General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: It's OK to be an atheist [View all]DirkGently
(12,151 posts)You are displaying a fundamental misunderstanding of what being non-religious means here.
Not buying other people's belief systems is not a belief system. This is the core idiocy of most complaints about atheism. It's not another form of religion. There isn't a book of dogma, or a set of rules. There are no uniforms or prayers. That's kind of the POINT.
Therefore not signing on to a religious faith does not create an obligation to provide a parallel alternative. Just not believing other people's religious ideas is the entirety of atheism.
Plenty of non-believers are active in doing various good things. Probably most of them, in fact. But they don't do it somehow "in the name of" non-religion, because that doesn't make sense. You could do that, if you wanted to, I guess, and maybe someone somewhere has, but there is no reason in the world to expect that, much less demand it. All lack of religion requires is not actively buying someone else's tradition.
You make it sound non-believers supposed to wave a flag or wear or uniform or shout slogans, or something, so that religious people will accept them. An argument which sounds, by the way, very much like bigoted demands that Muslims march around decrying terrorism to prove they are "the good ones."
No one is under any obligation to reassure religious people that non-religious people are just as good as they are, or that they don't hate them or hold them in contempt. Religious people are under an obligation not to assume the contrary.
As for mockery making people "kill themselves," really?
I would be very concerned if anti-religious sentiment was driving religious teens to suicide the way religious people's anti-gay bigotry has, for example. I don't think that's a realistic danger, however, do you? Without dogma and organization and the persecution of others that goes with it, people have nothing to fear, which again, is part of the point of not subscribing to religion in the first place.
All going to the original point that individual atheists being militant or snarky may show them to be jerks, but it holds no parallel whatsoever to religious dogma used to support everything from homophobia to outright murder. People being disagreeable about not agreeing with you may be uncouth on an individual basis, but it's not a group decision by the non-believers in the world, because by definition THERE IS NO ONE GROUP OF NON-BELIEVERS.