A lotta internet atheists seem to care more about hating the specific flavor of Christianity they grew up under and didn’t like than the concept of religion in general, but they view those two things as one and the same.
They cry foul at (admittedly, abhorrent) outlier behavior and use that as a generalization against a globe of different religious practices without knowing how they affect the day to day lives of various practitioners.
It seems to me they have a larger problem with vulgar hypocrisy and abuse of institutional power than the concept of theism in general.
Like the people hypothetically sentenced to work a restaurant service job so that they’re more empathetic to wait staff, I think many internet atheists would do well with a stint as a half-practicing Protestant who’s mostly in it for the potlucks or a Reform Jew who prefers to party most Fridays, but makes a point of showing up on High Holidays to catch up with acquaintances.
The phrase “treat science like religion” may be applicable to a few atheists but it’s also often exaggerated to discredit science’s position of authority.
There a lot of people who aren’t scientifically minded that treat scientific knowledge just like scripture. It comes from wize people and they just trust and accept it unquestioningly.
Those who practise science know that all knowledge is to be questioned, and everything needs evidence. They also know that everything we “know” is most likely wrong. It’s just the best explanation we have so far and that’s a good thing.
Science is not something you can believe in, it’s reality with evidence. It’s a method of finding evidence to explain reality, and when new evidence is found, the explanation, or understanding, is changed, not the reality. The scientific method has been developed, and changed, to try really hard to remove inherent bias. For reference, pick ANY science that you feel attracted to and dive in. Start in at the beginning, or middle, or with the most recent developments. The more evidence you evaluate for bias and truth, the more connections you make trying to grok it all, the more you’ll appreciate our best attempts to eak out fundamental truths that exist with or without your beliefs. I love science not because I believe in it, I love it because it reveals truth despite me. My favorite part now is that we are discovering that there are truths we can never know because of the physical limitations of our meat brains, so we’re building machine brains to explain it to us. Evidence showed that the universe was probably 13.8 billion years old, now James Webb is showing evidence that contradicts that. Square roots of negative numbers, imaginary numbers, in the 1500’s were thought to be useless, now we understand them enough to make cell phones communicate. You can’t BELIEVE in science, you can only use that CURRENT method to try and understand and then harness reality. Who knows, maybe one day science will discover the gods or god, or help us create them.
I’m really into theological debate/discussion but I gotta admit, I cannot stand atheist communities online. I want to believe all the vitriol and seething is coming from kids who haven’t processed their religious trauma… But I get the feeling at least half of it is adults with nothing better to rail against
this is just true. first time i saw the atheist memes community i thought “huh that seems interesting” then i looked at whats in there and “huh these people just hate cristianity and barely even give good reasons for it”
If you consider atheism to be a belief system in itself, online atheists are often a great way to dissuade people from lapsing away from organised religion.
They may not all be pedos, but a lot more are assholes who hate homosexuals and trans persons, or assholes who want to deny women their reproductive rights, or assholes who keep voting for far-right extremists. Just because a lot of Christians are “nice people” doesn’t mean that their ideology causes any less harm.
I must’ve grew up in a very different household then most American’s. Practicing religion with my family the Christian ideology shouldn’t be any of those things, it should be to spread peace and love, “love thy neighbor”.
Anyone who’s a far right extremist especially in 2024 I completely agree are all assholes, but I hope I can reiterate that “Trumps Christians” is its own religion and ideology entirely, and a lot of other people, especially those practicing religion in other countries, are actually those peace wanting love spreading people that Jesus was actually trying to spread to his followers, we are commanded not to judge others for we do not have the right to judge, but also not to condemn others for the same reason. Instead, we’re commanded to spread peace and love to all of God’s children. That’s at least what I’ve been taught in my church, my family, and by reading the bible myself. We do not agree with those ideologies (being a general dick head, being judgmental, harassing people, restricting woman’s rights, etc etc) and anyone who does may believe in Jesus but are not followers of him if thats their purpose in life. And it sucks ever since Trump we’ve all been categorized into that group and painted as the same thing, which is what makes me despise him even more.
It seriously hurts to see how many Church’s and Christians have become so unbelievably fucking evil in the states.
not all Christians are assholes who touch kids. a lot of (not saying all) the atheists here are absolutely wild
A lotta internet atheists seem to care more about hating the specific flavor of Christianity they grew up under and didn’t like than the concept of religion in general, but they view those two things as one and the same.
They cry foul at (admittedly, abhorrent) outlier behavior and use that as a generalization against a globe of different religious practices without knowing how they affect the day to day lives of various practitioners.
It seems to me they have a larger problem with vulgar hypocrisy and abuse of institutional power than the concept of theism in general.
Like the people hypothetically sentenced to work a restaurant service job so that they’re more empathetic to wait staff, I think many internet atheists would do well with a stint as a half-practicing Protestant who’s mostly in it for the potlucks or a Reform Jew who prefers to party most Fridays, but makes a point of showing up on High Holidays to catch up with acquaintances.
My favorite are the ones that treat science like religion, and don’t recognize the hypocrisy.
The phrase “treat science like religion” may be applicable to a few atheists but it’s also often exaggerated to discredit science’s position of authority.
There a lot of people who aren’t scientifically minded that treat scientific knowledge just like scripture. It comes from wize people and they just trust and accept it unquestioningly.
Those who practise science know that all knowledge is to be questioned, and everything needs evidence. They also know that everything we “know” is most likely wrong. It’s just the best explanation we have so far and that’s a good thing.
Science is not something you can believe in, it’s reality with evidence. It’s a method of finding evidence to explain reality, and when new evidence is found, the explanation, or understanding, is changed, not the reality. The scientific method has been developed, and changed, to try really hard to remove inherent bias. For reference, pick ANY science that you feel attracted to and dive in. Start in at the beginning, or middle, or with the most recent developments. The more evidence you evaluate for bias and truth, the more connections you make trying to grok it all, the more you’ll appreciate our best attempts to eak out fundamental truths that exist with or without your beliefs. I love science not because I believe in it, I love it because it reveals truth despite me. My favorite part now is that we are discovering that there are truths we can never know because of the physical limitations of our meat brains, so we’re building machine brains to explain it to us. Evidence showed that the universe was probably 13.8 billion years old, now James Webb is showing evidence that contradicts that. Square roots of negative numbers, imaginary numbers, in the 1500’s were thought to be useless, now we understand them enough to make cell phones communicate. You can’t BELIEVE in science, you can only use that CURRENT method to try and understand and then harness reality. Who knows, maybe one day science will discover the gods or god, or help us create them.
I see I found one of those people.
Take my upvote. It’s not much, but it’ll keep you warm.
I see you’ve missed the point
I don’t think it’s treating science as a religion, as it is treating their atheism as a religion.
I’m really into theological debate/discussion but I gotta admit, I cannot stand atheist communities online. I want to believe all the vitriol and seething is coming from kids who haven’t processed their religious trauma… But I get the feeling at least half of it is adults with nothing better to rail against
Militant Evangelical Atheists are the worst. Give me a good laid back agnostic any day.
“one AND the same”
This sounds like an asshole Christian kid touchers opinion of you ask me… 🤔
Maybe, but religious people are categorically idiots.
Easy now bronco, only top posts were supposed to be blindly incendiary.
this is just true. first time i saw the atheist memes community i thought “huh that seems interesting” then i looked at whats in there and “huh these people just hate cristianity and barely even give good reasons for it”
Internet atheism has just always been pretty bad. I enjoy a good joke about religion but some people take it to extremes.
when I first got on lemmy I literally never minded the atheist memes until awhile after. they started getting very extreme.
I’m a very well domesticated atheist, tyvm!
E: Jfc, it’s just a joke…
If you consider atheism to be a belief system in itself, online atheists are often a great way to dissuade people from lapsing away from organised religion.
Yeah I had to block the atheism and religion related subs bc they were cringe
They may not all be pedos, but a lot more are assholes who hate homosexuals and trans persons, or assholes who want to deny women their reproductive rights, or assholes who keep voting for far-right extremists. Just because a lot of Christians are “nice people” doesn’t mean that their ideology causes any less harm.
I must’ve grew up in a very different household then most American’s. Practicing religion with my family the Christian ideology shouldn’t be any of those things, it should be to spread peace and love, “love thy neighbor”.
Anyone who’s a far right extremist especially in 2024 I completely agree are all assholes, but I hope I can reiterate that “Trumps Christians” is its own religion and ideology entirely, and a lot of other people, especially those practicing religion in other countries, are actually those peace wanting love spreading people that Jesus was actually trying to spread to his followers, we are commanded not to judge others for we do not have the right to judge, but also not to condemn others for the same reason. Instead, we’re commanded to spread peace and love to all of God’s children. That’s at least what I’ve been taught in my church, my family, and by reading the bible myself. We do not agree with those ideologies (being a general dick head, being judgmental, harassing people, restricting woman’s rights, etc etc) and anyone who does may believe in Jesus but are not followers of him if thats their purpose in life. And it sucks ever since Trump we’ve all been categorized into that group and painted as the same thing, which is what makes me despise him even more.
It seriously hurts to see how many Church’s and Christians have become so unbelievably fucking evil in the states.