Being An Atheist Doesn't Make You A Good Person

[c172]

Atheist just means you don't believe in a god. There is certainly a stereotype of us being liberal, or more liberal leaning, so by stereotype, things like what the OP mentioned shouldn't happen, according to that. But I think my atheist circle, which includes this and lots of FBs, mainly, doesn't really lean. Plenty of folks that don't like being told how to behave on comments.

I believe in free speech, and that includes silently ignoring those I disagree with. But, I've used the report button a fair amount, as well.

[Cyberman]

Yeah, I noticed

[brewer]

I wonder what they will say when the next big one hits california?

Oh, wait, that will be completely different. What the hell was I thinking.

[vorlon13]

I wonder what they will say when the next big one hits california?

Oh, wait, that will be completely different. What the hell was I thinking.

Before or after Cal-exit ??

[brewer]

I wonder what they will say when the next big one hits california?

Oh, wait, that will be completely different. What the hell was I thinking.

Before or after Cal-exit ??

They ain't goin nowhere cept inta the ocean.

[The Industrial Atheist]

They don't deserve to die, nor to lose everything they have. I don't think voting for Trump necessarily means someone is a bad person, either. Very possibly some of them are just ill informed or under informed people.

Of course being an atheist doesn't make you a good person. Being a good person makes you a good person.

[The Valkyrie]

It doesn't?

Shit!

But it makes me superior, right?

[Astonished]

So this will be more of a rant than anything else but still I wanted to talk to someone about it that wasn't a Christian that would silently judge all atheists.

I've had to unfollow two atheist pages on Facebook because both were bringing politics into the devastation that is Hurricane Harvey. One said Texas deserved it because 'we' voted republican as a state. I flipped a lid on this one. First off Houston is kin to Austin apparently since we are both blue cities in a swarm of red so I inquired why they deserved to be destroyed. This yahoo said it's because the state as a whole voted republican. I honestly don't get why this plays any part but he was being very aggressive and rude. I was done with him after that.

The second one thought it was funny that Texas voted for Trump and now we get this hurricane. He acted like it was karma for voting badly. I say fuck you and unfollowed him without argument.

Now I know simply having a lack of belief in gods doesn't make us all best friends nor does it make someone respect humanity but geebus fuck these two make us really look like dick heads.

I know most of us here are pretty compassionate people for the most part so it just baffles me that someone who 'rags' on the religious for being intolerant and inhumane could turn around and say someone deserved to lose everything they own (and their lives for 60 people) simply because the place they lived voted opposite from how they did.

Am I being childish to be so upset over this?

Neither of those comments those two 'atheists' made strike me as particularly rational. I take it they don't claim to be rational skeptics. If they ain't that, fuck 'em. I don't particularly care to humor them any more than I do with general woo believers or full-blown faith-heads. If you're not going to make the most out of emancipation from dipshittery, then simply not believing in a god (probably for shitty reasons anyway) means absolutely nothing and frankly, the nature of those comments of theirs smack of a lingering stain of religious dogma (karmic retribution-esque superstition) such as their moral compasses being up-fucked and not having either taken the opportunity to re-evaluate them or simply being incapable of doing so.

The problem is the atheist label. It's insufficient for basically everything as far as a descriptor. If someone's not a rational skeptic and secular humanist, I really don't care when they choose to identify as anything else. To do so is to reveal one's own ignorance of both the definition and the colloquial perception of it. It's why I get irked when I see threads with 'atheist' in the title stapled onto some kind of adjective or accusation.

Atheism could be looked at like a birdcage with an open door. You are free to leave, but you may not want to yet, or you may take all your droppings you've shat out into the cage that have piled up out with you. You may take your time and remain wallowing in your droppings inside the cage. It doesn't mean you've flown the fuck out of the cage as fast as you could, nuked it from orbit and gotten your Ph.D.

[mordant]

Am I being childish to be so upset over this?

Always a loaded question, but I'll wade in: yes.

Of course ... everyone gets to feel what they feel. No argument there.

But some feelings are counterproductive and/or overdetermined.

What you do with asswipes like that is you write them off and move on. They're not worth the adrenaline you waste on them.

I am always mindful, of course, that the opposite of love isn't anger, it's indifference. You can't be angry at these guys if you don't care. And as someone who has run aground repeatedly in my life over caring too much and trying to hard, I'm here to tell you, no one -- or at least, no total stranger on the Internet -- is worth caring that much about. Save your caring for your loved ones.

There's also the issue of life being too short to be upset all the time, and if you are angry enough to ask us to talk you down over simple observed stupidity -- even from people you expect better of -- then you need to start avoiding people and situations that you can't handle.

Not that we don't all vent from time to time, but impotent rage always does more to harm you than whatever it may do to make you feel like you've somehow balanced the scales of justice with your wrath. If you're angry, and it's not actionable, then let it go.

[Minimalist]

I'm more concerned with how they can say any human could -deserve- what happened to them.

Oh, come on ML.  The fuckers do it all the time!

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/9600878/ns/msn...a9B3caQyRp

Hurricane Katrina damaged the city of New Orleans in what seems like biblical proportions. Some say the human suffering alone could be a part of God's plan.
Reverend Franklin Graham, son of Reverend Billy Graham, suggests the city was targeted because of the city's sinful reputation.
At a speech in Virginia, he said, "This is one wicked city, OK?  It's known for Mardi Gras, for Satan worship.  It's known for sex perversion.  It's known for every type of drugs and alcohol and the orgies and all of these things that go on down there in New Orleans.  Reverend Graham continued, "There's been a black spiritual cloud over New Orleans for years.  They believe God is going to use that storm to bring revival.

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/afas-...-festival/

AFA’s Buster Wilson: God is using Hurricane Isaac to Punish New Orleans for LGBT Festival

Payback is a bitch.