Stop calling atheists 'fundamentalists'

[TaraJo]

So, here's the idea: When someone calls us fundamentalists, point out the definition of fundamentalism. I already looked it up on the online dictionary and here's what I got:



(source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionar...amentalist)

Well, we obviously members of a 20th century protestant movement, are we? So that would mean we belong to the second definition of fundamentalism, right? Ask them what "set of basic principles" atheists "stressing strict and literal adherence to." It sure would be interesting to hear a response.

[ignoramus]

The atheist doctrine!

Deny god at all costs!


You happy now xtards!

[Rabb Allah]

The atheist doctrine!

Deny god at all costs!


You happy now xtards!

Al'hamdu le'elhu ahk!

[FreeTony]

So that would mean we belong to the second definition of fundamentalism, right? Ask them what "set of basic principles" atheists "stressing strict and literal adherence to." It sure would be interesting to hear a response.

I wouldn't be at all surprised for them to say the principles are naturalism, or some other bollock like that.


What they really mean is that people are vocal about their Atheism. This terrifies them, as they have little confidence that their fellow Christians won't deconvert when hearing an Atheist speak. I've yet to see an Atheist terrified that other Atheists will be turned into Christians (except for little children that can be easily manipulated).

In the UK it is a real social taboo to discuss beliefs, and I'd probably only know someone was a Christian/Atheist from looking at their bookshelf, or perhaps some mention of being at a Church on facebook. I have never talked to a Christian about their beliefs, apart from one time when I was drunk and asked the wife of a friend whether she believed in Hell. She laughed and said No, like that was something only nutcases believed in. She is probably the most hardcore Christian I know ( so about a 1/10 compared to American ones), and happily married to an Atheist.

[Rabb Allah]

I hope all atheists are fundamentalists because we only have the One Rule. It can't be that hard

[ignoramus]

The atheist doctrine!

Deny god at all costs!


You happy now xtards!

Al'hamdu le'elhu ahk!

Rabb, was that in Arabic or Klingon!

[Fidel_Castronaut]

I don't really mind when I get called a fundamentlist. It's usually quite fun to tell them how many people I won't be killing today (or ever) just because we disagree, and then ask what a fundamentalist religious person would do when confronted with the issue of disagreement.

[ManMachine]

Why do some theists, particularly religious ones, like so much to point out and accuse some atheists of being fundamentalists (similar to religious ones)? Don't they realize atheism has no dogmas, therefore there can't be any fundamentalism? Stop using that word theists, I don't think it means what you think it means!

(specially when talking about Mao Zedong, Stalin and other political leaders who were/are against religion)

If you adhere to the fundamental ideas or principles of anything you could be said to be a fundamentalist.

Language is not static, it is dynamic and associations change over time, I agree that fundamentalism began with 20th century American Protestantism but it has come to mean more than that. People who talk about Islamic fundamentalists are not suggesting that these people are Islamic followers of a 20th Century Christian movement, they are using it in a broader sense. If it can be applied to Islam then it can be applied to any ideology.

If you are a fundamentalist in the boarder sense and you assert atheism then you can be characterised as a fundamental atheist, without that being an allusion to some kind of atheist ideology.

MM

[Mudhammam]

you can be characterised as a fundamental atheist, without that being an allusion to some kind of atheist ideology.

MM

I'm not so sure. I can't remember ever hearing it used outside the allusion of some kind of atheist ideology.

Another term I like to scoff at is "evangelical atheist."

While it's true that evangelical can simply mean "zealous in advocating something," by that definition we're all evangelicals. But considering the way it's used and the strong association it has with the Christian church, I'm not sure it's ever been applied to anything outside of some insinuation that atheism is somehow comparable to a religion.

[vodkafan]

I am a Food Fundamentalist , I eat nothing else...