Do some atheists go too far?

[Glerken]

People in general go too far.
And there's going to be some of those people in every group.

 

[SilverHammerMan]

I don't really care about religion one way or another, but yes, some atheists go way too far. The in your face "You believe in something? HA HA IDIOT!" kind who look down their noses at everyone.
Take for example some folks I heard about around Christmas last year, it seemed that they'd taken it upon themselves to ruin an innocent Christmas display in a government building by putting up a sign saying that they didn't want to be governed by religious fanatics. That kind of stuff pisses people off.
Also they only ever seem to go after Christians, because it's safe, if you did something like the example I gave but to some Jewish people, you would be drawn quartered and hanged, then you corpse would be paraded around in public so that people could throw rocks at it.... figuratively.... I think. It reflects poorly on you people and frankly it's a little cowardly.
So yeah, some atheists go too far and I really hate those people. Not that I have a problem with normal atheists.

 

[effilctar]

I don't really care about religion one way or another, but yes, some atheists go way too far. The in your face "You believe in something? HA HA IDIOT!" kind who look down their noses at everyone.
Take for example some folks I heard about around Christmas last year, it seemed that they'd taken it upon themselves to ruin an innocent Christmas display in a government building by putting up a sign saying that they didn't want to be governed by religious fanatics. That kind of stuff pisses people off.
Also they only ever seem to go after Christians, because it's safe, if you did something like the example I gave but to some Jewish people, you would be drawn quartered and hanged, then you corpse would be paraded around in public so that people could throw rocks at it.... figuratively.... I think. It reflects poorly on you people and frankly it's a little cowardly.
So yeah, some atheists go too far and I really hate those people. Not that I have a problem with normal atheists.

If an atheist extremist went to the middle East and dissed Islam, he'd get his head cut off and the world would be that tiniest bit more of a better place.

 

[KiiWii]

I don't really care about religion one way or another, but yes, some atheists go way too far. The in your face "You believe in something? HA HA IDIOT!" kind who look down their noses at everyone.
Take for example some folks I heard about around Christmas last year, it seemed that they'd taken it upon themselves to ruin an innocent Christmas display in a government building by putting up a sign saying that they didn't want to be governed by religious fanatics. That kind of stuff pisses people off.
Also they only ever seem to go after Christians, because it's safe, if you did something like the example I gave but to some Jewish people, you would be drawn quartered and hanged, then you corpse would be paraded around in public so that people could throw rocks at it.... figuratively.... I think. It reflects poorly on you people and frankly it's a little cowardly.
So yeah, some atheists go too far and I really hate those people. Not that I have a problem with normal atheists.

If an atheist extremist went to the middle East and dissed Islam, he'd get his head cut off and the world would be that tiniest bit more of a better place.

If ANY extremest went to the middle East and dissed Islam, he'd get his head cut off and the world would be that tiniest bit more of a better place.

 

[Lunar Shadow]

I think these people may be more 'Anti-theists' than Athiests (that's just my opinion though).

Every religious group will have it's extremists, even athiesm (the exception of this being Buddhism, show me a fanatic monk and I will personally clean the engine of my sister's car with my tounge)

I am aware of that event but that's not really fanaticism, he showed a level of dedication that most clinically sane people wouldn't aspire to but it was simply protest (the way Buddhist beliefs work means that it is technically impossible for them to have fanatics in their ranks, they're very 'live and let live').

My tounge stays clean this day!

Buddhist monk burned himself to death in a religious protest a couple years back. Get to cleaning.

Glad to see someone that actually knows about Buddhist beleifs. As for the guy that you quoted, that happened more then a few years ago, more like a few decades. Thich Quang Duc is seen as a Big Damn Hero in overthrowing the regime of Ngo Dinh Diem.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%ADch_Qu%E1%BA%A3ng_%C4%90%E1%BB%A9c

 

[Lunar Shadow]

I don't really care about religion one way or another, but yes, some atheists go way too far. The in your face "You believe in something? HA HA IDIOT!" kind who look down their noses at everyone.
Take for example some folks I heard about around Christmas last year, it seemed that they'd taken it upon themselves to ruin an innocent Christmas display in a government building by putting up a sign saying that they didn't want to be governed by religious fanatics. That kind of stuff pisses people off.
Also they only ever seem to go after Christians, because it's safe, if you did something like the example I gave but to some Jewish people, you would be drawn quartered and hanged, then you corpse would be paraded around in public so that people could throw rocks at it.... figuratively.... I think. It reflects poorly on you people and frankly it's a little cowardly.
So yeah, some atheists go too far and I really hate those people. Not that I have a problem with normal atheists.

The only reason they primarily target Christianity is because it is the biggest most pervasive religion in the Western World.

 

[FluffX]

every religion has there extremists...thats wats so annoying about religion.....theres always someone tryin to push theirs on ya.

Atheism is not a religion.

 

[Sipo]

every religion has there extremists...thats wats so annoying about religion.....theres always someone tryin to push theirs on ya.

Atheism is not a religion.

atheism basically is turning into a religion......its just people who believe something different who push it onto others. like other religions.

 

[effilctar]

every religion has there extremists...thats wats so annoying about religion.....theres always someone tryin to push theirs on ya.

Atheism is not a religion.

atheism basically is turning into a religion......its just people who believe something different who push it onto others. like other religions.

A lot of us don't do that. And it isn't a religion, more of a state of mind. I'm a buddhist but atheist

 

[RebelRising]

Atheist extremists are not true atheists. I would argue that Agnosticism is the way to go, but for some reason, people tend to go for absolutes.

For me, atheism is not a counterpoint to religion, but rather a secession from it. Those extremists Atheists, such as the ones behind that camp, or the Atheist Churches fail to be truly free of religion because they still letting it control their lives.

 

[Worsle]

snip

IIRC he was financially involved?

Here is what Dawkins had to say him self.

The Editor
The Sunday Times
London

Sir

The duplicity of Lois Rogers' title, "Dawkins Sets up Kids' Camp to Groom Atheists" (Sunday Times, June 28th), is exceeded only by its Jesuitical opening line, "Give Richard Dawkins a child for a week's summer camp and he will try to give you an atheist for life." I had nothing to do with the setting up of Camp Quest, and it is not, in any sense whatever, inspired by me, or influenced by me. The British version, run by Samantha Stein with no help from me, follows the admirable American model founded some years ago by Edwin and Helen Kagin, of Kentucky.

Lois Rogers asked me for a quotation, and she thanked me warmly for the following: "Camp Quest encourages children to think for themselves, sceptically and rationally. There is no indoctrination, just encouragement to be open-minded, while having fun." Isn't that about as far from Jesuitical grooming as you could imagine? One of my dominant motivations, passionately expressed in The God Delusion, is an abhorrence of childhood indoctrination, of atheism just as much as of religion. It is in this spirit that the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science has made very modest contributions to Camp Quest. Lois Rogers' traducing of both Camp Quest and me is, alas, par for the course for religiously motivated journalists. Fortunately, I am not the litigious type, but an apology would be nice.

Richard Dawkins
Oxford

See it is generally best to not take any thing any newspaper says at base value, they want sales after all. It is sad you can't trust the news butthat is how it goes.

 

[SilverHammerMan]

I don't really care about religion one way or another, but yes, some atheists go way too far. The in your face "You believe in something? HA HA IDIOT!" kind who look down their noses at everyone.
Take for example some folks I heard about around Christmas last year, it seemed that they'd taken it upon themselves to ruin an innocent Christmas display in a government building by putting up a sign saying that they didn't want to be governed by religious fanatics. That kind of stuff pisses people off.
Also they only ever seem to go after Christians, because it's safe, if you did something like the example I gave but to some Jewish people, you would be drawn quartered and hanged, then you corpse would be paraded around in public so that people could throw rocks at it.... figuratively.... I think. It reflects poorly on you people and frankly it's a little cowardly.
So yeah, some atheists go too far and I really hate those people. Not that I have a problem with normal atheists.

The only reason they primarily target Christianity is because it is the biggest most pervasive religion in the Western World.

And it's safe to attack it for exactly that reason. That's why they target Christians and not other demographics. You're backing up my point, they'd be in trouble if they attacked anyone but the "Big Boys". If another religion was more pervasive then Christianity, then the atheists would target them and not the Christians because that would be the safe move.

 

[Agema]

Atheists go too far when they start persecuting and repressing the religious, just as the religious go too far when they persecute and repress other religions and atheists. Atheist regimes have done this before, but I don't think it happens currently.

The idea that "atheism is a religion" is a modern, fashionable nonsense invented by the religious to make it easier to attack atheism. Theists ultimately have to base their belief in god from irrational faith. Atheists need have no faith, just the balance of evidence: if there's no evidence of a god, there's no reason to believe it's there.

 

[Kevvers]

I don't really care about religion one way or another, but yes, some atheists go way too far. The in your face "You believe in something? HA HA IDIOT!" kind who look down their noses at everyone.
Take for example some folks I heard about around Christmas last year, it seemed that they'd taken it upon themselves to ruin an innocent Christmas display in a government building by putting up a sign saying that they didn't want to be governed by religious fanatics. That kind of stuff pisses people off.
Also they only ever seem to go after Christians, because it's safe, if you did something like the example I gave but to some Jewish people, you would be drawn quartered and hanged, then you corpse would be paraded around in public so that people could throw rocks at it.... figuratively.... I think. It reflects poorly on you people and frankly it's a little cowardly.
So yeah, some atheists go too far and I really hate those people. Not that I have a problem with normal atheists.

If an atheist extremist went to the middle East and dissed Islam, he'd get his head cut off and the world would be that tiniest bit more of a better place.

If ANY extremest went to the middle East and dissed Islam, he'd get his head cut off and the world would be that tiniest bit more of a better place.

If anyone from the west went to the middle east and dissed Islam, which isn't hard as you can even do it by accident, they may get lashes or in the least would create a diplomatic incident. If you go to the middle east and trying to help people you can get your head cut off by the likes of the taliban. I really don't know what the point of saying that is, because you don't often get atheists going around the world trying to spread their beliefs, they tend to be created in opposition to people in their own country telling them what they ought to believe - its a counter movement which doesn't have an equivalent in the middle east because guess what... they'll cut your head off.

I don't believe "looking down your nose at someone" or calling someone an idiot is on the same level as cutting off someone's head. It certainly isn't very nice and is not the way to make friends or influence people either, but it isn't violent and it might be considered more honest and true to your own self than making friends with people in the hope that one day they might come to their church or maybe even be converted. When atheists start doing that you should start to worry.

 

[Worsle]

I don't really care about religion one way or another, but yes, some atheists go way too far. The in your face "You believe in something? HA HA IDIOT!" kind who look down their noses at everyone.
Take for example some folks I heard about around Christmas last year, it seemed that they'd taken it upon themselves to ruin an innocent Christmas display in a government building by putting up a sign saying that they didn't want to be governed by religious fanatics. That kind of stuff pisses people off.
Also they only ever seem to go after Christians, because it's safe, if you did something like the example I gave but to some Jewish people, you would be drawn quartered and hanged, then you corpse would be paraded around in public so that people could throw rocks at it.... figuratively.... I think. It reflects poorly on you people and frankly it's a little cowardly.
So yeah, some atheists go too far and I really hate those people. Not that I have a problem with normal atheists.

The only reason they primarily target Christianity is because it is the biggest most pervasive religion in the Western World.

And it's safe to attack it for exactly that reason. That's why they target Christians and not other demographics. You're backing up my point, they'd be in trouble if they attacked anyone but the "Big Boys". If another religion was more pervasive then Christianity, then the atheists would target them and not the Christians because that would be the safe move.

You know what I am fairly certain that christianity is the most passive aggressive of all religions these days. Really people growing up in an area predominately of christians will know more about and rebele against christianity because its what they know. All this you are only saying that because we are christians passive aggressive nonsense really gets on my nerves, grow a backbone and ignore them.

 

[Lunar Shadow]

I don't really care about religion one way or another, but yes, some atheists go way too far. The in your face "You believe in something? HA HA IDIOT!" kind who look down their noses at everyone.
Take for example some folks I heard about around Christmas last year, it seemed that they'd taken it upon themselves to ruin an innocent Christmas display in a government building by putting up a sign saying that they didn't want to be governed by religious fanatics. That kind of stuff pisses people off.
Also they only ever seem to go after Christians, because it's safe, if you did something like the example I gave but to some Jewish people, you would be drawn quartered and hanged, then you corpse would be paraded around in public so that people could throw rocks at it.... figuratively.... I think. It reflects poorly on you people and frankly it's a little cowardly.
So yeah, some atheists go too far and I really hate those people. Not that I have a problem with normal atheists.

The only reason they primarily target Christianity is because it is the biggest most pervasive religion in the Western World.

And it's safe to attack it for exactly that reason. That's why they target Christians and not other demographics. You're backing up my point, they'd be in trouble if they attacked anyone but the "Big Boys". If another religion was more pervasive then Christianity, then the atheists would target them and not the Christians because that would be the safe move.

I meant it's attacked because it is always in our face, not because it was safe. If it weren't in practically everything, it wouldn't matter if it were safe or not as the problem most atheists have with it is the fact it is shoved down our throats on a damn near daily basis.

 

[SilverHammerMan]

I don't really care about religion one way or another, but yes, some atheists go way too far. The in your face "You believe in something? HA HA IDIOT!" kind who look down their noses at everyone.
Take for example some folks I heard about around Christmas last year, it seemed that they'd taken it upon themselves to ruin an innocent Christmas display in a government building by putting up a sign saying that they didn't want to be governed by religious fanatics. That kind of stuff pisses people off.
Also they only ever seem to go after Christians, because it's safe, if you did something like the example I gave but to some Jewish people, you would be drawn quartered and hanged, then you corpse would be paraded around in public so that people could throw rocks at it.... figuratively.... I think. It reflects poorly on you people and frankly it's a little cowardly.
So yeah, some atheists go too far and I really hate those people. Not that I have a problem with normal atheists.

The only reason they primarily target Christianity is because it is the biggest most pervasive religion in the Western World.

And it's safe to attack it for exactly that reason. That's why they target Christians and not other demographics. You're backing up my point, they'd be in trouble if they attacked anyone but the "Big Boys". If another religion was more pervasive then Christianity, then the atheists would target them and not the Christians because that would be the safe move.

You know what I am fairly certain that christianity is the most passive aggressive of all religions these days. Really people growing up in an area predominately of christians will know more about and rebele against christianity because its what they know. All this you are only saying that because we are christians passive aggressive nonsense really gets on my nerves, grow a backbone and ignore them.

That seemed needlessly aggressive, but I take it that your point is that Christians are targeted because a lot of atheists grew up with and rebelled against Christianity. Whereas what I'm saying is that they're being targeted only because they're the biggest. You have a valid point and I suppose if most atheists grew up with and rebelled against a different religion then they'd mostly go after that religion. So they attack it because the familiar with it and they have a learned dislike of it. Hence Christianity is most pervasive and hence has the most offshoot atheists, and HENCE those atheists (making up the bulk of the atheist community) go after the Christians. And thus I return to my point that they're targeted as a result of being the biggest.
I think that's the conclusion I've arrived at.... I've kind of confused myself.

 

[SilverHammerMan]

I meant it's attacked because it is always in our face, not because it was safe. If it weren't in practically everything, it wouldn't matter if it were safe or not as the problem most atheists have with it is the fact it is shoved down our throats on a damn near daily basis.

See my above post.

 

[DamienHell]

I think these people may be more 'Anti-theists' than Athiests (that's just my opinion though).

Every religious group will have it's extremists, even athiesm (the exception of this being Buddhism, show me a fanatic monk and I will personally clean the engine of my sister's car with my tounge)

Buddhist monk burned himself to death in a religious protest a couple years back. Get to cleaning.

I am aware of that event but that's not really fanaticism, he showed a level of dedication that most clinically sane people wouldn't aspire to but it was simply protest (the way Buddhist beliefs work means that it is technically impossible for them to have fanatics in their ranks, they're very 'live and let live').

My tounge stays clean this day!

Burning yourself to death kinda counters the "live" in 'live and let live' Killing yourself is a clear sign of fanaticism

 

[Iron Mal]

Burning yourself to death kinda counters the "live" in 'live and let live' Killing yourself is a clear sign of fanaticism

Fanaticism is typified by an intolerance of other people's beliefs (you and only you have the one true faith), if the monk in question walked into a busy area with a firebomb on his chest and burned himself and 50 innocents to death because they weren't Buddhists then yes, he would have been a fanatic.

Buddhism is unique among religions in that it isn't widely known for there to be any active attempts to convert others to their way of thinking and to worship their God (in fact, to my knowledge they don't actually have a God so to speak, Buddhism is simmilar to new age religions like Meditation in this regard).