Can atheism be made less awful in 2014?

[A-Atheist - I Just Have One More A Than You]

Atheism never meant that much to me growing up. The first time I ever used the word was while filling out some school form, wondering whether I should put “Church of England” when I didn’t actually believe in God. My mum, without trying to push me in any particular direction, explained that "atheist" was the option that meant not believing in a god, and so at the flick of a biro I became one of those, and thought nothing much more of it for at least another decade or so.

Then 9/11 occurred, at the start of my second year of university. The horror triggered a wave of condemnation of religion, leading to the rise of "New Atheism". As much publishing phenomenon as political movement, the next few years would see high-profile bestsellers by Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens and Daniel Dennett among others (though it was these four men who became popularly known as the Four Horsemen of the Non-Apocalypse). With the long-term demographic shift away from religion, and public revulsion over the sort of faith-based extremism that led to terrorism, it felt like we’d reached a turning point in the never-ending battle for sanity.

Inevitably though, things began to fray at the seams. Harris blundered into controversy over his apparent support for racial profiling, Hitchens passed away and Dawkins joined Twitter, beginning an infuriating, endless cycle of controversy and bewilderment. Hordes of New Atheist fans began popping up on the internet and it turned out that a lot of them were angry pricks. Different fronts and factions emerged, each with their own ideas about what capital-A Atheism should mean and stand for. New Atheism has matured, and for some that means learning to hate each other in imaginative new ways.


http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/how-to-ma...er-in-2014
Jea - quite ironic for an atheist/materialist like yourself to be on a religious forum
Bear1 - on an atheist forum perhaps?

[Jea]

"Atheism never meant that much to me growing up"

You are sure hung up on it now.
Do you think of anything else?

[Climate Realist]

Atheists are just as capable of intolerance as any other group.

[Sans Deity]

There's "atheism" and then there's "The actions and words of some atheists"

Even if Dennet, Dawkins, Harris and Hitchens were all child raping serial killers, what does that have to do with atheism?

So, some atheists are jerks. Please explain how that is evidence that a God exists, which is all "atheism" is concerned about.

It's like saying "In light of what Jerry Sandusky, a Christan, did, how can we make Christianity less awful"

[Michael]

Liam you are just observing that people will be activists and people will latch onto something to shout over. I have always been an "atheist by default" and not by identity.

And it's not really that useful to call out atheists on this -- any given group has its contingent of people who's behavior you might not like.

So will it be different in 2014? Not while the internet exists, and neither will any number of ologies or schools of thought change, in terms of there always being people in them you might object to, famous figures who you might be disenchanted with etc.

It's not just atheists by any means at all.

[Bear1]

""Atheism never meant that much to me growing up.""

then why are you whining about it here in a Long Illogical whine?


Jea - quite ironic for an atheist/materialist like yourself to be on a religious forum

and just WHERE would someone who has an opinion on Religion, that might be quite different that those that follow religions Post?

On the Automotive thread?

your comment makes NO sense whatsoever!

atheists are here commenting religion, and showing the believers the errors of their beliefs...this IS where we belong...

[Thunder.Overhead]

You could try changing your attitude. Your intense, bitter hatred is making everything much worse than it needs to be. I think you'd be much happier if you spent less time obsessing over how much you hate atheists.

[WackoJacko]

I suppose I realised, like you, I was an atheist all along too when it came to marking forms.

The Four Horsemen I have a mixed feeling approach to, I am glad atheists are reaching a critical number (thanks to Harris, Dawkins, Hitchens, Dennet and others) whereby it is becoming easier for people to be not only honest with themselves but other people about their atheism.

I suppose I take a Sam Harris/Richard Dawkins approach that the 19 men on 9/11 all had faith, perfect faith so much so that they would be willing (and happy) to die for it. That kind of belief is scary to me and we need to face up to it before anything can be done to tackle it but that's another matter.

9/11, awful as it was (and still is for those impacted), needs to be put into proportion. I will say what I have always said which is that there are good and bad atheists and there are good and bad believers but very few atheists kill in the name of atheism.

Dawkins is a fantastic orator when speaking about science, his books are brilliant but let's remember he's a biologist first and foremost (and a distinguished one at that). I feel it is the length of these books that really allow him to explain matters rather than being constricted to x amount of characters in a Tweet. It is a shame really most people "judge a book by its cover" and say things like 'Oh he's that atheist who wrote that Devil book' and won't entertain any of his ideas when in fact he really is very interesting.

Hitchens, though perhaps not the most likeable character, stuck with his atheism and assured everyone that for him there would be no deathbed conversion and he didn't want rumours otherwise, to not falter from that path is very admirable. He had a fantastic command of language and admitted religion could achieve good but it was outweighed by the many evils and that secular methods could achieve that same good and indeed usurp it .

Dennet takes the compatibilist (soft determinism) approach to free will and reasons it well. I say even if free will is an illusion it makes no difference, it makes no difference to us. I feel as though I have free will even if I don't. And I'd say determinism is sound but it's when they start making these leaps that then we can't be responsible for our actions. Well you've still got to lock someone up if they're going round murdering people to protect the innocent. ("It wasn't me it was my neurons"). There's obviously a little bit of that creeping into everything, responsibility, being adult about things. But yeah it doesn't change a thing. I feel that I make my own choices and if I don't I certainly feel like I'm choosing so yeah it's not even worth worrying about.

Harris speaks his mind, an admirable quality in any case, sadly this is what people brand as "racist". It's not racist, (Just want to clear it up Islam is no a race. Understood? Cool. Moving on.) it's wrong to pick on individual Muslims and blame them for 9/11 obviously but the religion itself is scary.

All of this said, you don't have to be scared of us. It's a nice thing to be an atheist. Atheists are from all walks of life, they're waiters, they're bus drivers, they're taxi drivers, they're people who serve you in shops. We're not strange, weird people.

I do however look forward to the day a critical number of people are "out" as atheists because that will hopefully make it easier for other people and raise consciousness to the fact there's nothing terrible about being an atheist, we're nice people. We just have a slight difference of opinion about the cosmos and the way things are organised.

I also hope consciousness will be raised to the fact that to be an atheist is a realistic aspiration, and a brave and splendid one. You can be an atheist who is happy, balanced, moral, and intellectually fulfilled.

Freedom of speech to me one of the most important things discovered, and I'd fight for that right. And even though I don't believe in God and I treat all religions the same, even though I believe they're wrong, not morally wrong, if someone said, 'We're banning religion,' I'd march to not ban because it's your right to believe what you want, and it's your right to be wrong, and I'll fight for that right.

[Bob]

We'll, Jea, We need to focus more on atheism to out it more in the limelight so that the medical community can raise more money to help fix this mental disorder and help other atheists in understanding that that they can get help in curing their atheism .

This is where the medical community is heading .
We have to pray for atheists that they will overcome their pride and get medical help for their sickness.