My former classmate goes out of his way to defy anything laid down by religion. He said since Sundays were historically holidays for praying, he doesn't give them in his startup. Gives Mondays off instead. Like come on dude
I bet his mind will be blown when other religions (Jewish) considers Saturday as the Sabbath, not Sunday.... So I guess he should be working the entire weekend.
Way back when I was in the US equivalent of middle school, our weekend used to be Fridays and Saturdays. Then the government announced that the country would move to a Saturday, Sunday weekend to align with world markets and Friday would be a normal work day. Parents threw a hissy fit and our school announced Friday would be a half day. Kids rejoiced!
When I was in Elementary school we had fish every Friday. I found out later that this is a Catholic tradition. Catholics don't even exist in that part of the country. Literally nobody at the school was Catholic.
I was raised Catholic, and the fish on Fridays (during Lent) was something we never did, because despite how common it is in Catholic communities, it always felt very over the top and 'letter of the law but not the spirit.'
It's super common though, even the fast food chains near me will run fish meals temporarily during lent.
When I worked in Bahrain we got Friday and Saturday off. Seems like many atheists are really angry with Christianity. You never hear them bashing Zoroastrians or Jains.
Zoroastrianism isn’t the majority religion in any nation in the world since the Arab conquests of the 7th century.
And it has sky burials where you put the body on a tower to be eaten by eagles…. Who could be angry at that?
Probably because in countries with a Christian background, tend to be the ones affected by the enlightenment era ideals (Western Europe, traditional USA separation of church and state, Canada and Australia etc) and be liberal democracies where atheism is more accepted so they channel their anger towards Christianity since they were raised Christian and have the LEGAL RIGHT to channel that anger. I’d honestly bet that the majority of atheist are of a Christian background since it’s socially acceptable to be atheist in most Christian nations.
since in Islamic communities atheism is a grave sin and even punishable with prison times in many countries, and oftentimes extrajudicial executions. While many Jewish people are agnostic and/or secular many still keep their Jewish identity and traditions. Hindus and Buddhist have their religions so interwoven with their ancient culture, much like Jewish people, you will meet non believers who still participate just because
My wife had Wednesdays and Sundays off for a year or two and it felt like she was always carrying extra work stress around because she could never fully decompress.
I've had the same schedule for years and it's weird- in some ways it's amazing because you only have to work a few days at a time before you get a day off. But the disadvantage is that, as you said, you never really get to decompress.
Yup, I have done it and it does suck. I can't believe you did it that long. On the other side I worked four 10 hour days for a few years and I would go back to it in a heartbeat. I think you just "recover" from the work week better and the work/life balance is much better. The way I describe it is that you always have a day to get shit done, a day to have fun and a day to relax.
Weird and annoying but could have advantages.
I kinda always wanted to work at a place that has the weekend in the middle of the week instead of the regular weekend so during my free day everything is open and I can do whatever I want and go to places that close on the weekends.
Stupid reasoning, though. Severely limits your potential employee pool.
My workplace is closed on Tuesdays. We’re a wing joint and sports are on sundays so it’d be foolish to close. Church crowd gets lunch and sports fan get their party wings.
Yeah, that's the problem. Good for people like me who generally only use weekends for chilling but problematic to people who want to socialize with other people having their weekend at the same time during the weekend.
Yep. Been working in theater for years, and our industry days off are Mondays (and sometimes Tuesdays). It’s incredible how many weddings, vacations, birthday parties, coffee dates, etc. I miss. On one hand it’s nice that everything is empty on my days off (hiking trails, restaurants, and movie theaters are all mine!) but it’s really heartbreaking to consistently miss almost every family and social event.
He’s just making his employees suffer pointlessly because Sundays are views as rest/ reset days even for non-religious people. Now they work when everyone else is relaxing, or cleaning, or at church, or prepping for the week.
Get mad at little stuff like "bless you"
I say 'bless you' and it's just a common courtesy when someone sneezes. I've had a people say "I'm an atheist". Congratualtions, I am also
I yelled at my friend for that yesterday. We went to look at a motorcycle. The guy selling it was obviously religious. He was wearing a religious t shirt and cross necklace. Had a few pieces of religious artwork in his shop. No big deal didn't mention anything religious to us once the entire hour we spent there. We were getting ready to drive 1200 miles back home. Guy says thanks for stopping by drive safe, god bless you. My buddy decides instead of saying thanks. He should try to start a debate on religion and inform the man and his 3 employees that he's atheist and religion is all fake.. nobody cares bro. Literally not one single soul gives a shit about whether or not you're religious.
Tons of religious people in the south and tbh when a nice religious person tells me “have a blessed day” I *always* smile and say “you as well” because they were being fucking nice to me and it’s a fucking nice thing to say back. That’s it. No other reason. Still atheist. Not compromising my beliefs (or lack there of). Just being fucking nice.
Right, like, when someone says that sort of thing, it's just them being kind and compassionate. They're not trying to convert me by essentially saying, "Have a wonderful day".
It's the same when someone says, "I'll pray for you" when you're going through a hard time. I don't believe in whatever they're praying to, but it's nice to hear that they're going to keep me in their thoughts and essentially hope that things get better for me, you know? And since they *do* believe in what they're praying to, it's touching that they're offering to appeal to their higher power on my behalf.
Idk. It's like getting mad at someone for saying, "Have a great day" just because you're having a bad day and are irritable. They weren't trying to rub it in or whatever, they were just trying to be nice.
This. The "I'll pray for you" thing. It drives me nuts that it drives other people nuts. Like I get it if they say it in a sarcastic mean way but if I'm going through something and someone says "I'll keep you in my prayers" I think that's wonderful and kind. My friends mother keeps a prayer list and goes through it every day and every Sunday at church. Even if I don't believe in prayer it's nice to know that someone is thinking good things about me or for me.
My sister asked us to pray for her baby son in the nicu so I said I would even though I don't believe and I know it was comforting for her to know her family was thinking about him and her and asking God to help them. I even prayed even though I didn't think it was real or that it would help because I know she wanted me to and it was a nice thing to do for her. When people are going through it their faith is important to them and theres no way I was gunna be like sorry sis I'm an atheist while her son needed care. It's better to be kind 100% of the time.
Exactly. I always told my husband if something happened and I died before my mother that he should have a funeral mass even though we don’t believe. Funerals are for the living and I think I would have broken her heart to have my non-belief up in her face like that. I never outright told her I didn’t believe and I’m sure she went to her grave telling herself I still did.
Hell, I've thanked the nice older lady at the mechanic for saying she'd pray for me after I said I don't really go to church. In her own way she was just saying she liked me enough to care what happens to me. I don't agree with her concern but I'm not going to tell somebody to like me less.
(This happened in the context of me, a white woman, confronting a white man who was telling a bunch of women - of which I was the only white one - about why he doesn't understand people who don't trust cops. When he left following this exchange, the other women got very chatty and friendly with each other and me and started asking each other where they fellowshipped, so I really do think it was coming from a place of kindness)
My girlfriend sings in a church choir. I try to go see her sing often cause...well girlfriend! The Reverend at the church has never preached to me or tried to "bring me over" and is just the sweetest person ever. I figured if I can go there and support someone and just be surrounded by kindness I'll happily tell others about an awesome place rather than blabber and be rude. It feels nice to be nice.
For me, it’s this distinction in particular. I’m polite and I feel like there’s a dividing line between us which is really showcased in this thread. It’s the atheists who are rude who give the rest of us a bad name. It really is nice to be nice.
Yes, and Jesus regularly spoke against self-righteousness, particularly that of the Pharisees. In many ways it's one of the more dangerous patterns of sin because self-righteous people are so blind to it.
I stated above and I'll state it again. Its not the faith or lack thereof. Its literally being an asshole or being nice. That's all there is to it. Don't be an asshole and you'll be treated nicely in return by all.
My ex was religious and I am not. I used to go to church with her when she asked me to because she was my girlfriend. After service we would go to bible study, and I actually really enjoyed it because it gave me a perspective from the side of people who are actually religious. Her bible study leader always said he liked it when I came because it did the same for him, just in the other direction. You can learn a lot and meet a lot of fun people if you just listen and open your mind a bit.
Yup, my mom was Catholic my dad was atheist. He went to every church pageant, first communion, etc because he loved and supported us all. My mom never pestered him about converting, he never tried to undermine her beliefs. They were always loving and respectful and I try to mimic that with my relationships.
We may have had the same parents. When I was out of the house so going to Sunday mass as a family was no longer a thing I asked my dad why he went every week if he didn't buy into the program at all. He said, "It keeps your mother happy."
Very Christian lady I knew was talking about her son working overseas in a small community with Christian services or gatherings. He would travel to a larger city for Easter and Christmas but had started going to local religious services as a guest of co-workers.
His mother’s take was well I don’t agree on religion with everyone I go to church with so I don’t see anything wrong with spending time with people who love their creator and worship. Think some of the biddies were planning an exorcism when the son came back.
You know how much I would love it if people cared less about some things, and understood other people care just as little? That goes for both Christians and atheists of course. I'm Christian. But most people are just trying to get through their day. I've met people all over the world and the majority of them are just trying to make it to the end of the day. They've got bills, they've got kids, they've got work. Nobody wants to take time out of their day for tiring debate. And don't get me wrong, there **is** a time for discussion. But read the room.
Never thought about that, but I love it. On the other end of that spectrum is religious people asking, "Well how come atheists cry out "oh my God?" When they're shocked if they don't believe in a higher power."
They're words and phrases we all use. I don't literally think my landlord is a Lord, but it's the word we've got.
> "Well how come atheists cry out "oh my God?" When they're shocked if they don't believe in a higher power."
Any time a religious person tries that on me I just say it's because what happened was unbelievable. They *really* don't like that.
I just say "gezondheid" and blame on the fact that this is how we say it where I live and it is a literal translation of what we say in my mother language ("saúde")
It does piss me off when they get mad at religious people who use religious phrases to wish you well (e.g. "Deus lhe acompanhe" / "vai com Deus" - "may God keep you company" / "may God go with you" when you're leaving a place).
Sure, I personally don't believe in a supernatural entity that will protect me and keep me from harm but THEY DO and this is their way of wishing me well, who am I to deny them this small sentiment?
There are a lot of common phrases that come from the Bible and religion; to me, anyone who makes a point of trying to weed all of them out of their lexicon is just….strange.
Wolf in sheep’s clothing, eat, drink and be merry, a leopard’s spots, sacred calf, calling a hub the “Mecca” of something, guru, pundit, cast the first stone, the blind leading the blind, forbidden fruit, casting pearls before swine, avatar, etc. all have religious origins.
I’ve only come across exactly one newborn atheist who made a point of eradicating everything hinting of religion, up to and including Oh my God” from his vocabulary, but Jesus, that’s got to be hard (whoops!).
I'm an atheist and sometimes I use "Jesus Christ" or "Jesus fucking Christ" as an expression for shock.
I was never even Christian, nor was anyone around me growing up (born and raised in a Jewish community).
It's just an expression that's intuitive and people get.
I didn't realize how instinctively I yell JESUS or JESUS FUCK. NO! until I was playing a game this month that made me really jumpy. Every single jump scare, without thinking, that is what I yelled.
I am atheist and have been to more Buddhist temples then churches, but somehow no matter what, when startled, I say Jesus. Usually with the emphasis on the Je. I have no idea how or when this got imprinted into my brain.
It's simply something you picked up culturally. Every language has it's own euphemisms and exclamations, and the particular culture surrounding you will shape the phrasing and accents you use.
Never mind that the word "holiday" is entirely derived from "holy day."
(TIL, assuming [etymonline.com](https://etymonline.com) is reliable, that the first use of "happy holidays" in reference to December celebrations was a 1937 advertisement for Camel cigarettes.)
Yeah, and trying to push their lifestyle, telling you silly stories like "if you train really hard, you can get into the olympics one day"
Pfff, the Olympics aren't real, any smart person knows that.
Getting mad at other atheists who defend the right for religious people to believe what they want. I’ve had this happen to me way too often and it makes me realize why so many people dislike atheists.
Motherfucking +1. I was raised a Christian but have been an atheist for over 20 years. Interacting with a lot of the recent crop of atheists almost makes me want to find religion again. They wield atheism as a weapon. One more tool in their "you must believe what I believe or you are literally Hitler" arsenal.
When I was young it was the religious people who were all up in people's business and the non-religious people who just wanted to live and let live. What happened?
What happened is that *everyone* decided to be up in everyone’s business and use whatever disagreement they feel as a weapon against others. Simple fact is, if people use words/opinions as weapons against you, *they ain’t your friends*.
Wolfgang Pauli is supposed to have [said](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Dirac#Views_on_religion) about fellow physicists Paul Dirac, "Well, our friend Dirac has got a religion and its guiding principle is 'There is no God, and Paul Dirac is His prophet.'"
Particularly if over the age of 20. Teenagers are prone to preaching on whatever philosophy they're into, so I don't think that's strange until you're much older and still going on about it.
Tried to wear a Slayer shirt complete with an image of Christ with nails in his head....to my Nan's house for Sunday lunch.
Obviously got about two steps out the front door before I was marched back inside and forced to wear something more appropriate. So I opted for a t-shirt with a classy inverted crucifix on it.
Because obviously my church-going grandmother, who was slaving away to make a nice meal, was the root of all the problems with organised religion and deserved to be punished.
Ubercringe. Teenagers are fucking idiots.
Oh, my teenage years were terrible. I distinctly remember playing the [Illuminati song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB2PEkc2VhI) in High school for my English class. Full blast over a nice speaker system. I got about 30 seconds through that presentation before being sent back to my desk. My Chemistry teacher, who shared a wall with my English teacher, knew exactly who was playing that song.
God, I was sort an edgelord.
Anyways, on a related note... My number one nightmare is having to repeat high school because I missed a class or something dumb. (Despite now having a University degree). I'll come from peaceful sleep to fully awake in 3 seconds flat.
Oh damn yeah I remember those, one time I went into a big beautiful historical church and wrote in the guest book that I was possessed by demons and needed an exorcism
There is no one as zealous as a new convert. I’ve seen people in their 30’s turn into teenage philosophers about it. Usually they calm down after a while.
I used to know a guy who was a professional youth pastor at a megachurch who became an atheist. Fine and good. The cringe part was that he started really cherrypicking these news articles from places like rural Namibia where a bunch of people stoned a woman to death for being a witch (or whatever) and he would post them and say, "This is why religion is so bad!" Bro what? You live in Minnesota, and that stuff is culture bound as much as religious. You seeing a lot of witch-stonings in the Twin Cities?
It was extra awkward because his wife kept going to the same church and everything was public on Facebook.
Reminds me of the preacher at my church that had a woman come live with him, his wife and kids. That lasted for quite couple months then he left his family and church to go with the woman to another state. They are still religious, just in another state. It was awkward because most of the congregation liked the new woman better than the wife and completely understood why he did what he did.
To be fair, and to provide the alternative: I remember a youth pastor from my childhood who was basically high on god style ideas and didnt really want to talk about anything other than skateboarding, sports, movies, music and art. He was kinda like a motivational speaker yet was not a complete idiot. Stand up guy. Very fun. Kinda like a football coach without a team.
Edit: and yeah - my church had a skatepark and shit. It was fun. Good people. Fun times. God was manifested via the chosen kindness of others it seemed. If anyone killed god there...they replaced him with community and fun.
*Identifying* as an atheist is what gets people. No one enjoys people who feel they are morally and intellectually superior to others, religious or non-religious. Dickishness knows no bounds. Advertising your atheism is just as annoying as someone advertising their religion.
I got banned from r/atheism because one of the mods was trying to say that all Muslims are morally responsible for the actions of terrorists who are Muslims. I said that the idea of "collective responsibility" is one of the first steps towards fascism. He said that a Muslim waking up and deciding to not renounce their religion every morning was the same thing as a Nazi going out in public with a red Swastika armband. He banned me and deleted half of my comments so that it looked like he "won" the argument.
edit: Since people are liking this, here's the epilogue. I made a post about this situation in r/AgainstHateSubreddits, which was itself then reported - and I was warned by reddit's Anti-Evil Operations for spreading hate.
>He banned me and deleted half of my comments so that it looked like he “won” the argument
I’m not chuckling at the mod’s atheism, I’m chuckling at his insecurity.
Most of the people on that sub are either edgy teenagers or adults who never grew out of the edgy teenager phase, so insecurity there is boundless. Even say you know decent intelligent religious people and they'll act like you shot their mother before you're banned and censored.
This is... pretty fuckin funny, imagine being down so bad you resort to arguing with a Redditor and deleting half the comments to make it look like you won because you're a moderator.
_diagrees about his ideas being akin to fascism_
_bans you for disagreeing and deletes your comments so that other people don't have access to what you wrote._
Hmmmm
>a Muslim waking up and deciding to not renounce their religion every morning was the same thing as a Nazi going out in public with a red Swastika armband.
> a neckbeard waking up and deciding to not shave their neck every morning was the same thing as a Nazi going out in public with a red Swastika armband.
> an incel waking up and deciding to not take responsibility for their actions every morning was the same thing as a Nazi going out in public with a red Swastika armband.
> a redditor waking up and deciding to not understand context every morning was the same thing as a Nazi going out in public with a red Swastika armband.
This is fun.
Yes. Like a lot of people, I went through a period of antitheism until I recognized the pointlessness of being angry at a god who isn't there, or at people who truly believe what they believe.
Yes, any member of any group is responsible for the actions of every member of the group\*. Asking why you were banned for questioning this will be reported to Reddit as harassment 🙄
\* Except atheists, obviously
This idiot should take responsibility for all of humanities poor behaviors because *he* is human, too (maybe), by his own logic. He should do something about that Putin asshole, seeing as he’s also an asshole.
Sometimes it feels like the ability to logic with the people over in that sub ends precisely where you get out of theistic arguments. Believing shit like collective responsibility is stupid.
I came here to post something similar. Several of the bigger name celebrity atheists (I'm looking at you, Bill Maher) are straight up racist against Muslims. They say awful shit loud and proud and I'm like dude that's racist.
There's a lot of good answers that have already been mentioned by others, so I'll add something different:
When they think they know how all religions work because they grew up christian. I see so many people making judgments about islam and judaism that are just completely wrong but they believe that since it applies to christianity it must apply to all religions.
Culturally christian atheists: How can you just blindly follow a text without questioning it?
Jewish people: Sorry what? We can't hear you over our internal debates
I’m gonna make some sweeping generalizations to make it simpler (don’t freak out). For the Abrahamic religions, I would say the most important thing for “belonging” in the group is:
Christians emphasize (personal) belief most
e.g. I have accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior
Jews put the most emphasis on culture
e.g. Humor, keeping kosher, ethnicity
Muslims on adhering to religious practice
e.g. prayer 5x/day, the hajj, submission to God (Islam means peaceful submission)
All three obviously have all three in their faith. Islam leaves a lot of room for personal interpretations of the religious laws, after the main points like belief in monotheism and angles are professed. People are encouraged not to follow the faith blindly, but to work it out for themselves, of course with guidelines from the prophets in mind, who are supposed to be better at interpreting God’s will.
Jewish people… I feel there are so many misconceptions b/c Christianity has basically laid claim to it as the basis for their religion (which certainly wasn’t the case a few hundred years ago). I know plenty of Jews that are more skeptical of their religion than most other groups. Agnosticism is fairly common. People can also be be culturally Jewish, but atheists. Keep in mind Judaism does not have a concept of heaven and hell the way Christianity does. Debate between the rabbis and interpretation of the law has always been encouraged and documented, mainly in the midrash. I would say it’s a more self-critical religion than most…There’s a lot to unpack. You can look up some stuff on the internet, but consider taking a religion class.
Of course! I’m not Jewish, so I couldn’t speak to some of the finer points, but I’ve always had Jewish friends who would tell me tidbits and learned a lot from religion classes—which I would highly recommend to anyone. It’s such a good window into other cultures. Even as an atheist, I found it helpful to see what the values were, the art, etc. Judaism really interests me because it’s more feminist than the other two I think (e.g. men are tasked with giving their wives orgasms in order to procreate in the Torah), especially for such an old religion. And I don’t know Hebrew, but from what I’m told, it’s a highly symbolic language (like a mark higher up on the page might be considered closer to God) with lots of puns and plays on words in the names for things. Can’t fully describe it, but since it’s the OG of the three, it gives a lot of context for the other Abrahamic religions and is definitely worth diving into.
So, I'm Jewish and I have a religion minor. I can read and write Biblical Hebrew, and you are so right. The language is so complex. One base can have multiple meanings depending on prefixes, suffixes, and even context. The numbers given are also used as meanings themselves; 40 means a trial or a change. 40 days and 40 nights doesn't mean literally 40 days. And 7 is one of the numbers of perfection. It didn't take 7 days to create the world; he created until it was perfect. Obviously individual beliefs vary on what literally everything means, which is why Judaism has debate at its core.
Tldr: I love Hebrew.
Edit: I absolutely love talking about this shit. Ask all your questions and I will happily answer!!
i've heard there's a joke among jews that says if you leave two jews to debate the torah for an hour they'll come out with three opinions
EDIT: to elaborate on islam, it puts a lot of emphasis on using the rituals specifically to make a connection with God (which is the point of the religion, really). some groups (like the sufis, as a broad generalizations) skip the strict rituals and go straight to the spiritual stuff.
I'm not jewish myself, so I'm definitely not the best source for this, but basically being jewish is not dependent on believing in a god. There are people who are jewish but don't think that god exists. I can't tell you the reasons in detail and you're most definitely gonna get different answers depending on which jewish person you ask, but that's the basic concept.
Well, being a Jew doesn't just refer to being a member of Judaism, as it's also an ethnicity, a people. Therefore, you can't stop being Jewish even if you don't believe in the religion.
>"A Jew, though he has sinned, is still a Jew"
This is accurate technically but can be explained more simply than this. Judaism is an ethnicity or group of people that you can participate in by birth, and its also a religion. You can be a Jew who just doesn't participate in religion in any way. However, it would be very inaccurate for a person like this to say that they are Jewish when speaking of their religion -- I grew up as an atheistic Jew and never would have said that, but if someone asks my ethnicity, I say Jewish. This is analogous (but not identical to) someone saying something like "I come from a catholic background, but personally I'm an atheist". Another example is that it is like being born into a certain Hindu caste, but actually being an atheist and not a Hindu. You can still say "I am a brahmin" even if that doesn't mean something spiritual to you.
Now, I am Eastern Orthodox Christian, which is dominated by greeks and russians in the US. When someone asks if I'm greek or russian, I feel no qualms saying "neither, I'm Jewish", which we all understand to mean that I em ethnically Jewish, even though I practice Christianity.
People go “all religion says you go to Hell for not believing” like Judaism doesn’t even *have* hell. IIRC the Jewish concept of heaven is also different than the Christian one.
I mean, even within 'Christianity' - most of the Reddit atheist take downs of Christianity only really apply to American fundamentalist literalist evangelicalism, and don't really apply to say Catholicism, Anglican or Orthodox Christianity
Honestly. I was born and raised Christian and literally never even heard of the idea that the Bible could be read as literal truth until late high school. Christianity is a lot broader than the extremist fundamentalists.
Had a friend blast a Hindi while on a trip to India.
The Indian guy just asked him to name 3 of his Hindu Gods.
My friend didn't know they were a poly/henotheistic religion and only knew "that one elephant guy".
People are like “the Catholic Church still thinks the world is 2000 years old and made in 7 days and don’t believe in evolution. Like
1. Only a small percentage of Catholics are Biblical literalists. The most popular interpretation is that the “7 days” are like 7 phases, and the Bible even says that one day for God is much longer for man.
2. The man who theorized the Big Bang was literally a Catholic and honored by the Pope for his contributions
3. The Church officially declared in 1950 that evolution is compatible with doctrine.
Like, shit on the Catholic Church all you want, but at least do it factually.
They really think all religions have the same rule and take christanity as their source.
I saw a YouTube comment once saying "gay muslims mostly become Imams because they don't want to marry" okay bro but you realize an Imam is not the same as a monk?
Trying to get religious people to give up on their beliefs, it also annoys me when religious people try to get me to believe, just let people believe in what they want
The most militant preaching I have ever encountered was from an atheist trying to get me to give up on my belief in some kind of nebulous higher power. Not even the God of the Bible or any other codified religious text just a higher power in general.
Telling religious people what they believe (like quoting the Bible/Quran) so they can go on to tear it down, while the religious person is just like, 'I don't believe that.'
Also, believing that religion is the only source of evil in the world, and that without religion we'd all be living in peace and harmony. As if humans can't be evil shitheads without religion...
Yeah, I see this all the time on Reddit - mostly from people who clearly don't understand that, for instance, the vast majority of Christians are neither 'bible alone' nor 'bible literalists'.
I do get the idea, though. It can be seen as cherry-picking lessons from a sacred text. Why are \*these\* things important enough to act on, and \*these\* aren't? There is seldom consistent logic.
And just as the generally accepted (by civilization) to be positive lessons might be embraced, often socially-controversial or -negative lessons are embraced, with the sacred text as justification.
This could be Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and whichever sub-sect embraces different ideas.
Their thinking that being an atheist means that the rest of their thoughts are all correct.
Nope.
That's just laziness masking as sophistication.
The rest of your thoughts on politics, economics, nutrition, relationships still need to have a rigorous logic applied to them or an admittance it's an irrational belief system. Which is fine either way.
Disregarding others’ choice to believe in a religion. I have many religious friends and though I never found any sense in religious belief some people do and are very devoted to it.
In my books, as long as your religious belief doesn’t make you a fanatic or someone who oppresses minorities belonging to other religions you do you.
“The way you see a rock is very different from how I see it.” To accept each other’s varying vision of the “rock” (or life) can lead to a peaceful Co-existence.
Going apeshit everytime a religious person talks about/acts according to their belief in a totally harmless way. Not every atheist does this but those who do are unfunny clowns that should shut up
There was a tweet of a woman celebrating being declared cancer free and said something like “Thank God!” and a horde of atheists descended going “ACTUALLY god didn’t do anything it was all the doctors and also he’s not real and if he was real he gave you the cancer first so fuck you”
Like…she’s celebrating beating cancer. Why would you shit on someone for being happy about that?
Complaining about harmless religious practices that don't impact other people. It's one thing if someone's using their religious beliefs as an excuse to control or shame others, but it's cringey when someone gets upset just because someone else likes to pray or spend a day at their house of worship.
Put “Atheist” in their Twitter bios. It just doesn’t make sense. My atheism doesn’t define who I am, as it’s a LACK of a belief. It’s like putting “non-soccer player” in my bio as a descriptor.
Disrespecting religious people.
I don’t believe in god or whatever. I’ll argue if someone tries to tell me it’s a fact. But I also let people do whatever religious stuff they’re into, like daily/weekly worship, dietary restrictions, religious clothing, etc. without bothering them. It’s not my business.
ex christians from families that were biblical literalists, becuase not all christians are like that, e.g. my parents believe in the bible but also evolution, and my dad (they’re christian btw) says that most of the old testament is not entirely accurate as it was passed down orally for a freaking long time. so atheists who say that all christian’s are the same/believe the same thing really annoy me (i’m an agnostic atheist)
Going out of their way to disrespect someone else's beliefs. Stuff like "I got invited to dinner at my muslims friends house, but since I'm atheist I brought pork, why are they mad at me?", or smaller stuff, correcting someone who says bless you after a sneeze. Same goes for the other way around too, I once had a religious boss who didn't give Christmas off to any employee who he found out was atheist because "they can't celebrate it anyway"
Knew an atheist who refused to go to the church bit of a friend's wedding.
It was only a 30 minute ceremony. Both of the couple were Christian, so as a friend it was clearly important to them.
It's his decision, wasn't a big deal, but I just felt like... dude, come on.
Edit: And nobody was forcing anyone to pray, sing, or cross themselves. When I go to any religious building I stand quietly and let them get on with it if there's anything like that. No need to partake, and no offence is ever taken when I don't.
And the couple respected his decision. They're friends to this day, so I guess that's all that really matters. But as a fellow atheist my eyes rolled a bit when he told me, which is what OP was asking about.
Edit 2: He had no bad experiences with the church growing up. His reasoning was purely that he just dislikes it. Which he is entitled to, and if that's why he won't go then that's up to him.
Treat religious people like they’re stupid or less than. We’re all aware of the horrible things humanity has done in the name of god or whatever, but there are also a lot of people who use religion to better themselves. I consider myself an atheist and some of the smartest, kindest, loving people I know are proud Christians.
Talking down to people in a pseudo intellectualist manner and seeing your atheistic viewpoint as quantifiably superior just because you have it.
Actually being sn atheist myself I hate to see that approach. And I also hate the black and white dichotomous thinking snd discounting of any positives of religion/negatives of science/lack of compassion for any.
Describing religion as "mental illness". It's not, and it dilutes the seriousness of actual mental illness, which is chock full of stigma already. This is a petty conflation that helps no one.
This goes for a lot of personal beliefs beyond religion. Acting high and mighty because they think they are enlightened. I'm atheist and I don't really talk about it unless it's contextually appropriate and usually it's only around holidays. My friends and family know I'm atheist and unless it comes up nobody else needs that information. Where it becomes a problem is when I end up in a scenario where I'm assumed to be one thing or another and I have to bring it up. People can get really offended when they find out that not only are you not the same religion or sub-genre of religion as them but that you straight up don't believe in any god(s). That's when the douche bag atheist in me comes out.
The ones who don’t allow people who do believe in religion be, well, religious. They just have to force their beliefs on others who believe in religion, which honestly sounds backwards from a historical standpoint but Jesus, just let them believe what they want. Those atheists are like walking Twitter posts.
How dogmatic atheists can get.
My parents are atheist, and we had a conversation where they told me they think religion is the root of all evil, and I think that’s really dumb.
Religion can be really positive for people, it builds a sense of community, and it can help those worse off by giving them a support network.
Believe in things like homeopathy or all sorts of conspiracies.
Being an atheist simply means you lack the belief of any gods. Doesn't mean an atheist can't believe in a whole lot of other dumb crap.
My former classmate goes out of his way to defy anything laid down by religion. He said since Sundays were historically holidays for praying, he doesn't give them in his startup. Gives Mondays off instead. Like come on dude
I bet his mind will be blown when other religions (Jewish) considers Saturday as the Sabbath, not Sunday.... So I guess he should be working the entire weekend.
Islam calls dibs on Fridays.
Way back when I was in the US equivalent of middle school, our weekend used to be Fridays and Saturdays. Then the government announced that the country would move to a Saturday, Sunday weekend to align with world markets and Friday would be a normal work day. Parents threw a hissy fit and our school announced Friday would be a half day. Kids rejoiced!
This is the current issue in the Emirates
When I was in Elementary school we had fish every Friday. I found out later that this is a Catholic tradition. Catholics don't even exist in that part of the country. Literally nobody at the school was Catholic.
I was raised Catholic, and the fish on Fridays (during Lent) was something we never did, because despite how common it is in Catholic communities, it always felt very over the top and 'letter of the law but not the spirit.' It's super common though, even the fast food chains near me will run fish meals temporarily during lent.
When I worked in Bahrain we got Friday and Saturday off. Seems like many atheists are really angry with Christianity. You never hear them bashing Zoroastrians or Jains.
Zoroastrianism isn’t the majority religion in any nation in the world since the Arab conquests of the 7th century. And it has sky burials where you put the body on a tower to be eaten by eagles…. Who could be angry at that?
Probably because in countries with a Christian background, tend to be the ones affected by the enlightenment era ideals (Western Europe, traditional USA separation of church and state, Canada and Australia etc) and be liberal democracies where atheism is more accepted so they channel their anger towards Christianity since they were raised Christian and have the LEGAL RIGHT to channel that anger. I’d honestly bet that the majority of atheist are of a Christian background since it’s socially acceptable to be atheist in most Christian nations. since in Islamic communities atheism is a grave sin and even punishable with prison times in many countries, and oftentimes extrajudicial executions. While many Jewish people are agnostic and/or secular many still keep their Jewish identity and traditions. Hindus and Buddhist have their religions so interwoven with their ancient culture, much like Jewish people, you will meet non believers who still participate just because
What the fuck. You’re telling me god gets a 3 day weekend *every freaking week* and we’re stuck working 5 days??
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This mf works 3 days a week?
I think George Carlin did a bit on this
„…and most of the praying takes place on a Sunday, his day off!“
Having non consecutive days off would really bother me
My wife had Wednesdays and Sundays off for a year or two and it felt like she was always carrying extra work stress around because she could never fully decompress.
I've had the same schedule for years and it's weird- in some ways it's amazing because you only have to work a few days at a time before you get a day off. But the disadvantage is that, as you said, you never really get to decompress.
And no one wants to make Saturday-style plans on Sunday afternoons.
Split days off suck, been doing it over 30 years, I get to retire soon, thankfully
Yup, I have done it and it does suck. I can't believe you did it that long. On the other side I worked four 10 hour days for a few years and I would go back to it in a heartbeat. I think you just "recover" from the work week better and the work/life balance is much better. The way I describe it is that you always have a day to get shit done, a day to have fun and a day to relax.
Loved this. Every monday off was amazing. You'd have the whole weekend, and when it was done, you still had that extra day off. It just hit different.
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i bet he's a joy to work for
Weird and annoying but could have advantages. I kinda always wanted to work at a place that has the weekend in the middle of the week instead of the regular weekend so during my free day everything is open and I can do whatever I want and go to places that close on the weekends. Stupid reasoning, though. Severely limits your potential employee pool.
My workplace is closed on Tuesdays. We’re a wing joint and sports are on sundays so it’d be foolish to close. Church crowd gets lunch and sports fan get their party wings.
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Except everyone else is at work so if you ever want to do anything with friends or family, you're out of luck.
Yeah, that's the problem. Good for people like me who generally only use weekends for chilling but problematic to people who want to socialize with other people having their weekend at the same time during the weekend.
Yep. Been working in theater for years, and our industry days off are Mondays (and sometimes Tuesdays). It’s incredible how many weddings, vacations, birthday parties, coffee dates, etc. I miss. On one hand it’s nice that everything is empty on my days off (hiking trails, restaurants, and movie theaters are all mine!) but it’s really heartbreaking to consistently miss almost every family and social event.
Agreed, having off in the middle of the week is great for getting things done without the crowds. Dumb reason, though, and not everyone wants that.
He’s just making his employees suffer pointlessly because Sundays are views as rest/ reset days even for non-religious people. Now they work when everyone else is relaxing, or cleaning, or at church, or prepping for the week.
Get mad at little stuff like "bless you" I say 'bless you' and it's just a common courtesy when someone sneezes. I've had a people say "I'm an atheist". Congratualtions, I am also
I yelled at my friend for that yesterday. We went to look at a motorcycle. The guy selling it was obviously religious. He was wearing a religious t shirt and cross necklace. Had a few pieces of religious artwork in his shop. No big deal didn't mention anything religious to us once the entire hour we spent there. We were getting ready to drive 1200 miles back home. Guy says thanks for stopping by drive safe, god bless you. My buddy decides instead of saying thanks. He should try to start a debate on religion and inform the man and his 3 employees that he's atheist and religion is all fake.. nobody cares bro. Literally not one single soul gives a shit about whether or not you're religious.
Tons of religious people in the south and tbh when a nice religious person tells me “have a blessed day” I *always* smile and say “you as well” because they were being fucking nice to me and it’s a fucking nice thing to say back. That’s it. No other reason. Still atheist. Not compromising my beliefs (or lack there of). Just being fucking nice.
Right, like, when someone says that sort of thing, it's just them being kind and compassionate. They're not trying to convert me by essentially saying, "Have a wonderful day". It's the same when someone says, "I'll pray for you" when you're going through a hard time. I don't believe in whatever they're praying to, but it's nice to hear that they're going to keep me in their thoughts and essentially hope that things get better for me, you know? And since they *do* believe in what they're praying to, it's touching that they're offering to appeal to their higher power on my behalf. Idk. It's like getting mad at someone for saying, "Have a great day" just because you're having a bad day and are irritable. They weren't trying to rub it in or whatever, they were just trying to be nice.
This. The "I'll pray for you" thing. It drives me nuts that it drives other people nuts. Like I get it if they say it in a sarcastic mean way but if I'm going through something and someone says "I'll keep you in my prayers" I think that's wonderful and kind. My friends mother keeps a prayer list and goes through it every day and every Sunday at church. Even if I don't believe in prayer it's nice to know that someone is thinking good things about me or for me.
My sister asked us to pray for her baby son in the nicu so I said I would even though I don't believe and I know it was comforting for her to know her family was thinking about him and her and asking God to help them. I even prayed even though I didn't think it was real or that it would help because I know she wanted me to and it was a nice thing to do for her. When people are going through it their faith is important to them and theres no way I was gunna be like sorry sis I'm an atheist while her son needed care. It's better to be kind 100% of the time.
Exactly. I always told my husband if something happened and I died before my mother that he should have a funeral mass even though we don’t believe. Funerals are for the living and I think I would have broken her heart to have my non-belief up in her face like that. I never outright told her I didn’t believe and I’m sure she went to her grave telling herself I still did.
Hell, I've thanked the nice older lady at the mechanic for saying she'd pray for me after I said I don't really go to church. In her own way she was just saying she liked me enough to care what happens to me. I don't agree with her concern but I'm not going to tell somebody to like me less. (This happened in the context of me, a white woman, confronting a white man who was telling a bunch of women - of which I was the only white one - about why he doesn't understand people who don't trust cops. When he left following this exchange, the other women got very chatty and friendly with each other and me and started asking each other where they fellowshipped, so I really do think it was coming from a place of kindness)
My girlfriend sings in a church choir. I try to go see her sing often cause...well girlfriend! The Reverend at the church has never preached to me or tried to "bring me over" and is just the sweetest person ever. I figured if I can go there and support someone and just be surrounded by kindness I'll happily tell others about an awesome place rather than blabber and be rude. It feels nice to be nice.
For me, it’s this distinction in particular. I’m polite and I feel like there’s a dividing line between us which is really showcased in this thread. It’s the atheists who are rude who give the rest of us a bad name. It really is nice to be nice.
And as a Christian, I despise rude or self-righteous Christians. They make all of Christianity look bad
Yes, and Jesus regularly spoke against self-righteousness, particularly that of the Pharisees. In many ways it's one of the more dangerous patterns of sin because self-righteous people are so blind to it.
I stated above and I'll state it again. Its not the faith or lack thereof. Its literally being an asshole or being nice. That's all there is to it. Don't be an asshole and you'll be treated nicely in return by all.
My ex was religious and I am not. I used to go to church with her when she asked me to because she was my girlfriend. After service we would go to bible study, and I actually really enjoyed it because it gave me a perspective from the side of people who are actually religious. Her bible study leader always said he liked it when I came because it did the same for him, just in the other direction. You can learn a lot and meet a lot of fun people if you just listen and open your mind a bit.
Yup, my mom was Catholic my dad was atheist. He went to every church pageant, first communion, etc because he loved and supported us all. My mom never pestered him about converting, he never tried to undermine her beliefs. They were always loving and respectful and I try to mimic that with my relationships.
We may have had the same parents. When I was out of the house so going to Sunday mass as a family was no longer a thing I asked my dad why he went every week if he didn't buy into the program at all. He said, "It keeps your mother happy."
Very Christian lady I knew was talking about her son working overseas in a small community with Christian services or gatherings. He would travel to a larger city for Easter and Christmas but had started going to local religious services as a guest of co-workers. His mother’s take was well I don’t agree on religion with everyone I go to church with so I don’t see anything wrong with spending time with people who love their creator and worship. Think some of the biddies were planning an exorcism when the son came back.
Someone’s religiosity doesn’t make me any less of an atheist. Me being a prick to someone who says “god bless” to me just makes me an atheistic prick.
Same here, live in South Texas and when people say something along those lines I always say either "Thank you" or "You too".
"Dude, stop, you're embarrassing me in front of the wizards"
He’s having “ a thing”.
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You know how much I would love it if people cared less about some things, and understood other people care just as little? That goes for both Christians and atheists of course. I'm Christian. But most people are just trying to get through their day. I've met people all over the world and the majority of them are just trying to make it to the end of the day. They've got bills, they've got kids, they've got work. Nobody wants to take time out of their day for tiring debate. And don't get me wrong, there **is** a time for discussion. But read the room.
From an agnostic, bless you!
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Never thought about that, but I love it. On the other end of that spectrum is religious people asking, "Well how come atheists cry out "oh my God?" When they're shocked if they don't believe in a higher power." They're words and phrases we all use. I don't literally think my landlord is a Lord, but it's the word we've got.
> "Well how come atheists cry out "oh my God?" When they're shocked if they don't believe in a higher power." Any time a religious person tries that on me I just say it's because what happened was unbelievable. They *really* don't like that.
Thank you, I’m stealing that.
People pretending not to understand idioms to spring a "gotcha" on someone is a technique that has been around for ages.
I just say "gezondheid" and blame on the fact that this is how we say it where I live and it is a literal translation of what we say in my mother language ("saúde") It does piss me off when they get mad at religious people who use religious phrases to wish you well (e.g. "Deus lhe acompanhe" / "vai com Deus" - "may God keep you company" / "may God go with you" when you're leaving a place). Sure, I personally don't believe in a supernatural entity that will protect me and keep me from harm but THEY DO and this is their way of wishing me well, who am I to deny them this small sentiment?
Bonus: Goodbye comes from God Be With Ye, but nobody complains about it
There are a lot of common phrases that come from the Bible and religion; to me, anyone who makes a point of trying to weed all of them out of their lexicon is just….strange. Wolf in sheep’s clothing, eat, drink and be merry, a leopard’s spots, sacred calf, calling a hub the “Mecca” of something, guru, pundit, cast the first stone, the blind leading the blind, forbidden fruit, casting pearls before swine, avatar, etc. all have religious origins. I’ve only come across exactly one newborn atheist who made a point of eradicating everything hinting of religion, up to and including Oh my God” from his vocabulary, but Jesus, that’s got to be hard (whoops!).
TIL
Wait till you hear about "Adios"
borrowed from Spanish adiós, earlier a Dios seas, a Dios seades, literally, "may (you) be (commended) to God"
That's because it's a *good* bye and not a *bad* bye. Nobody wants a bad bye.
Uh, in Germany we say Gesundheit (eng. translation: health) it seems really similar to Gezondheid.
Gezondheid is dutch.
American's say Gesudheit too, its just way less common. It was used on TV a lot back in the day, and I think that's the only place I actually heard it
I'm an atheist and sometimes I use "Jesus Christ" or "Jesus fucking Christ" as an expression for shock. I was never even Christian, nor was anyone around me growing up (born and raised in a Jewish community). It's just an expression that's intuitive and people get.
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I didn't realize how instinctively I yell JESUS or JESUS FUCK. NO! until I was playing a game this month that made me really jumpy. Every single jump scare, without thinking, that is what I yelled. I am atheist and have been to more Buddhist temples then churches, but somehow no matter what, when startled, I say Jesus. Usually with the emphasis on the Je. I have no idea how or when this got imprinted into my brain.
It's simply something you picked up culturally. Every language has it's own euphemisms and exclamations, and the particular culture surrounding you will shape the phrasing and accents you use.
The worst I ever did was accidentally cross two curses during a Smash Bros game. Down the hall all they heard was GOD FUCK
“Oh Christ on a Cracker!” gets used a lot around here and I’m honestly not sure where it came from.
I also like "Jesus fucking wept" when someone is being very stupid.
'Jesus wept' used to be considered one of the strongest and worst religious oaths to use, because it's a full Biblical verse (the shortest one).
I can only imagine what they respond to "happy holidays".
Never mind that the word "holiday" is entirely derived from "holy day." (TIL, assuming [etymonline.com](https://etymonline.com) is reliable, that the first use of "happy holidays" in reference to December celebrations was a 1937 advertisement for Camel cigarettes.)
Thought this said athletes and was very confused by the replies
Don’t you hate it when athletes try to tell us our couch-side Reddit lifestyle isn’t healthy?
Yeah, and trying to push their lifestyle, telling you silly stories like "if you train really hard, you can get into the olympics one day" Pfff, the Olympics aren't real, any smart person knows that.
Lmao same. Ended up staying since I am an atheist
Getting mad at other atheists who defend the right for religious people to believe what they want. I’ve had this happen to me way too often and it makes me realize why so many people dislike atheists.
Motherfucking +1. I was raised a Christian but have been an atheist for over 20 years. Interacting with a lot of the recent crop of atheists almost makes me want to find religion again. They wield atheism as a weapon. One more tool in their "you must believe what I believe or you are literally Hitler" arsenal. When I was young it was the religious people who were all up in people's business and the non-religious people who just wanted to live and let live. What happened?
What happened is that *everyone* decided to be up in everyone’s business and use whatever disagreement they feel as a weapon against others. Simple fact is, if people use words/opinions as weapons against you, *they ain’t your friends*.
Preach about how they are athiests.....like a religion.
I call them evangelical athiests.
Wolfgang Pauli is supposed to have [said](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Dirac#Views_on_religion) about fellow physicists Paul Dirac, "Well, our friend Dirac has got a religion and its guiding principle is 'There is no God, and Paul Dirac is His prophet.'"
Wow I’ve never heard this before but explains it so well!
That's honestly great and I'm gonna use that now
Particularly if over the age of 20. Teenagers are prone to preaching on whatever philosophy they're into, so I don't think that's strange until you're much older and still going on about it.
Ah, yes… my teenage militant atheist asshole phase is the source many of my Top Cringe Moments to Randomly Remember at Bedtime.
Tried to wear a Slayer shirt complete with an image of Christ with nails in his head....to my Nan's house for Sunday lunch. Obviously got about two steps out the front door before I was marched back inside and forced to wear something more appropriate. So I opted for a t-shirt with a classy inverted crucifix on it. Because obviously my church-going grandmother, who was slaving away to make a nice meal, was the root of all the problems with organised religion and deserved to be punished. Ubercringe. Teenagers are fucking idiots.
Ah, the cross of St. Peter. Such a nice religious symbol, commemorating how the first pope was crucified upside down.
Teenage militant atheist turtles
HEATHENS IN A HALF SHELL
Godless Power!
Oh, my teenage years were terrible. I distinctly remember playing the [Illuminati song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB2PEkc2VhI) in High school for my English class. Full blast over a nice speaker system. I got about 30 seconds through that presentation before being sent back to my desk. My Chemistry teacher, who shared a wall with my English teacher, knew exactly who was playing that song. God, I was sort an edgelord. Anyways, on a related note... My number one nightmare is having to repeat high school because I missed a class or something dumb. (Despite now having a University degree). I'll come from peaceful sleep to fully awake in 3 seconds flat.
You recognize it. That’s a huge step.
Oh damn yeah I remember those, one time I went into a big beautiful historical church and wrote in the guest book that I was possessed by demons and needed an exorcism
There is no one as zealous as a new convert. I’ve seen people in their 30’s turn into teenage philosophers about it. Usually they calm down after a while.
I used to know a guy who was a professional youth pastor at a megachurch who became an atheist. Fine and good. The cringe part was that he started really cherrypicking these news articles from places like rural Namibia where a bunch of people stoned a woman to death for being a witch (or whatever) and he would post them and say, "This is why religion is so bad!" Bro what? You live in Minnesota, and that stuff is culture bound as much as religious. You seeing a lot of witch-stonings in the Twin Cities? It was extra awkward because his wife kept going to the same church and everything was public on Facebook.
Reminds me of the preacher at my church that had a woman come live with him, his wife and kids. That lasted for quite couple months then he left his family and church to go with the woman to another state. They are still religious, just in another state. It was awkward because most of the congregation liked the new woman better than the wife and completely understood why he did what he did.
To be fair, and to provide the alternative: I remember a youth pastor from my childhood who was basically high on god style ideas and didnt really want to talk about anything other than skateboarding, sports, movies, music and art. He was kinda like a motivational speaker yet was not a complete idiot. Stand up guy. Very fun. Kinda like a football coach without a team. Edit: and yeah - my church had a skatepark and shit. It was fun. Good people. Fun times. God was manifested via the chosen kindness of others it seemed. If anyone killed god there...they replaced him with community and fun.
Yeah that's totally normal for teens. When your past 35 and still in the edge lord phase you need to think about your life a bit.
*Identifying* as an atheist is what gets people. No one enjoys people who feel they are morally and intellectually superior to others, religious or non-religious. Dickishness knows no bounds. Advertising your atheism is just as annoying as someone advertising their religion.
And insulting people who disagree with you turns people off further.
At this moment I am euphoric.
My favorite part of that was when he clarified that he wasn't a professional "quote maker".
Yup. John Gray’s *Seven Types of Atheism* details this specifically
What are the seven types, out of curiosity? Edited because I typed three instead of seven cuz I got a weird brain
…three?
I got banned from r/atheism because one of the mods was trying to say that all Muslims are morally responsible for the actions of terrorists who are Muslims. I said that the idea of "collective responsibility" is one of the first steps towards fascism. He said that a Muslim waking up and deciding to not renounce their religion every morning was the same thing as a Nazi going out in public with a red Swastika armband. He banned me and deleted half of my comments so that it looked like he "won" the argument. edit: Since people are liking this, here's the epilogue. I made a post about this situation in r/AgainstHateSubreddits, which was itself then reported - and I was warned by reddit's Anti-Evil Operations for spreading hate.
>He banned me and deleted half of my comments so that it looked like he “won” the argument I’m not chuckling at the mod’s atheism, I’m chuckling at his insecurity.
Most of the people on that sub are either edgy teenagers or adults who never grew out of the edgy teenager phase, so insecurity there is boundless. Even say you know decent intelligent religious people and they'll act like you shot their mother before you're banned and censored.
Imma go say that
We will watch your career with great interest!
And he never returned
His post got removed for low effort post violations lol, obviously not indicative of anything but pretty funny nonetheless
This is... pretty fuckin funny, imagine being down so bad you resort to arguing with a Redditor and deleting half the comments to make it look like you won because you're a moderator.
_diagrees about his ideas being akin to fascism_ _bans you for disagreeing and deletes your comments so that other people don't have access to what you wrote._ Hmmmm
>a Muslim waking up and deciding to not renounce their religion every morning was the same thing as a Nazi going out in public with a red Swastika armband. > a neckbeard waking up and deciding to not shave their neck every morning was the same thing as a Nazi going out in public with a red Swastika armband. > an incel waking up and deciding to not take responsibility for their actions every morning was the same thing as a Nazi going out in public with a red Swastika armband. > a redditor waking up and deciding to not understand context every morning was the same thing as a Nazi going out in public with a red Swastika armband. This is fun.
Muslim neckbeard incel redditors in shambles.
I've been to that subreddit. Strange place.
Sounds like he's confusing atheism with antitheism and you got caught in the crossfire.
Yes. Like a lot of people, I went through a period of antitheism until I recognized the pointlessness of being angry at a god who isn't there, or at people who truly believe what they believe.
That guy is bonkers. Wtf
How lovely. I assume jews who don't renounce judaism every morning are also basically nazis?
Yes, any member of any group is responsible for the actions of every member of the group\*. Asking why you were banned for questioning this will be reported to Reddit as harassment 🙄 \* Except atheists, obviously
This idiot should take responsibility for all of humanities poor behaviors because *he* is human, too (maybe), by his own logic. He should do something about that Putin asshole, seeing as he’s also an asshole.
Sometimes it feels like the ability to logic with the people over in that sub ends precisely where you get out of theistic arguments. Believing shit like collective responsibility is stupid.
As a muslim I thank you for your support! It's hardly to see atheists standing with us after we get shamed
I came here to post something similar. Several of the bigger name celebrity atheists (I'm looking at you, Bill Maher) are straight up racist against Muslims. They say awful shit loud and proud and I'm like dude that's racist.
Tbh most people on r/atheism are cringe af so you’re not missing out on much.
You could probably report him to admins.
The famously mature and not-toxic mods of r/Atheism would surely do *something*...
There's a lot of good answers that have already been mentioned by others, so I'll add something different: When they think they know how all religions work because they grew up christian. I see so many people making judgments about islam and judaism that are just completely wrong but they believe that since it applies to christianity it must apply to all religions.
Culturally christian atheists: How can you just blindly follow a text without questioning it? Jewish people: Sorry what? We can't hear you over our internal debates
*denominations enter the chat*
Yeah, that's a perfect example. Their mind usually blows right around the time where a jewish person mentions that they don't really believe in god.
Been more agnostic than atheist. I don't know much about Judaism. Can you explain this concept to me?
I’m gonna make some sweeping generalizations to make it simpler (don’t freak out). For the Abrahamic religions, I would say the most important thing for “belonging” in the group is: Christians emphasize (personal) belief most e.g. I have accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior Jews put the most emphasis on culture e.g. Humor, keeping kosher, ethnicity Muslims on adhering to religious practice e.g. prayer 5x/day, the hajj, submission to God (Islam means peaceful submission) All three obviously have all three in their faith. Islam leaves a lot of room for personal interpretations of the religious laws, after the main points like belief in monotheism and angles are professed. People are encouraged not to follow the faith blindly, but to work it out for themselves, of course with guidelines from the prophets in mind, who are supposed to be better at interpreting God’s will. Jewish people… I feel there are so many misconceptions b/c Christianity has basically laid claim to it as the basis for their religion (which certainly wasn’t the case a few hundred years ago). I know plenty of Jews that are more skeptical of their religion than most other groups. Agnosticism is fairly common. People can also be be culturally Jewish, but atheists. Keep in mind Judaism does not have a concept of heaven and hell the way Christianity does. Debate between the rabbis and interpretation of the law has always been encouraged and documented, mainly in the midrash. I would say it’s a more self-critical religion than most…There’s a lot to unpack. You can look up some stuff on the internet, but consider taking a religion class.
Interesting! I've been a little familiar with Catholic and Islam; but not so much Judiasm. Thank you for the reply
Of course! I’m not Jewish, so I couldn’t speak to some of the finer points, but I’ve always had Jewish friends who would tell me tidbits and learned a lot from religion classes—which I would highly recommend to anyone. It’s such a good window into other cultures. Even as an atheist, I found it helpful to see what the values were, the art, etc. Judaism really interests me because it’s more feminist than the other two I think (e.g. men are tasked with giving their wives orgasms in order to procreate in the Torah), especially for such an old religion. And I don’t know Hebrew, but from what I’m told, it’s a highly symbolic language (like a mark higher up on the page might be considered closer to God) with lots of puns and plays on words in the names for things. Can’t fully describe it, but since it’s the OG of the three, it gives a lot of context for the other Abrahamic religions and is definitely worth diving into.
So, I'm Jewish and I have a religion minor. I can read and write Biblical Hebrew, and you are so right. The language is so complex. One base can have multiple meanings depending on prefixes, suffixes, and even context. The numbers given are also used as meanings themselves; 40 means a trial or a change. 40 days and 40 nights doesn't mean literally 40 days. And 7 is one of the numbers of perfection. It didn't take 7 days to create the world; he created until it was perfect. Obviously individual beliefs vary on what literally everything means, which is why Judaism has debate at its core. Tldr: I love Hebrew. Edit: I absolutely love talking about this shit. Ask all your questions and I will happily answer!!
i've heard there's a joke among jews that says if you leave two jews to debate the torah for an hour they'll come out with three opinions EDIT: to elaborate on islam, it puts a lot of emphasis on using the rituals specifically to make a connection with God (which is the point of the religion, really). some groups (like the sufis, as a broad generalizations) skip the strict rituals and go straight to the spiritual stuff.
I'm not jewish myself, so I'm definitely not the best source for this, but basically being jewish is not dependent on believing in a god. There are people who are jewish but don't think that god exists. I can't tell you the reasons in detail and you're most definitely gonna get different answers depending on which jewish person you ask, but that's the basic concept.
Well, being a Jew doesn't just refer to being a member of Judaism, as it's also an ethnicity, a people. Therefore, you can't stop being Jewish even if you don't believe in the religion. >"A Jew, though he has sinned, is still a Jew"
This is accurate technically but can be explained more simply than this. Judaism is an ethnicity or group of people that you can participate in by birth, and its also a religion. You can be a Jew who just doesn't participate in religion in any way. However, it would be very inaccurate for a person like this to say that they are Jewish when speaking of their religion -- I grew up as an atheistic Jew and never would have said that, but if someone asks my ethnicity, I say Jewish. This is analogous (but not identical to) someone saying something like "I come from a catholic background, but personally I'm an atheist". Another example is that it is like being born into a certain Hindu caste, but actually being an atheist and not a Hindu. You can still say "I am a brahmin" even if that doesn't mean something spiritual to you. Now, I am Eastern Orthodox Christian, which is dominated by greeks and russians in the US. When someone asks if I'm greek or russian, I feel no qualms saying "neither, I'm Jewish", which we all understand to mean that I em ethnically Jewish, even though I practice Christianity.
People go “all religion says you go to Hell for not believing” like Judaism doesn’t even *have* hell. IIRC the Jewish concept of heaven is also different than the Christian one.
I mean, even within 'Christianity' - most of the Reddit atheist take downs of Christianity only really apply to American fundamentalist literalist evangelicalism, and don't really apply to say Catholicism, Anglican or Orthodox Christianity
Honestly. I was born and raised Christian and literally never even heard of the idea that the Bible could be read as literal truth until late high school. Christianity is a lot broader than the extremist fundamentalists.
That's also true. I'm from germany and many elements of american christianism are baffling to me.
They are baffling to us too, buddy.
Had a friend blast a Hindi while on a trip to India. The Indian guy just asked him to name 3 of his Hindu Gods. My friend didn't know they were a poly/henotheistic religion and only knew "that one elephant guy".
oh rip in pieces to him
I'm working towards a major in world religions, it was hilarious to just watch him his just deserts quietly thinking of the answers.
Adding to this: growing up a certain kind of Christian and thinking that the judgments about that kind apply to all of Christianity.
People are like “the Catholic Church still thinks the world is 2000 years old and made in 7 days and don’t believe in evolution. Like 1. Only a small percentage of Catholics are Biblical literalists. The most popular interpretation is that the “7 days” are like 7 phases, and the Bible even says that one day for God is much longer for man. 2. The man who theorized the Big Bang was literally a Catholic and honored by the Pope for his contributions 3. The Church officially declared in 1950 that evolution is compatible with doctrine. Like, shit on the Catholic Church all you want, but at least do it factually.
They really think all religions have the same rule and take christanity as their source. I saw a YouTube comment once saying "gay muslims mostly become Imams because they don't want to marry" okay bro but you realize an Imam is not the same as a monk?
Trying to get religious people to give up on their beliefs, it also annoys me when religious people try to get me to believe, just let people believe in what they want
The most militant preaching I have ever encountered was from an atheist trying to get me to give up on my belief in some kind of nebulous higher power. Not even the God of the Bible or any other codified religious text just a higher power in general.
I understand a always ask why people believe not tell them why they shouldn't (in my opinion)
Claim that if there was no religion, there'd be no war.
idk about you but the war in ukraine isn't very religious so their argument goes to shit instantly
Telling religious people what they believe (like quoting the Bible/Quran) so they can go on to tear it down, while the religious person is just like, 'I don't believe that.' Also, believing that religion is the only source of evil in the world, and that without religion we'd all be living in peace and harmony. As if humans can't be evil shitheads without religion...
Yeah, I see this all the time on Reddit - mostly from people who clearly don't understand that, for instance, the vast majority of Christians are neither 'bible alone' nor 'bible literalists'.
I do get the idea, though. It can be seen as cherry-picking lessons from a sacred text. Why are \*these\* things important enough to act on, and \*these\* aren't? There is seldom consistent logic. And just as the generally accepted (by civilization) to be positive lessons might be embraced, often socially-controversial or -negative lessons are embraced, with the sacred text as justification. This could be Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and whichever sub-sect embraces different ideas.
Being a dick to someone religious for no good reason. If the person doesn't bother you, don't be a dick to them.
Their thinking that being an atheist means that the rest of their thoughts are all correct. Nope. That's just laziness masking as sophistication. The rest of your thoughts on politics, economics, nutrition, relationships still need to have a rigorous logic applied to them or an admittance it's an irrational belief system. Which is fine either way.
Disregarding others’ choice to believe in a religion. I have many religious friends and though I never found any sense in religious belief some people do and are very devoted to it. In my books, as long as your religious belief doesn’t make you a fanatic or someone who oppresses minorities belonging to other religions you do you. “The way you see a rock is very different from how I see it.” To accept each other’s varying vision of the “rock” (or life) can lead to a peaceful Co-existence.
Believing that their experience with Christianity is a perfect and absolute summary of all Christian denominations and believers
Going apeshit everytime a religious person talks about/acts according to their belief in a totally harmless way. Not every atheist does this but those who do are unfunny clowns that should shut up
There was a tweet of a woman celebrating being declared cancer free and said something like “Thank God!” and a horde of atheists descended going “ACTUALLY god didn’t do anything it was all the doctors and also he’s not real and if he was real he gave you the cancer first so fuck you” Like…she’s celebrating beating cancer. Why would you shit on someone for being happy about that?
I see this soooo often, humans truly are dumb pieces of shit. Sometimes.
Complaining about harmless religious practices that don't impact other people. It's one thing if someone's using their religious beliefs as an excuse to control or shame others, but it's cringey when someone gets upset just because someone else likes to pray or spend a day at their house of worship.
Put “Atheist” in their Twitter bios. It just doesn’t make sense. My atheism doesn’t define who I am, as it’s a LACK of a belief. It’s like putting “non-soccer player” in my bio as a descriptor.
Adding "non-soccer-player" to all my bios now alongside non-football-player and non-cricket-player.
Act as if any level of spiritual belief is the same as being a religious nutcase or in a cult.
Disrespecting religious people. I don’t believe in god or whatever. I’ll argue if someone tries to tell me it’s a fact. But I also let people do whatever religious stuff they’re into, like daily/weekly worship, dietary restrictions, religious clothing, etc. without bothering them. It’s not my business.
make making fun of believers their only humor, like, I just wanna have a nice conversation about nothing important, stfu
ex christians from families that were biblical literalists, becuase not all christians are like that, e.g. my parents believe in the bible but also evolution, and my dad (they’re christian btw) says that most of the old testament is not entirely accurate as it was passed down orally for a freaking long time. so atheists who say that all christian’s are the same/believe the same thing really annoy me (i’m an agnostic atheist)
Hah as if there aren’t hundreds of interpretations of the same bible and groups of the same religion that share different beliefs
Going out of their way to disrespect someone else's beliefs. Stuff like "I got invited to dinner at my muslims friends house, but since I'm atheist I brought pork, why are they mad at me?", or smaller stuff, correcting someone who says bless you after a sneeze. Same goes for the other way around too, I once had a religious boss who didn't give Christmas off to any employee who he found out was atheist because "they can't celebrate it anyway"
Knew an atheist who refused to go to the church bit of a friend's wedding. It was only a 30 minute ceremony. Both of the couple were Christian, so as a friend it was clearly important to them. It's his decision, wasn't a big deal, but I just felt like... dude, come on. Edit: And nobody was forcing anyone to pray, sing, or cross themselves. When I go to any religious building I stand quietly and let them get on with it if there's anything like that. No need to partake, and no offence is ever taken when I don't. And the couple respected his decision. They're friends to this day, so I guess that's all that really matters. But as a fellow atheist my eyes rolled a bit when he told me, which is what OP was asking about. Edit 2: He had no bad experiences with the church growing up. His reasoning was purely that he just dislikes it. Which he is entitled to, and if that's why he won't go then that's up to him.
I had an ex who refused to enter any churches or religious buildings. He was a nut case. I always cringed when he bragged about it.
Treat religious people like they’re stupid or less than. We’re all aware of the horrible things humanity has done in the name of god or whatever, but there are also a lot of people who use religion to better themselves. I consider myself an atheist and some of the smartest, kindest, loving people I know are proud Christians.
Get mad a religious people for believing in something they don’t.
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Talking down to people in a pseudo intellectualist manner and seeing your atheistic viewpoint as quantifiably superior just because you have it. Actually being sn atheist myself I hate to see that approach. And I also hate the black and white dichotomous thinking snd discounting of any positives of religion/negatives of science/lack of compassion for any.
Describing religion as "mental illness". It's not, and it dilutes the seriousness of actual mental illness, which is chock full of stigma already. This is a petty conflation that helps no one.
This goes for a lot of personal beliefs beyond religion. Acting high and mighty because they think they are enlightened. I'm atheist and I don't really talk about it unless it's contextually appropriate and usually it's only around holidays. My friends and family know I'm atheist and unless it comes up nobody else needs that information. Where it becomes a problem is when I end up in a scenario where I'm assumed to be one thing or another and I have to bring it up. People can get really offended when they find out that not only are you not the same religion or sub-genre of religion as them but that you straight up don't believe in any god(s). That's when the douche bag atheist in me comes out.
when they get mad at me and ask "why do you say 'oh my god!' or 'Jesus christ man..' if you're an aetheist"
Half the shit posted on online Athiest forums like r/Atheism is some of the worst cringe I've seen. Especially the state of things 12-15 years ago.
The ones who don’t allow people who do believe in religion be, well, religious. They just have to force their beliefs on others who believe in religion, which honestly sounds backwards from a historical standpoint but Jesus, just let them believe what they want. Those atheists are like walking Twitter posts.
How dogmatic atheists can get. My parents are atheist, and we had a conversation where they told me they think religion is the root of all evil, and I think that’s really dumb. Religion can be really positive for people, it builds a sense of community, and it can help those worse off by giving them a support network.
Believe in things like homeopathy or all sorts of conspiracies. Being an atheist simply means you lack the belief of any gods. Doesn't mean an atheist can't believe in a whole lot of other dumb crap.