Why do Americans still dislike atheists? (page 4)

Nickolas

Oppression takes a number of forms, overt and subtle. It depends upon your metric. No, you've never seen "Theists Only" bathroom signs in bus stations but it may be what you don't see that's important. Consider the religious beliefs of membes of the US Senate as an example (ref http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_affiliation_in_the_United_States_Senate ) Atheists have zero representation. Zero is a fairly good indication in support of the OP, don't you think?

'The most basic breakdown of the above data indicates that 85% of the Senate is Christian (compared with 79.8% of the population) and 13% of the Senate is Jewish (compared with 1.4% of the population). According to the data, no Senator falls under the category "No Religion/Atheist/Agnostic"—a category embodied by 15.0% of the U.S. population according to the 2001 Census—although two are under the description "unspecified".'

WontLeave

@OTWO

Not to pick a fight, but this sounds a lot like a JW talking:

If my 8-yr-old could not keep his beliefs to himself

Don't you really mean if your 8-year-old couldn't keep your beliefs to himself? Let's face it, even as adults, it takes us years or decades to finally start figuring things out, after decades of life experience, education, and sporadically researching various subjects. I'm in my 30s and been engaging in serious research for about 10 years now and I'm still tweaking my beliefs. To even imply an 8-year-old has beliefs is disingenuous. An 8-year-old merely mirrors his/her parents' beliefs, whether they be "Catholic", "Muslim", "atheist", "Jehovah's Witness", etc...

One of the major problems people have with JWs (for damned good reason) is manipulating children into testifying in court against their own blood transfusion, as if it's really their idea. That is flaming disgusting and parents who do that should be skinned alive and rolled in salt. While not as extreme, convincing a child he/she is an atheist is along the same vein of totally wrong. Perhaps you are an atheist, but an 8-year-old is a kid who really has no horse in the race other than the desire to please you.

VM44

Has The Watchtower published articles in which they claim atheism is itself a religion?

They do this by manipulating the definition of the word "religion".

Lore

TLDR version of wontleave's post: "OTWO Your child is a brainwashed robot with no more sentience than a dog who only wants to please you. And you are a terrible person for being proud of your child standing up for his beliefs, because he's too dumb to know what his own beliefs are at the moment."

FlyingHighNow

I have no problems with atheists or atheism. I am a universalist. Everyone perceives the world and God or NotGod differently. We are all on our own journeys.

I do have a problem with arrogant fundamentalist Christians and arrogant atheists though. To me both are cut from the same cloth of thinking. There is a need to feel superior and it shows in how they talk down others for differing in beliefs. It's a way to elevate themselves by lowering others. Thank goodness most atheists just are and don't feel the need to evangelize in an overbearing way, though some do.

Nickolas

Of course, atheists don't see it thusly

Might I humbly suggest you add the comparative "some" in front of the noun, WontLeave? Your statement otherwise reads like a gross generalisation.

Intellect is not uniform across the human population. It is a standard distribution in which the majority of people cluster around a median with minorities flung out on either end. There are extraordinarily intelligent people and there are extraordinarily unintelligent people, and both extremes count theists and atheists in their numbers. There is also a difference between intellect and knowledge. I have met in my life exceptionally intelligent people, theists and atheists both, who nevertheless betray ignorance of the subjects they confidently address. I have also observed that many people, in particular on-line, are incapable of remaining objective and acknowledge the other's points when they do not prevail in an argument, preferring instead to dismiss the other as arrogant and condescending. Some, if not much, of that is the consequence of the limitations of text communication but there is also the stereotype element - like that famous Emerson quote "Who you are speaks so loudly I can't hear what you're saying." As for me, I speak and write now as an atheist exactly as I spoke and wrote several years ago when I was a theist. There is no correlation.

PSacramento

Atheists to me are some of the more rational people I hang out with. Then say religous people simply becuase people who believe in God are often intolerant . Religon is used to control the masses into following a set order.

"Organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people" - Jesse Ventura

The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully. – Richard Dawkins

The above is why some people view athiest as, well, quite simply, asses. You know what Atheism from Dawkins looks like?

Lore

The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully. – Richard Dawkins
The above is why some people view athiest as, well, quite simply, asses.

You worship an evil jerk, Dawkins politely points out that the guy you worship is an evil jerk, therefore Dawkins is an asshole.

NewChapter

Actually, Dawkins does a pretty good job of describing that god. Not one thing there is untrue. Now if you believe that a god with those traits is holy and good, then you have no problem with the summary. If it makes you uncomfortable---well think of how uncomfortable all those dead Canaanites (babies too) were when they met the people who worshipped such a god.

NC

Curtains

Dawkins has done his research. Saying that aspects of the old testament god are not how Dawkins has described him messes with our thinking.

Why do Americans still dislike atheists?

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