16 common myths about Atheist

[DeJay352]

1. Atheists hate Christians and Christianity. No, we don’t. Personally, I do hate the atrocities that have been committed in the name of religion, the dishonesty of most religions, and the way that they encourage people not to think or question, and not to trust or use their minds. But I don’t dislike someone just because of their religion.

2. Most atheists started out as Christians, and stopped believing because of some bad experience with other Christians. Or maybe we simply started to question, to wonder what happened when we applied the standards of logic, reason and burden of proof to religion, as we already did to everything in our lives. Or, perhaps, we were never believers at all. It happens, you know.

3. Atheists have no sense of morality, since morality comes from God. Ah, the old “without fear of hell, there would be nothing to stop people from being bloodthirsty monsters” argument. It may come as a surprise to most Christians, but there are reasons for being “good” other than fear of punishment - which isn’t really a reason, anyway, and only shows Christians in a very bad light. Reasons like human empathy, genuine feelings for others, and, most importantly, rational principles. Behaving yourself just because daddy will spank you otherwise does not make you a nice child.

4. Atheists are a unified group, like a church. Are we? I must have missed the memo, then. If anything, I’d say atheists are more diverse than Christians, because we’re less “sheep-like”, and don’t accept things on faith, or from authority.

5. Atheists actually know, deep inside, that there’s a God, as that’s perfectly obvious; they are simply too proud and arrogant to admit the existence of something greater than themselves. Not exactly. You see, the existence of a god is only “obvious” if you’ve been brainwashed (either by others, or by your own irrationality) into believing it. We are truly convinced that there’s no god, and are not in denial. Really. I’m serious.

6. Atheists don’t really know anything about Christianity. Again, it depends. Some certainly know more than others. However, religion is so ubiquitous that, like it or not, we’ve all had varying degrees of contact with it, with its teachings, and with believers. Besides, a lot of atheists are naturally curious. I, myself, have read the Christian Bible - more than once, in fact. Now, dear believer, ask yourself how many atheist books, magazines or essays you have read. Oh, I forgot, they’re all the work of Satan.

7. Atheists’ lives are cold and empty, as they can’t feel the joy and love that comes only from God. Really? I’d never call my life “cold” or “empty” - I have the joys of friendship, love, family, and doing the things I love to do. And, what’s more, I’m self-sufficient, unlike anyone who says “I don’t know how anyone could live without God in their lives” - as many Christians do.

8. Atheists are depressive and nihilistic, since they believe there’s nothing after death, and therefore there’s no point to anything. On the contrary, we, unlike you, know how precious life is, because we’re aware that it’s our only one. And, this may come as a shock to you, but we can love our lives, we can feel the joy of being alive, because we don’t believe that “this is the devil’s world”, or that “this is just a test before the real thing”. Life is precious, and it’s our own - not any god’s.

9. Atheists are cold and uncaring. No, we are not. Having delusions doesn’t make anyone more “caring”. And, again, we treat life as precious, and do what we can to improve it, both ours and that of our loved ones. On the other hand, many Christians believe life is suffering, and that there’s nothing we can do about it.

10. Atheists are arrogant. What, because we dare to use our minds instead of asking “who are we to know”? No, we’re not.

11. Atheists want to forbid religious worship. Wrong. We just don’t want to be harmed by it. Want to believe in God, Jesus, Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy? Be my guest. Want to teach your kids to do the same? I feel sorry for them, but it will still take many years until people realize how crippling one’s reason in childhood is like a bird crippling its offspring’s wings. (*) Want to give all your money to a guy with a Lexus and a bad haircut? Fine. But don’t try to “save” me, don’t harass me in the street or at my home, don’t get politicians to enact laws to give power to you, don’t try to teach your religion in science classes by dishonestly giving it a new name and disguising it as “science”, and don’t use my tax money to write your idiocies in public places. In short, do as you want, as long as you keep it to yourself - just like I don’t go to your place trying to un-convert you.

12. Atheists are incapable of feeling awe at simple things, like a beautiful sunset, as they see everything in terms of cold science, instead of miracles. Ah, unweaving the rainbow - the idea that beauty and poetry only exist if we know little to nothing about how things work. But I ask you: does the fact that you know about astronomy, physics and light make the sunset any less beautiful? Was it beautiful only because it seemed “magical” - or “an act of god” - to you?

13. Atheists live their lives in constant fear of death. Few people actually want to die - those that do are either depressed and suicidal, or are Christians who believe that the world is evil, “please, Lord Jesus, take me”, and all that. A reasonable fear of death is perfectly natural. Also, we may believe that this life “is it”, which makes us treat it as precious, but, at least, we don’t think that there’s a chance of going to a place where you burn and are tortured for eternity…

14. Most criminals are atheists (or, alternatively, the percentage of atheists among criminals is higher than among the general populace). Oddly enough, the opposite is true.

15. Atheists are stubborn and closed-minded. Not unless you define “closed-minded” like this. But, as Ebon said, Ask any believer what would convince him he was mistaken and persuade him to leave his religion and become an atheist, and if you get a response, it will almost invariably be, “Nothing - I have faith in my god.” Although such people may well exist, I personally have yet to meet a theist who would acknowledge even the possibility that his belief was in error. Many theists, by their own admission, structure their beliefs so that no evidence could possibly disprove them. Atheists, on the other hand, are easy to convince - all it requires is for God to show himself in some unfakeable way - say, for instance, by doing any of the many things he supposedly did in the Old Testament…

16. Atheists make bad parents. Again, there are good and bad atheist parents, and good and bad Christian parents. Atheist parents, however, would never do what Abraham was about to do to his son Isaac (and Christians see Abraham’s behavior as laudable!), because, to most atheists, our lives are our own. In fact, even if there was a God, it would not follow that our lives are his.

Source

[DeJay352]

Weird...sorry. Can a mod or admin move this to "Skeptisim Vs. Religion" thread?

[Startraveler]

All very good points. I've spent a good amount of time trying to explain to a friend of mine why 6 and 7 are wrong--or rather, how's it possible for an atheist to avoid them. I also like point 12 (" Atheists are incapable of feeling awe at simple things, like a beautiful sunset, as they see everything in terms of cold science, instead of miracles"); here's a quote that I've always liked from atheist and physicist Richard Feynman, taken from a footnote in his physics lectures:

Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars� mere globs of gas atoms. Nothing is ‘mere’. I too can see the stars on a desert night, and feel them. But do I see less or more? The vastness of the heavens stretches my imagination� stuck on this carousel my little eye can catch one-million-year-old light. A vast pattern� of which I am a part… What is the pattern or the meaning or the why? It does not do harm to the mystery to know a little more about it. For far more marvelous is the truth than any artists of the past imagined it. Why do the poets of the present not speak of it? What men are poets who can speak of Jupiter if he were a man, but if he is an immense spinning sphere of methane and ammonia must be silent.

[itsnotoutthere]

This is a repost of mine that i used to make a point:-

Some time ago i looked out of my living room window & noticed that the Jehova's witness geezers were doing the rounds. I was about to close the blinds & turn up the volume on the T.V.when i thought no, i'll hear what the guy has to say. So i answered the door. As expected he went into his shpeel, whilst handing me a pamphlet with a artists picture of two small children cuddling a fully grown tiger on the front. After a while he asked me if i believed in god. I explaind that my personal opinion was that the whole of western religion was basically based on the bible scriptures, & that it was my belief that either you believed whole heartedly in those scriptures or you didn't, i.e. you couldn't 'cherry pick' the bits you wanted to believe & discard those you didn't. So i said no i don't believe in god, he asked why, to which i replied that for example, in the bible there is no mention of dinosaurs & quick as a flash he replied 'ahh but it has not been scientifically proven that dinosaurs actually existed'.....my mind then wondered off to the natural history museam & those masive fossils of the T-rex & others, at which point the plain truth of the matter dawned on me, & i thought 'forget it, this guy makes up his own rules' as my front door slowly shut in his face.

I repost it here to illustrate why i cannot take devoutly religious people seriously.

[Imaginary Friend]

An excellent read. Thank you. I think this shall do well to clear away the flames about Atheists/Atheism.

[Beckys_Mom]

No prizes guessing as to why this thread was made

[exeller]

I thought the following might be true:

Atheists hate Christians and Christianity

Some do, but thats probably not because they are athiests. Anyway, maybe I hate christians, how would you know if I'm lying or speaking truth. By the way, athiests are not the only ones capable of hate.

Atheists actually know, deep inside, that there’s a God, as that’s perfectly obvious; they are simply too proud and arrogant to admit the existence of something greater than themselves.

Some might.

Atheists live their lives in constant fear of death

Some might fear death a lil bit.

Atheists make bad parents

Now thats just dumb, who said you have to be an athiest to be a bad parent?

[Inadvertent Smell]

Very informational, I might use some of these points the next time I argue with my friend on religion.

[exeller]

You're going to argue about religion by saying athiests are good people? LOL ok?

[EmpressV]

Ignorance has ruled the masses for thousands of years.

[Imaginary Friend]

Indeed. And of all the varying faiths on Earth, it's the one proof of what it is we need be saved from.

[+Link of Hyrule]

Like with any belief (or lack of belief), the majority of those who beleive (or don't believe as the case may be) are just the same as most everyone else. There are the stereotypes that everyone has an image of, and often these stereotypes feed our opinions. In the future folks, why not get to know the person personally and find out whether the stereotype fits the bill?

[truethat]

I could see that but

Are all racisits vile? Some of my best friends are racist. In fact a girlfriend of mine once wrote me a letter about a car accident and stated that some N&*Ger pulled out in front of her....I was floored that a she handwrote that word. Read the letter again and mailed it to me...... another time we were at a dinner party and a black and white couple walked by and she rolled her eyes in disgust and said "OK jungle fever"

At the table with a bunch of my family and friends. I married outside my race as did my sister. We love my girlfriend. She makes me laugh my butt off.

I don't talk to her any more. Some of the nicest people you know will be some of the vilest and most evil mindsets on the planet.

So just because someone is a go to guy who'd give you the shirt off his back, doesn't excuse him prescribing to evil beliefs.

[EmpressV]

In the future folks, why not get to know the person personally and find out whether the stereotype fits the bill?

9 times out of 10 it doesn't

[mako]

This would work for a Deist, you would have to change #5 to read...Deists actually know, deep down inside, that Jehovah is God, as is perfectly obvious, they are simply too proud and arrogant to admit that their Creator is a false god.... The fact that they have no more proof of their God than we do is ironic!

[Purplos]

Anyone that assumes to know the entirity of a person because they know one facet of their being is ridiculous and just plain dumb.

I bet some Atheists fulfill all of those myths. I bet a whole lot more of them don't.

It always makes me laugh to hear someone say that atheists couldn't possibly have morals at all. That must be why we have roaming packs of rabid atheists murdering, raping, beating, and sleeping in on Sundays all across the world in an absolute conflagration of evil hedonism.

[AtlantisRises]

Please don't tell god but i actually went to work on Sunday. So i suppose that proves that we Aethiests have no morallity

Edited August 30, 2006 by AtlantisRises

[Beckys_Mom]

Please don't tell god but i actually went to work on Sunday. So i suppose that proves that we Aethiests have no morallity

most retailers work SUNDAYS...heck so do doctors..nurses...the list goes on....I used to work every Sunday...but now that I am back after maternity I am part time and no more working weekends yippee

[EmpressV]

Please don't tell god but i actually went to work on Sunday. So i suppose that proves that we Aethiests have no morallity

Those damn atheists always going against the grain.

[Michelle]

Do you suppose I'm going to punished for working in the yard or doing other menial chores around the house merely because it's Sunday?

[AtlantisRises]

Do you suppose I'm going to punished for working in the yard or doing other menial chores around the house merely because it's Sunday?

Yes. Yes you are

[Michelle]

Yes. Yes you are

Somehow I don't think you really believe that...as I don't.

Darn it...you got to my post before I reviewed it....it should have been "going to be punished"

[Purplos]

The fifth ring of hell is specifically reserved for all those who decided to clean or garden on Sunday. It's filled with dust and weeds.

[Michelle]

Well crap...I'm screwed...

[EmpressV]

So thats where all of that stuff goes.

Dust bunnies from hell