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Why is a religion and philosophy forum so totally overrun with athiests?
What exactly is their religion/and or philosophy?
Why do these semi-literate scientifically minded atheists constantly plaster this forum with rhetorical questions and statements usually connected with creation and Noah's arc, aimed at a generally less scientifically literate religious minority?
Is it that athiests come here to:
(a) demonstrate their own level of genius?
(b) belittle those that don't accept certain current theories espoused by sections of the scientific community (even if it is a current majority view)?
(c) undermine faith, as it doesn't directly correspond with their world view?
Why are the athiests that post here are so insecure that they feel obliged to troll these boards at attack the religious minority?
After all, if you have genuine questions about creation science, intelligent design, flood geology, biblical anthropology etc. wouldn't you aim those questions at one of the numerous creation/ID scientist sources rather than scientifically illiterates like me? What are you trying to achieve?
Without attacking you sir, or your beliefs, allow me to concur and add some things.
1) There is a difference between an atheist and an anti-theist. Atheism means "no religion", as in a non-believer, which I am fine with, while an anti-theist is someone who feels the need to attack believers for who knows what reason. I'm cool with atheists, as long as they respect me as a human being, it's the anti-theists nut jobs I can't stand.
If someone does not believe, it's fine. I am not trying to convert anyone and atheism is a perfectly understandable choice. It's when the anti-theists come out and call me names without even knowing me just because I am a believer that I get angry.
Anti-theist are the same as the witch burners and Crusaders and jyhadist. They are just as intolerant as the people they hate so much.
Also, Atheists are embarrassed by anti-theists the same way I am embarrassed by people like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell.
2) When confronted with someone like me, who has not often heard of takes on theology, creation, the nature of divinity etc, they either keep repeating the same old, tired arguments I just tore to shreds, or they just ignore me and continue on to the next "victim" using the same old, tired arguments that I just tore to shreds.
Without getting into an argument about creation with any creationists, this is how it usually plays out:
Anti-Theist: "evolution is real! Genesis is a fairy tale!"
Victorianpunk:"The story of Genesis is an allegory for human evolution with the garden being our pre-sentient existince and the days after being the burden of sentients and how we must deal with the consequences of being a thinking animal as the starting factor (i.e., Genesis, 'the beginning') of any and all problem we face as a society and on an individual level"
Anti-Theist: (gives a frustrated grunt and goes onto the next theist) "Listen you! Evolution is real! Genesis is a Fariy Tale!"
I am just wondering why some atheists have become so evangelical (def: militant zeal for a cause), hence why I pondered my questions.
Is anti-theism becoming the majority view of atheism as a whole? It appears to be on this forum. And can this forum act as a barometer for secular society on these issues?
I am genuinely curious and interested on what motivates atheists to participate so heavily in this particular forum.
I am just wondering why some atheists have become so evangelical (def: militant zeal for a cause), hence why I pondered my questions.
Is anti-theism becoming the majority view of atheism as a whole? It appears to be on this forum. And can this forum act as a barometer for secular society on these issues?
I am genuinely curious and interested on what motivates atheists to participate so heavily in this particular forum.
Well, thing is, it is easier to be a prick online then in real life. Going on a forum were people are saying good things about their relationship with GOD and flaming it is something any idiot can do, while doing so in a church is something few of these anti-theists have the balls to do.
I think it's just the anonymous nature of the internet that makes it happen. Allot of these anti-theists are very young (as in Highschool) and they like trying to look older and smarter then they really are. Most atheist are just normal folks but the internet just attracts the extremist in all catagories.
I was on a messageboard for race relations and all kinds of neo-nazi idiots started showing up. Same thing: They will be more then happy to spill that filth on a message board, but will they have the nerve to say those things at a NAACP convention?
I am just wondering why some atheists have become so evangelical (def: militant zeal for a cause), hence why I pondered my questions.
Is anti-theism becoming the majority view of atheism as a whole? It appears to be on this forum. And can this forum act as a barometer for secular society on these issues?
I am genuinely curious and interested on what motivates atheists to participate so heavily in this particular forum.
Victorianpunk answered you well enough but as an atheist inclined to be evangelical, I think I have some input.
It's probably true that there's no-one so fanatical as a convert. Now I've been a lifetime atheist but I share the same zeal as your evangelical atheist. It's because there was a time I shared the deconversion. I'd never been a believer but there was a time when I became aware of the theist scam. I realized all the trickery, craftiness, dishonesty and misdirection of theism. And I became indignant as deconverts who have now realized how they were fooled have become indignant. Of course, we want to tell everyone else.
Insecure. Perhaps, but not because we are insecure about what we believe - or don't believe, rather; that atheists are constantly fearful of being convinced of the Truth of God is a bit of theist wishful thinking - but we are insecure about the massive grip that theism has on society, how it is constantly threatening and making efforts to grab authority over education, politics, entertainment, health, workplace and law and insecure because of the massive amounts of dosh it has to do it.
Here in the UK, during a recent Euro election, what was the most frequent billboard I saw? For the Christian party. I believe they got no seats, but the cash they must have poured into their campaign - not even run by the Church - must have been staggering.
I would like nothing better than to stop talking about atheism altogether and to let the various religions do their own thing. But, all the time we have creationists trying to hi-jack the educational system, all the time we have faith - schools indoctrinating kids instead of giving them all the facts and letting them make up their own minds, all the time we have religions running states and called for God-approved wars against whoever, all the time we have theist fanatic workers demanding that their work not deal with the pill, or gays, or pork because they say it offends them, in fact until the religions cease sticking their nose into everyone's business, then we feel the need to speak out and keep speaking out.
Theists would love to persuade us to shut up and allow them a clear field. Then they could get on brainwashing the populace and suppressing question. Until every bit of theist prosetelyzation, preaching, misinformation and indoctrination is immediately countered by the other view, the doubts, the questions, the alternatives and the information and facts they so carefully leave out, atheists have to speak out and keep speaking out.
Actually, I would consider myself an anti-theist but not in the capacity that "VictorianPunk" put it. I would rather say that I am an atheist meaning I hold no belief in God. I am also glad that I have found no evidence to lead me to believe that there is some sort of entity operating a celestial totalitarian state in which all praise, worship and glorification must reside in his/her honor and favor. I find it to be a horrible thing to have to give praise for and I am truly against worshiping anything of that nature whether it exists or not. In that capacity, I am most certainly an "Anti-theist."
With that being said, I would agree that there are some atheists whom we could call "militant" on this forum who will stop at nothing to degrade and debase anyone who holds a viewpoint that doesn't conform to their non-belief. The only thing I can say is that I am starting to feel the vast majority of people are just blatant idiots incapable of producing any sort of original, coherent thought. The viciousness perceived on this forum from any side leads me to believe that the people in question are not actually as vindictive and hateful in real life as they are over the Internet. The relative anonymity of posting hateful messages over an Internet forum allows one to feel safe and secure in posting what would normally be considered a 'fringe' of normal human thinking in a normal social situation.
So, in a sense, many of the debates that take place on this forum are debates that would never happen in a real life setting. We are often accustomed to sacrificing some of the 'fringe' thoughts in our mind for the sanctity of interpersonal and intersocial relationships.
I firmly believe that without seeing the reaction on someone's face, without being able to read their body language and without being able to decipher if what one has said could be deemed hurtful or even painful for someone to hear, it is all together too simple to continue on with the familiar bigoted doublespeak we are accustomed to seeing on this forum. This, I should note, is heavily prevalent among not just some of the atheists on this forum but those who believe, those who reside mainly in the political forum, and just about anywhere else a forum exists on the Internet.
The inability for people to actually conjure a living, breathing human behind the screen name they are debasing into their minds is what enables this sort of behavior, in my opinion. It's extraordinarily easy to do it and if you post long enough on an Internet forum you may find yourself encumbered by the arduous task of not falling into that same trap. Believe me, it can get the better of just about anyone.
Ultimately, in my mind, it seems very similar to the perceived problems that Autistics have in trying to deduce emotions from body language and facial expressions.
That's a few good thoughts. I have been on some forums - should that be forae? - where discussion was immediately sidetracked into mutual abuse. I hope to actually get some exchange here.
I probably come across agressively. I hope that I listen and try to understand what the other guy is thinking and feeling. I trust that the other guy will do the same. What's irritating is when it's plain the other fellow is not listening but just saying the same thing in different words.
I come here because in "real life" I can't talk to anyone about being non-religious. In the Bible Belt, letting anyone know that you're an atheist is just a bad idea. Everyone I know (literally everyone) thinks atheists are evil and they have a burning hatred for anyone who's not religious like them. I'd be ostracized from everyone I know, if not worse. Not being able to talk to anyone about it, ever, leads me to seek out a place where I can talk about it.
That being said, I couldn't care less if others want to be religious. Do you ever see me posting in the Christianity forum?
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