Evil Atheists?

[Ace Otana]

This is something that I hear far too often.

The question is pose is - Why are atheists automaticly seen as evil? We don't worship the devil like some people think and we don't eat babies which is also what some people think.

Why all the claims? Where's the evidence to support them? These claims come from people who never speak of evidence. People who have a huge claim which has no evidence and claim another being horrific acts that have never taken place.

Why claim something like - Atheists are immoral? A catholic priest sexually molested young boys! Why don't they speak of this? Atheists never started the crusader wars, Atheists didn't take part in the spanish inquisition. Atheists didn't take part in 9/11. So why claim such things as atheists being evil? Religion has done things that have left a nasty scar on history. Atheism hasn't.

If people get their morality from religion then why aren't I seeing it? I've heard of theists throwing women and children of cliff tops. They also burn women at stakes and any other who may dis-agree with their false beliefs. This isn't moral, This is evil and disgusting! So why claim that you need to believe to be moral if the believers have done countless immoral acts?

You don't get morality from religion, If it was true then the crusader wars would not have happend. Nor would 9/11. many countless events caused by religion would not of happend if it was true. So why say it? Why say that you get your morals from religion? It's not true at all. I think sexually molesting young children proves it. Burning women at stakes also proves it.

The next time someone calls you immoral for being an atheist, Mention to them some acts from the past.

I have never been called evil...yet. Maybe because I'm surrounded by atheists where I am. I like bringing up some "Facts" about religion. I don't need to search for proof since it's already there. Writen down in history books.

[Darwinian]

People tend to fear that which they don't understand. For the deeply religious, be they Christian, Muslim or whatever, they cannot understand what makes a person an atheist.

It therefore follows in their mind that because we are without faith that we also have no belief in anything. We must therefore be cold and emotionless like reptiles. As they also believe the morals come directly from God and we are without God we must also be without morals.

In their world of black and white there are only two forces, good and evil. As we are without God we must therefore fall into the latter category so by default we must be evil.

They would not see the atrocities done in the name of their religion as evil, just good people perhaps misguided and being tempted by the devil. We, on the other hand, are actually on the side of the devil because we are not on the side of God.

Remember, in their minds there is an ongoing war between the forces of good (God) and evil (Satan) and if you are not with them then you must be against them.

I've come across this a few times in my life where someone tells, say, a Christian that I'm an atheist and they look puzzled and say something like "But he's such a nice person!"

[Ace Otana]

People tend to fear that which they don't understand. For the deeply religious, be they Christian, Muslim or whatever, they cannot understand what makes a person an atheist.

It therefore follows in their mind that because we are without faith that we also have no belief in anything. We must therefore be cold and emotionless like reptiles. As they also believe the morals come directly from God and we are without God we must also be without morals.

In their world of black and white there are only two forces, good and evil. As we are without God we must therefore fall into the latter category so by default we must be evil.

They would not see the atrocities done in the name of their religion as evil, just good people perhaps misguided and being tempted by the devil. We, on the other hand, are actually on the side of the devil because we are not on the side of God.

Remember, in their minds there is an ongoing war between the forces of good (God) and evil (Satan) and if you are not with them then you must be against them.

I've come across this a few times in my life where someone tells, say, a Christian that I'm an atheist and they look puzzled and say something like "But he's such a nice person!"

It's a very limited view. Either your with them or against them. So there is no neutral position in their world. As in, Take no part in it. Don't take part in god or satan and remain neutral with one main goal which is to live and enjoy life in peace. It's a narrow view to only see two sides.

If you had a choice between 3 choices that being 1, Gods side - 2, Satans side - or 3, Take no side at all, The logical choice is to not take part in it. In other words a neutral. This is my position.

It would seem that to a theists view I have poked a hole in their two sided ways by me stepping out side this two way choice into a 3 way choice.

What confuses me is that - Do they acknowledge that I take no sides? That I'm a neutral? Do they recognize that I'm not on their side nor their enemies and yet they still call me evil. Do they still see me as an enemy because I don't follow?

It is indeed a very narrow view. But how can you explain to them that we refuse to take sides? How can you explain to them that we want no part in it.

Theists are not my enemy but they see me as their enemy. Why is that? I don't go around attacking every theist I encounter because I have nothing against them but they seem to have something against me. It would be wrong for me to attack them, I'd actually be lowering myself to their level since attack is the only thing I see from them.

I find I hard to see the world in a narrow two sided way. There is a third option. Take no part in it, Be a neutral. It shouldn't be that hard for them to accept.

[chatpilot]

Christians and most other religions such as Islam and so forth are very adamant about this issue.There is no middle ground,either you serve their god or you are the enemy of thier god.There are two verses in the New Testament that illustrate this and I am sure the Koran has similar statements.These are culled from the King James Version of scripture.


John 8:47:

47He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.


James 4:4:

4Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

Based on these two scriptures by not believing in God we are by default the enemies of God.

[Ace Otana]

Christians and most other religions such as Islam and so forth are very adamant about this issue.There is no middle ground,either you serve their god or you are the enemy of thier god.There are two verses in the New Testament that illustrate this and I am sure the Koran has similar statements.These are culled from the King James Version of scripture.


John 8:47:

47He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.


James 4:4:

4Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

Based on these two scriptures by not believing in God we are by default the enemies of God.

The only comeback I could think of is - I will take no part in it and that's that!

But it is unfair. It sounds like a war to me. Religion is war, Only two sides....and they speak of peace?

There's no peace to be found? No neutral position?...Yep! Sounds like war to me. I'd see this two side only thing as war mongering. if they cannot allow neutrals then they are asking for confrontation. I guess this is why they attack atheists so much.

[Eilonnwy]

My memory of childhood is extremely fuzzy but there are certain things I do remember clearly and more often than not it has to do with religion (or lack there of)

I remember distinctly being in class, I can't clearly remember if I was in 8th grade or 7th grade. Despite the fact I know exactly who the teacher was, our school did a teacher swap thing. (I never figured out why, maybe to get you used to High School) but essentially 3rd and 4th grade swapped teachers for an hour, 5th and 6th, and 7th and 8th. The swap usually encompassed a different subject that your regular teacher didn't cover. Anyway, so that's why I can't precisely say what grade. I don't know why I explained that, it's kind of irrelevant, oh well.

Anyway, back to the point. I attended a Catholic school and I remember Mrs Sprague giving a lecture and she started talking about Athiests. "Imagine there are people out there who actually don't believe in anything." The look of fear was evident on her face. "There are people out there who think nothing happens to you when you die!" as if it was the most horrible and absurd idea ever. "And what's even scarier is more and more people are becoming athiests."

This same teacher ended up leaving mid 8th grade year. (We were never told why. Rumors said things from she never got along with the Principal to a brain tumor.) The last time I saw this woman she asked me, and only me, to stay after school. I had no idea why, here I am thinking I did something wrong. She started packing her stuff and looked at me with tears in my eyes telling me to always be true to myself and be good. That I was smart and she kept on repeating I needed to stay true. She never told me why she was saying this I had no clue she was saying goodbye until the next day. I have never seen her since.

I've always wondered to this day what she would think of me now if she knew I was an athiest. The power of her lecture stayed with me for a long time. When I started to doubt my beliefs it scared me at first. Obviously I got over it and looking back I can see her statements about atheism for what they truly are, a grave misunderstanding of what an atheist really is. I know this really didn't add much to the discussion side of it, but I can't help it. Whenever the "evilness" of an athiest comes up, that memory always comes back to me.

[Ace Otana]

My memory of childhood is extremely fuzzy but there are certain things I do remember clearly and more often than not it has to do with religion (or lack there of)

I remember distinctly being in class, I can't clearly remember if I was in 8th grade or 7th grade. Despite the fact I know exactly who the teacher was, our school did a teacher swap thing. (I never figured out why, maybe to get you used to High School) but essentially 3rd and 4th grade swapped teachers for an hour, 5th and 6th, and 7th and 8th. The swap usually encompassed a different subject that your regular teacher didn't cover. Anyway, so that's why I can't precisely say what grade. I don't know why I explained that, it's kind of irrelevant, oh well.

Anyway, back to the point. I attended a Catholic school and I remember Mrs Sprague giving a lecture and she started talking about Athiests. "Imagine there are people out there who actually don't believe in anything." The look of fear was evident on her face. "There are people out there who think nothing happens to you when you die!" as if it was the most horrible and absurd idea ever. "And what's even scarier is more and more people are becoming athiests."

This same teacher ended up leaving mid 8th grade year. (We were never told why. Rumors said things from she never got along with the Principal to a brain tumor.) The last time I saw this woman she asked me, and only me, to stay after school. I had no idea why, here I am thinking I did something wrong. She started packing her stuff and looked at me with tears in my eyes telling me to always be true to myself and be good. That I was smart and she kept on repeating I needed to stay true. She never told me why she was saying this I had no clue she was saying goodbye until the next day. I have never seen her since.

I've always wondered to this day what she would think of me now if she knew I was an athiest. The power of her lecture stayed with me for a long time. When I started to doubt my beliefs it scared me at first. Obviously I got over it and looking back I can see her statements about atheism for what they truly are, a grave misunderstanding of what an atheist really is. I know this really didn't add much to the discussion side of it, but I can't help it. Whenever the "evilness" of an athiest comes up, that memory always comes back to me.

Looks like we have something in common my friend. I too was told about atheists in my early days. A femal teacher known for her strong religious beliefs decided to pray in the assembly. She was praying for all of us to stay with god and crap. At the time I was an atheist but not as strong or as wise as I am now. But she never knew who I was. She assumed I was a theist like everyone else. Which allot of students were either agnostic or atheist, Very few were theists. She believed we were all delusional. (Turns out she got herself into shit after preaching in the assembly.)

A school reunion took place 2 years ago but I couldn't bring myself to tell her that I was an atheist.

All my teachers didn't know. I wonder what they'll think if they found out?

[josef rosenkranz]

Atheism is a philosophic movement ,orphaned of Father and Mother,with no recognized organisation ,neither national nor international,no eminent
philosopher ,no Manifest,no "Bible",no mass media,nooo mooney.
Atheism collides with politicians who may be in their soul atheists but are afraid to bring it in the open least they loose their voters.
We have one thing whithout any doubt on our side :time.
The time works for atheism all over the world.
The young generations in an ever increasing number refuse to be brainwashed by religion and leave her altogether.
Yes there are fallbacks especially in poor countries,yes fundamentalist Islam is waging war openly against Infidels in a dangerous way but the evolution of society will roll them down in due time.
Keep all smiling.,

[Brick-top]

Atheists represent 8-16% of the US population. Yet only 0.209% of the prison population are Atheist.

http://www.holysmoke.org/icr-pri.htm


The main reason people see Atheists as 'evil' is because Atheists do not get their morals from absolutes.

However people who make these claims against Atheists don't realize that morality is subjective. Even to a believer. Otherwise all believers of the same Religion would believe the same thing. But they don't.

And absolutes is a foolish idea. With knowledge comes morality. An understanding of other things. However, just like everything else knowledge is abused.

[infidel666]

I hate the words "good" and "evil." They really piss me off. If you want to make a persuasive statement, talk about "beneficial" and "harmful." "Good" and "evil" is just crazy talk about crazy things that require irrational belief in the existence of super natural beings to give them meaning. As soon as I see those words, alarms go off. "Moral" and "immoral" is another set of caution words. Whose morals are we talking about? Usually, it turns out whoever it is is talking about religious law.

People say I am one of the most moral people they know. I'm always quick to point out that it is because it is in my nature to behave that way, and not some set of rules I follow.