"Why is Atheism on the Rise?"

[Tails Turrosaki]

Found this on another site. Thought it was EXTREMELY interesting. Though you guys might want to read, too...

SOURCE: http://thinkingaloudforum.com/forum/view...17&t=12327

Living in the US, religion is something that seems to be taking more, and more of a front-line view in everyday life. That is not to say that we are in a US version of the religious theocracy of somewhere like Saudi Arabia, or that religion is forced onto people, BUT, it is beginning to get to the point where everyday life is getting saturated with the incessant ramblings of fundamental Christians, news of Fundamental Islamic terror, and the constant barrage of God. Why does this bother me? Well, here is what I’m talking about...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFK0n4CgN1Q

Crazy Tracy? I can think of a few words to describe her. You see it is not regular religious folk that are the problem. They go to work, put out the rubbish, and say hi to different folks. No problem... Fundamentalists are the ‘dangerous’ ones. Not dangerous in the ‘I’m going to cut your head off in a moment’ type dangerous, (although that can be applied to certain factions of the Muslim world), but dangerous in the way that they could quite easily lead the country down a path of utter prejudice, hatred, intolerance based entirely on their own interpretation of a book, and trust me, if you are going to be a Bible literalist, you had better be prepared to become another Hitler.

“But why should we care what these people say? It is not impinging on my life”, I hear you yell. Well, as I said, normal religious folks don’t. However, more and more in recent times, the religious right is taking more, and more of a foothold, not to mention the fact that the socialist ‘values’ mean that it is quickly becoming illegal to actually criticise, and argue against these people. They seem to have free reign to insult, condemn, protest, and claim moral superiority over the rest of us, and yet...



So, I think the atheists of the world, who are quite frankly tired of all this religious bullshit, and are at the point where OUR belief, (for want of a better word), needs to be taken into account. OUR opinions need to be brought into play.

Religion, and all of its teachings are inherently wicked, (to use Hitchens term). Examples of this are not hard to find, and you’ll find it on your daily news channels, and hardcopy news providers. For example, the Westboro Baptist Church... Why is it they can pretty much say whatever they want?





Well, a recent resolution being prepared in the UN, supported by the US administration, is going to proclaim that criticism of religion is illegal! As absurd as it sounds, religion is getting a foothold, and it needs to be countered actively, and not by merely sitting back and saying “it is nothing to o with me’. It has everything to do with you, and while you get on with your life, others are actively fighting to have their point of view enforced onto you, to the point whereby you cannot even address what they are saying. Here’s Pat Condell...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjSjpNe1-Vc


The fundamentally religious bother us with their insistence that they are all about compassion, love, understanding, and tolerance, when quite frankly the complete opposite is true. You have to take a mere cursory glance at what is going on in the world to see that compassion, understanding, etc, are seemingly very far from the mind of the fundamentalist religious nut-job, and quite often from your run of the mill religious god-botherer. Religion is based on the premises of fear, hatred, intolerance, and the very notion that is is a ‘good’ thing is utterly ridiculous, not to mention the sheer arrogance that they somehow feel that their beliefs are above all others. I am first to admit that they can believe what the hell they want, I’m not interested in the slightest, however, they can’t decry me as immoral, and try to force their views upon me without some sort of rational response. To think otherwise would be either verging on fascist, or mean they have a desire to live in a theocracy, which is hardly democratic, nor free. . I can’t remember the last time an Atheist came to my door to tell me about their lack of faith, or turned on the TV and heard about someone going on a killing spree because of their Atheist beliefs, or in the name of Atheism.





Remember the farcical debacle regarding the Danish Mohammed cartoons? Now this is the sort of thing where the hypocrites will come out of the woodwork, feigning upset, and abuse. The fact remains that they feel that their beliefs are above others, namely the newspaper, and primarily the artist. death threats were issues, and protests all over the world sprang up, and ironically, those who were protesting were merely falling into the ‘stereotype’ that the cartoon portrayed.






Unfortunately, freedom of speech is slowly being eroded by these people. They have no issue with cramming what they can about their beliefs, and should the opposite be true, (and not necessarily regarding beliefs, rather simple moral questions), they stamp their feet like petulant children, and cry intolerance, and oppression. The sooner these people are shown that they do not trump the rest of us, nor do they have the right to impose their middle age views on us, the better. I wouldn’t mind, but Islamic cartoonists have been drawing cartoons about jews for many, many years, and alas, it seems to be OK for them to do it.






The notion of hell if you do not believe, (whether you have led a good life or not), as well as the death sentence for Apostasy, genital mutilation, oppression of women, etc. By far the most dangerous of the religious, is the literalist. These people believe that the Bible is the TRUE word of God, and that it must be taken literally. Well, for anyone who has read the old testament knows that this particular notion is indeed terrifying. I don’t think there has been a book before with as much death, torture, slavery, killing, genocide, etc, as the old testament. Taking this as the word of God is indeed a dangerous stance indeed.




Then we have the ever present drive to teach creationism, or “intelligent design” in the science class rooms. Now I’m all for science, and the peer-review method. It works, and yes, theories will change, and egt thrown out as mans knowledge increases, and we know more and more about the world around us. Can somebody PLEASE tell me where ID comes into play for this? There is zero scientific basis... Despite what the lunatics on the other side say. Absolutely zip. They can wave their banners, and proclaim their faith in whatever they want on this issue, but in the SCIENCE room, faith has no place... Science does, along with mathematics, biology, chemistry, and physics, etc. Invisible men, creating things out of nothing, (I thought that was impossible?), has NO basis whatsoever. Anybody who says so is an imbecile, and should be heeded no further. I’d suggest watching Thunderf00t’s series, “Why we laugh at creationists”, for this particular issue, as he can explain it, and debunk it far better than I can.




‘Militant’ atheism has come very much into the mainstream through the likes of Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Pat Condell, San Harris, and Thunderf00t, (yes, I will put Thunderf00t in amongst these folks), and quite frankly I like nothing more that watching a debate with another ‘mind’ on the subject of religion, evolution, and the origin of the universe. Please, please, please go and find their stuff. I have posted youtube links on the previous page, but a simple google will find all you need.


So, modern life is getting to the point where religion DOES matter, and it seems what you do, or do not believe in matters. Have a look at the reaction to Obama’s mention of .non-believers’ in his inaugural address. Are these people for real?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twoXZE9U0Io


Well, I sure hope I don’t offend anyone with this website, especially as it seems Atheists are not permitted to actually partake in society any longer. It is time atheists spoke up, before it is too late.

[littlegrimlin1]

lolwatwatwat, behead those who say islam is violent???? hahhaha, I need to make a quote of that in my quote book thingy.

God hates fag enablers, lol, pure comedy.

[Meatball]

tl;dr

I think in the long term, atheism is on the rise due to the ever-growing body of scientific knowledge explaning religious wonders and rendering it obsolete in some areas.

In the short term, I think people are just becoming a little more 'aware'. There are a lot of people who claim a religious label for social reasons, and really don't have strong religious convictions. It's more of a tradition than a lifestyle. Recently things like the 9/11 attacks and the Westboro Baptist Church stand as widely publicized examples of why religion is damaging, and I think they've made a lot of people think twice about defaulting to a religious stance. Not just on a person-to-person level, but it's spawned a cultural backlash against religion, with the high-profile "New Atheist" movement that saw things like The God Delusion, God is not Great, and Religulous hit the mainstream.

That was rambling and probably didn't make sense.

[downbeatplumb]

Atheism is on the rise because the pendulum of belief swings.

We get people rebelling agaianst their liberal 60s parents and become uptight rightwing theists.

Now we have the start of people rebelling against their uptight arsehole theists by becoming liberal athiests.

Some people would do anything to piss off their parents.

That or education.

[littlegrimlin1]

Exactly Meatball, we are more aware of everything through science. Science is the basis for all understanding.

[fr0d0]

It's just got fuckall to do with religion

[chatpilot]

Crazy Tracy needs some serious psychological help.