Atheism isn’t “about” anything. It’s the lack of belief in a god, gods, or spiritual beings. There is no doctrine or institution, that’s the point. The community making fun of dumb believers seems on-brand, imo, especially when they’re a huge part of the acceleration towards fascism around the world. Christian nationalists are a threat, and showing them as the hypocritical morons they are pushes back against their hatred.
It’s about being allowed to not believe in God, I’d say. Beware of the ultra nationalist American is much different from not believing or believing in the being no god.
It’s just the branding that annoys me. If this was called lunatic Ville it would be accurate and fine. What’s inside ain’t memes or atheists being atheists after all.
Ex-Christian here. Your points are mostly well taken; I just think you wildly misjudge how Christianity is seen from outside, and how these days its spokepersons are by default the worst-behaved among you because the “good” ones never get the mic, or don’t take it.
Atheists, including myself, come from the entire spectrum of religious experience, all the way from no religion whatsoever to that little church down in the backwoods of the South whose members eat, drink, and sleep religion, absolutely certain that they alone, and no one else, are going to be part of that 144,000 because not only did they not really read it, they don’t math.
There is no such denominator as “atheists being atheists” anywhere. I was deeply into it for thirty-five years and am even more deeply grateful every day I wake up that I am out of that mental jail. Someone else might have endured ongoing manipulation, cruelty, ostracization, or even outright abuse from religious groups. Someone else might be none of the above and just think we’re all a disparate group of loons that were either born wise (always atheist) or somehow came to our senses.
There is NO one size fits all. There is NO one kind of atheist. There is NO “atheists being atheists” sitting around talking about a hole in the universe where they see nothing and you see your god. THERE IS NO ATHEIST BRANDING.
This thread is quite mild compared to some I’ve seen. You seem to have the totality of atheism confused with what sounds like one person’s individual kneejerk reaction to their own bad case of Christianity. And you’ve dared to define for a group of atheists what atheism is. Selah.
Hate preachers are found everywhere religion is, on every continent, and the American Colonial “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” hate preachers were just that era’s flavor.
For a brief history on that specific crowd, they came straight from Britain’s hate-filled Puritans, who came straight from Knox’s hate-filled iconoclastic crew in Scotland, and have moved forward though countless hate-filled Protestant church splits (because when they weren’t hating everyone else they were hating each other) right up to this present-day hate-filled American whateverthefuck it is now.
Go ahead, look it up. Jonathan Edwards, Congregationalists, Puritans, John Knox, the Protestant Reformation.
I genuinely dare you.
When you do, you will see for yourself that your own example of Christian hate goes both forward and backward in hate just as far as you’d like to take it, and across every continent and era. Go ahead, I studied Christian church history, both east and west, all the way from the Desert Fathers to Zwingli, from Chrysostom to Billy Graham. I pulled that second para off the top of my head. I KNOW the history. That’s why I’m not Christian anymore, and why you still are. So pull the other one.
As for the rest of your comment, you are free to define your deified hate fantasy however you like. It’s no longer my personal concern.
You know what I don’t post about? My dad. Still Christian. He’s laid back. He wasn’t sure about things like LGBT+ but he’s generally an accepting guy, and as US culture has grown more accepting, so has he. He doesn’t give me shit about religion - feels it’s one of those things that everyone has to decide what to do for themselves.
So I don’t post about him, or talk about his religion much, because it’s fine.
I do talk about the Christians who try and shit on our human rights, though, because that has real consequences. And talking about it lets us vent and let off some steam, finding community in our shared experiences.
Like many places where people complain about bad things, you shouldn’t necessarily read them complaining about the shitty parts of a subject as them complaining about the entire subject.
For the Christians who are following the teachings of Jesus - what he actually purportedly said and taught - good on yer, we ain’t complaining about you (well, most of us probably aren’t).
I tend to believe that ALL religion is generally bad. But I look at Sikhs for example - those folks are not perfect, I’m sure, but you see story after story after story about them helping fellow humans - offering free food no questions asked - taking care of people. I aspire to be like that, religion or no.
For the Christians doing that? Awesome, you rock. Those are not the Christians we’re generally bitching about.
You might see… minorities bitching about racism or women bitching about toxic male culture. #notallwhites and #notallmen - just don’t take offense if you’re not one of the bad ones.
Right? It’s a god damn shame that I have sane and compassionate friends and family who get lumped in with these lunatics.
Assholes who exist just to be assholes will reach for any excuse they can hook their fangs into and suck the life out of it. Narcissists don’t care about what they have to defile if it means they get to keep getting a pass for it. And the people who’ve been abused by them keep seeking abusers and emulating them, because they’ve had any critical thought or independence wrung out of them until their souls are bone dry and flattened into fragile and paper-thin rehearsals of rage. And then they go out looking for fights because the constructed social paradigm falls apart if they’re ever anything BUT the fucking victims.
I hate cults. I hate the people who start them, run them, and perpetuate them. And I hate that they turn their victims into more conspirators to keep the scam running.
Just posting about Vance and weirdo Christians isn’t what atheism is about, I thought.
Atheism isn’t “about” anything. It’s the lack of belief in a god, gods, or spiritual beings. There is no doctrine or institution, that’s the point. The community making fun of dumb believers seems on-brand, imo, especially when they’re a huge part of the acceleration towards fascism around the world. Christian nationalists are a threat, and showing them as the hypocritical morons they are pushes back against their hatred.
It’s about being allowed to not believe in God, I’d say. Beware of the ultra nationalist American is much different from not believing or believing in the being no god.
It’s just the branding that annoys me. If this was called lunatic Ville it would be accurate and fine. What’s inside ain’t memes or atheists being atheists after all.
Ex-Christian here. Your points are mostly well taken; I just think you wildly misjudge how Christianity is seen from outside, and how these days its spokepersons are by default the worst-behaved among you because the “good” ones never get the mic, or don’t take it.
Atheists, including myself, come from the entire spectrum of religious experience, all the way from no religion whatsoever to that little church down in the backwoods of the South whose members eat, drink, and sleep religion, absolutely certain that they alone, and no one else, are going to be part of that 144,000 because not only did they not really read it, they don’t math.
There is no such denominator as “atheists being atheists” anywhere. I was deeply into it for thirty-five years and am even more deeply grateful every day I wake up that I am out of that mental jail. Someone else might have endured ongoing manipulation, cruelty, ostracization, or even outright abuse from religious groups. Someone else might be none of the above and just think we’re all a disparate group of loons that were either born wise (always atheist) or somehow came to our senses.
There is NO one size fits all. There is NO one kind of atheist. There is NO “atheists being atheists” sitting around talking about a hole in the universe where they see nothing and you see your god. THERE IS NO ATHEIST BRANDING.
This thread is quite mild compared to some I’ve seen. You seem to have the totality of atheism confused with what sounds like one person’s individual kneejerk reaction to their own bad case of Christianity. And you’ve dared to define for a group of atheists what atheism is. Selah.
There also is no Christian for Christianity is different depending on where you are. And hate preachers are a very American/Colonial thing.
Hate preachers are found everywhere religion is, on every continent, and the American Colonial “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” hate preachers were just that era’s flavor.
For a brief history on that specific crowd, they came straight from Britain’s hate-filled Puritans, who came straight from Knox’s hate-filled iconoclastic crew in Scotland, and have moved forward though countless hate-filled Protestant church splits (because when they weren’t hating everyone else they were hating each other) right up to this present-day hate-filled American whateverthefuck it is now.
Go ahead, look it up. Jonathan Edwards, Congregationalists, Puritans, John Knox, the Protestant Reformation.
I genuinely dare you.
When you do, you will see for yourself that your own example of Christian hate goes both forward and backward in hate just as far as you’d like to take it, and across every continent and era. Go ahead, I studied Christian church history, both east and west, all the way from the Desert Fathers to Zwingli, from Chrysostom to Billy Graham. I pulled that second para off the top of my head. I KNOW the history. That’s why I’m not Christian anymore, and why you still are. So pull the other one.
As for the rest of your comment, you are free to define your deified hate fantasy however you like. It’s no longer my personal concern.
I am well aware of history, but only looking for hate warps your perception of reality and breeds a hate filled world view.
YOU brought up hate, not me. It’s YOUR hate, and YOUR hate fantasy. Own it.
And lol you do not know your own church history at all. You were just certain I didn’t.
Why do you constantly claim it was my church?
You know what I don’t post about? My dad. Still Christian. He’s laid back. He wasn’t sure about things like LGBT+ but he’s generally an accepting guy, and as US culture has grown more accepting, so has he. He doesn’t give me shit about religion - feels it’s one of those things that everyone has to decide what to do for themselves.
So I don’t post about him, or talk about his religion much, because it’s fine.
I do talk about the Christians who try and shit on our human rights, though, because that has real consequences. And talking about it lets us vent and let off some steam, finding community in our shared experiences.
Like many places where people complain about bad things, you shouldn’t necessarily read them complaining about the shitty parts of a subject as them complaining about the entire subject.
For the Christians who are following the teachings of Jesus - what he actually purportedly said and taught - good on yer, we ain’t complaining about you (well, most of us probably aren’t).
I tend to believe that ALL religion is generally bad. But I look at Sikhs for example - those folks are not perfect, I’m sure, but you see story after story after story about them helping fellow humans - offering free food no questions asked - taking care of people. I aspire to be like that, religion or no.
For the Christians doing that? Awesome, you rock. Those are not the Christians we’re generally bitching about.
You might see… minorities bitching about racism or women bitching about toxic male culture. #notallwhites and #notallmen - just don’t take offense if you’re not one of the bad ones.
Right? It’s a god damn shame that I have sane and compassionate friends and family who get lumped in with these lunatics.
Assholes who exist just to be assholes will reach for any excuse they can hook their fangs into and suck the life out of it. Narcissists don’t care about what they have to defile if it means they get to keep getting a pass for it. And the people who’ve been abused by them keep seeking abusers and emulating them, because they’ve had any critical thought or independence wrung out of them until their souls are bone dry and flattened into fragile and paper-thin rehearsals of rage. And then they go out looking for fights because the constructed social paradigm falls apart if they’re ever anything BUT the fucking victims.
I hate cults. I hate the people who start them, run them, and perpetuate them. And I hate that they turn their victims into more conspirators to keep the scam running.
It’s not a religion?