Why do some atheists seem to be so obsessed with being atheist?

Hotale.com

Firstly, I simply don't care for religion, if you believe in it fine, if you don't fine, just don't try to sway me in either direction.

I've known numerous atheists in my life who get incredibly annoyed by people who are devoutly religious, giving out about how religion manages to take over their lives. Yet they seem to obsess over religion just as much as the most religious people I've met in my life. I've a friend who's into all this "militant atheism" crap, his Facebook page has essentially turned into an atheism blog and he regularly speaks of "how sad religious people are" and how they should "get a life". It's extremely hypocritical. (In fairness I think they're just as sad as each other but each to their own...)

In my opinion religion is fine on a personal level, it keeps people sane in their latter years and must soften the blow when death finally comes knocking, yet I do have some qualms against organised religion but I really do think it's harmless in the vast majority of cases (please don't turn this into a child abuse scandal thread, most priests are genuine).

Anyway AH, discuss, chat, riot, whatever.

Sound of Silence

For the same reason that smug kids take enjoyment out of telling other kids that Santa ain't real.

Zed Bank

It's because we're smarter than theists.

Ralf and Florian

Well I'm atheist but I've never gone door to door trying to convert people to it or stood on street corners shouting about it through a megaphone.

fleet_admiral

Im an atheist, thank God

Hotale.com

Ralf and Florian wrote: »

Well I'm atheist but I've never gone door to door trying to convert people to it or stood on street corners shouting about it through a megaphone.

Most religious people don't do that either.

The Backwards Man

Why do birds suddenly appear
Every time. . . you are near?

vicwatson

And theists are very quiet about pontificating right?

whirlpool

Why anything?

Shane-KornSpace

OP, you could easily flip this.
It's not exclusive to the minority of atheists to which you're referring to.

There are religious people on corners in many towns, trying to convert people. They call door to door to try convert people. And there many theists who get rather abusive and aggressive when you tell that you simply don't share their beliefs.

whirlpool

Is theist a word? Didn't know that.

Anyway, yeah, I'm pretty sure that it's the theists who have the history of being violent, barbaric, aggressive, abusive torturers. But jaysus, yeah, I hate annoying facebook posts.

Cantremember

Hotale.com wrote: »

Anyway AH, discuss, chat, riot, whatever.

I'll have the riot please.

Hotale.com

Shane-KornSpace wrote: »

OP, you could easily flip this.
It's not exclusive to the minority of atheists to which you're referring to.

There are religious people on corners in many towns, trying to convert people. They call door to door to try convert people. And there many theists who get rather abusive and aggressive when you tell that you simply don't share their beliefs.

I've actually met more atheists who've tried to convert me than believers, resorting to insults such as "stupid" and "ignorant" when I tell them I keep an open mind. You never learn without an open mind, they are the ones being ignorant.

Dan_Solo

Hotale.com wrote: »

Most religious people don't do that either.

But the point is the no atheists at all do.

toastedpickles

The Backwards Man wrote: »

Why do birds suddenly appear
Every time. . . you are near?

Because they want to rob your nuts and sh1t on your doors and windows :pac:

The Pheasant2

Just like with theists it's probably just a case of a very vocal minority skewing the perception of the overall community.

Don't really mind what people believe myself - my philosophy is that so long as people's beliefs don't result in hurt or victims then let it be.

Amirani

No problem at all with religion, except when people use it to try and curtail the personal freedoms of everyone else. Thankfully, it's becoming less of a problem in Ireland. It still exists though - Blasphemy laws, alcohol bans, denying school places to kids etc.

Shane-KornSpace

Hotale.com wrote: »

I've actually met more atheists who've tried to convert me than believers, resorting to insults such as "stupid" and "ignorant" when I tell them I keep an open mind. You never learn without an open mind, they are the ones being ignorant.

I can't argue the latter part of this.
I'm an atheist. But open minded. I accept people for who they are and respect their beliefs, just as I would like my beliefs to respected.
I know people like the ones you're referring to, and , thankfully, they're a minority

xxmeabhxx

I think militant atheists take it so seriously because a lot of them are atheist because they've researched or reflected on various aspects of Christianity considerably and have come to the conclusion that certain aspects just don't make sense or can't possibly have happened. This would make their views on the subjects very strong I guess. Also, I imagine a lot of atheists growing up in Ireland were under a lot of pressure to act like a catholic and do things like say prayers in school and make their confirmation. This would make someone feel like they have to rebel to have their views recognized and would make them resent religion.

Personally, I'm an atheist but have no problems with religion on a personal level once the person isn't harming others with their beliefs or forcing them onto others. I do have a massive problem the Vatican and the authority behind Christianity though. I won't go into why in order to keep the thread on topic plus I'm sure you can make a decent guess. Also, I think it would be very rude and disrespectful to call someone who's religious sad or to say they have no life.

Maximus Alexander

Ah yes, the old atheist zealot who thinks they are better than the theist zealot. They're as bad as each other, anyone who is so fanatical, about something ultimately inconsequential, that they feel the need to preach and condescend to other people needs to take a good look at themselves. I regularly have atheists telling me that I am an atheist, to which I just reply "I don't care, leave me alone".

nelly17

Hotale.com wrote: »

I've actually met more atheists who've tried to convert me than believers, resorting to insults such as "stupid" and "ignorant" when I tell them I keep an open mind. You never learn without an open mind, they are the ones being ignorant.

Personally I think this is where it falls down I dont have any particular religous persuasion however my Mother is quite the catholic, I think its important to respect other peoples beliefs as opposed to deride them.

Davarus Walrus

It's the Internet. It's all about blowhard opinions and trying to appear enlightened. Something to do with modern European liberalism as well.

It's very 5 years ago to be honest. Pop-up restaurants, gin cocktails and agnosticism are very 'in' this year.

cursai

Because they're unsure in their beliefs. Like....everyone.

Zaph

I have to agree with the OP. I'm an atheist, but if someone wants to believe in a god that's entirely their own business. All I expect in return is that they similarly respect my lack of belief. Unfortunately there is a very vocal minority of atheists who give the rest of us a bad name by proselyting as much as a devoutly religious person. As long as the groups at either end of the spectrum leave me alone in peace it's live and let live as far as I'm concerned.

Mal-Adjusted

Anyone who pushed their beliefs/lack of beliefs on to other people are dicks. Anyone who raves about it are mega-dicks. That's like being five dicks all at the same time!

chrismon

Join the new Atheist religion.

Hotale.com

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

Ah yes, the old atheist zealot who thinks they are better than the theist zealot. They're as bad as each other, anyone who is so fanatical, about something ultimately inconsequential, that they feel the need to preach and condescend to other people needs to take a good look at themselves. I regularly have atheists telling me that I am an atheist, to which I just reply "I don't care, leave me alone".

One of the worst things about both religious people and atheists is when they tell you what you are. If you tell some atheists you aren't an atheist they'll tell you you're a "bible loving idiot", tell a religious person you don't believe in god and they'll say you're the devil. Or maybe I've just met the worst atheists in the country..

Mardy Bum

Hotale.com wrote: »

One of the worst things about both religious people and atheists is when they tell you what you are. If you tell some atheists you aren't an atheist they'll tell you you're a "bible loving idiot", tell a religious person you don't believe in god and they'll say you're the devil. Or maybe I've just met the worst atheists in the country..

Its pretty straight forward, a theist is someone who has a belief in a god; an atheist is someone who does not have a belief in a god. You are either one or the other.

An agnostic atheist is someone who doesn't have a belief in a god but cannot prove it i.e has doubts.
An agnostic theist is someone who does have a belief in a god but cannot prove it.

Davarus Walrus

The first reading is from the Book of Hitchens (C, not P).

"And they arose from the bedsits and proclaimed, 'there is no Lord, only self'. And the flock agreed with them. For it was a wise message. The heathens would be cast out from the Temple. "One should never question our enlightenment" chanted the crowd. And they saw that it was so. And the people of Internet did spread their message. For they knew that it was good".

jimmycrackcorm

I always thought that atheists man utd fans

Hotale.com

Mardy Bum wrote: »

Its pretty straight forward, a theist is someone who has a belief in a god; an atheist is someone who does not have a belief in a god. You are either one or the other.

An agnostic atheist is someone who doesn't have a belief in a god but cannot prove it i.e has doubts.
An agnostic theist is someone who does have a belief in a god but cannot prove it.

Well then we're all agnostic theists/atheists? Can you disprove something when you have no definite way of disproving it? You can't just say something's not real because there's no proof... and you can't prove anything without proof...

Now my head hurts.

Hotale.com

Davarus Walrus wrote: »

'there is no Lord, only self'.

This is such a bold statement. My problem with this is that there's no definite way of disproving the existence of God, so he's after stating something as if it's a facts when it isn't necessarily factual. (I'm not sure if that extract was supposed to be funny or not, so I'll presume it wasn't....)

WilyCoyote

The Backwards Man wrote: »

Why do birds suddenly appear
Every time. . . you are near?

That's because they long to be
Anywhere but Leitrim.

Adamantium

Didn't Christopher Hitchens say (parapharsing) in a debate: "Fine, along as you keep it private ,Just say that you have faith, that you believe, that you will lay your live for something beyond, despite all the evidence to the contrary"

"But if expect us to believe or force us to, don't be surprised if people laugh or get irritated"

Mardy Bum

Hotale.com wrote: »

Well then we're all agnostic theists/atheists? Can you disprove something when you have no definite way of disproving it? You can't just say something's not real because there's no proof... and you can't prove anything without proof...

Now my head hurts.

Well you have people who a la the Westboro Baptist Church who would be so deluded that they would believe they have proof and they would be known as gnostic theists.
On the other hand you could have an atheist who is certain that there is no god and they would be referred to as a gnostic atheist.

Agnostic/gnostic refers to knowledge while theism/atheism refers to belief.
Recently agnosticism has been used to describe belief mainly because people face intimidation or ridicule if they refer to themselves as atheist. This is incorrect in philosophical terms.

Hotale.com

Adamantium wrote: »

Didn't Christopher Hitchens say (parapharsing) in a debate: "Fine, along as you keep it private ,Just say that you have faith, that you believe, that you will lay your live for something beyond, despite all the evidence to the contrary"

"But if expect us to believe or force us to, don't be surprised if people laugh or get irritated"

Where is the evidence to the contrary? The fact of the matter is that if one was to try to disprove the existence of God they'd have to look beyond science etc.. The whole idea is that God would be on a completely higher level to us, one that we could not reach, so therefore to prove/disprove it we'd have to look beyond the physical world, and into the spiritual world, and this is essentially impossible.

Hotale.com

Mardy Bum wrote: »

Well you have people who a la the Westboro Baptist Church who would be so deluded that they would believe they have proof and they would be known as gnostic theists.
On the other hand you could have an atheist who is certain that there is no god and they would be referred to as a gnostic atheist.

Agnostic/gnostic refers to knowledge while theism/atheism refers to belief.
Recently agnosticism has been used to describe belief mainly because people face intimidation or ridicule if they refer to themselves as atheist. This is incorrect in philosophical terms.

Okay now I get it. So even if you just decide that God is definitely real or fake with no real evidence to back it up, you'd still be consider gnostic?

Turtwig

Because assholes exist in all sexes, cultures, race and religions.

More pedantic answer, it's a very dangerous thing to generalise a group of people based on the experience of the few you know. If you lived in a predominantly white area and and the only ten black people you knew were robbers would you base a generalise of all black people on that experience? Same too should go for theists/atheist alike. We tend to remember negative impressions of people more but that doesn't mean we should bias ourselves against a particular group based on the actions of the few. So, it's unfortunate that the atheists you met seemed arrogant and smug but tarring all atheists by that same brush is a hell of a leap to make. Especially when the majority of atheists won't even let you know they're atheist.

Now, starting a thread about black robbers would be more focused on the negative people but then the question would be why have the group 'black', why not just focus on robbers? Or in this case have the group 'atheist'? These people are clearly anti-theists for one. For another you could group them into the category of arrogant assholes who think they can tell you what you believe and what you ought to believe. And this doesn't just apply to religion it applies to everything from sport to ethics.

Mr Pseudonym

xxmeabhxx wrote: »

I think militant atheists take it so seriously because a lot of them are atheist because they've researched or reflected on various aspects of Christianity considerably and have come to the conclusion that certain aspects just don't make sense or can't possibly have happened. This would make their views on the subjects very strong I guess. Also, I imagine a lot of atheists growing up in Ireland were under a lot of pressure to act like a catholic and do things like say prayers in school and make their confirmation. This would make someone feel like they have to rebel to have their views recognized and would make them resent religion.

I think the above is a very good response: most people who have considered something at length tend to have strong opinions; and atheists will like ly feel resentment for having been made to feel abnormal or made to conform. Also, atheists argue for a system without religion-inspired restrictions - a system without any intrusion from by religious organisations. For that reason, they are not comparable to extrovert believers.

Mr. Z

Why do some Christians seem to be so obsessed with being Christian?

Why do some Muslims seem to be so obsessed with being Muslim?

Why do some Jews seem to be so obsessed with being Jewish?

WilyCoyote

Because they think they're BONO

nelly17

WilyCoyote wrote: »

Because they think they're BONO

I think hes a hypocrit not an Atheist thats a different 'not a religeon' alltogether

Hotale.com

Turtwig wrote: »

Because assholes exist in all sexes, cultures, race and religions.

More pedantic answer, it's a very dangerous thing to generalise a group of people based on the experience of the few you know. If you lived in a predominantly white area and and the only ten black people you knew were robbers would you base a generalise of all black people on that experience? Same too should go for theists/atheist alike. We tend to remember negative impressions of people more but that doesn't mean we should bias ourselves against a particular group based on the actions of the few. So, it's unfortunate that the atheists you met seemed arrogant and smug but tarring all atheists by that same brush is a hell of a leap to make. Especially when the majority of atheists won't even let you know they're atheist.

I've tried my best to stress that it's not all atheists I'm annoyed with, in reality I'm probably closer to that side than being a Catholic. There's a "some" in the title of my thread.

Also, I probably would consider most black people to be robbers (I don't!) if the 10 ones I did know were robbers - I can really only judge people based on my own experiences. Anyway, this is getting into dangerous territory here, I'm not a racist and I don't want a sh*tstorm to happen over this.

Amirani

Hotale.com wrote: »

Okay now I get it. So even if you just decide that God is definitely real or fake with no real evidence to back it up, you'd still be consider gnostic?

Exactly. You'd be surprised with the number of people who are unable/choose not to understand that.

Knight who says Meh

Hotale.com wrote: »

Firstly, I simply don't care for religion, if you believe in it fine, if you don't fine, just don't try to sway me in either direction.

I've known numerous atheists in my life who get incredibly annoyed by people who are devoutly religious, giving out about how religion manages to take over their lives. Yet they seem to obsess over religion just as much as the most religious people I've met in my life. I've a friend who's into all this "militant atheism" crap, his Facebook page has essentially turned into an atheism blog and he regularly speaks of "how sad religious people are" and how they should "get a life". It's extremely hypocritical. (In fairness I think they're just as sad as each other but each to their own...)

In my opinion religion is fine on a personal level, it keeps people sane in their latter years and must soften the blow when death finally comes knocking, yet I do have some qualms against organised religion but I really do think it's harmless in the vast majority of cases (please don't turn this into a child abuse scandal thread, most priests are genuine).

Anyway AH, discuss, chat, riot, whatever.

Ummm. Does this apply to you what with you starting this thread and all?

FTA69

As an atheist the thing that winds me up about Ireland is the fact that religion is so embedded in the state. Most our schools are still reflective of a religious ethos that is largely dictated by the Vatican despite the fact that these schools are predominantly tax-payer funded. We also have our very constitution imprinted with a load of references to Catholic iconography despite claiming to be a Republic. Likewise this isn't some archaic irrelevance either, it is negatively impacting on people's lives on a constant basis as we recently saw with the Savita case and the fact that women still don't have a choice over termination. It isn't just argument for the sake of it like.

I couldn't give a sh*t what people believe, but when religion and religious ethos starts negatively impacting wider society it can and should be challenged.

And that's even without getting into the fact that atheism at least relies on science and actual proof while religion relies on blind faith, supposition and a backstory of legend.

Knight who says Meh

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

Ah yes, the old atheist zealot who thinks they are better than the theist zealot. They're as bad as each other, anyone who is so fanatical, about something ultimately inconsequential, that they feel the need to preach and condescend to other people needs to take a good look at themselves. I regularly have atheists telling me that I am an atheist, to which I just reply "I don't care, leave me alone".

Theres your flaw. Its not inconsequential at all . Religion does damage, lots of it.

Knight who says Meh

cursai wrote: »

Because they're unsure in their beliefs. Like....everyone.

Its not a belief, its a lack of.

kowloon

The only thing I believe in any more is the zesty flavour of Uncle Ben's oriental lemon chicken with ginger sauce.

Czarcasm

I think the people who are the most vocal about their claim to be atheist, are actually arguing anti-theism and secularism, because atheism is nothing more than a lack of belief in a deity.

The people who qualify their atheist philosophy with social and political philosophies simply haven't a clue what they're talking about, and claiming they applied scientific theory, critical or rational thought to formulate their anti-theist, secular philosophy, shows they haven't really given atheism much thought at all.

Atheists do not concern themselves with proving or disproving something they know doesn't exist, doesn't exist. They have better things to be doing.

Red Pepper

fleet_admiral wrote: »

Im an atheist, thank God

I never say "I am an atheist". I say "I am atheist".
The "an" suggests that we are part of an organisation that meets up to do stuff, which is rarely the case.