Some thoughts about atheists

[tacit]

I've been seeing an uptick lately in popular media about atheism. A lot of these things I've been seeing start with "Atheists are..." and then lay out the premise that folks who don't believe in some kind of supernatural god have all sorts of negative characteristics, whether they be fat or immoral or selfish or whatever

Comments

[petite_lambda]

If a person wants to commit immoral acts, Christianity is actually a pretty good belief system to allow him to do so.

If you haven't read this, you'll love it: "If I Hadn't Found Jesus, I'd Feel Pretty Shitty About My Crimes" (TheOnion).

[p_sunshine]

I came here via a link from a board, and have to say that this was brilliant. Much applause.

[kill_inhibition]

Dear god! Those claims are ridiculous (except that I'm fat! lol).

My favorite is that 'Atheism is a religion". Ugh. My brother tells me that all the time from his narrow Christian grasp of life.

[eelsalad]

Delurking to comment re: Atheism is a religion!

I've felt that way occasionally myself, mostly when I run across atheists who proselytize the way religious folks do. (Double fail points if they assume my spiritual activities are the result of blind faith.) Of course, that's one of those "if it quacks like a duck..." sort of lines of reasoning, which I happily acknowledge are not at all airtight. :)

[the_xtina]

I can see where one would go "if you say you're not like group B, but you act a lot like group B, then you must be just like group B".  However, it's way more likely that some atheists are proselytisers, rather than that some atheists are religious.

[pstscrpt]

If you don't believe in a god, you have no reason to behave in a good or moral way. Atheists have no reason not to murder or rape or commit other immoral acts.
I would try to stay away with the punishment angle here, because it sounds like the sort of thing a well-controlled psychopath would say. Most Protestant Christians *also* have no religious reasons not to commit murder, rape, etc., but they don't. People are mostly good on their own, not because their religion may or may not tell them to be.

Atheism is a non-belief in a god or gods.
There really aren't clearly agreed-upon definitions. Someone who strongly disbelieves is an atheist, someone who believes it's impossible to know is an agnostic, but someone who just doesn't claim to know could go in either category, depending who you ask.

Atheists think that everything in the world came from nothing.First cause isn't a worthwhile argument for *or* against religion, but people try to use it both ways. There's something that just exists, with no prior reason. It could be the