Haha. When I read this, my first thought was agreement --as an atheist, I do feel often abused by Dawkins.I haven't heard of abuse of atheists in the UK unless you count the famous ones like Dawkins
Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.
Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!
Haha. When I read this, my first thought was agreement --as an atheist, I do feel often abused by Dawkins.I haven't heard of abuse of atheists in the UK unless you count the famous ones like Dawkins
Haha. When I read this, my first thought was agreement --as an atheist, I do feel often abused by Dawkins.[/quote
he does tend to rub people the wrong way,not just the religious
On the contrary. All you have to do is say "I've found Jesus" and then they'll squeal with delight.
I have been meaning to ask this for a while now.
In the uk, as an atheist I have never encountered an issue of abuse for being an atheist.
Reading some of the comments on this forum, I wonder if most of it is just banter, or heated debate, or whether some of the bad feeling towards atheists exists in any of the communities you live in.
Have you or anyone you know been abused or persecuted for being an atheist?
If so where in the world do you live?
and how bad do you see the problem?
or is it not an issue in general?
My answer to those questions would be, I experienced stigma when I was younger, but no real abuse.
I was quite young when I became atheist so sharing my views with adults, I was quickly dismissed, and some people implied I would end up worshipping the devil, this put me off discussing it for a long time, and I just avoided religious conversations and hid my atheism.
I have no issue with sharing my atheism now, and enjoy the freedom I have to share my thoughts on religion. :beach:
Everyplace I've lived in the US (MI, CA, MD....no place poor or very rural), I've never suffered abuse for being an atheist.
For being a jerk, yes, but not for my apostacy.
Well, in many parts of the U.S. there's certainly animosity towards non-christians. It's usually rural areas and southern states.
Me and my immediate family have been atheists most of our lives, and we have never really encountered any anti-atheist sentiment here in the UK. The closest thing to such a sentiment probably occurred a couple of Christmases ago, when sat at the Christmas dinner table with my (predominantly protestant) extended family. I'm not sure of the context entirely, but from my recollection we all played a game which involved us wearing various random celebrity masks. One of the people at the table got a Richard Dawkins mask, and when my three younger cousins (between the ages of 10 and 17 at the time) asked who he was, someone replied "he's an atheist". At which point they all started making cross signs with their fingers and saying "away, away devil" or some variation thereof. It was really disconcerting, and I found myself wondering just what these kids thought atheism was, and whether or not they - or any of my extended family - were aware of or openly talked about our atheism. It wasn't a terrible miscarriage of justice, but just imagine if they had reacted the same way about a Jewish person, or a Muslim, or a black man.
Those barriers need to be broken down.most people leave us atheists and agnostics alone, since they all know that without a moral law giver there can be no morality. so we would just as soon murder them and rape their mothers as engage in an uncomfortable conversation.