Current Events > Internet atheists explains why it's difficult for atheists to be 'nice guys'

(+) Yeah! (+)

Care to address how Satanism and Creativity aren't religions? Or are you gonna continue to bury your head in the sand?

I went from being edgy atheist to a mellow atheist. No one wants to hear atheists ramble against religion anymore than any person not seeking religious words wants to hear someone ramble about their own religion or some aspect of their religion

Gods or supernatural powers are the first used definition of religion in every single dictionary. What people come up with after is meaningless.

Just look at this thread. Perfect for demonstrating how some people cant accept world views can seemingly coexist together peacefully.

You could replace Atheist with Vegan and Religion with meat eaters and not miss a trick here.

I don't watch videos YouTube videos unless I seek them out myself.

Topic title and bullet points make it sound like the video creator is an edgy atheist.

However, I've heard that in the Southern USA, there is more condemnation towards atheism. Like my friend will see about going on a date with a girl, and if suggests a church date or asks what church he goes to, he considers that to be a pursuit that isn't going anywhere. Even where I live, around a major metropolitan area in the north, I could see atheists being viewed as spiritually lost or even hated in certain communities.

I went from being edgy atheist to a mellow atheist. No one wants to hear atheists ramble against religion anymore than any person not seeking religious words wants to hear someone ramble about their own religion or some aspect of their religion. I've learned there is almost never a worthwhile reason to engage in spiritual or lack thereof discussion unless both people want to and it's in a personal or positive context.
Because I've been in metal and am a big fan of that style that turns the kind of Satanic black metal imagery one would see into something cute, I've had people try and go on me about God. When I was younger, I just stood politely as they rambled on. The last time, I realized how old I was, and just told the guy that I wasn't going to listen.

Just look at this thread. Perfect for demonstrating how some people cant accept world views can seemingly coexist together peacefully.

You could replace Atheist with Vegan and Religion with meat eaters and not miss a trick here.

I know you want to separate yourself entirely from.....them . The weak and feeble minded. The ones you don't respect. The ones you feel are mostly bad people.
But you're more like them thanyou're willing to admit.

There is no reason to be nice to people who still hide behind a "belief" in a fairytale (especially when it's a very safe bet that they don't actually believe it) to justify being a vile asshole.

Cites that religious people mainly Christians think nice atheists aren't "real" atheists and will return to religion shortly.
That criticism of intolerance, harmful belief structures and bigotry is viewed as "unkind"
Says atheists are often misunderstood and this upsets and angers them

Do you agree? Disagree?

Didn't watch the video, but the title sounds like an excuse to be an asshole.

Watch the video. It's Genetically Modified Skeptic. He's talking about annoying comments he gets from religious assholes. Shit like "You're so nice. You can't be an atheist"

What the f*** you talking about? Im just disagreeing with a definition, I dont think religious people are bad or dumb. Im from Western Europe, we dont do this reddit enlightened atheism s*** here, nor are people overly religious. Its barely a talking point.

Didn't watch the video, but the title sounds like an excuse to be an asshole.

You understand how a fake compliment like that is insulting. I think you could understand how a similar comment, "You're so smart, you can't be an atheist" would be insulting

Surely you can understand how straight up insulting people's beliefs and telling them they are stupid is insulting.

No shit, it's insulting. Are you confused?

I was responding to some people generally in this topic. If your opinion isnt that its basically ok to insult religious people then Im sorry. But as from reading this topic youll see a few people do think that.

Reply to them and not me then.

dude given the subject of this topic your attitude is uncalled for.

I don't watch videos YouTube videos unless I seek them out myself.

Topic title and bullet points make it sound like the video creator is an edgy atheist.

However, I've heard that in the Southern USA, there is more condemnation towards atheism. Like my friend will see about going on a date with a girl, and if suggests a church date or asks what church he goes to, he considers that to be a pursuit that isn't going anywhere. Even where I live, around a major metropolitan area in the north, I could see atheists being viewed as spiritually lost or even hated in certain communities.

I went from being edgy atheist to a mellow atheist. No one wants to hear atheists ramble against religion anymore than any person not seeking religious words wants to hear someone ramble about their own religion or some aspect of their religion. I've learned there is almost never a worthwhile reason to engage in spiritual or lack thereof discussion unless both people want to and it's in a personal or positive context.
Because I've been in metal and am a big fan of that style that turns the kind of Satanic black metal imagery one would see into something cute, I've had people try and go on me about God. When I was younger, I just stood politely as they rambled on. The last time, I realized how old I was, and just told the guy that I wasn't going to listen.

The subject of this topic has nothing to do with you quoting their post to reply to other people besides them, and telling you to respont to those people directly is hardly "uncalled for."

So, tell me again why atheists should give the time of day to religious nutters who want them dead? Or why they need to be kind to Y'all-Qaeda? Yeah, maybe some of you have been sleeping under a rock the last few decades, but the religious aren't exactly on the up and up.

Just look at the laws and actions they take. Don't listen to what they say, look at what they DO.

I didnt read every post in this topic and I quoted yours because it was directly about what the guy in the video was saying.

If I misunderstood your views your response shouldnt be to get angry at me and attack me.

Wasn't my post.

Regardless, when you quote someone and reply with "you understand that..." and "surely you can understand..." then you are speaking directly to that person. That may not be your intent, but that's the reality of the message based on the words you chose. If you want to reply to "some people generally," you do not quote one user and use the word "you" repeatedly.

No one attacked you. They told you to reply to the people you're talking to.

As you can see Im not reading the names of who is posting.

And yeah his attitude was definitely aggressive and attacking. No reason to deny that.

You really should. It will help you avoid embarrassing issues like this.

You should also read the posts, because it's blatantly apparent from my first reply to you that I was not CountCorvinus because I referred to them in the third person.

Objectively wrong. You got aggressive when they told you to respond to the correct users. The correct thing for you to do there was apologize for creating the confusion rather than lash out.

Now youre making things up.

Saying someones attitude is inappropriate given the circumstances of this topic is not being aggressive.

And now youre singling me out for some reason?

What do you hope to achieve from this?

You was being used generally.

No, it wasn't. You may have intended that, but your actual usage was direct. That's my point.

And I had no way of knowing what his beliefs were, so who cares?

So it's perfectly fine to accuse someone of "straight up insulting peoples beliefs" if you don't know what they believe. That makes perfect sense and isn't remotely aggressive, nosiree.

I assumed those were his beliefs.

So it's perfectly fine to accuse someone of "straight up insulting peoples beliefs" if you don't know what they believe. That makes perfect sense and isn't remotely aggressive, nosiree.

Frankly I'm annoyed at antitheists using passionate as a eumpahaism for dick behavior.

Frankly that's not what I was trying to excuse and you missed the point.

Can I admit that some atheists are incredibly annoying and aggressive about their atheism? Of course... one of my favorite jokes is: "How can you tell if your co-worker just became and atheist? - wait five minutes and I'm sure they'll tell you."

But I have heard people, especially religious folks trying to create some parallel to their beliefs, claim the idea that anything a non-religious person is passionate about is "their religion": atheism, sports, politics, etc... but this is just a way to avoid addressing the social impact and ramifications of organized religion, and religious people can be just as invested in sports, politics, or any hobby and we don't call them heretics now, do we?

That's the point I was trying to make.

Religion is a form of philosophy. So take the wikipedia definition of religion (Religion is a range of social-cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural, transcendental, and spiritual elements) and take a persons life philosophy, combine them and you basically have someones religion.

I dont agree with people who think if someone doesnt follow a formal or standard religion, his or her religion must be something else in their lives. But I also think people who try to disassociate from the term religion are trying too hard. This topic is pretty subjective and people are worrying too much about semantics IMO (sometimes to the point where its not just ignorant, its insulting). Like what is really the difference between someones life philosophy or worldview and someones religion?

Just look at this thread. Perfect for demonstrating how some people cant accept world views can seemingly coexist together peacefully.

You could replace Atheist with Vegan and Religion with meat eaters and not miss a trick here.

It's interesting that you spend this long a post railing on what assume the guy is like instead of watching the video and actually finding out.

The video creator is genuinely a really nice chill dude. He was raised as a fundamentalist Christian but de-converted since then and posts about his experiences. He is consistently respectful and well spoken. He does also live in Texas, so defo is on the receiving end of that condemnation. As he describes it, it's not even malice or hatred, it's the inability to understand how someone can be a good person if they don't believe in god.

Western Europe? The UK? I guess I saw your desire to clarify 'them' vs 'you' as two separate groups as you looking down on them. Might have jumped the gun a little

Religion is a form of philosophy. So take the wikipedia definition of religion (Religion is a range of social-cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural, transcendental, and spiritual elements) and take a persons life philosophy, combine them and you basically have someones religion.

I dont agree with people who think if someone doesnt follow a formal or standard religion, his or her religion must be something else in their lives. But I also think people who try to disassociate from the term religion are trying too hard. This topic is pretty subjective and people are worrying too much about semantics IMO (sometimes to the point where its not just ignorant, its insulting). Like what is really the difference between someones life philosophy or worldview and someones religion?

^I think people talked about this already ITT, but religion is more than just believing in supernatural beings or events. Astrology is not considered a religion for example. But there probably doesnt appear to be too much difference between someone reading a horoscope every day and someone reading a Bible verse for inspiration every day.

So I stick to my point that this topic is very subjective and a lot of disagreements come down to semantics and are unnecessary. Also generalizations probably wont apply to a lot of individual people so you should stop making them if you do.

Sounds like he wants an excuse to be a bigot. It's one thing to be mean to Christians (or anyone else) trying to shove their religion down his throat. It's another to be a jerk to anyone who is Christian as some preemptive strike because they might not treat you right.

Call me crazy but I think you should be angry towards those who deserve it because of their actions and not because they're religious or non religious. If someone tries to convert you to their religion or deconvert you into their world view after you have made it clear you're not interested that's when you get angry and aggressive. Doing it beforehand is the very definition of prejudice.