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What Irks You Most About Atheists, Agnostics, And Non-Believers?

Skwim

Veteran Member


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This isn't meant to get personal, ragging on your most detested atheist, agnostic, or non-believer, but to consider the most irksome general approaches and conduct they display.

Think in terms of, "They . . . ."


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Ellen Brown

Well-Known Member

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large.jpg

This isn't meant to get personal, ragging on your most detested atheist, agnostic, or non-believer, but to consider the most irksome general approaches and conduct they display.

Think in terms of, "They . . . ."


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I do my utmost to ignore them. They are entitled to think what they wish.
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
Basically nothing. Some of my friends and I used to be atheists/agnostics and understand from memory- how and why we used to disbelieve.

Or more precisely, there's nothing about non-believers which is per se bothersome. There are certain things a minority of both believers and non-believers do that is irksome, but it's not because of religion - some people are basically just annoying.
 
Some characteristics that I'm not fond of which may be present among my fellow irreligionists:

That (some of them) actually think they live their lives without relying on comforting fictions.

That many have an excessive faith in both their, and our species', ability to be consistently rational.

Also that many are remarkably credulous when it comes to believing anything negative about religion, no matter how absurd, or how much evidence exists to the contrary (which nicely illustrates the above point).

That many believe that mendacious actors cynically invented religion to control people.

That many believe, even though religions are man-made, religions are the cause of most violence in human history and that we'd have been significantly more peaceful with whatever man-made non-religious belief system we invented instead.

That some love quoting this despite it being quite obviously wrong to anyone who looks at it with even a modicum of critical insight: "Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."

Their love of presenting science and religion as analogues.
 

Liu

Well-Known Member
Well, I'm an agnostic myself in a way, but with some dogmatic atheists, what bothers me is that they can't see the psychological benefits of having a religion or don't accept agnostic theism as a form of theism, believing that one has to be delusional to be religious.
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
Nothing irks me about atheism. What does irk me is deliberate ignorance and lies and they can apply to anyone, they can be theist, deist or atheist. Many people are just down right annoying.
 

pearl

Well-Known Member
I think many Atheists know the Bible better than many believers as having their religious experience rooted in a strict fundamentalist religion. Once they are convinced that no longer makes sense the whole is abandoned.
 

Valjean

Veteran Member
Premium Member
When correct on a matter, they don't just bring the point home, they rub it into everyone's eyes like salt.
I don't see that as typical of atheists. They're usually pretty low key and self effacing, in my experience.
Do you have some examples?
Their fanboy adulation of the Fearless Leaders such as Dawkins
LOL. I'm not a "fanboy," though I'm sure he makes some cogent arguments. I'll bet most atheists don't even know who Dawkins is.
Most atheists, I think, keep a pretty low profile, and don't advertise their opinions, lest they find themselves in an unwanted debate.
 

Valjean

Veteran Member
Premium Member
Well, I'm an agnostic myself in a way, but with some dogmatic atheists, what bothers me is that they can't see the psychological benefits of having a religion or don't accept agnostic theism as a form of theism, believing that one has to be delusional to be religious.
Dogmatic? How can a lack of belief be a dogma?
Maybe you mean militant. Yes, there are a few militant atheists; atheists who will actually start a debate on the question, but I think their conspicuousness is all out of proportion to their numbers.
 

Erebus

Well-Known Member
I don't want to generalise all atheists here since atheism itself isn't the reason I'd have an issue with somebody. If we're talking pet peeves though, there are a couple of things that make me wince.

Sometimes a person will find a particular criticism of Abrahamic Monotheism and think they've found an all-purpose foil to theism and/or religion in general. I suspect this is cultural as if you've grown up in the Bible Belt or somewhere similar, it's very likely you haven't had much experience beyond the dominant religion of that area. That's understandable but it becomes an issue if that view is maintained in the face of contrary information.

The comforting fictions thing that @Augustus mentioned is also irritating. It's doubly irritating when that same person possesses a starry-eyed wonder at just how gosh darned great humans are.

Finally it's the jokes. George Carlin's invisible man in the sky routine was funny at the time but that joke has since been pounded into the dirt by repetition. It's the Knights Who Say Ni effect. Also, when somebody compares deities to fairies in an attempt to be derisive, it makes me sincerely wish that more people would do some bloody research. It's not necessarily an unfair comparison to make but when somebody does it with sparkly ballerinas in mind they really are showing their ignorance.

Again, this isn't a criticism of atheists as a whole nor is it a criticism of atheism itself. These are just behaviours from some people that I find irritating.
 

Vinayaka

devotee
Premium Member
Intolerance annoys me ... from anyone. To think that your personal egocentric view should be applied across the board ... well, just grow up already.
 
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