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10 reasons to hate evangelical atheists
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I was inspired to write this article because of the nasty comments written in response to what I thought was a beautiful article on Steve Olson’s blog. (I’m in the middle of a large write up on his blog, so you should expect to see it soon). You can read his article and the comments that prompted this article here.
What might seem ironic about my writing on this topic is that, as many of you know, I’m an atheist. But I could never stomach writing the kind of crap that I see so many atheists write. It’s embarrassing, it’s rude, it’s not helpful, it’s not kind, it’s crap. And it makes me mad.
Evangelical atheists are a subset of atheists who engage in the practice of either:
a) converting non-atheists into atheists, or
b) criticizing the ones they can’t.
They are atheists who speak out with often harsh or cruel words toward people of faith. And even if they do not speak out, they harbor some pretty sick shit inside.
So here’s me thumbing my nose at them:
1. They forget that the “truth” they believe in can do the work for them
If the “truth” they wish to propagate is so obvious so as to make them angry when believers find it hard to swallow, then they really should relax a little, find some patience and wait for the truth to do the work for them. They need to remember that “truth” just does that. Remember the flat-world thing? Uh-huh. We figured it out. Relax. If you feel so strongly about your atheism that you need to bash people who aren’t, you’re wasting your energy. Go find something cool to do. You may not need to work as hard as you think you need to. Human progress will follow the white rabbit on it’s own. You can either sit back and enjoy the ride or you can shit on people. Choose carefully atheist, because remember, you only get to ride once.
2. They’re hypocrites
They practice exactly what they say they hate. They associate religion with all the negative things about religion’s history, like violence for instance, then they go and practice violence, or in the case of the article that inspired the list you’re reading now, they go and take a steaming dump on some guy’s story about his experiences with his four year old. Good thinking, dink.
3. They confuse two very different ideals
Being right is one thing, wanting others to be like you is something else. They confuse the two and make the former dependent on the latter. Why not just be right? That should be good enough. It is for me. If you’re a “truth seeker” and you feel you found the truth in atheism, why not just be glad you found the truth? Why go and harass people? If you were a wealth seeker, and you found it (you got wealthy), would you go off and pass it around? Unlikely. You’d mind your own business. When it comes to ontology, do the same thing. Why does your being right about the world also have to include your need to make others see your side of things?
4. They belie their rationality
Atheists often view themselves as rational. But then some of them go off and attack people of faith. Is confronting religious people purely rational? It might be if people conducting religious lives were being mean because of their religions, right? You bet.
Actually, that’s not true. I just caught you being irrational. If your views make you act out toward people because of their views, go back and read #2 you irrational hypocrite.
5. They’re not enough like the faithful
Most religious people use their religions as a nothing more than a guide. Their religions answer questions about justice, death, reason and it gives them a purpose in life. It also inspires them to be kind and to love their surroundings. It gives them a reason to find happiness in what would otherwise be a tragic world. If you’re an evangelical atheist, and you can’t live with that, my suggestion is that you go find a religion. Maybe then you’d have good reason to be happy and love your life, love your fellow human beings.
6. They keep thinking they need to wake people up
Who designated you to be the waker-upper-person? Oh yeah, you did. Stop it. Go read some political philosophy. You’ll soon learn that the job you feel inspired to perform isn’t really yours. That job’s been taken. Go find some kittens to play with.
7. They’re essentially racist
I’ve been unfortunate to have met numerous racist people in my life, even if they don’t think they are. Here’s what racist white people in America say about black people: they say it’s not the skin color, it’s the culture. Yep, they’re racist alright. Same thing goes for evangelical racists atheists. They don’t have a skin color to pick on, but they’ll say it’s everything else. The rituals, the practices, the things religious people tell their kids. It’s part of the religious culture. If you can’t respect that, if you just can’t let them have those things, then yeah, you’re no better than a racist.
8. They view believers as enemies
Big mistake. If evangelical atheists view religious people as enemies then it means they never finished learning what Atheism should have taught them. If they’re truly atheists, then they should recognize the degree of frailty that defines our species. That alone, when ingested with the fullest comprehension, should bring them to recognize and embrace all things human, no matter what form. In a godless world, humans are suddenly much more special things. True atheists love humanity because humanity is ours, exclusively. It’s origins are our own. Stop being hostile.
9. They do not offer any alternatives
Most evangelical atheists, soon after bashing someone because of their religious views, just walk away. Good thinking. Evangelical atheists rarely offer alternatives, or at most they offer alternatives that are completely incompatible, or completely useless to the religious person they just tore down. That’s like beating a child who ties his shoes wrong. Better to just show him how to do it right. Some will counter that the alternative they propose is implicit, that it’s the “truth.” If so, read the qualifiers I just mentioned, I bolded them in case your zeal to bash me too obscures your ability to know what a qualifier is. When you’re done chewing on that, go back and study #6.
10. Not every Christian out there is trying to cram Jesus down your throat
But evangelical atheists go around trying to cram non-Jesus down everyone else’s throat. Smells like another #2. They fear religious people as though believers were wandering around trying to infect everyone with some kind of virus. Damn, calm down. It’s not some kind of war. At least it wasn’t until people like you came along…
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Dereck :: Jul.18.2008 :: Perspectives :: 15 Comments »
15 Responses to “10 reasons to hate evangelical atheists”
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ok.
Problems with a decent portion of this post, but I’ll focus.
#7. Racism is bad because the victim doesn’t have any choice in the matter. Religious people do have a choice. Do i agree with calling them all idiots and practicing prejudice against them? Not particularly, and every atheist I’ve ever met (this includes me) has friends and family that are believers that we get along fine with. This is not the case with racists. Calling someone a racist when they aren’t is an ad hominem attack. It makes YOU no better than THEM. does that make sense? You do realize you titled the post “Reasons to Hate” right? I don’t care if you are an atheist, I myself am an ardent one who thinks organized religions are laughable, and yet I would never advocate hating anyone that buys into them. The hatred etc that comes out on the internet isn’t a problem with atheists in particular, its a problem with semi-anonymous discourse on the internet. We see this in discussion of virtually every single contentious issue on virtually every URL you can name. this is why comments on youtube, reddit, etc etc tend to devolve into idiocy and posts labeled with “10 half-assed reasons to hate some person that i hate” or whatever.
#9. Atheism isn’t about what to believe so much as what tripe not to swallow. As an atheist I have had to come up with my own alternatives in a long period of what I refuse to call “soul-searching”. That being the case it is not the point for us to offer up alternatives (nor attack someone that is expressing a belief in god in the applicable forum). However, in a discussion on the reality of God . . the alternative IS ‘no god’. It is not the responsibility of the atheist to come up with further answers for the former believer. Why? Because atheists in general respect the ability of individuals to make up their own mind (even when we probably shouldn’t). Thus we are interested that people not believe in lies and manipulative garbage, and not so interested in replacing it with something else.
The best part about this whole post is that you do the exact same thing that you are hating on. Calling people irrational hypocrites (even if they are), condescending to people like they’re children, etc. You know what’s great about being an atheist? even if you and I both claim to be under this umbrella, I don’t have to come up with excuses for your intelligence.
@ me – I said they’re essentially racist, or analogous to a racist person. Many racists won’t identify someone’s skin color as the reason they feel ire, instead they’ll blame their feelings on other aspects they might associate with those with that color. In that way, I’m suggesting evangelical atheists are similar to racist people.
You might find this surprising, but religious people may not have as much choice as you say they do. As an ardent atheist you claim yourself to be, you should know that free will is just a fiction.
Recognize that this is a blog on the Internet. It’s not a scholarly publication. Most intellectual scrubbing is absent. Titling articles for Internet blogs often requires introducing lots of stuff that would be laughed off most tabletops. Otherwise it would never have reached Reddit so readers like you could read it.
If your job is not to serve up alternatives, then great! Mine isn’t either. So I’m not talking about you. I’m talking about people who feel they have to tear down believers and then just stop. I’m calling that a moral indignation, in fact, that’s precisely what prompted the article. Just my moral indignation. You know what the best part of moral indignation is? It doesn’t need excuses for intelligence either…
moral indignation. doesn’t need to be supported by any sort of intelligence. I think that says it all right there.
Maybe you should look into what essentially actually means before calling evangelical atheists “essentially racist”. Here’s a hint: it’s far, far worse than being called “similar to racist people”.
“Essentially” should be in quotes in the above message. Sorry for any parsing errors that caused.
Dereck,
This is a very interesting post, and I thank you for submitting it to the Christian Carnival. I will try to find a way to reference it, but since it is not a Christian post, it doesn’t really fall into the guidelines for the Carnival as I understand them.
Having said that, I appreciate the respect you’re showing here. I had a recent run-in with one of the very atheists you’re describing … he was more or less stuck with suggesting that I read “an actual book,” calling me stupid and irrational, that sort of thing. (When I pointed out that I’d read “The God Delusion,” “The Origin of Species,” and such, he just went away. I can’t say that I miss him, but it was a let-down that all he had in his arsenal was “Read a book.”)
On the other hand, in fairness, there are Christians who sound just about the same, and I don’t think that they’re helping the cause.
I think that the word you wanted in point #7 was “bigots,” rather than “racists.” I get what you’re saying, but I think that “me” and Bob have a point about the use of terminology.
[...] presents 10 reasons to hate evangelical atheists posted at I Will Not [...]
This argument might have had merit if you couldn’t say the same things about evangelical christians. I do believe we are more likely to find a christian standing on a street corner screaming about our eternal damnation if we do not accept Jesus as our personal saviour than we are likely to see an “evangelical atheist” doing something similar.
[...] presents 10 reasons to hate evangelical atheists posted at I Will Not [...]
If atheists not allowing theists to live their lives isn’t akin to racism, would it be akin to antitheism perhaps?
Far too little criticism of evangelical atheism IMO, far too little defense of people’s basic freedom and right to worship. If atheists do want to go down that road then they are no better than the Islamist terrorists they are too frightened to attack, no better than the atheist tyrants apologists try and claim were not driven to their atrocities because they were atheist.
The rise of the atheists we see today where opposition and condemnation of religion is banded about typically comes out as a display of hatred and intolerance of belief. For atheists that might not sound so bad. They get to strike a blow against religion, take down God, be seen as living up to the ideals of evangelical fundamentalist atheism. They’re seen as a hero to their fellow atheists. But to be able to accept people have the sacred right and freedom of worship; a freedom our heroes fought and died for, and to be able to get over their theophobia and just get on with their lives without having to devote it to attacking religion, that takes real guts, that would make them a real hero.
Worst article ever. Written by someone who clearly has no realistic experience in the minds of atheists or the behaviour.
1. Telling atheists not to enlighten people is so dumb. Atheists don’t hate christians talking about their views. Atheists hate it when christians try force their views on children who are genetically programmed to absorb and believe what they’re told as kids. And using scare tactics on them such as “you will burn in hell”. The world never suddenly one night all decided the world was round.
2. Christianity still has far more violence when being evangelical. In fact they are the most violent. I get more violent threats from christians for blaspheming than ive ever seen an atheist give a christian for his believe. Or insulting science.
3. Maybe because threatening your children with eternal pain and torture is the WRONG thing to do and maybe one isn’t as apathetic as to the well being of childrens minds as you good sir.
4. You just condemned attacking people even though your blog title is called “10 reasons to HATE evangelical atheists”. Way to go.
5. Teaches them to be kind and love their surroundings? So does being a hippie. Doesn’t make it the right choice. And Christians are all but loving, I know I grew up in several churches.
I don’t even want to go on, it’s so full of holes it’s almost like it’s just written to troll and get replies.
I am praying for the non-believers. It is never to late to change. God loves you no matter what and is weighting for you with open arms. But even if you decide to stay an atheist , at least you aren’t a hater. People need to learn to except one another for who they are. I clean house for an atheist and she just thinks I am an idiot for believing in what she calls a fairy tale and she basically called me stupid for not believing in evolution and believing in Adam and Eve. Yet her life is so unmanageable because she is a drug addict (Tweeker) and her house is a complete shamble and ridiculously filthy from her tearing shit up and she has the audacity to call me stupid.(Look who’s calling the kettle black. So I just clean her house and silently thank God for at least believing gin something and having hope. I look at it this way, what have I got to lose if God is true, I have Eternal Life to look forward to.
I was raised as an evangelical christian. I spent a good part of my childhood witnessing to people about christ. When I realized as a young adult that none of it was true, I became a bitter evangelical atheist to some extent. I eventually learned that trying to change an adult christian’s belief is not only diffucult but was making me more hateful of people. Now I just let them be christians and revel in the fact that I’m self owned in this life or any other.
Long ago Voltaire (I believe it was him) who said that I may strongly disagree with what you have to say but I will defend to the death your right to say it. That was the old view of tolerance. Now the new of tolerance view says that any disagreement with a point of view makes you intolerant.