ChadSexington said:
Atheists who attack organized religion, well, religiously. They talk about how they get religion rammed down their throat, completely unaware that they are doing the exact same thing.
I myself don't believe in god or the after life and all those other religious things but I don't think you should put someone down for being religious. Don't like religion? Don't be religious.
One reason I immediately and involuntarily cringe whenever someone tells me they are an atheist is because of all of the hyper aggressive militant atheist I encounter online and real life that attack me both on the intellectual and personal level.(I encounter just as many conservative Christian nut jobs as well but none were as aggressive) It does not matter how smart I am, it does not matter how decent of a person I am, I have a different belief or lack of belief from them and thus I am an unsympathetic outsider worthy of nothing but their scorn.
I wish I had met more atheists like you instead of the aforementioned ones because I feel an irrational fear or aggression whenever someone mentions that they are an atheist because I have been conditioned to feel (not believe) that atheism and an atheist's lifestyle surrounding it is their sole pursuit in life and everything else comes second.
The constant, unprovoked
preachings I have received from many atheists and intellectuals (that I have now distanced myself from) have left me fairly bitter and with a very skewed understanding of what I do and do not believe right now combined with a desire to avoid actual theological discussion altogether to avoid debates that seem designed to make me solely see the other person's point of view neglecting my own and in turn preventing my own spiritual self discovery.
I am a Deist by the way in case you were wondering.