An interesting series of responses.
To address a later one first, Joe Grundy, you wrote
I am sad (as a quasi-outsider) that we have this sort of question posed as a thread title with its assumptions. It's crap. By all means start a thread and ask for information, opinions, (civilised) argument if you wish. There are plenty of sites available for rabid arguments, and we've had our fair share of nutters and wind-up merchants here in my time. It would be a shame if this site was degenerated - I hope that it will remain a welcoming site for those JWs taking a tentative first step into the real world looking for answers.
There was very definite purpose in the title of this thread, Joe, and I thought about if for a long time before posting. If you visit the board regularly then you must have noticed that atheists gather around certain posts and threads and even posters, making comments about believers. My point is , firstly, that it is putting people into a group and calling them "believers" that could lead to the site...to use your word...degenerating. As I said in my opening post, in my 15 years of internet experience, I haven't met this before.
Joe, I absoluutely agree. I too hope that it will remain a welcoming site for those ex JW's emerging into the world and for those who have become entangled with the Watctower either through relationships or because of the continuing door-to-door programme that the Witnesses use. All these groups can be desperate when they come here, and their faith may be in crisis, or damaged, or destroyed as part of that process.
I started the thread because of my own direct first hand experience of this behaviour, and because I observed others suffering from it. I'm puzzled that more people haven't become aware of it, though I suspect many have and are keeping quiet, unsurprisingly, because there has been an element of intimidation and ostracism, not severe enough to warrant action but bad enough to make individuals feel uncomfortable.
Nomad Soul
You must be new to the internet.
I wasn't here before 1995. Were you?
J Hofer
you are wrong, chariklo. atheists do NOT believe. it's not "believing that god doesn't exist", it's "not believing that god exists". so no, atheists are not believers. and yes, believers are just that, believers of any faith. and while believers may not be generally stupid or ignorant, it sometimes is a little strange that they don't stick to their intellectual honesty when it comes to their faith.
to "deny the belief in god" is certainly not the definition of atheist. it's simply not believing in god/gods. most believers are atheists too when it comes to other deities. atheists simply don't believe in yet another one, that's all.
Actually, with respect and sorry to disagree with you, but you are not correct, Mr Hofer. Unless we have here yet another difference in language usage between the UK (where I am) and the US (if you are there.) Still, even so, I think it unlikely.
An atheist believes that God does not exist. he believes it definitely. He has considered the issue. He is absolutely, positively certain that there is no god, and he is likely to say so. Richard Dawkins is a case in point and a number of posters on here have made theor atheism, of that nature, perfectly plain.
If he does not believe that God exists, he may or may not be an atheist. if it is a definite considered belief to the point of certainty, then he is an atheist and his belief is as outlined above. if, on the other hand, he does not believe that god exists but it is not a strongly held position, then he is an agnostic. He does not know, which is what agnosticism means. He simply doesn't know whetrher God exists or not. he may be very uncertain, he may be consciously open-minded, he may say in conversation "I'm really not at all sure that there is a god.". Such a person is agnostic. Not an atheist.
Christ Alone
The term "some sort of atheist" doesn't make sense. There is a single definition of atheist. One that denies the belief in God. If you are "some sort" of atheist, most likely you are an agnostic.
Absolutely, Christ Alone. I completely agree with you.
ElderE, I'm really sorry to have to tell you this but you are not an atheist. You believe in Thor. and you have never, in anything I've read from you, and I've read almost everything there is, been one of those using the term "believer" in this way. I too understand that much of this behaviour comes from reaction to the appalling experience within the Watchtower. I'm not judging. my hope was to draw attention to it so that it might happen less often, once people are aware of it. because it's actually not very nice, and makes people feel uncomfortable, which isn't kind.
Oh! and Sab, I agree! Cofty is most definitely not hateful. Cofty is a good bloke, and a friend.