Quiet Atheist vs Militant Atheist

[z7z]

I grew up exposed to several religions and also found Charles Dawkins (The God Delusion) and Sam Harris (End of Faith). There are many atheists that don't speak up around their religious friends so they don't offend them. After all, there is freedom OF religion and freedom FROM religion in the USA. I am somewhat torn because some of the nicest people I know are Christians that volunteer, help the homeless, etc. However, most of the smartest people I know are atheists. I think it is the radical people in any religion or political group that are harmful. Ultra conservative Republicans, ultra liberal democrats, radical Islam, etc. But I wonder if militant atheists are bad or religion is worse. It seems as though young people are more secular than previous generations and atheists are on the rise. It will be interesting to see how things progress with the Vatican, Radical Islam, and Israel in this century.

Are you a quiet, respectful atheist, or a militant atheist out to show people how wrong and harmful religion is?

[Iroscato]

I am a reactive atheist, so neither. I do not go out of my way to call theists idiots, nor do I take blatant idiocy lying down. I get along splendidly with my muslim and christian friends, but if there's ever a debate or argument about religion I make sure to counter them as best as I can.
Or if I see something really stupid online, most of the time I respond, especially if it's Facebook.
I joined AF for some relative respite from all the religious crap being spouted by gullible fools who bought wholesale into the best marketing scam ever devised in history. So far, I haven't regretted it

[Jericho]

Literally all of my friends in life are religious. I do not go out of my way to call them wrong or argue them out of their beliefs. However, I do enjoy having actual conversations with them about religion as a whole. The conversations never get out of hand and are friendships are still going strong. So I am more likely described as quiet, though I do enjoy talking about the problems of religion with my friends.

[Thumpalumpacus]

I'm a plain-spoken atheist who doesn't hide his beliefs, nor trumpet them. I speak plainly about my lack of faith in any conversation on the topic, but I don't go around starting conversations so that I can mention my lack of faith.

[robvalue]

I don't go around randomly hassling theists. I try to be nice to everybody. Religion is pretty dead in England so it doesn't come up much.

Yes I speak out where appropriate against the harm religion does, and the unfair special treatment it gets. It's been going on far too long. I don't want to try and stop religion, I want to stop it doing harm. If no one stands up to it, the hurt continues and society gets held back. Lots of people suffer including innocent children.

Speaking out against injustice is hardly the same as trying to force everyone to live by your rules, as is the case with religious extremism. I don't perform or advocate any sort of violence. I want to promote critical thinking and equality.

[Cato]

Fuck God. Working together to navigate life's challenges is difficult enough without having to contend with those laden with superstitious bullshit. I would love to let people have their beliefs, but it's rare that people don't also want me to be shackled by the dicta of their favorite ancient control freak ignoramus for no other reason than 'God' said so. 

Want to believe in a creation myth? I'm perfectly fine to let you wallow in your ignorance, no skin off my ass, but those that try to shoehorn this nonsense into science curricula deserve to be vociferously challenged. Attempting to use  the legislative process to use the power of the state to enforce some God given deontological morality that doesn't have a substantive secular argument will also bring about a swift and unfavorable reaction. Don't tell me what I can and can't do just because someones interpretation of an ancient book says so, it must satisfy the doctrine of religious restraint; or as Rawls suggested one cannot only appeal to religious justification, but must also justify coercive law with secular reasoning. 

[rexbeccarox]

Charles Dawkins?

[Pyrrho]

I grew up exposed to several religions and also found Charles Dawkins (The God Delusion) and Sam Harris (End of Faith). There are many atheists that don't speak up around their religious friends so they don't offend them. After all, there is freedom OF religion and freedom FROM religion in the USA. I am somewhat torn because some of the nicest people I know are Christians that volunteer, help the homeless, etc. However, most of the smartest people I know are atheists. I think it is the radical people in any religion or political group that are harmful. Ultra conservative Republicans, ultra liberal democrats, radical Islam, etc. But I wonder if militant atheists are bad or religion is worse. It seems as though young people are more secular than previous generations and atheists are on the rise. It will be interesting to see how things progress with the Vatican, Radical Islam, and Israel in this century.

Are you a quiet, respectful atheist, or a militant atheist out to show people how wrong and harmful religion is?

I don't think it is a fair comparison, even though the language may make it seem so, to equate militant atheists with militant theists.  I am not aware of militant atheists beheading believers or atheists who do not agree with them, are you?  And since atheism, per se, does not have any rules, it is hard to come up with any examples of militant atheists trying to make their rules into law, unlike militant theists, who want to turn the U.S. into a theocracy.  So I don't see militant atheists as a problem.  They may be as rude as militant theists, but rudeness is nothing compared with beheadings and putting one's religious beliefs into law.

Also, in the U.S., many religious people are constantly talking about their religion, so it seems a bit ridiculous (and hypocritical) to expect atheists to keep quiet about their views in such an environment.  If someone does not want a subject discussed publicly, they ought not bring up the subject publicly themselves.

Oh, and welcome to the forum!

[abaris]

I grew up exposed to several religions and also found Charles Dawkins (The God Delusion) and Sam Harris (End of Faith). There are many atheists that don't speak up around their religious friends so they don't offend them. After all, there is freedom OF religion and freedom FROM religion in the USA.

I guess I'm what you would call quiet. I didn't need any atheist role models to become an atheist and religion or lack thereoff usually doesn't enter my conversations. But I'm not living in the USA. Religion isn't that present here in Europe. You have to be actively looking for it, since it's neither a part of politics nor everyday talk.

I don't even know if my family is at all religious, since we never talked about it.

[Cephus]

I wouldn't call it militant, but I do not keep quiet where I see harm coming from religion. Expressing one's opinion is not being militant.