Question For Fellow Atheists...

[ignoramus]

Welcome matey from AU.

[Autolite]

Knowing that you are not alone also reduces the stress of being surrounded.

Yeah, that is what has brought me to this site. Personally, in real life, I don't know any other Atheists. I have one friend who's Agnostic but his wife is a hard-core christian so we never discuss religion at all...

[Angrboda]

How do you fellow Atheists reconcile the fact that most of the people that you know are basically mentally 'screwed-up'.

I don't view theists as mentally screwed up. People become theists for many reasons, but most of them have reasons for remaining theists. This is no different from the atheist who has their 'reasons'. We're all caught up in tendencies and biases which we didn't create and which we don't control. Some trend toward theism. Some trend toward atheism. In another world, I might've trended toward theism instead of away from it. I think this notion that theists are 'mentally screwed-up' comes from the fact that the theist's opinions are so far removed from our own that we can't fathom how they could come to them in their right mind. It's just an illusion that the distance between your and their opinions creates. It does, however, make one feel justified in having a negative opinion of them. It's self serving.

[Thumpalumpacus]

I treat people as they treat me. If they don't subject me to their faith, I don't subject them to pushback.

[Catholic_Lady]

So everyone who doesn't think like you cannot possibly be anything other than mentally screwed up? That's an extremely narrow minded view point.

[Autolite]

I don't view theists as mentally screwed up.

I just can't see it any other way. I mean, maybe a few hundred years ago Theism might have been justifiable but not in this day and age. We don't know everything, and probably never will, but today we know enough to know that there's no rational reason to think that there is any sort of god or gods.

OTOH, I don't buy into anything supernatural at all. My brain is just unable to accept anything like ghosts, gods, demons or spirits...

---

So everyone who doesn't think like you cannot possibly be anything other than mentally screwed up? That's an extremely narrow minded view point.

I assumed from the very start that it would be impossible for a Theist to understand what I'm talking about. That's why I specifically targeted "Fellow Atheists" with my questions. I'm only looking for answers from folks who can acknowledge reality...

[Jesster]

How do I deal with theists? Well, if they don't make it my business, then I treat them like anyone else and move on. If they try to bother me with religious garbage, though, I spray them in the eye with lemon juice. That gets rid of them really quickly.

[Brian37]

So everyone who doesn't think like you cannot possibly be anything other than mentally screwed up? That's an extremely narrow minded view point.

CL you ARE a nice person, and you DO take alot of heat here and still know we wont stab you to death. 

It isn't a matter of someone not thinking like you. It is your logic that mentally screws you up, not your mental health. Belief in the supernatural is an unfortunate side affect of antiquity that most people simply pass down to their kids, most people adapt the faith of their parents and most keep it their entire lives. 

You are not mentally ill in the context we are afraid you are going to go on a killing spree. You do mentally box yourself in because of someone introducing you to the concept you ended up buying into. When someone confronts you with the flaws in your logic, you mentally resort to defending it because you have conditioned yourself to defend it, not prove it. There is a difference between defending something with facts, and testing and falsification as a form of quality control, and what you did, which was buying first. 

Most people in the world are still stuck in the past and in that context living by antiquated claims from or viewpoint IS mentally screwing oneself out of the opportunity of opening their eyes to reality. 

You'd rightfully look at the theocracies of the middle east, or worship of the state like North Korea and think to yourself, "I wish they had the opportunity to see what I see". You'd rightfully like I do look at Iran or Saudi Arabia and say, "They have a messed up mentality".

Well we think the same of you, not your empathy, but your thought process. Liberals and conservatives still have a mentality of circling the wagon  and also do not understand under the same labels, even Catholics have conservatives, so do Jews and so do Muslims.

Your logic is what he is talking about, not your evolutionary empathy.

[Catholic_Lady]

I don't view theists as mentally screwed up.

I just can't see it any other way. I mean, maybe a few hundred years ago Theism might have been justifiable but not in this day and age. We don't know everything, and probably never will, but today we know enough to know that there's no rational reason to think that there is any sort of god or gods.

OTOH, I don't buy into anything supernatural at all. My brain is just unable to accept anything like ghosts, gods, demons or spirits...

---

So everyone who doesn't think like you cannot possibly be anything other than mentally screwed up? That's an extremely narrow minded view point.

I assumed from the very start that it would be impossible for a Theist to understand what I'm talking about. That's why I specifically targeted "Fellow Atheists" with my questions. I'm only looking for answers from folks who can acknowledge reality...

Why would it be impossible? Atheists are not the only ones who encounter ppl who don't think like them. We all do. And when we do, we have the choice of either looking down on them and assuming they're mental for not having the same view points, or accepting that different minds think differently and that doesn't make them mentally ill. I suppose the former might give the person a sense of superiority though.

[Autolite]

'Catholic Lady' thinks I'm narrow minded. I don't believe in leprechauns, unicorns or the Tooth Fairy either so perhaps she has a point...