Is youtube (and/or the internet) basically atheist land?

[Dimensional Vortex]

I don't think it really matters, but of course there are trolls and people who think anyone who believes in Religion is moronic. What I don't get is, that when someone just speaks out against religion with no factual evidence and basically drew all there insults and assumptions out of their ass, they think this is fine and intellectual and most people agree just because it is Anti-Religion. But when someone speaks out intellectually against Atheism or someone who said something about Atheism, this person is apparently stupid, moronic, trolling and a retard just because they believe in religion, and not because their argument is good or bad. It is all free speech for the side with the popular vote, but when a minority comes up with an intellectual argument far greater than those people who say "RELIGION IS FA POOPS!" They are instantly criticized and ostracized by the people from the other group who feel offended and intimidated by someone who is smarter than them but on a different team. I have often seen this on YouTube, especially one about the Nuclear Bombs the USA dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. A person was blatantly speaking about how ALL religion has brought people is war, famine, death, woe, misery and the dark ages, see now no one had the audacity to reply and say

"Hold on, I understand you may not like Religion, but it has brought a lot of happiness and reassured people for thousands of years that there is something after death. If you just focus solely on the bad and angry parts of anything of course you are going to make it seem terrible, the same could be done to Atheism."

But he would keep complaining about people crucifying the innocent. Also, I know this is a very common practice in debating but still it angers me, people often will compare the worst people or the worst part of something they don't like to the best parts of something or the best person with something they do like. I'm not exactly sure where I stand with religion and Atheism, so you know what I do? I defend both sides of the argument from idiots and chauvinists who think they know better than an entire religion. (Actually, it is quite a good practice to defend both sides of an argument, it is a great way to learn what you are talking about and a way to see it from both sides.) Of course it may seem like I am straight out attacking Atheists, I'm not of course, but I'm just trying to even the odds. It angers me to no end to see a video or a topic where all the Atheists or all the Religious people congregate and spew a bunch of hateful nonsense about the other group. It just seems like sport class all over again, you have team 1 and team 2, all it ends up being is a insult and screaming contest. It really is hard to find an intellectual discussion on YouTube, like chasing clouds, you can try as hard as you can and although you may think you have got one it will slip through your fingers as quickly as it came.

In conclusion, the internet is probably a land for Atheists to congregate, but most of the Atheists I have met are extremely stupid and think being Atheist makes them smart or cool. You will always get idiots in Atheism and Religion, I think it is a wise idea to stop thinking that Region and Atheism define a person, but rather that just express a persons belief. If you wish to find a smart discussion about this kind of topic I think you should look no further than the Escapist.

PS: Sorry for the lengthy post, I got into a kind of serious thing.

 

[Bobbity]

It's not Atheist land or anything of the sort, but it's just filled with a bunch of dicks who like to upset others. Please believe me when I say that the majority of Atheists aren't like this; it's just that many of those participating on the internet are.
Anyway, I just watched the video, and it pretty much confirmed what I'd thought. The guy, who seems friendly enough, is just using the pickle as an analogy for what he believes, and the people disliking the video are just dickheads who're objecting for the sake of doing so, when the thread is totally irrelevant to them. The man isn't trying to prove the existence of god, he's trying to use the experiment as a metaphor for his beliefs, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

I hate to say this though, but Christians often do this in videos concerning things that Atheists might believe to be true. The Simpsons evolution intro is just supposed to be a bit of fun, but someone spewed up a bunch of stuff about how it's obviously wrong, and now we have a massive flame war.

It's a pity that the internet - or to be more specific, Youtube - isn't populated by more reasonable people, but just don't allow the vocal/dickheadish ones to influence your perception of the whole.

 

[The Last Parade]

keep this in religion and politics please

 

[Dfskelleton]

I think the main reason for that is basically this:

Add to that the fact that religion is a popular target on the internet, and you get the situation you described.
Agnostic here, btw.

Christian, and I agree with this guy. Pretty much the fact that Religion is easier to make fun of means that unfunny people will constantly bash it with baseless accusations.
That, and youtube comments are the cesspool of pure douchebaggery, uncreativity and stupidity.

 

[Johanthemonster666]

Why is religion always designated as a "victim"?
75% of planet is religious to one degree or another.

If anything, people have the advantage of being anonymous on-line and make themselves seem like they're apart of a larger group.

Sadly Atheists, Agnostics, Secularists, and religious pluralists are still in the minority on the planet. China and other secular nations can hardly be used to say otherwise, their secularism is politically, culturally and historically different than that of the US, Europe,the Middle East India-SW/SE Asia and so on.

Secularism is a growing attitude in the West and I welcome it. Better than religious fundamentialism or militant atheism no?

If anything OP, religious nut jobs rule the web because they comprise of the majority if noticible internet traffic on western/middle eastern/SW Asian servers. As for Central and East Asia, I don't think they care enough (intellectually or culturally) about religious affliations of other peoples to bash them.

 

[Azaraxzealot]

...

well i'm not an atheist, but what if i agree to just live and let you live without criticizing? how's that for a start?

That is not enough, because:

1) A lot of churches are "tax-exempt"!
2) There is such a thing as a "church tax" in some countries!
3) Several employees of the church are paid by the state, aka the tax payers even those who do not believe in any faith or that particular faith in some countries! Even though there is no state religion.
4) A lot of churches have the right to discriminate against people! For example it is legal that the catholic church refuses to hire female priests. Imagine the outcry and protest if anyone else would not hire someone because of her sex or fire you because you want to remarry.
5) The churches are influencing laws!
6) There is an official senate or congress or white house chaplain paid for by every tax payer in america. Don't forget the military chaplains and the "Spirituality Test" of the US army ......

Sorry, but you shutting up is not enough.

well im not a christian either, and a lot of those things DO upset me (particularly "priests get paid by the state" people shouldn't have to pay taxes to something like that.)

the church i went to years ago was completely non-profit, so i didn't know any of the things you mentioned. it was very different... but i left it anyways because it was still kind of a joke and infuriating at how narrow-minded they were.

 

[Dimensional Vortex]

...

well i'm not an atheist, but what if i agree to just live and let you live without criticizing? how's that for a start?

That is not enough, because:

1) A lot of churches are "tax-exempt"!
2) There is such a thing as a "church tax" in some countries!
3) Several employees of the church are paid by the state, aka the tax payers even those who do not believe in any faith or that particular faith in some countries! Even though there is no state religion.
4) A lot of churches have the right to discriminate against people! For example it is legal that the catholic church refuses to hire female priests. Imagine the outcry and protest if anyone else would not hire someone because of her sex or fire you because you want to remarry.
5) The churches are influencing laws!
6) There is an official senate or congress or white house chaplain paid for by every tax payer in america. Don't forget the military chaplains and the "Spirituality Test" of the US army ......

Sorry, but you shutting up is not enough.

And then there is this: http://img129.imageshack.us/i/1213119238104yy9.jpg/

You probably thought that link was pretty good but not to be offensive, I closed it when I read the second panel, all it seemed like to me was someone spewing anti-religious propaganda even if he says he wasn't. Although you did raise some pretty good arguments, people like religion, religion keeps people safe and happy with their lives and no one has any right to go and take that away from them.

 

[badgersprite]

No. The Internet (especially Youtube) is jerk land. It's a magical place where jerks of all faiths, beliefs, colours, creeds, sexual preferences and political persuasions come together to participate in a gigantic jerk-off to see whose side has the most jerks.

You're probably just looking in places where the atheist jerks gather together to prey on unsuspecting wanderers into jerk land and pounce on their victims in an ancient ritual known as 'trolling'. The religious jerks are just as numerous, but their hunting grounds typically lie elsewhere, since they don't prey on their own kind.

It's nature at work.

 

[Johanthemonster666]

No. The Internet (especially Youtube) is jerk land. It's a magical place where jerks of all faiths, beliefs, colours, creeds, sexual preferences and political persuasions come together to participate in a gigantic jerk-off to see whose side has the most jerks.

You're probably just looking in places where the atheist jerks gather together to prey on unsuspecting wanderers into jerk land and pounce on their victims in an ancient ritual known as 'trolling'. The religious jerks are just as numerous, but their hunting grounds typically lie elsewhere, since they don't prey on their own kind.

It's nature at work.

Indeed ^_^

 

[Ironman126]

I think the main reason for that is basically this:

Add to that the fact that religion is a popular target on the internet, and you get the situation you described.
Agnostic here, btw.

That. Exactly that. But with a religious (or atheist) mandate.

"Soft" atheist by the way.

 

[Lazzi]

I understand what you mean, but people will usally only make videos about things they dislike. I doubt that people make videos about things there ok with "and that why I accept peoples choices to not like veal despite the fact that I enjoy it" isnt going to get many hits nor is it something that people have a strong drive to even create.

Just think about all the people that ARNT complaining/spreading hate and you will be surpise how much better you feel.

 

[Lady Larunai]

Im not sure its the internet or atheism.. its just humans in general... there are just as many bitchy atheists as there are Christians, Catholics or Gays.. to blame one you have to blame them all

 

[Cypher10110]

It seems that most people on the internet that I encounter love to spew their hatred of christianity and pretty much every other form of organized religion.

Is this just the way of the internet?

i started noticing this when i saw this video (not going to embed it because you don't need to watch it, just read the comments to know what i'm talking about)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JYIJPjpCFc

harmless video directed at christian families. yet look at all the hate spewed in the comments and just in the "Likes vs Dislikes" with over 1300 people disliking the video and little more than 200 liking it.

Obviously this video was professionally made to make christian families feel happy. It's not like this is some WBC "Protesting Little Girl's Funeral" shit, so why all the hate? The video was not made for them. At all. They made it with the intention of putting smiles on people's faces and everyone who didn't like it could just go about their lives and ignore it. Then it gets on the internet and people rip it to shreds as "Christian Propaganda" that "indoctrinates" the kids.

This doesn't even end at youtube, it seems like almost everywhere else on the internet is like this. Nothing wrong with it being populated by atheists, but it's always the stupid, whiny bitchy ones that i see... Maybe it's just a case of that whole "very vocal minority" that just spends all its time criticizing versus the "silent majority" that keeps buying millions of copies of Call of Duty Black Ops and seeing Transformers movies enough for them to generate profits almost in the billion range (both franchises are kind of the same quality in my mind, but I don't care. doesn't affect me).

My disappointment at these idiots for raging about something that wasn't even made for them and doesn't have even enough public recognition to indoctrinate any child whose parents want to protect them from "evil christianity" or just "evil religion" is at face-palmingly high levels.

Now i'm not a christian myself, i stopped after i realized just how futile trying to live by those puritanical standards was when all my instincts pointed me AWAY from what they were teaching me. Plus they complained about all sorts of petty things that just pissed me off to no end....

seems like every group (even atheists) are just a bunch of bitches that don't know when to shut up and just live and let live.

anyways, comments?

EDIT: I'm in no way making a disingenuous assertion about atheists, i'm just frustrated by vocal minorities (the idiots OF the atheists) and how fucking vocal and idiotic they can get once anonymity comes into the equation (such is the case with that harmless video i mentioned). I know atheists are not idiots. There are just as many jack-asses in every sect of beliefs everywhere (WBC, Taliban).

I think the constant argument between believers and atheists is a simple "we want to make the world a better place". But because the arguments for Atheism are all based of pure reason, it is universal and easily argued by any rational person, there are a lot more people willing to rally to the cause with their words. By the definition of pure reason alone Atheism kinda "wins" by default too, so you'll find it much harder to find a convert FROM Atheism TO something else, than FROM something else TO Atheism.

Religious understanding is much more difficult to convey, because while it is being experienced, it has no words. You cant simply state to another person "Believing in god feels like...." and have them understand the way you do. (In some way this video is trying to convey such a thing, and is easily picked apart, ignoring the poetry at work)

Using reason (a universal language) you can demonstrate the logic of being an atheist. This can be understood by anyone else with the ability to reason themselves. All arguments/opinions/perspectives in atheism are based on reason, so they can all be understood, correct?

Religious belief is a perspective, it's difficult to understand with reason alone, you have to kind-of be "in" on it. But I feel that the "facts" of religion are wrong, but the deeper purpose of unity, belonging, and the greater good, are RIGHT. I do not dismiss it 100%, but I CERTAINLY dismiss "indoctrination", it is something best entered with both eyes open, not with ancient assumptions and superstitions.

----

Here's a thought for believers and non-believers alike:

If you felt you had proof that god existed. (For example you had the power to grant miracles to the faithful) You would want to spread the word, you would want to share the miracle with the world, and make everything BETTER.

If you felt you had proof that god did not exist, and felt that this had liberated you in some way. You would want to spread the word, you would want to share this liberation with the world, and make everything BETTER.

If you felt the masses were ignorant of something that could make their lives better (or help them make their own lives better) you would want to cure their ignorance, and make the world a better place.

Wouldn't you? Doesn't matter if you're a believer or not, you're driven by the same thing.

And if this doesn't interest you, as you hate the world and want to see it all burn. Then I guess I'm sorry the world has been so shit to you, wouldn't it be great if it wasn't so shit?

 

[duchaked]

well youtube (and/or the internet) is basically douchebag land so what exactly are you trying to say?

jp lol peacing out now

 

[y1fella]

I don't think the problem is too many atheists or too few christians, it seem to be a huge amount of religion hating trolls and christians being well christians will tend not to spew hate online and most atheists won't either but the small amount that do, do it alot.

Oh yeah cos religious people never preach hate en mass do they.

I know your going to label me as a hate spewing troll for saying this but...

I hate all religion with an epic passion and I don't think it has any place or relevance to FEAR (and dont try to dispute that one) of a supernatural deity.

Also I think being good because you do not want to go to hell is somewhat stupid. Be good for the sake of being good.

Couple of things I take issue with there like not all religions follow that formula (Hinduism, Buddhism) but the main problem is you don't even have a decent understanding of Christianitys core principles. Maybe you should try know SOMETHING about the people you hate.
Also is any christian who is only a christian out of fear of hell is porbably A) someone who claims to be christian without any real understanding of what that entails and B)Not a very good christian.
I'm only standing up for my religion because it's the one I know. I'm not defending Islam because I don't know shit about Islam and the argument you make may or may not be relevant. In any case I recommend you read the bible at least once and THEN make a decision. Or if you have read the bible disregard the previous comment.

 

[LMayo]

That picture depicting the normal man mixed with anonymity and an audience is a wonderful picture.

Alright, troll bait time. I'm a Mormon (gasp!) youth (that "youth" word means teenager/child, for those of you with beef for brains), and before someone says we're not Christian, I'm a mormon, and I say we are, because we are, I would know, I am one. Apparently, we're not exactly liked in the gaming world, so I'll make myself seem as normal as possible to avoid the usual, "You're Mormon, why should we listen to you? Your leaders tell you what to believe." <--Fail... -.-

So being a big bad admin in a large clan in two games makes me see a lot of the internet's populous. Frankly, it makes me sad. I deal with the Free To Play genre of gaming, which are full of Athiests, agnostics, and generally un-christian people knowing that nobody will know who they are, and in coming to that knowledge, they slander, beat, and gut every person they come across that mildly smells of Smarter Than Them Sauce, or individuality beans.

This is the general populous of F2P games, for most of the internet crowd, yes, it is populated by a large portion of annoying teenagers that are unable to comprehend writing out a simple sentence, much less think about any sort of faith yet. They know that nobody knows who they are either, so they'll slander, beat, and gut anyone that smells of smart sauce, as well as cool beans, sweet peas, individuality beans, or even religion steaks.

Now, for the final group I'll add (there are more, but I won't list them). What I like to call, the Battlefield Group. This group is the older gaming generation, the people with at least half a brain. From what I've seen, they tend to be more accepting to other/any religions, as well as good values with each other. Thus they seem to be more kind to people on the internet, and are usually either the "voice of reason" that gets completely bashed within the first five minutes after posting, or that old guy that doesn't know what's going on. IE, my dad.

In short, you just have to look for the good environments on the internet. Popular sites that are made such by humor or fun tend to have more annoying brats that flock to the masses. Small community sites seem to have more people that will be more acceptable in social situations.

 

[TriGGeR_HaPPy]

...

Relevant. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8tLOBlSMHU&feature=feedu

That video was really good, thanks for sharing. ^_^

I hate the term "vocal minority" because it implies the majority are somehow saints and yet refuse to rein in their own people, i.e. cowards.

Frankly, I'm not an atheist and don't particularly like or agree with the notion, but I'm not going to claim atheists are cowards by and large. And that IS the entire crux of the "vocal minority" argument--only a few people ever talk, and everyone else is too scared to tell them to shut up.

A more proper term would be "dickless majority" then.

More so I don't buy this whole "live and let live" thing people pull either, not because it's wrong (though I'd argue it's impractical since some people's opinions or quirks are too bizarre to exist in a society with any cohernecy but I digress) but because it simply doesn't play out in real life. I'm sure this will insult atheists when I say it, but atheists are the people who decided to make several entire movies and TV shows mocking religious people, somehow I doubt they actually just want to "live and let live"--clearly they think religious people are stupid or brainwashed and they want to "fix" them. And frankly that's nothing to be ashamed of, I disagree but I'd rather people be honest about it.

No the problem with atheists on the internet is the problem with ANY fringe group (and yes you're a fringe group atheists, and no, nobody cares so don't be sensitive)...anyway, it's the problem with ANY fringe group on the internet.

Nerd, aspies, virgins, whatever--if you're an outcast the internet is perfect. It allows you to find others like you, hide behind a computer, and build little echo chambers...I'm sorry I meant "forums" to fill with other people who agree with you and never question it. This isn't an opinion or even a theory, this is fact, and even a cursory glance at the internet will prove it. But that in and of itself is not the reason why some atheists are assholes on the internet, just why there are so many atheists on the internet. The reason some are assholes is because the internet is the perfect shield.

These people would be too scared or too alone to be such assholes in real life but on the internet they can fear no one. Nobody can hit them or yell at them like in real life, no one will citique them, or force them away because there is no "internet police" and no societal norms on the web. For anyone who is an asshole, especially people who are both members of freinge movements and assholes, the internet is a safe haven where the norms of society and the fear of retribution is totally removed and their oppressors rendered as impotent as they themselves are in the real world.

The internet was tailor made for assholes. Atheism is just the cause these particular assholes decided to claim as their own. It could just as easily have been Star Wars, racial purity, some mental disorder or another, being fat or anything else...the internet isn't full of atheist assholes, it's full of assholes period, these happen to also be atheists.

And now that I've pissed off atheists, autistics, fat people and white supremacists, I will again vanish into the ether...because it's the internet, and I can.

Wow. Ok, umm. Wow.
Hmm...

Ok. First off, I'm not atheistic or agnostic, but I'm also not a christian or of any other major religion. Just fyi.

I'm not sure where you get these ideas about what the term "vocal minority" means, to be honest. Every group will have that minority who feel the need to raise their points over every little thing, in the atheist group, christian group, LGBT group, whatever group you can think of. Most of the time, people will call them out over it. Or, alternatively, people won't say anything over the internet because they realise that on the internet, you can ignore them.
I'm also not sure why if a group has what others call a vocal minority, that immediately means that the rest of the group is a "dickless majority". Instead of being "dickless", I don't suppose it's occured to you that they're just taking the high road, and not feeding the trolls?

By the way, calling atheists a fringe group, and then immediately acting like they're all going to get "sensitive" about it, while trying to act all tough and macho instead of giving reasons to call them a fringe group? I see what you did there. Nice.
It was at this point I realised you were trolling, but I thought it still might be interesting to respond to your post and find out if you'd come back out of the ether to respond, hopefully in a more social/approachable manner.

The next 2 paragraphs are just you spouting cliches about who you believe populate the internet (completely ignoring the other people who also populate the internet), while bringing it back to calling atheists a fringe group. You also seem to be saying that anyone who is part of the vocal minority (despite how much you may hate that phrase, I'm still going to use it because it adequately describes who I'm talking about) seem to be "nerds, aspies, virgins", or otherwise an outcast. Why? Why can't those who are in the vocal minority be a member of the more "popular" groups? I've certainly seen examples of that for myself, and I'm not sure I believe that the only examples you've seen of people speaking out as a member of the vocal minority are those who are "outcasts" due to some asinine reason.
Just quickly, too... How would being a virgin, nerd, etc. make you an outcast? At least where I live, no one really cares if you're a virgin or nerd or whatever. Perhaps some better examples on what makes someone an outcast would have suited your point better.

I agree that the internet was practically tailor made for assholes, I really do. But the vocal minority speak up like they do (on both sides, both Atheist and Religious (and Agnostic, but to a lesser extent I find), let's not forget that) not because they just feel like arguing. (Well, for the most part. Some people are simply trolling, and more often than not you should just ignore them, like I said before.)

Even when it comes to the internet, it's surprisingly easy to get a civil discussion going, even on places like YouTube (I've done it quite a few times before). The only exceptions to this are the trolls, and those who are so stubborn that they won't even listen to your arguments and just keep repeating themselves like what they say is incontrovertible truth, whatever they're saying. These people should just be treated like trolls in that you should just ignore them.
The point I'm so laboriously trying to get to here, is that the assholes on the internet are of every colour, religion, nationality, etc. you can think of. But what you've done in your post is, perhaps accidentally (though I suspect not), made a claim that most assholes on the internet are atheists, and I disagree.

 

[rutger5000]

Hehe... pickle. It's funny because it's a euphemism.

It hurts so much, watch the clip and you know what I'm talking about!

Back to the point. I feel the internet is a release vault for atheist. Christians can talk about their believes in Church and sometimes everywhere else. A lot of atheist can't do that. Therefor the voice their opinion on the internet and do it loudly.
I must admit though I didn't like the video either.For me it's saying that believing in God makes you special. That is not the message I would like my children to hear. Sure if I got any I would make sure they can think for them selves, but still I wouldn't be happy about it.