Why They Take Atheism Personally

[rug]

March 9, 2017
Posted by Jack Vance

Why do some religious believers seem to take it personally when you or I say, "I am an atheist," almost as if we have just insulted them by making such a simple statement about ourselves? I don't have any profound answers to this question, but it seems to me that "I am an atheist" often means something very different to many religious believers than it does to us. In fact, I have come to suspect that it may mean something like the following to many:

You are wrong about gods, and you have wasted a significant portion of your life devoted to groveling before figments of your imagination. There will be no afterlife, no reuniting with loved ones, and no salvation for the "sins" you think you have committed. Every moment you have spent in prayer has been squandered because there isn't anything out there altering the universe for you. You have based much of your life on a lie, and you are a moron for doing so. I reject your values, your morality, and everything you hold dear.

If that is anything like what some religious believers hear when you or I identify ourselves as atheists, it is understandable that they might take it personally, get defensive, or have other negative reactions. Now, I must admit that while I have never met an atheist who would say that "I am an atheist" means any of this to them, I have met a few atheists who would do admit to holding these attitudes about religious believers. Some of them even express these attitudes to religious believers with the same lack of sensitivity which I used in the statement above.

While I cannot deny that there are atheists out there who feel this way, I believe that most atheists have less negative attitudes toward religious believers and express their views with a bit more tact. And so, I suspect that when religious believers take a simple statement about atheism personally, they are doing so because it means something very different to them than it does to us.

http://www.atheistrev.com/2017/03/why-they-take-atheism-personally.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AtheistRevolution+%28Atheist+Revolution%29

[PsychoBabble]

1. The first COMMENT to this post at the above link ...

Although the "statement" you have suggested as to what goes through the mind of a believer when he/she hears us say, "I am an Atheist" may be a bit harsh, I think it pretty much sums up the problem.

When a believer hears this and is faced with someone who is not covered in boils, seems to be reasonably healthy and even happy, and who yet has no fear of eternal damnation, it represents a direct attack on how he/she goes about convincing themselves that there will be "something" positive after this existence inevitably comes to an end. It is the fear of absolute death, an end to all existence, that is feared and cannot be accepted as reality.

It is for precisely this reason that religionists must constantly strive to surround themselves with people who agree that they "have it right'. Our presence and apparent lack of either concern with eternity or obvious punishment from their God must be terribly upsetting.

[rug]

2. I am mildly amused by people who articulate what they believe goes on in other people's heads.

[littlemissmartypants]

3. Ditto. eom

[vlyons]

4. It's OK with me if you are an atheist.

Your belief system has no effect on what I believe as a Buddhist. Buddhism doesn't teach that there is a creator God. It is more a psychology of how the minds works, and how to control one's emotions and thoughts. We do not proselytize, especially to folks who aren't interested. The only thing that we want to see every person practice is kindness and an open mind.

Personally, I don't believe in some being that exists outside our universe and can suspend the laws of physics. So praying for miracles seems a waste of time.

[Igel]

5. It's complicated.

Some think that being an atheist is a judgment against them.

In the same way, I've had atheists go on the warpath when they find out somebody's a believer. My BIL, for example. Or a "friend" who had no trouble asking me for help, but just yelled "fascist" at me when I said I worked for a church. Didn't have a clue what the doctrines were. And yet the next day he had trouble with coursework and, well, I was expected to overlook the public insult and help him.

I've also had atheists argue with me because they believe themselves right and believed me wrong, and it was their job to correct me. It's not just deists and theists who proselytize. We all like to make sure everybody's as enlightened as we are. Consider it a sign of caring for the other person, to keep them from falling into transgression--whether against their Theos of record or against the Truth Tables delivered by the Great Logician.

In some cases--the "fascist" comment above is actually properly categorized here--the animus is transposed. The fascist-labeller wasn't so much insistent that I was judging him as he was that my membership in a church necessarily entailed that I held political beliefs at odds with his. So his beef wasn't religious so much as doctrinal, in a secular way. Just as a friend stared slack-jawed when I said my faith wasn't trinitarian ("I thought the Arian heresy was pure history," he finally uttered, calling me a heretic), so dear ol' "You're a Fascist!" Nick thought I strayed from the Holy Catechism of the One True Party and had adopted the ways of the Great Satan Reagan.

For hyper-partisans and true worshippers of the One True Path, deviance denotes treason against humanity.

So some are sensitive to being judged; others insist that you agree with them, because, well, of course they're better than you; and others assume that if you're X then all the baggage they attribute to those who are X must be true of you, as well, and it's really those other attributes that they so want to expunge from reality.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

6. Cool story bro