Asklemmy

We don't know right from wrong because we don't fear retribution from an almighty.

No morality. Eat children. Sleep with your partner when you're stuck in traffic. The source of all evil. Can't be trusted. Are always miserable.

Basically everything religious folks really are under the mask they wear.

If we just hear “the gospel” enough, we’ll come around. In reality, I hear street preachers, and see “Jesus loves you” stickers on street corners, and it turns me off even more.

That anyone outside of the US or the middle east even gives a fuck whether you're an atheist or not

That's weird guys come on

That because we are free from god or gods that we have no moral compass. I consider myself a good person and I have good moral standards. I don't need fear from punishment after death to do so.

Also that we have no spirituality.. Spirituality and religion kinda go hand in hand but aren't mutually exclusive. That being said, I have no desire for either religion or spirituality. Maybe when I'm closer to the later chapters

Perhaps not exactly what you're asking but one thing many religious people don't seem to get is that they're "atheists" aswell when it comes to all the other gods out there. The difference to atheism is that we just don't believe in their god either.

I don't know how many gods there are but for the sake of an argument, lets say 500. A Christian believes in 1 out of 500 gods and an atheist believes in 0 out of 500. We're not that different from each other after all.

That we despise people who have religious faith. I don't despise people with religious faith - I despise what religion does to people who have faith.

Where I am in Australia, if as a group (say of coworkers) talking about a new person, we might be like 'maybe don't say "Jesus fucking Christ" in front of Lisa, I'm pretty sure she's extremely Christian' or 'let's do lunch instead of drinks to celebrate the milestone, I'm pretty sure Vish is Muslim so we don't want him to feel left out'.

Majority of my peers are atheist. Religion only comes up in our lives when we're trying to be inclusive or respectful of the religious minority.

It's funny how some places can't do the same in reverse.

Edit to say, the thing is, to the majority of us, belief in a god is silly hocus pocus, drummed up by humans when we just didn't understand how things worked and the scientific method didn't exist. But as a respectful person living in a society, I live by the rules that you don't make fun of those silly ideas, and also that religion is intrinsically linked to people's cultures too. So I have a live and let live attitude to it.

Pity many Christians can't be that Christian.

That we do abortions for fun.

I mean, I do do abortions for fun. But not because I'm an atheist.

That I can't do religious stuff! I don't have to believe in the religious components to participate in an event that holds meaning to you. To me it's not sacred -- all just normal words being said and ordinary matter being handled according to some rules. I do that every day at work at the direction of a different kind of "higher power" (clients) without anger or discomfort, it's really not a big deal!

I'm not angry at god for not existing, nor am I angry at all the people who believe otherwise. If the invitation to your religious event is in good faith, I'm honored to attend, and will just keep to myself or make small talk. Plus I've studied enough faiths I can probably fake it, if keeping the situation under control requires it ;)

I've discovered that in practice, many people of different faiths are not sure what to think about this position. Most are OK with it, some not (I just give them their space). With the interesting exception of Buddhists! They've always been super excited to bring me along to the pagoda somehow. No one ever tried to convert me, and the monks often speak a surprising number of languages and are interesting and well traveled. It's become a set of surprisingly wholesome memories (I immigrated to a primarily Buddhist country)!

That it’s a religion. Except for a few groups, which I find kind of strange, being an atheist is the lack of religion and belief in a god. It’s not a religion or anything like a religion and so often I see atheism discussed by the religious in religious terms l, as a monolith, and other ways that just totally miss the mark.

I rarely eat babies

I don't hate religion or religious people. I just don't believe. I do find religions really interesting, though, historically and culturally.

I'm not an asshole to every single religious person that exists. It's only when someone brings up pushing religious ideologies that I get pissed.

I know that's a big one.

Or that we're "godless heathens" because not believing in a god somehow means not having morals.

Looking for an argument on every corner. Especially on the stupidest and most inhumane situations. That’s reserved for Christians.

That we don't have sympathy or empathy for religious people.

There is this strange idea that atheists are just rebellious against God because they don't want to be responsible for being moral, kinda like disobeying your parents and sneaking out to party.

Also, lots of theists assume atheists used to be religious, they don't really consider that people are raised without religion sometimes.

That we “hate” god. I don’t in believe in a god, how the fuck could I hate something I don’t think exists? It’s moronic

Like almost any marginalized group, atheists get caricatured by their most vocal members.

I probably would have become atheist a decade sooner if I hadn't associated it with the logocentric, Western chauvinist, and plain old bigots who first represented atheism to me.

There are plenty of us who aren't obsessed with religious debates; we don't hate religious people; and our cultural, political, and philosophical ideas are not frozen in 18^th^ Century Europe.

That we're smug knowitalls that just goes around looking for logical debates.

It’s not religion that’s the problem. It’s bad people. Religion becomes a vehicle for bad people to do bad things to vulnerable people.

Otherwise go ahead and do your meditations, rain dance, or give to your earth god for all I care.

I think we're stereotyped often as the militant and belligerent atheists quite a lot. We have been painted as unsympathetic assholes who like to talk down to religious people to make us feel better about ourselves, not to mention a weird overlap with some parts of the far-right, usually by way of transphobia, homophobia, racism, social darwinism and the enforcement of poorly understood or straight up incorrect "science"

Eugenecists inhabit this space, as well as people who might call themselves "race realists", as well as people who think their middle-school-level understanding of genetics and sex encapsulates the entirety of gender and sexuality. It's those atheists who claim to love science, hate ignorance, but remain ignorant of science. They give us a bad name, and their loudness makes it seem like they represent us

Honestly I am mostly bothered by the "reddit atheist" stereotype. Most of the atheist even on Reddit, that I have met, even in Reddit, were as annoying or pleasant as everyone else. But it feels like if you oppose religious nonsense as it gets pushed in your face online, "everyone" thinks you are some radical who hates all e.g. christians, while in reality you might intentionally buy some handmade crafts for the local church to support some charity and support your elderly local community by rewarding their social efforts.

I live in a country that is on the surface quite ateist and nobody is openly religious, not even Muslim immigrants.

So i really got nothing.

I shave my neck

That we have to have faith to be an atheist. Complete nonsense, of course.

A lot of people like to say that atheists traffics with demons to solve their daily problems, routinely play with Satan's gigantic cock, and do a fuck ton of drugs and I'm here to put the rumors to rest. I have never once even seen Satan's gigantic cock, nonetheless held it in my hands.

I been told that if god was 100% proven is real, I would have to bend the knee and love and worship him.

Fuck that, if he is real I am going to make it my life mission to kill god. He ain't looking like much of a good guy to me.

That when we see a fish on the back of their car, we know we're going to be following a really considerate driver.

That you are enlightened, not by a phony God’s blessing but by your own intelligence