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[More Fun To Compute]

Firstly, the results are appalling. Truly shocking.

Secondly, a word of advice to Atheists (and in no way excusing the study findings), try to be less antagonistic, hypocritical and more appreciable of other people's opinions or beliefs. It doesn't help that the vast majority of atheists are often as vehemently arrogant or as challenging of opposition about their beliefs as the extreme religious. If the internet space is anything to go by (which I appreciate on the whole it isn't), Atheists are not shy to mock, degrade, humiliate and insult religious folk and religion en masse, and that certainly doesn't help their cause.

I believe this is actually is counter productive to their principles at times, because it just breeds further divides, animosity, defensive antagonism (from both extremes) and a lack of compassion or understanding as a result.

The philosophy of the history channel where you can have shows about ancient aliens but nobody is allowed to say that ancient aliens are probably bullshit.

 

[Carcetti]

I've been an atheist for maybe 20 years and never in my life have I laughed at someone in the face because of their religion. I feel myself becoming more and more militant every day though, and here's why: I live in a very secular society where most people don't give a shit about religion even if they are in the state church (like I used to be). However, these last few years have seen an increase of American style fundie religionism which fuels the worst trends of society: segregation of people on religious grounds e.g. Bible says you'll burn in hell. I wouldn't shed a single tear if this influence was excised from the society completely, it's just holding us back in the dark ages.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

I've been an atheist for maybe 20 years and never in my life have I laughed at someone in the face because of their religion.

Yeah, I don't really laugh directly at religious people, but I have had religious people come to my door and laugh at me to my face for being an atheist and believing in evolution.

 

[Deleted member 30609]

The question here is bogus. There's no valuable data to be gained from this.

 

[Flying_Phoenix]

 

[Parallax]

Yeah, I don't really laugh directly at religious people, but I have had religious people come to my door and laugh at me to my face for being an atheist and believing in evolution.

As have religious people been mocked by athiests for their beliefs. People are cruel and fear what they don't understand. Demonizing one group, or comparing them to one of the most disturbing acts that can be done by man is a horrible way to go about things. Why can't their be a middle road of understanding where theists and athiests alike can come together and inform each other about what motivates them to each other, free from fear of ridicule?

 

[Slavik81]

Flying_Phoenix, could you stop spamming this thread with that garbage?

If I was an atheist I wouldn't want a dickhead like this guy ever speaking on behalf of atheists.

Nobody speaks on behalf of atheists. A single atheist can't speak for all atheists any more than a random religious person can claim to speak on the behalf followers of all religions.

 

[Socreges]

Kind of ironic that you'd make such an antagonistic and divisive exaggeration in a post primarily about how antagonistic and divisive you think atheists are.

I think I'll go into thread about religion and comment about how antagonistic religious people tend to be.

 

[Sir Alemeth]

 

[More Fun To Compute]

As have religious people been mocked by athiests for their beliefs. People are cruel and fear what they don't understand. Demonizing one group, or comparing them to one of the most disturbing acts that can be done by man is a horrible way to go about things. Why can't their be a middle road of understanding where theists and athiests alike can come together and inform each other about what motivates them to each other, free from fear of ridicule?

Last time I checked, very few atheists are attacking secularism.

 

[Monocle]

Speaking as an atheist, I have to admit that I can see no difference at all between sexually violating another human being and declining to subscribe to a religious ontology. Aren't these, like, practically the same thing?

 

[jaxword]

Don't forget to post Mao and Hitler as well for the trifecta of lies and ignorance!

Nice! You can always rely on douchebag predictability, just one more to go.

 

[Salazar]

Yeah, I don't really laugh directly at religious people, but I have had religious people come to my door and laugh at me to my face for being an atheist and believing in evolution.

It is patently ridiculous that people let themselves believe (leaving aside the theology) that the behaviour and rhetoric of

a) people involved in atheism/theism debates on the internet, the great domain of hyperbole and needless spite
b) people involved in functionally adversarial media roles to do with science
c) people who have an avowed self-image as a belligerent provocateur

can stand in as a general and negative schema for the "atheist posture". These are anomalous social and intellectual situations, the dominant purpose of which is to concentrate and intensify language and feeling. The spillage from those situations into regular life is largely imaginary; and pretence to the contrary is contemptible.

 

[PjotrStroganov]

http://youtu.be/kJGxVeQw3SE

Tnx for the vid. I don't agree with everything he says (in general) but he is spot on with this one. Proving an argument through reasoning rules!

 

[berg ark]

Only in america...

 

[jaxword]

Flying_Phoenix, could you stop spamming this thread with that garbage?

I honestly think the atheistcartoons guy is doing a massive troll and hates atheists as much as any Christian/Muslim would. They're not funny or subtle and really try to paint the atheists in a worse light.

 

[Trent Strong]

Only in america...

Or Canada, or every predominantly Muslim country and I'm guessing most of South America, probably Vatican City, etc.

 

[agrajag]

Damn rapists will be mad to be on the same level as atheists

At least rapists can get elected into Congress.

 

[JGS]

At least rapists can get elected into Congress.

Which is really funny because an atheist has such a defeatist attitude about it, they never try. They buy into the "Since I'm dustrusred more than a rapist, that means I can't win". Reality is there are several pockets of the US that will have no issues with electing an atheist politician as long as the voters' religious rights are upheld.

Alas, non-belief extends to electablity plus delusions of grandeur. From a previous thread it's gotta be president or nothing.

 

[Seanspeed]

I interpreted this differently when I read it. Like, God doesn't care about this kid shooting people. He has the power to stop him from doing it, but wont because he doesn't give a fuck about him, nor you. If God doesn't matter to him, do you [matter]?

But yea, then I saw the Answers in Genesis.org thing.

Brilliant

 

[Hot Coldman]

By the way, are rapists really that untrustworthy

I mean, I wouldn't trust them to not rape me, but aside from that it really depends, doesn't it

 

[Napoleonthechimp]

As an atheist I can see why we're hated on so much. Almost everywhere you go on the internet you'll find "enlightened" atheists with their PROVE YOUR GOD EXISTS nonsense.

The attitude that atheists are one unified group irritates me.

 

[JGS]

The attitude that atheists are one unified group irritates me.

This is an irritation shared by religious people. I believe we are affectionately deemed theist and thus clumped together since Vishnu, Thor, & Yahweh are clearly the same.

 

[F#A#Oo]

This is an irritation shared by religious people. I believe we are affectionately deemed theist and thus clumped together since Vishnu, Thor, & Yahweh are clearly the same.

Indeed...

 

[jaxword]

By the way, are rapists really that untrustworthy

I mean, I wouldn't trust them to not rape me, but aside from that it really depends, doesn't it

I don't trust atheists. Always atheist plotting with their atheist plots. Trying to ath me out of my money all the time.

 

[Dude Abides]

This is an irritation shared by religious people. I believe we are affectionately deemed theist and thus clumped together since Vishnu, Thor, & Yahweh are clearly the same.

Which one would win in a fight? Could any of them beat Superman?

 

[Sblargh]

If there is one thing in the world that makes me rage are these cartoons where two characters pretend to debate. They are like Plato's dialogue.

"Good argument presented in a bad way"
"Shoddy refutation"
"Oh shit! You are right! But another good argument presented in a bad way!"
"Shoddy refutation with a smug in my face while you seem surprised"
"Damn! Stop being right!"

 

[Gattsu25]

Why isn't the last guy wearing a trenchcoat, with a gun, in a school hallway?

 

[Mortrialus]

Why isn't the last guy wearing a trenchcoat, with a gun, in a school hallway?

Because that has nothing to do with the position of atheism.

 

[Pandaman]

Why isn't the last guy wearing a trenchcoat, with a gun, in a school hallway?

well, the columbine killers would have had to be atheists instead of christians for that.

 

[Schmattakopf]

Atheists need to put up some counter-billboards...

A little African child dying of thirst and hunger. "If he doesn't matter to god, do you?"

...and this would be a good start.

 

[lunarworks]

Why isn't the last guy wearing a trenchcoat, with a gun, in a school hallway?

Those guys were lunatics who were sick of being bullied. They weren't trying to prove a "religious" point.

 

[lunarworks]

Atheists need to put up some counter-billboards...

Christian and Muslim groups got their panties in a bunch. They considered it "hate speech".

 

[David Incorporated Esq.]

http://youtu.be/kJGxVeQw3SE

I find there's an interesting connection between the way society banded together the various christian religions under one banner to counter secularism and the way all the various nationalities were banded together to convince "white people" that "blacks" were the other.

I'm not equating the two, I just think it's strange how easily people will band together to make someone else the "other." We're fucked up, basically.

 

[Dever]

Why isn't the last guy wearing a trenchcoat, with a gun, in a school hallway?

I think that'd be more of a militant misanthropist.

 

[Biff]

The study, conducted among 350 Americans adults and 420 Canadian college students, asked participants to decide if a fictional driver damaged a parked car and left the scene, then found a wallet and took the money, was the driver more likely to be a teacher, an atheist teacher, or a rapist teacher? The participants, who were from religious and nonreligious backgrounds, most often chose the atheist teacher.

The results of this study do not show that more people distrust Atheists... Just that most people are stupid and that the researchers are stupid.

By definition, there are more teachers than Atheist teachers, and more Atheist teachers than Rapist teachers based on base rates in the world. Therefore, the correct answer is "teacher". This isn't a question that tests ethical principle; this question tests high-school level common sense.

Also, I like their sampling technique. I'm suuuuuuuure those 420 Canadian college students weren't friends of one of the research students answering a SurveyMonkey he/she posted to their Facebook wall.

 

[SonicMegaDrive]

Sometimes I get the impression that a lot of folks believe that the only thing that holds most people back from committing the most heinous of crimes is that ever-lingering fear of eternal damnation.

 

[The Technomancer]

Sometimes I get the impression that a lot of folks believe that the only thing that holds most people back from committing the most heinous of crimes is that ever-lingering fear of eternal damnation.

Which says a lot about those people.

 

[JJDinomite]

Practically all atheists I know in real life are reasonable people. They range from hardcore drug addicts to 4.0 students. Same could be said for all the Christians I know. Same amount of diversity in terms of moral development and intelligence. People will talk about religion and philosophy, but no one really ever argues. It's more like a reasonable discussion.

Internet atheists, on the other hand, can sometimes be douchebags; they often degrade theists for their beliefs, practically disregarding them as civilized humans. Which is funny, since there are hardly any theists on internet forums like NeoGAF. Or at least ones willing to debate.

We should all just get along.

Spoiler

inb4 then stop blowing up buildings, etc.

 

[Valnen]

I have a hard time trusting anyone who has a belief system they can't backup with proof. That goes to both atheists and religious people. It's why I'm agnostic.

 

[Alligatorjandro]

I just dont understand why an atheist wouldn't be trusted.

 

[The Technomancer]

I have a hard time trusting anyone who has a belief system they can't backup with proof. That goes to both atheists and religious people. It's why I'm agnostic.

So are all logical atheists. Any atheist who has given their position a few moments of thought holds "the plausibility of God is as negligible as to not matter", not "there is no God"

 

[jaxword]

Why isn't the last guy wearing a trenchcoat, with a gun, in a school hallway?

What an ignorant thing to say.

The Columbine killers had no religious message, and all the evangelical claims about this have been proven to be lies. They surprisingly DIDN'T have the typical religious teenager rebellious iconography like Nazism and Satanism.

Also, Klebold was Lutheran. So when are you going to say all Lutherans are gun-toting psychopaths?

Or are you just going to pretend not to see the replies condemning your ignorance, thus proving your religious persecution complex?

 

[Davidion]

I just dont understand why an atheist wouldn't be trusted.

Results has less to do with that than a horrendously poor question to use as the basis of a survey, imo.

 

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

Results has less to do with that than a horrendously poor question to use as the basis of a survey, imo.

pretty much.

 

[lunarworks]

I just dont understand why an atheist wouldn't be trusted.

Because we might try to undermine their faith.

One of the main sources of the demonification of atheists is from church leadership. They don't want their "flock" straying.

I once went to a mass with my Catholic girlfriend, and the preacher was going on and on about "the evils of the secular world". I can be a fairly patient person, so I silently sat in my seat and endured it rather than standing up and walking out like I wanted to.

 

[First Name]

So are all logical atheists. Any atheist who has given their position a few moments of thought holds "the plausibility of God is as negligible as to not matter", not "there is no God"

There was a chart floating around that explained this. I can't find it now.
Agnosticism isn't a middle ground between atheism and theism but a different axis altogether. You have agnostic atheists, gnostic theists etc. Most atheists I've come across are agnostic atheists or reject certain depictions of god as logically impossible.

fake edit: here it is

http://freethinker.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/final1.jpg

 

[David Incorporated Esq.]

There was a chart floating around that explained this. I can't find it now.
Agnosticism isn't a middle ground between atheism and theism but a different axis altogether. You have agnostic atheists, gnostic theists etc. Most atheists I've come across are agnostic atheists or reject certain depictions of god as logically impossible.

fake edit: here it is

http://freethinker.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/final1.jpg

Yeah I've brought this up several times in a few different threads and it just gets glossed over. Let's hope the graph does the trick.

 

[archnemesis]

Here's the same chart with a few talk bubbles:

 

[FlyingTeacup]

Here's the same chart with a few talk bubbles:

i like your chart. I'm that middle dot.