Bashing Atheists?

Remove all ads!

New York Times

[Edit] Stupid thing requires registration -- sorry! I'll put some of it on here:

I thought this was a fabulous idea -- I didn't think that atheists got bashed, but I guess I was wrong!

BTW, this is my first time putting a link on this site -- apologies if I screwed it up.

[EDIT] Which I did, but anyhow, there it is, folks!

[ June 29, 2005, 21:25: Message edited by: LKD ]

 

Only problem is if you haven't registered with NYT you can't access the link. That is why, copyright be damned, I sometimes cut and past the entire article

 

Well I can imagine how atheists get bashed in religious communities just like I can imagine how a muslim can get bashed in a christian community. I'm a bit sceptical about all sorts of "belief" camps and am a bit afraid that they include brainwashing and killing of independent thought but on the other hand I've been on a christian confirmation camp myself and it was loads of fun. Twelve year olds are in my opinion a bit too young for those kinds of camps but that's just my opinion. Parents of course have the right to decide if they send their kids to such camps or not.

 

When I bash atheists, I like to use a dead cat.

 

I've noticed many atheists with "Big Bang" dents on their foreheads.

 

I've seen a couple atheists missing all four apendages. Apparently, they've evolved to the point they don't need arms or legs any more.

 

Actually, as a Canadian agnostic-leaning-towards-atheism, I've never really encountered any kind of discrimination. Although I'm not really surprised to see it happening in certain parts of the U.S.

 

I only run into athiest bashing whenever I'm around my family.

 

Just as I took a position against bashing certain religions, I disagree with bashing someone because they don't believe in God either.

In the instance of a camp, unless it is run by a specific religious group for the benefit of their younger members (one runs every year for teenage LDS girls in my area), religion should be irrelevent from the proceedings.

 

Here in Australia, some refugees, which our WONDERFUL government likes to lock up, got released because they had converted to Christianity. If they were atheist, they'd still be in there.

 

Church is declining here so this is unheard of in the North of Ireland, but I am sure the small villages would paint a different picture.

 

The minority always get "bashed". Here religion is more condenscended and ridiculed than bashed though. It is viewed as something quaint and cute and useful when you want some ceremony.

 

Heh. Here Atheism, or at least a kind of resigned lack of any religious conviction, is assumed to be the norm - which it is. Stating that you were devout would be far more likely to earn you ridicule than if you were openly an atheist. The idea of atheism being actually considered something seditious, in a western society, in 2005, is something I find utterly hilarious, but I imagine such places do exist in some parts of the western world.

 

Doesn't being an atheist just mean that you don't have any religious beliefs?
In which case, what is there to bash? The big Bang is a hell of a lot more plausible than any religions out there.

I reckon I'm a devout atheist!

 

Are there any people on this board who are devout followers of Religion?

I'll eStab the first tosser who says he follows Oghama

xx

 

I believe the dictionary would define an atheist as one who does not believe in God. It is quite possible to believe in a Supreme Being without having religious beliefs. At least not in any formal, orthodox, conventional way.

Angel Headed Hipster welcome to SP but do you have a lot to learn.

I have known a few instances of atheist bashing. It was in a small town in the mid-west.

 

I don't bash atheists for atheism but I never miss the opportunity to remind some people that atheism is also a faith when taken to extremes. So yeah, I bash folks like that guy who said his atheism had scientific grounds in some Polish forum. The verb in "I believe there's no God" is "believe", after all, isn't it? Oh dear, I love this tease. That's what one gets when I've had enough of the "you don't have any proof, so how can you believe?" kind of talk.

 

Organised world religion is the most contradictory and reactionary force in the world.

Preaching freedom, peace and pacifism whilst practising slavery, war and murder. No one thing has caused so much death.

xx

 

Eeerr... and why are you tying the practice of slavery, war and murder with organised religion?

Oh dear, it probably works like:

inquisitors and conquistadors were evil and Christian, so Christianity was the reason why they were evil

What about Hitler and Stalin? Those guys were atheists, so should we now conclude that nothing has caused more deaths than atheism?

Or maybe people who have a religion (no matter they live against its tenets) kill because they belong to that church, while those without a church kill for a reason different from not having a church to belong? That would be a double standard.

Sorry, that logic doesn't work.

 

That kind of logic works just fine for you whenever it suits you, chev. All one has to do is check out the gay marriage thread over at AoLS to find out.

Sorry for popping in here, but that was a tad too hypocritical for my tastes. How unexpected.