America is Tragically Soul-Sick

[Alex K]

However, here's why I come to these conclusions (and please be aware, in the list below, that I am deliberately choosing the words "I don't see" because I am aware the greatest problem here might be a continued fear of exposing myself to communities of humans).

- I don't see atheists working to teach their children about being "good Samaritans"

I can't confirm that

- I see a generation who demands logical proof before they will dignify sympathy and empathy as virtues; relatedly,

Yes, I observe this is a problem of parts of the vocal internet atheist crowd, who is partly made up of "Straw Vulcans" who will throw empathy under the bus for a cheap appeal to "logic". Many here will say that these people do not speak for them, because atheist is a broad and unspecific label which does not tell you much about the qualities of a person - which may tell us that it is impossible to form a meaningful "atheist community".

- I see atheists comfortable giving informed consent to human rights abuses, and philosophizing that civic responsibility is a flawed concept - in a complete reversal of the traditional trend where education is a liberalizing force, I see atheists dryly accepting harsh realities and confused why they should object

Here we have the problem that atheism alone is not something that gives you much in the way of guiding principles - it's simply not an alternative worldview to Christianity or whatever, it's, more or less, the absence of belief in God. You can have atheist social justice heroes, and you can have atheist authoritarian slave drivers. That's not a problem of atheism per se, atheism alone simply is not enough.

- I see atheists who seem more afraid, not less afraid; who are objectively less driven, not more; who rationalize amoral and antimoral stances toward social responsibility more skillfully, where a Christian would simply spout something which is barely recognizable as a sentence, an atheist will explain in dry, historically-valid, deterministic, bastardized-Nietzsche-flavored apathy.

Well, then you have come to the right place for some counter examples.

oh...

On 3 January 1889, Nietzsche suffered a mental collapse. Two policemen approached him after he caused a public disturbance in the streets of Turin. What happened remains unknown, but an often-repeated tale from shortly after his death states that Nietzsche witnessed the flogging of a horse at the other end of the Piazza Carlo Alberto, ran to the horse, threw his arms up around its neck to protect it, and then collapsed to the ground

But spurious anecdotes aside, I know what you mean, though I think your reading of Nietzsche is a bit too superficial here. He didn't advocate a society of ruthless selfishness.

In short I see atheists as having self-fulfilled the threats insinuated into their minds by their presumably Christian brainwashing -- that a life without faith will be a lonely life where souls do nothing but burn and cry out to nobody.

I've never had real Christian brainwashing, nor have many other people here. But then again, I'm not American. Many who had Christian brainwashing have reported here to have found great joy and freedom in their lives after getting rid of the mental shackles of religion.