Is it just me....

[Niveous]

But I seem to notice a lot of fanatical atheists these days, growing in proportion to the already large groupings of fanatical religious believers.


I'd like to hear any personal experiences, and if you feel the same way.  

[Edi Gammon]

Don't confuse fanaticism with passion.
Also, where have you noticed these people? I'm not sure what would qualify someone as a 'fanatic' atheist, or if that's even possible.

I only know a handful of atheists in real life besides myself, and that's probably the least talked about subject when we're together. However, I've known multitudes of christians of many denominations. With the baptists, evangelicals, and other protestants I've known, it seems like Jesus is the topic of the hour.... all the time. I'm not sure if that's fanaticism, obsession, or a disease... cry  

[Niveous]

Edi Gammon

Don't confuse fanaticism with passion.
Also, where have you noticed these people? I'm not sure what would qualify someone as a 'fanatic' atheist, or if that's even possible.

I only know a handful of atheists in real life besides myself, and that's probably the least talked about subject when we're together. However, I've known multitudes of christians of many denominations. With the baptists, evangelicals, and other protestants I've known, it seems like Jesus is the topic of the hour.... all the time. I'm not sure if that's fanaticism, obsession, or a disease... cry

Don't confuse fanaticism with passion? You are assuming I am confused now? Lovely. xp

Here:

Fanatic: a person who is zealously enthusiastic for some cause, especially in religion

Passion: :suffering; particularly in Christianity, the suffering of Jesus leading up to and during his crucifixion; great emotion.


So I guess I did mean fanatical, but it would be impossible to be enthusiastic and not show great emotion. So yeah....


So fanatics can be overzealous for a (cause) and not just a religion, although that is the main type of cause tagged to the word.

The cause here being that some atheist go a little too far to preach a message about their lack of belief in a God, with mountains of evidence.

I understand we needed this evidence to protect ourselves and justify our own beliefs, but when you go preaching "the good and logical news", well.....its still the same enthusiasm used by religious preachers.

One relies heavily on logic and one relies more heavily on faith. That is the main difference. What can make any one of these believers fanatics is the amount of zeal they put into their ideology.


So far, you claim to not talk about atheism much to atheist friends. Alright. Good start. Obsession does seem like a disease, since it takes away focus from other important activities. I study the bible, but I'd rather read it once and TRY to learn a new language another week than spend two straight weeks over the same material. Got to keep the mind fresh. biggrin It's healthy for us to be challenged.

I saw a Church Sign that read. "Don't make God a Priority. Make him your life."

I mean, I got the message. But it did sound obsessive. There were plenty of more clever ways to convey that message without coming off as self destructive. But I digress, now I'm just ranting. lol  

[fhbnfghnbfgbsnbg]

I'd have to agree, at least on Gaia (Its summer... I've been isolated from the real world crying )
You get people who yell in loud letters "I'M ATHEISTS SO F**K OFF!"
Or the people who come in and spout about how "religion inspires fear." and have nothing to back it up.
Or even the people who insist on going into a thread saying god is real and completely trying to smash someone else's belief. Not trying to just win the argument, but smash their belief.

To be honest, at least here on this website, I place more respect in the christians who come out and say "I beleve in God!"
Mostly because there are more atheists, and they tend to bash people who say that.

It's sad, really.  

[Niveous]

I would have to agree, in the realm of online society it seems there is a clear growing number.

Persecution for Atheists lies outside the house when you go to a local school, apply for a job, socialize with neighbors, ect...

But with that fear gone (mostly), on the internet, I noticed the level of hostility towards Christians or others who believe in deities growing.

I also have respect for people who come here to say they believe in God. Not to confuse that with the flaming type that come online to stir things up with atheists in the well known (YOU'RE GOING TO BURN FOR ETERNITY) type comments.

I wonder is this modern trend will eventually lead to a new group of our community openly leaning towards atheism. Whether it be in a healthy or overzealous sense. Most likely a mix.



ninja  

[Xiporah]

I guess I live in a really non religious area. I've never been discriminated against. It's not even talked about publically most of the time. We have a few religious types who take it to the streets, but they are pretty few and far between. I never remember talking to other kids about religion as a child. Maybe a few times, but not a lot.

We have a megachurch near my house, but I never see them anywhere other than at their church. They hand out bottled water once in a while at the train station, but that's the most that I see of them.

There's a mostly black church that has volunteers that sell candy as a fund raiser, but it starts and ends with a friendly smile and a, "We're selling candy for our church! $1! Thank you!"

We don't even get the JW's knocking on the doors anymore.

So in regards to being fanatical, there's no reason to be in my area. There are no hostilities to face.

 

[Sanguvixen]

Niveous

I would have to agree, in the realm of online society it seems there is a clear growing number.

Persecution for Atheists lies outside the house when you go to a local school, apply for a job, socialize with neighbors, ect...

But with that fear gone (mostly), on the internet, I noticed the level of hostility towards Christians or others who believe in deities growing.

I also have respect for people who come here to say they believe in God. Not to confuse that with the flaming type that come online to stir things up with atheists in the well known (YOU'RE GOING TO BURN FOR ETERNITY) type comments.

I wonder is this modern trend will eventually lead to a new group of our community openly leaning towards atheism. Whether it be in a healthy or overzealous sense. Most likely a mix.



ninja

There are a lot of very fanatical atheists....online. Due to the nature of the internet there is not much you can do about that.

I wonder if the reason why so many atheists are so openly hostile online when they are not in real life, is because of pent up aggression of not being able to speak about their atheism in the same way religious people are allowed to talk about their religion in the public sphere.

If you walk around, and any attempt to even lightly converse about your disbelief results in angry people attacking you, lashing out, and ostracizing you, it creates a powerful aggression.

Sometimes the only way for people to release that aggression is to do it online with the protection of being anonymous.

But that doesn't mean I support the idea of being aggressive online, to the kinds of people who otherwise, at least in your community, mistreat you in real life.  

[Niveous]

Yes. A hostile community will do that.

Turning mild atheists into aggressive ones is possible. But it raises so many questions. At first I read the reply wrong and somehow got out of it that fanatic believers could pose as atheists online just to give the rest a bad name.

The chances of that are small, but not entirely impossible. Most likely hostile online atheists are looking for a safer place to vent frustrations out. I believe America is tolerant of religious freedom, but not so much when it comes to non-religious freedom.

I am actually entertaining the idea of making a Church of the FSM (Flying Spaghetti Monster). That way atheists would get more organized, have little bakes sales, and do all everything else a religion might do. Certainly there is material to be handed out like amusing stories of a FMS who laid his holy pasta tips out to a lowly creation of his.

And then some type of logic lessons.



It's not very well thought out I know. But it may help rally us outside the safe online world.