The "atheist community" (defined here as the people that tend to frequent atheist forums, join atheist societies, and debate religion) is not representative of all atheists, and is probably more acurrately described as a community of strongly logic-oriented people who are opposed to anything that doesn't make logical sense. Since atheism isn't a belief in and of itself, just the absensce of belief, the community cant really exist based on atheism alone. The only atheist communuties that would realistically form need to stand for something positive.
The only "positive" thing atheists could form a community around, that I can think of, is opposing religion (though obviously not all atheists do). That's why you tend to see so much antitheism on these forums. Most atheists have a more live and let live approach to religion...they just don't care about it. So they don't form a community based around the absence of it...that's like founding a non-knitting club. Since antitheism is not a true positive motivation, as its major purpose is to tear something down (not a bad thing necessarily), the people who tend to be drawn to this cause are critical types. These are people who are logic-oriented and naturally see the flaws in things. They are naturally skeptical. Atheists who are less logic oriented are less likely to care, so long as everyone gets along. Non-logic oriented people tend to be more human-oriented, seeing harmony as the most important thing and disdaining useless conflict (which religion as a very controversial subject tends to invite).
This is of course a vicious circle. Like attracts like, and a culture begins to form - a culture where reason and skepticism are the most important values of the tribe. The us and them bonding ritual kicks in - "we atheists are the smart people who stand up for rationality in the world...unlike those annoying irrational theists". The two become equated, and people in the community are expected to possess these qualities. Skepticism and rationality become the angle from which everything is analyzed and dismissed. Logic-oriented fields like science and philosophy become popular topics for threads. Less logic-oriented people might feel alienated by this, and so even if antitheistic (and some people are antitheistic based on non logical reasons) they may go their seperate ways.
The only "positive" thing atheists could form a community around, that I can think of, is opposing religion (though obviously not all atheists do). That's why you tend to see so much antitheism on these forums. Most atheists have a more live and let live approach to religion...they just don't care about it. So they don't form a community based around the absence of it...that's like founding a non-knitting club. Since antitheism is not a true positive motivation, as its major purpose is to tear something down (not a bad thing necessarily), the people who tend to be drawn to this cause are critical types. These are people who are logic-oriented and naturally see the flaws in things. They are naturally skeptical. Atheists who are less logic oriented are less likely to care, so long as everyone gets along. Non-logic oriented people tend to be more human-oriented, seeing harmony as the most important thing and disdaining useless conflict (which religion as a very controversial subject tends to invite).
This is of course a vicious circle. Like attracts like, and a culture begins to form - a culture where reason and skepticism are the most important values of the tribe. The us and them bonding ritual kicks in - "we atheists are the smart people who stand up for rationality in the world...unlike those annoying irrational theists". The two become equated, and people in the community are expected to possess these qualities. Skepticism and rationality become the angle from which everything is analyzed and dismissed. Logic-oriented fields like science and philosophy become popular topics for threads. Less logic-oriented people might feel alienated by this, and so even if antitheistic (and some people are antitheistic based on non logical reasons) they may go their seperate ways.
