How atheists became the most colossally smug and annoying people on the planet

If you really do want to understand "militant atheism", try being an atheist that deist's never can leave be. The proselytizing that so many feel is their duty is bound to cause blowback.
 
Surely there was a time when you could say to someone "I am an atheist" without them instantly assuming you were a smug, self-righteous loather of dumb hicks given to making pseudo-clever statements like, "Well, Leviticus also frowns upon having unkempt hair, did you know that?"
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I don't think there ever was such a time. The atheists of generations past were like that too.
 
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Mark Twain said:
During many ages there were witches. The Bible said so. The Bible commanded that they should not be allowed to live. Therefore the Church, after doing its duty in but a lazy and indolent way for eight hundred years, gathered up its halters, thumbscrews, and firebrands, and set about its holy work in earnest. She worked hard at it night and day during nine centuries and imprisoned, tortured, hanged, and burned whole hordes and armies of witches, and washed the Christian world clean with their foul blood.

Then it was discovered that there was no such thing as witches, and never had been. One does not know whether to laugh or to cry. Who discovered that there was no such thing as a witch - the priest, the parson? No, these never discover anything. At Salem, the parson clung pathetically to his witch text after the laity had abandoned it in remorse and tears for the crimes and cruelties it has persuaded them to do. The parson wanted more blood, more shame, more brutalities; it was the unconsecrated laity that stayed his hand. In Scotland the parson killed the witch after the magistrate had pronounced her innocent; and when the merciful legislature proposed to sweep the hideous laws against witches from the statute book, it was the parson who came imploring, with tears and imprecations, that they be suffered to stand.

There are no witches. The witch text remains; only the practice has changed. Hell fire is gone, but the text remains. Infant damnation is gone, but the text remains. More than two hundred death penalties are gone from the law books, but the texts that authorized them remain.
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I spent over a year in nursing school with the same students 4 days per week. Then one day people are discussing religion. When I was ASKED what my views were I said that I did not believe in god. A simple admission of non belief when asked my belief was not very pretty. People perceived me as the anti-christ. I feel that whenever someone just mentions that they do not believe in god, they are inundated with bible quotes and serious attempts to convert your soul.
 
Schifference said:
I spent over a year in nursing school with the same students 4 days per week. Then one day people are discussing religion. When I was ASKED what my views were I said that I did not believe in god. A simple admission of non belief when asked my belief was not very pretty. People perceived me as the anti-christ. I feel that whenever someone just mentions that they do not believe in god, they are inundated with bible quotes and serious attempts to convert your soul.
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"that's not a topic I feel comfortable discussing."
 
fr33 said:
The ability of atheists to speak frankly without getting punished or killed is a relatively new freedom. They aren't any more smug than the preachers that come on my property and knock on my door then tell me I'm going to hell if I disagree with them. This actually happens. Atheists don't usually act as smug and rude as that.
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Who are the guys that wear white shirts and ride the bicycles? LDS? Anyway, had a pair ride down the drive way a few years back. Was push mowing the lawn. Told them if one mowed I would listen to the other. One did and the other talked for 30 minutes and gave some literature. They came back down a coupla days later. I was painting and made the same deal, so they switched roles. After that I haven't seen them around. :p
 
lol

One of those teams helped me clean up the yard. I'll give them creadit for at least offering a service for your time.
 
fr33 said:
On average it happens 3 or 4 times a year at my house. Of course they only say I'm going to hell if I'm willing to engage them in discussion and at this point I'm no longer willing to do so. I just yell at them to get off my property.

Has an atheist ever knocked on your door to spread his or her beliefs?
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I have had tons of Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses come to my door. One of them even ended up becoming a family friend, but none of them got defensive or told me I was going to burn in hell if I didn't come around to their way of thinking.

From their standpoint, you're a spiritual anorexic. They know you're not going to eat the food they're bringing, but because they care about you they're trying to leave you some crackers anyway.

And to them, your irritability and combativeness is just a symptom.
 
angelatc said:
Yes, but unfortunately the internet allows them to grossly overestimate their relevance.
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Say what you want, but the US Constitution would absolutely not exist without a lot of secular reasoning... you don't recognize people's natural or "God given" rights to individual liberty without basically ignoring most of the stuff that is written in the Bible... a theocratic society that tries to follow the Bible word for word would be a despotic nightmare...
 
Regardless, the problem with turbo-atheists is that they worship totalitarian government... marxism is the mythology that they subscribe to...
 
theocrat said:
I've always found it funny but strange how atheists are the only group of people who define themselves by a Person in Whom they claim that they don't believe in. As a Christian, I don't believe in the existence of fairies (as an example), but I would never call myself an "Afaririst." Yet, atheists make it a point to publish to people that they don't believe in God by their own ideological label as "atheists."
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We didn't make the label... Christians did. It took some time before we finally adopted the label. It took me a while longer, simply because my introduction to the term was that it necessarily entailed worship of the Devil. That, of course, is not true... But try telling that to my fundamentalist friend at the time. I tried to explain that I couldn't be a Devil worshiper because I didn't believe in that either.

But, perhaps the reason some atheists seem so smug is because they are only recently experiencing the freedom of expression of what they truly believe and are feeling somewhat empowered. Perhaps they just need some time to learn to deal with it, and with the in-rush of emotional upheaval from having to remain silent for so long.

But, hey... Remember the good ole days when all atheists had to remain silently anonymous for fear that their true beliefs would be discovered and they'd be vilified and attacked by a bunch of pitchfork wielding Christians crying out to the atheists, "Why are you persecuting me so?"

Well, thanks in large part to the anonymity of the internet, we can have the freedom of expression experienced only by the most beloved figures of the past. In fact, look at the rate of progression... It was a scant 4 or 5 years ago that it was major news that atheism/irreligion was fast becoming the fastest growing theology on the planet. NOTICE: I did not refer to it as a theism, or as a religion because it very distinctly is not. I called it a theology because it is a position on belief in at least one god.
 
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angelatc said:
I have had tons of Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses come to my door. One of them even ended up becoming a family friend, but none of them got defensive or told me I was going to burn in hell if I didn't come around to their way of thinking.
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That's because they(Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons) do not believe that.

angelatc said:
From their standpoint, you're a spiritual anorexic. They know you're not going to eat the food they're bringing, but because they care about you they're trying to leave you some crackers anyway.

And to them, your irritability and combativeness is just a symptom.
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I don't get irritable or combative with them. I am very polite and courteous and invite them in to talk about whatever they want to, so long as they will do me the same courtesy. I ask lots of questions.
 
fisharmor said:
It would only be similar if everyone on this board was forced to fund Christianity at gunpoint, regularly questioned as to their anti-Christian activities, and put in a rape cage or executed for standing up to agents of the church.

Whether you guys want to admit it or not, this has only really been the case in limited situations in the last 2000 years.
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It sounds a lot more like you are describing totalitarianism rather than anarchism.
 
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