Why do atheists get singled out like this?

[Ace Otana]

Or is it because we don't believe that in a universe that has 1 billion galaxies with a billion stars in each that your sky daddy (not mummy (typical religious sexism)) picked this one for life.

The universe is estimated to have around 125 billion galaxies, and a galaxy can contain more than 700 sextillion stars (700,000,000,000,000,000,000,000), not to mention the number of planets orbiting those stars. Times that huge number by 125 billion and that should give you some idea of just how many planets are out there. Statisticaly speaking, the chance of there being life on other planets are extremely high.

I love science.

[Darwinian]

And that's only the observable universe. Who knows how far it stretches beyond our 13 billion light year window and how many other universes are swimming around in the multiverse.

[5thHorseman]

I got my figures from Dr Brian Cox from his wonders of the universe program, guess going into sextillions maybe a bit much for many laymen.

Funny isnt it that there is more chance of another planet sustaining another life form, then there being a god.

I too love science.

[Ace Otana]

[Rohobian]

There is such a lot of bollocks being talked on this thread. Atheism is unpopular because a lot of its proponents/ or the vocal minority are aggressive know it alls. It's a negative position and negativism is naturally unpopular.

Was MLK also an aggressive know it all? It's not a negative position. The way I see it, we're all being told to shut up, even though we're right. The way I see it, it's the religious people of the world that are aggressive... they are the ones trying to shun those that actually present evidence and facts to back their claims. Atheists are fighting to no longer be oppressed and shunned. We're fighting to not be discriminated against.

If we are quiet about it, we will always be looked down upon by religious people. We have a movement, just like any other minority had over the last century.

Religion is a silly fairy tale, and for us to point that out, for some reason, is considered aggressive and "know-it-all"? There are millions of people out there that think they're not allowed to not believe in a god. I think it's important for those people to know that it's perfectly ok. They are afraid to be different, yet, 16% of the world's population are of secular beliefs. I'm willing to bet that there are plenty more atheists that just don't want to make it known because they're afraid of how they will be perceived by their peers. The fact that people are afraid to be known as an atheist speaks volumes to how intolerant and aggressive religious people in some places are.

So don't give me this crap about atheists being negative. Pointing out the truth is not negativity. It's REALITY. Atheists are the ultimate realists.

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Or is it because we don't believe that in a universe that has 1 billion galaxies with a billion stars in each that your sky daddy (not mummy (typical religious sexism)) picked this one for life.

The universe is estimated to have around 125 billion galaxies, and a galaxy can contain more than 700 sextillion stars (700,000,000,000,000,000,000,000), not to mention the number of planets orbiting those stars. Times that huge number by 125 billion and that should give you some idea of just how many planets are out there. Statisticaly speaking, the chance of there being life on other planets are extremely high.

I love science.

I think that might even be a gross underestimation of how many galaxies there are. A few years ago, there was an experiment using hubble. They picked a very small point in the sky about the size of a pencil tip held at arm's length. This spot was dark. They pointed hubble at that spot for 20 minutes at a time, and repeated this 400 times, every time hubble orbited to the spot that would allow it to do so. They were hoping to find a star or 2. They found 10,000 galaxies. A galaxy contains on average about 150 billion stars. That's 1.5 quadrillion stars in that one tiny point alone. I don't know how much of our observable area that tiny point represents, but I'm willing to bet it's at most, 1/1,000,000,000th of our observable area in the sky. If this is true, that means there's (very conceivably) at least 1.5 septillion (1,500,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) stars that we can potentially see. With the technology of our telescopes improving all the time, I would not in the least bit be surprised if we found out that even THAT was a gross underestimation.

The math on the number of galaxies btw, would make it about 10 trillion galaxies, if my estimation of "how much of our observable sky is in a pencil tip at arm's length" is roughly correct.

[Gawdzilla]

It's actually just the "uppity" atheists that they hate. If we were to sit quietly at the back of the bus like good "boys and girls", they could just pretend we weren't there.

[Zen Badger]

[Strongbad]

[Ace Otana]

I think if everyone actually understood what atheism is, the poll results would be significantly different.

More to it I reckon. Many refuse to accept what atheism is. They like to redefine it whenever possible. They don't like the fact that it's not a religion.
Also they hate the fact that the burden is not on us. We're in a very comfortable position. No expectations, no requirements, no burden of proof, no need for faith, no religious rules to follow. Pure and simple, lack of belief in the existence or god or gods.

They can't handle the truth.

[frankiej]

Ah, science... Such a marvellous thing...

The universe would instantly become less wonderful and awesome if we found out God created it... As it would all be explained as "Goddidit".

The people who believe in a God... Or don't trust science, are really missing out on how amazing reality is...

A friend of mine (a philosopher...of course) isn't even sure if you can trust logic... He doubts far too much... He misses out on the wonders of the universe as he refuses to believe that most if not all things can be explained mathematically.

He sucked at maths though... And all science subjects.