I fall somewhere in between the two groups. I initially went through a period of serious militant atheism and not only created a YouTube channel to attack religion, I would also actively seek out theists and attempt to dismantle their beliefs. I was very aggressive as an atheist. Unfortunately, I started seeing certain prominent atheists acting just as bad as the religious fundamentalists. One thing that bothered me was seeing them frequently using that same poor reasoning for their views. For example, theists would often make sweeping generalizations about atheists that were entirely baseless, such as suggesting that we have no moral values. Atheists, on the other hand, would imply that you had to be stupid to be a religious person. I started noticing that I was sometimes engaging in the same type of behavior so it forced me to take a step back and reexamine my views.
Now I take a different approach to dealing with religion. I will still point out bad reasoning from people, whether they are theists or atheists, but I usually won't actively "attack" theists unless they engage me first or say something particularly bad. I also no longer try to deconvert every theist I see because I know it is futile in most cases.
Now I take a different approach to dealing with religion. I will still point out bad reasoning from people, whether they are theists or atheists, but I usually won't actively "attack" theists unless they engage me first or say something particularly bad. I also no longer try to deconvert every theist I see because I know it is futile in most cases.
