Are atheists arrogant? immoral? angry?

[Revoltingest]

And the antisemitic tropes continue to flow.

And defenders of Israel & Judaism against are ever
vigilant against criticism. They allow criticism of
other countries & religions....but not their own tribe.

 

[Bthoth]

And the antisemitic tropes continue to flow.

The trope is your constant usage of the AS term.

I asked earlier what arrogance, gives you the right?

Do you expect impunity for falsely accusing?

 

[Mock Turtle]

If any are arrogant it is those who believe in a literal interpretation of such texts as the Bible or the Qur'an. And no reason to suspect atheists are any less moral or more angry than believers in religions.

 

[shunyadragon]

I just viewed and greatly enjoyed a three part video series by Matt Baker, who did his doctoral thesis on the psychology of atheism. Although all three videos are excellent, it is the third one that I wanted to share and discuss.

Christians often make certain generalizations about atheists:
1. That they are arrogant and dogmatic
2. That they prefer to be non-religious because they are selfish and religion is an inconvenience
3. That they are angry with God
4. That they either lost their father at a young age, or had a strained relationship with their father, making it more difficult to form a good relationship with the Divine Father.

Matt Bakar deals with each of these scientifically. He comes to the following conclusions:
1. None of the 4 assertions above accurately generalize about atheists
2. What DOES seem to have a high correlation with atheism is a score of TP on the Myers Briggs (video 2 deals with this in depth).As far as who is angry, immoral This matches up nicely with other studies that correlate atheism wish low agreeability and low conscientiousness using the Big 5 personality elements. What it basically means is that atheists are twice as likely to greatly care about truth even if it costs them and be open to change.

As far as who is angry, immoral, arrogance and by the way dishonest are the fundamental Christians extreme opposition to atheists and science. They also make the false association between science and atheism.

Actually the motivation for this is likely the insecurity of fundamentalist Christians concerning the foundation of their belief in a literal or mostly literal Bible which is threatened by academic history and science. This is the motivation for associating atheism with science and academic history. For these believers the paranoid threat on the historicity of the Bible and also the Quran particularly the Pentateuch is foremost in their minds concerning non-believers in general.

 

[shunyadragon]

I think that is a generalization made about Christians.

The problem is not "Christians" in general, but fundamentalist Christians that express anger, hostility, and dishonesty towards atheists and science,,

arrogance,


No… any group of people can be arrogant and dogmatic. Christians can be that way too. Are there some? Yes, as there are in any group.

True, but the subject of the thread is not 'any group.'

Again… I wouldn’t agree. If that were true, there would be no atheists becoming Christians.

Well atheists sometimes become Christians and some Christians become atheists.

There are Christians that say “I was angry at God”. In a sense, this is a contradiction because “How can you be angry at God if you don’t believe that a God exists?"

True, it is a problem when some Christians assert that atheists are angry about God, or as in the Bible the claim is being in denial of what you truely believe inside,

That could be true but not always. But there is a reality that there are some people who have difficulty in acknowledge the Father because they had a difficult childhood. But the love of The Father can overcomes that.

This is the view of those that believe, but not the belief of those that do not.

 

[Kenny]

The problem is not "Christians" in general, but fundamentalist Christians that express anger, hostility, and dishonesty towards atheists and science,,

I wouldn’t say that is a one way street.

True, but the subject of the thread is not 'any group.'

Doesn’t matter.. in any group you can find those types of people. I’m sure there are some in the Bahai too.

Well atheists sometimes become Christians and some Christians become atheists.

Truie.

True, it is a problem when some Christians assert that atheists are angry about God, or as in the Bible the claim is being in denial of what you truely believe inside,

I’m sure you have a point… somewhere.

This is the view of those that believe, but not the belief of those that do not.

Wouldn’t know.

 

[flowerpower]

I just viewed and greatly enjoyed a three part video series by Matt Baker, who did his doctoral thesis on the psychology of atheism. Although all three videos are excellent, it is the third one that I wanted to share and discuss.

Christians often make certain generalizations about atheists:
1. That they are arrogant and dogmatic
2. That they prefer to be non-religious because they are selfish and religion is an inconvenience
3. That they are angry with God
4. That they either lost their father at a young age, or had a strained relationship with their father, making it more difficult to form a good relationship with the Divine Father.

Matt Bakar deals with each of these scientifically. He comes to the following conclusions:
1. None of the 4 assertions above accurately generalize about atheists
2. What DOES seem to have a high correlation with atheism is a score of TP on the Myers Briggs (video 2 deals with this in depth). This matches up nicely with other studies that correlate atheism wish low agreeability and low conscientiousness using the Big 5 personality elements. What it basically means is that atheists are twice as likely to greatly care about truth even if it costs them and be open to change.

It's kind of a wild concept to examine the "pathology" of someone's inability to acknowledge a scientific negative - considering that atheism is simply the belief that there isn't any god. The whole thing kind of assumes that god definitely exists and that if you don't believe god exists, that there must be something seriously wrong with you. Not a great premise. But it is an interesting and informative post.

I mean, it's possible that human beings are hardwired to believe that something greater than themselves exists and that thing is god. So atheism would mean, on that hypothesis alone, presents itself as a kind of deficiency or disorder.

That list is interesting.

And I think a lot of "learned atheism" definitely comes from places of enormous discontentment, resentment or arrogance - the last one, arrogance, being interesting because it is actually rooted in the presumption that the scientific method and ability for humans to perceive their surroundings is all that exists in the entire universe, which is pretty crazy when you think about it and enormously arrogant. Lotta atheists out there get off on the feeling of being right or the smartest person in the room and actually get off on bashing god, religion and religious people when it's really an incredibly petty thing to be thinking and doing.

Bottom line as far as I'm concerned is that, while there isn't necessarily anything wrong with atheism or atheists (and secular public society is definitely preferrable to any conceivable alternative), it still leaves a vacuum that can lead a lot of atheists to severe existential crises or psychological issues.

When I wore atheism like a badge of honor, I was definitely arrogant, immoral, angry and even almost suicidally resentful.

Opening my mind to the possibility that there is something beyond just what human beings can observe and measure did wonders for my mental health and the way in which I decided to approach life and interact with people.

A lot of atheism is a form of severe prejudice.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Myers Briggs

That's junk pseudo science that prone to problems (such as results varying depending on mood and day) so how can results based on garbage be trusted?

 

[Shadow Wolf]

A lot of atheism is a form of severe prejudice.

Opening my mind to the possibility that there is something beyond just what human beings can observe and measure did wonders for my mental health and the way in which I decided to approach life and interact with people.

So you needed a crutch?

 

[flowerpower]

So you needed a crutch?

1. What are you rolling your eyes for? Wanna try being respectful?

2. I never "needed a crutch" when it came to spirituality or philosophy. Getting out of my own way, opening my mind and realizing that I wasn't the center of the universe did wonders for my self development though. Your attempt to reduce what I said to "so you needed a crutch" might very easily be considered to be atheism as a severe form of prejudice on your part.

Good luck with that.

 

[RestlessSoul]

So you needed a crutch?

Doesn’t everyone need something to lean on?

If faith in God is a crutch, I’m happy to admit I’m on much firmer footing with it than without it.

 

[flowerpower]

Doesn’t everyone need something to lean on?

If faith in God is a crutch, I’m happy to admit I’m on much firmer footing with it than without it.

Nice.

We only have one life.

It's too short to go around pissed off all the time over the misguided belief that you know better than everyone else around you.

Intellectually arrogant misery - absolutely horrible way to go through life.

I'm glad I found a way to grow out of it.

 

[Viker]

Are atheists arrogant? immoral? angry?

Generally, no.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Doesn’t everyone need something to lean on?

If faith in God is a crutch, I’m happy to admit I’m on much firmer footing with it than without it.

My response was aimed at this:

A lot of atheism is a form of severe prejudice.

Which lead me to poke at this:

Opening my mind to the possibility that there is something beyond just what human beings can observe and measure did wonders for my mental health and the way in which I decided to approach life and interact with people.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

1. What are you rolling your eyes for? Wanna try being respectful?

What am I rolling my eyes for? It's your bs claim that "a lot atheism is a form of severe prejudice."

 

[flowerpower]

My response was aimed at this:

Which lead me to poke at this:

What am I rolling my eyes for? It's your bs claim that "a lot atheism is a form of severe prejudice."

Okay, so you got all hot headed by my claim that "a lot of atheism is a form of severe prejudice."

You call bs.

Why?

I'll explain myself if you can explain why that comment upset you so much.

Do you really think it's entirely inconceivable that some people's atheism is a form of severe prejudice against religion and/or a belief in god?

Why is that so difficult for you to comprehend?

Myself and many of my friends were extremely prejudiced against all religions when we were much younger and stupider - we prided ourselves on being atheists because it complemented our prejudices and vice versa.

Do you even know what a prejudice is?

How about this for a thought experiment - are you, @Shadow Wolf prejudiced towards Nazis/Fascists?

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Do you even know what a prejudice is?

Yes. I know. Just as I know your claim is full of ****. What you amd some pinheaded friends did doesn't mean atheism is prejudiced or atheists just hate religion and god, not even "a lot" of it. That's a common Christian fantasy about atheists.

 

[Marwan]

No.

They are simply what we call ignorant, that is, for a reason belonging to God alone, they have not been guided by God, God has not come to them and utterly evidenced His Absolute Existence and as The Truth.

Thus, I should feel compassion unto them! Thus, I ask and pray to God to forgive all my wrong and bad done unto the atheists!

They are loved by God, like everything and everyone.

And they will not be punished for their disbelief.

Exalted and Omnipotent is God that He should punish His own creation for doing something which does not in any way or form harm God nor could He have the slightest care about someone disbelieving in Him!

Exalted is God, the Omniscient!

La illaha ila Allah!!

 

[☆Dreamwind☆]

Some of them are, and some of them aren't. It depends on the person.

 

[flowerpower]

Yes. I know. Just as I know your claim is full of ****. What you amd some pinheaded friends did doesn't mean atheism is prejudiced or atheists just hate religion and god, not even "a lot" of it. That's a common Christian fantasy about atheists.

Dodging it.

Do you consider yourself to be prejudiced against Nazis?

Answer the question.

And I never made the claim that atheism is inherently prejudiced - stop making **** up or learn to read more carefully.