Is their such thing as as a "fake atheist"

[vorlon13]

Hmmm.

There are some pretty hot straight christian men out there. Maybe I need to do some research on penis size, just to be sure.

[One Above All]

There has never been any context, any civilization, any time period, where being an atheist was seen in a positive light. Regardless, if someone wants attention, they can just take their region's main religion, which they'll most likely belong to, and pretend to be having a faith crisis. Instant teary eyes and several yotta-attentions.

[Minimalist]

There are some pretty hot straight christian men out there.

They're still little pricks.

[Mister Agenda]

Dare him to be a fake atheist for six weeks so he can get back to you on how cool people thought he was when he pretended to be an atheist.

[Tonus]

i asked what he meant by that and he said that "a lot of atheists are just pretending because they want attention." I wish this was just this one idiots point of view, but that was shared by my father when i came out to him.

People do some pretty outrageous things in order to get attention, so I suppose it's possible that some people would do that, especially if they want to create drama in their social circle and it happens to be very religious. On the other end, some people may simply be unable to wrap their minds around the idea that a close friend or family member would become an atheist, so they assume it must be a proxy for some other issue.

[vorlon13]

I think pretending to be an atheist while actually deeply religious would be frowned up by most religions as a form of apostasy.

[archangle]

Here is one thing that pisses me off brothers and sisters (and other.) recently, a boy in my school, (who's name i will not mention) asked during lunch at our table (little side note, this boy was never asked to sit at our table, no one even wanted him to sit at our table) "everybody, raise your hand if your an atheist." I of course raised my hand. He looked at me funny and asked "a real one?" (It must be assumed that he is an idiot, as he is the same person who believes that a man't penis size is a side-effect of that man's ego.) i asked what he meant by that and he said that "a lot of atheists are just pretending because they want attention." I wish this was just this one idiots point of view, but that was shared by my father when i came out to him. Of course we got into an argument and i asked him if maybe that was just lies fed to him by someone to try and spread that point of view, smearing atheists. To this he got mad and said no, because (and i'm not kidding) his parents don't lie to him. What parent would be either so ignorant, or so evil that they would press this garbage onto an apparently either very gullible are handicapped boy? I guess that is my question. Is this true? Or is it what i think it as, more christian bullshit?

I think there are. I just found out in the last year or so ago from a guy named teeknow that multi profiles to attack a guy is used a lot. Also, because I am stupid, I didnt know that people make up life stories about themselves to prove a point. I just never gave those thing a second tought.

so there are "fake people". many times the "fake" is independent of belief. people are people.

[ignoramus]

I think pretending to be an atheist while actually deeply religious would be frowned up by most religions as a form of apostasy.

Good news is they still don't go to heaven or hell irrespective of beliefs.

[zanOTK]

There has never been any context, any civilization, any time period, where being an atheist was seen in a positive light. Regardless, if someone wants attention, they can just take their region's main religion, which they'll most likely belong to, and pretend to be having a faith crisis. Instant teary eyes and several yotta-attentions.

ANY context? ANY civilization? ANY time period?

Well... Does state sponsored atheism count?

Wikipedia - State Atheism

[ManMachine]

Here is one thing that pisses me off brothers and sisters (and other.) recently, a boy in my school, (who's name i will not mention) asked during lunch at our table (little side note, this boy was never asked to sit at our table, no one even wanted him to sit at our table) "everybody, raise your hand if your an atheist." I of course raised my hand. He looked at me funny and asked "a real one?" (It must be assumed that he is an idiot, as he is the same person who believes that a man't penis size is a side-effect of that man's ego.) i asked what he meant by that and he said that "a lot of atheists are just pretending because they want attention." I wish this was just this one idiots point of view, but that was shared by my father when i came out to him. Of course we got into an argument and i asked him if maybe that was just lies fed to him by someone to try and spread that point of view, smearing atheists. To this he got mad and said no, because (and i'm not kidding) his parents don't lie to him. What parent would be either so ignorant, or so evil that they would press this garbage onto an apparently either very gullible are handicapped boy? I guess that is my question. Is this true? Or is it what i think it as, more christian bullshit?

Sometimes when people don't understand something they feel frustrated or angry and they let other people know this, it's an expression of their internal struggle to grasp something.

Faith and a belief in some kind of god is deep rooted in our psychology, it's not just a learned behaviour or 'programming' despite what you might hear from other atheists, including some that frequent these forums. We know that the ability to believe and the ability to generate an anthropomorphic 'force' behind natural phenomenon is hard-wired into our brains, this does not mean god is hardwired into our brains it's much more complex than that.

There is clearly an evolutionary advantage in having this feature in our brains, there are a number of good theories as to why, all of which fit the evolution model, so it's not a problem for an atheist to look at these theories and see why the need for people to believe exists. It is much harder, however, for religious people to see why a person can consciously by-pass these mechanisms and choose not to believe, because it flies I the face of what they think they know.

Imagine it like this, god is the sea and everyone is floating around in their own little boat in this sea. Some people are smarter than others and they work out how to build wings and propellers and fit them to their boats. Pretty soon they learn how to fly. From way up high they can see the whole sea, and the land in the far distance and they work out that the sea is not endless but in fact just a body of water, but the people in the boats cannot see this because they are on the surface of the water and cannot see the land in the distance. The people who learn to fly give the plans on how to build the wings and propellers to the people in the sea, but many of them feel safe in their boats and are afraid to fly so they make up reasons not to fly.

The people in the boats are religious people, the people with the wings are atheists, the atheists have learned that the sea is not infinite (god is not what it seems) but nevertheless god is still present in everyday life for religious people. And that's ok.

Your friend and your dad are stuck in their boats looking for excuses not to fly, and that's fine, let them float. But you have learned how to fly and that makes your friend and your father nervous because they don't understand. But that is their worry, not yours.

You keep on flying.

MM