The Neo-Atheist Movement

[jacobthetuna95]

Does anyone feel the atheist movement is sometimes misguided? Like it's become a movement striving for dominance over religion by any means necessary?

[Longhorn]

When a lack of belief becomes a movement, it stops being a lack of belief and becomes an ideology

[robvalue]

What atheist movement would this be? People appealing for rational thought?

Any means necessary!?

[MTL]

I think the problem with Atheism more frequently tends to be a LACK of unity and social vocalization,
rather than a surplus of it.

Bill Maher observed that we are minority,
but a sizeable and rapidly-growing minority,
and we need to be a socially more vocal minority.

(I'm paraphrasing, btw).

I don't agree with him about everything,
but I think he makes an excellent point, there.

Religion IS organized,
and still does a lot of damage.

Atheists and Agnostics should present, if not a "united front",
then certainly a more visible presence;
but the trick may be to present ourselves as a LOT of vocal individuals,
rather than as an organized group.

[Iroscato]

Should bald people unite against those with different hair colour?

[Thumpalumpacus]

Does anyone feel the atheist movement is sometimes misguided? Like it's become a movement striving for dominance over religion by any means necessary?

No. Why the loaded question?

[jacobthetuna95]

Because I'm an atheist and I've seen my fellow atheists completely disregard and disrespect any religious person, concept, or action more times than I care to remember. Not to mention that they seem only interested in discussion as to why they aren't a member of an Abrahamic religion and don't seem to even give a second thought to the countless other religions of human existence.

[Nope]

Because I'm an atheist and I've seen my fellow atheists completely disregard and disrespect any religious person, concept, or action more times than I care to remember. Not to mention that they seem only interested in discussion as to why they aren't a member of an Abrahamic religion and don't seem to even give a second thought to the countless other religions of human existence.

Could you provide some examples? I am in a Christian majority country so of course, I am going to focus on the main religion here. When people in my country try to pass laws to hurt LGBT or prevent a woman from getting an abortion, Christianity is often their excuse. That doesn't mean that I think all Christians are bad but if I call out anyone, it would be those who are still members of my former faith

[jacobthetuna95]

I think that you are raising some good points, especially about laws in the country of which you are a citizen. I suppose to clarify, this has less to do with the de facto goals of the atheist movement, which I think are all commendable, and more to do with the culture around it. I feel amongst my atheist peers that many of them are angry at the existence of religion and tend to treat the religious as if they are misguided children to be corrected or a plague to be annihilated, which I cannot abide by. And we also cannot focus our citations of our atheism on a single religion, as there is no logic in saying that one religion is flawed, so all religion is flawed because of how diverse human religion is.

[Mudhammam]

The neo-atheist movement, from my experience, mostly consists of former believers. So, it's not too surprising that there's a fundie element which thinks tough talk is a substitute for rational argument. I don't mind such vehemence to a certain degree, but I can certainly see why it may have led to some backlash. There's also the strange overlap between neo-atheism and neo-conservativism, where the West is viewed as a sort of supreme, enlightened, Saviour, and the rest of the world (especially the Muslim world) is this body of second class illiterates --- even the perception of such a bond is a fatal attraction, for neo-atheism, in my view.