending as possible. Personally I think he's funny when he does so, and frankly I find the vuvuzelas funny too, but they're obviously not helping to win over believers. We're supposed to be smarter, so why don't we act like it?

Why do you hate America?

This thread isn't going anywhere good. I sense a great many twisted panties in its future. I'm getting out while the roads are still clear. Enjoy.

Nah, they still would.

Also, as a kid I was always scared to death one of those old men would have a stroke and send a shriner car hurtling through my tiny frame.

"I'm not touching you...I'm not touching you...I'm not touching you...I'm not touching you...I'm not touching you...I'm not touching you...I'm not touching you...I'm not touching you..."

How can they claim to be atheists, yet play the vuvuzela, which is clearly of the devil?

Wait, huh? Christmas is not a Christian holiday. Why would any Christian have a right to be upset if a non Christian wanted to get in on the Xmas fun? Religos are afraid of atheists because they don't buy into the delusion around which the religos base their entire lives. If the atheists are right, a christian's life has no meaning

This thread seems like a good place to link to this Ricky Gervais essay on atheism from a few days ago. You guys read it? It's awesome.

This. I find it kind of embarrassing hearing about this kind of thing. Not to rub it in but the religious nutcases and the overbearing vocal atheists in america both make me glad I live in the UK, where for the most part no one gives much of a shit and it's easy as piss to go about your life without being affected by what other people do or don't believe.

Dammit, I was just gonna do that.

And Richard, I got a security warning from clicking on your link, and Microsoft Security Essentials had to clean a file after the page loaded. Just a heads-up.

Christmas is indeed a Christian holiday. It may have been co-opted from the Solstice celebration by the Church but if you use the term Christmas you are in fact referring to the Christian celebration of the birth of Christ.

If you want to celebrate Solstice, Hannukah or Kwanzaa then feel free to do so but they aren't Christmas.

Do you believe this?

What I was saying was that if you buy into the religious world view, Atheism says that the entire basis for your life as you know it has been a lie. That your core principals (hating gay people and women, the idea that people can live in whales, that god will damn you for calling him names, that shellfish are evil, that you should murder your kids if they disrespect you ETC) are nothing more than desert superstition

I guess to be clear: Religion is hollow and empty and made up. If you base your life around religion, you're centering it around illusory values and ideas

It's like this:

Imagine if when you were little your parents told you that elves were a threat and everyone who said otherwise was going to fall into a pit of fire when they die. As you grew into adulthood and went about your day to day routine, you'd live your life in fear that elves will steal your cookies. You'd impoverish yourself building elf traps to keep them away, spend your nights in prayer to santa to keep them at bay and distance yourself from those who would tell you you don't have to worry about elves. You'd spend your free time standing on street corners preaching for other people to wake up and face the elf menace, and give what money you earned at your job to people who would preach the good word about the elf situation. At election time? You'd cast your vote only for those who understood the risk elves posed to the nation and vowed to center the national agenda around that threat. If someone one day came along and said "science has proven elves don't exist" and you believed them to be telling the truth, you'd have to face the fact that your life as you'd been living it had no meaning

For a religious person, obviously they'd not want to believe that they essentially had based their world view around a fairy tale. That is why they'd hate the atheists and agnostics

Jerry Falwell? He dedicated his life to meaningless nonsense. The pope? Ditto

Doesn't go for every religo (some don't take their religion convictions very seriously) , but if you let made up nonsense dictate how you spend your very brief time on earth? You're robbing yourself of the chance to live a meaningful life

Just my take!

I guess my question is, do you believe that all, most, or a majority of people who identify as Christians truly believe these things you listed?

Not necessarily, those were just the most convenient and powerful examples of religious beliefs worthy of disdain. However, I find every last bit of it equally silly, even if it's not all hateful

And... 40 percent of Americans believe in creationism according to a recent poll, so there are large numbers of people who really do take it literally

EDIT: And again, to bring this back to the central topic: Christmas is NOT a Christian holiday. It's a pagan holiday that they tried to jump on the band wagon with in order to make their one god more palatable to people who were used to religions that had nothing to do with morality. For Christians to now, centuries later, turn around and pretend that it's their holiday just makes my blood boil

And there it is, kids.

I kinda don't even want to say this because as it is I'm really fucking far away from being anything resembling religious and the comment might indicate otherwise, but just check what happens in any science/sf/tech blog when anybody, regardless of how calmly, sane, or reasoned the position is, if its anywhere in the ballpark of the religious or spiritual or anything similar.

People doubting their beliefs is entirely normal. People being dicks about their beliefs is entirely normal. People exploding at the existence of contrary opinions is entirely normal.

Also, this just seems like a good time to wonder how many people who claim that the religious are idiots also believe that Martin Scorsese is a genius.

Not sure if this was in reference to me, but I don't think you have to be stupid to believe in stupid things. It's a mass delusion. Smart people believe it because, well heck! Look how many other people take it seriously! If Scorsese actually believes there were talking snakes and doesn't believe in evolution? That would be another matter

The problem is that it's like adults who believe in Santa Claus. There is no argument for faith, which is usually tied into where people are born and who their parents are. There are a lot of people who haven't spent much time outside of where they grew up, and haven't experienced a lot of things, but figure that they're town is the best, and their country is the best, and their beliefs are true and right because they've never had them challenged, even if their understanding of the Bible is like a patchwork quilt of church and outside influences. This all ties into Nietzsche, who said that most people create their morality based on their experiences.

We've had this discussion before, and it leads few places good, but taking away the illusions from people - the illusions they've based their life on - is near impossible. Just in the same way - it seems - that some people believe someone of a certain skin color is lesser because of that color. Which to me is a very absurd concept. The same with religion, but I also didn't grow up with it in any sort of profound way.

There is not nearly enough discussion about the hilarity of "petafiles" in this thread.

I figured it was just some Wikileaks nonsense about vegans.