Why Are Atheists So Angry?
"Why are all atheists so angry?"
I hear this question all the time. In fact, my Rambo-Kitty avatar is partially inspired by the question. Anyway, today I was reading an article about the debate between Sam Harris and Rick Warren, and was struck by Warren's statement, "I've never met an atheist who wasn't angry."
My first reaction was denial. Many atheists, myself included, are happy most of the time. My atheist friends are great fun to hang out with. We laugh and joke and drink beer, and hardly ever mention religion.
My second reaction, I confess, was anger. How dishonest of him to try to discount atheism by labeling us all as angry malcontents! This is exactly why people like him make me angry!
That's when it hit me, square in the forehead. He's not being dishonest. I don't doubt that every atheist he's met has been angry. If I met him, he'd almost certainly make me angry, too. That's just it! HE makes atheists angry, so they're all angry around him. So, I forgive him for thinking that all atheists are angry. I understand how he made the mistake.
Anyway, I'd like to reflect on "Atheist Anger" for a few minutes, and ask a couple of questions.
First, why is it a bad thing to be angry? The suffragists were quite angry, and for good reason. New Zealand had granted women equal voting rights in 1893, and America, supposedly the land of equality, was violently opposed to the idea twenty years later. There are still plenty of women who are angry because women make less money doing the same jobs as men in many industries, and women are often not even considered for promotions when they're equally (or better) qualified for the position. Are they wrong for being angry? Should they just sit quietly and wait for men to realize the error of their ways? Some people think so. I've noticed that the majority of them are men.
Am I making a valid comparison? Is it reasonable to compare life as an atheist in America in 2007 to life as a woman in the early 20th century? Clearly there are significant differences. Atheists can vote. They can, in theory, hold public office. They can get married, sign contracts, work wherever they're qualified. So, do we atheists have a right to be angry in the same way suffragists had?
To answer that question, I'll recall some more history. In Mosaic law, as we all know, women were slightly better than slaves. They had no property rights. In Roman law, women were completely dependent on male relations for all legal matters, and when they were married, it was a matter of purchase between two families.
Here, we can ask a pointed question. Do women have the right to be angry that they're not making as much as men in the workplace? After all, they can vote, own property, divorce their husband, sue him for child support and alimony, and live quite happily on their own. This country is one of the best places in the world to be a woman! What right do women have to be angry?
If your skin prickled a little bit when you read the previous paragraph, good for you. You're halfway to understanding why atheists have a right to be mad. The reason women still have a right to be mad is that things are still not equal. They have no obligation to remain silent simply because they have it better than someone who lived a hundred, or a thousand years ago. The reason women have it better now is that people were angry all through history, and made small gains here and there over many generations. Without the fuel of anger, women would still be property, and wouldn't even have the opportunity to be mad about making less money in the workplace.
So, what about us atheists? Do we have a right to be mad? Actually, yes. Did you know we've had atheist presidents? We have. I'll let you do your own homework on this, but it might surprise you to learn that many of the leaders of the U.S. throughout history have been openly atheist. Is this possible today? One congressman in California recently admitted to being atheist, and it caused a nationwide stir! It remains to be seen whether he'll be reelected. To be sure, he'll be attacked for being godless and amoral when election time comes around.
Until the McCarthy Era, the pledge of allegiance didn't have the word "God." Money didn't have "In God We Trust." Until the 70s, Christians were not actively involved in politics for the purpose of legislating religious values. Clearly, America is more theist than it used to be, at least politically. So, are things getting better for atheists? I dare say they're not. Unlike women, our situation is not improving. We are not being afforded more respect. Rather, we are being legislatively pushed farther into the margins where we have been quietly lurking for sixty years since the Red Scare.
To bring things back around, recall my comment about my atheist friends and I sitting around having beers and laughs. This is a good picture for you to hold in your mind's eye when you think of me, or any other atheist. This is what we want. We don't like being angry any more than women who'd like to be paid more. I'm sure all the angry feminists would rather things were better for women so they wouldn't have to be angry anymore. It's the same with atheists. If we were a bit less hated, vilified, and marginalized, it would be a lot easier for us to be in the presence of theists and not get angry.
Why are atheists so angry? Because things could be better, and we don't like being marginalized.
Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo. -- H. G. Wells
It works as a very simple
It works as a very simple refutation:
Atheists are angry; therefore god exists.
I love it as much as the
I love it as much as the first time I read it. I am glad you posted it here Hamby.
"The Puritans gave thanks for being preserved from the Indians, and we give thanks for being preserved from the Puritans." - Finley Peter Dunne
Hambydammit wrote: Why
A man brotha, A MAN!
Great piece.
"I basically subscribed after I checked out that thread that Sapient posted on expenses and the like. Groceries are one of the most important items, so I'm hoping I'm helping there and I'm hoping I help Sapient break even. If I can help stop him from dipping into the retirement fund, I'll be happy." - The Sarge
This piece is essentially
This piece is essentially my personal mission statement. I have been routinely bumping it every couple of months so new members, and particularly new theists, can see it.
I am moving some of my better essays to book pages, so that maybe one day I'll have enough to call it a Compilation of Works by Hambydammit.
We'll see how prolific I am.
Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo. -- H. G. Wells
"Compliation of Works by
"Compliation of Works by Hambydammit" - if that was a book, I'd buy it.
Great post
Thank you for this.
Thank you for this. Well-written, relevant, and poignant.
Bump. It's my opinion that
Bump.
It's my opinion that this essay is never anything less than intensely relevant. I'm not ashamed of self-promotion.
Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo. -- H. G. Wells
zarathustra wrote: It
This is, by far, the best ontological argument I ever eared for God's existence.
lol
Si Dieu existe, c'est Son problème !
If God exists, it's His problem !--Graffiti on the walls of the Sorbonne (France), May 1968
romancedlife.blogspot.com
this comes to
this comes to mind,
Mandela liked it, and quoted it , me too ....
LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE!!
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure!
It is our Light, not our darkness, that frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn't serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are born to make manifest the Glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us. It's in everyone.
And as we let our own Light shine,
We unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our fears,
Our presence automatically liberates others."
-- Marianne Williamson
(in her book "A Return to Love" )
, ever hang out with Alice Walker ? Another great girl ?
wrote "color purple" , letters to god ! ?
Girls rock,
bible paul was a talented retard
who wrote a good one about LOVE
go figure/ ?
here it is ---
PAUL : "If I could speak in any language in heaven or on earth but didn't love others, I would only be making meaningless noise like a loud gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I knew all the mysteries of the future and knew everything but didn't love others, what good would I be? And if I had the gift of faith so that I could speak to a mountain and make it move, without love I would be no good to anybody. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it but if I didn't love others, I would be of no value whatsoever.
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
Love will last forever, but prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will all disappear. Now we know only a little, and even the gift of prophecy reveals little! But when the end comes, these special gifts will all disappear.
It's like this: When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child does. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly as in a poor mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God knows me now.
There are three things that will endure - faith, hope, and love - and the greatest of these is love."
chapter 13
Paul's First Letter
to the Corinthians
?
.... mad men can say great things too
and change their minds ....
can you ?
paul and jesus ?
me / you / god
a buddha too !
hambydammit, why is it ok
hambydammit, why is it ok for you to get upset at being lump summed(spelled right?) but ok for athiests to do it to Christians. Its wrong either way.
Quote: hambydammit, why is
Huh?
Are we reading the same essay? Seriously, what are you talking about? I have no idea what the question is.
Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo. -- H. G. Wells
seen too much
This statement makes atheists angrey as it would if you replaced the word atheist with "Christian", it would make Christians angrey.
Disliking what religion does to politics. Disliking the violence done in the name of religion. Disliking hocus pocus claims that dumb down society and attempt to make science class into science fiction class, is NOT the same as saying, "I hate all Chrisitans".
I DONT hate all Christians and I am sure not all Christians hate all atheists. But this statement assumes that WE cant make that distinction which is patently false and a stereotype in and of itself and that DOES make me angrey.
Contact all the 08 Presidental candidates and remind them of their Constitutional duty to uphold "no religious test" www.rationalresponders.com/forum/sapient/news_activism/8955
HAHA They are angry because
HAHA They are angry because they know they are wrong and the only way they think they can get their point across is by brute force.
God Bless your souls!!
And we have no evidence whatsoever that the soul perishes with the body---------Mahatma Gandhi
Quote: HAHA They are angry
HAHA you mean like... um... I should believe so I don't burn in hell.
That's the kind of brute force you're talking about, I think.
Seriously, beliver... by the way, is that like, I Be Living Because I Not Be Dying?... anyway... Seriously, do you really believe that atheists know there's a god, and that they're going to hell, and they're doing that on purpose? You must think us all completely insane, for only a completely insane person would knowingly go to hell.
So, which is it? Do you think that everyone who's not a Christian is insane, or do you think that maybe we don't "know we're wrong."
If every atheist is insane, how could god then judge us for our insanity? If we can't see reality clearly, how could we possibly be sent to hell, when we couldn't even understand the choice properly?
So, if you're right, and we do know we're going to hell, then God is still an asshole for making us insane and still sending us to hell. If you're wrong, then gee whiz... You're wrong.
Thanks for playing.
Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo. -- H. G. Wells
Ok... I have another
Ok... I have another theory... beliver is like... I Not Be Colon, I Be Liver. Livers are much cooler than colons. Livers rule.
Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo. -- H. G. Wells
HAHA funny. Your right!
HAHA funny. Your right! I think livers are cooler than colons and I had my colon removed 4 years ago!!
But on the serious side of the name, as if it really matters, it was a complete accident that I spelled it that way. When I tried to log on I could not figure out why it was not working until I checked my email and realized that I had spelled it wrong.
And yes, if your insane I think your going to heaven because well, your insane and can't be blamed for your non belief. And no it's not God's fault your insane it's, well, most likely a combination of your enviroment and plain bad freakin luck. Maybe someone didn't take enough prenatal vitamins?
Bye now. I have to go to a basketball game and have some fun!
Take care and God Bless ya.
And we have no evidence whatsoever that the soul perishes with the body---------Mahatma Gandhi
I just felt a surge of
I just felt a surge of warmth in my chest after reading that God has blessed me. On further reflection, I think it was the orange blossom mate tea that I swallowed immediately before reading.
But on the serious side of the discussion, I'm glad you think that if I'm insane I'm not going to hell. You didn't exactly answer my question, though. Do you think all atheists are insane, or do you want to recant your statement that atheists know they're wrong.
Oh, and since we're talking about spelling and grammar, the word "your" is an adjective denoting possession, as in "your ability to spell." "You're" is a contraction, short for "you are," as in "if you're insane, god won't send you to hell."
Not a huge deal, but like it or not, people take you more seriously when you use good grammar.
Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo. -- H. G. Wells
No edit button in this
No edit button in this thread ???
my post above would better read,
'beautiful words from the angry, the abused, the rebellious and chauvinist Paul'
-- This is worth reading ,
'Good Medicine For This World'
Buddhist's, Pema Chödrön and novelist Alice Walker on meditation .....
http://www.shambhalasun.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=1929
Pema Chödrön: "It’s seeing that the cause of someone’s aggression is their suffering. And you could also realize that your aggression is not going to help anything.
So you’re standing there, you are being provoked, you are feeling aggression, and what do you do? That’s when tonglen [meditation] becomes very helpful. You breathe in and connect with your own aggression with a lot of honesty. You have such a strong recognition in that moment of all the oppressed people who are provoked and feeling like you do. If you just keep doing that, something different might come out of your mouth.
Alice Walker: And war will not be what comes out."
~~~
Google Rebellious Quotes ....
"In order for the artist to have a world to express he must first be situated in this world, oppressed or oppressing, resigned or rebellious, a man among men." Charles Baudelaire
"The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion." Albert Camus
"Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion." Oscar Wilde
"A little rebellion now and then... is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government." Thomas Jefferson
~ ALL RRS Author Hambydammit essays are super .....
Great read. Finally got
Great read. Finally got around to reading it.
It makes me furious.
- Tarpan
Oh for God's sake do you
Oh for God's sake do you people really have to pick everything apart and find simple english mistakes in order to mess with someone?
I have never been to any site that was so on the attack. But you never say anything to another non believer. You gang up like school children. If you want to teach english get a job doing so. Schools will have no problem with you if God isn't in your life. They will be thrilled.
I have spent my time in school and don't need correction by any of you. My BA in business administration, Associate in Nursing and minor in accounting are all the higher education I need for now, thanks.
You can use all the "big words" you want but it won't make any of you any smarter. Common sense is what you need a lot more of.
Anyone with any bit of brains should know that we were created and didn't evolve from cellular pond life. So insane could be a good word. If you think people who pray to God are insane then what do you expect?
Keep drinking orange drinks, the aroma will lift your mood.
God Bless.
And we have no evidence whatsoever that the soul perishes with the body---------Mahatma Gandhi
I don't know how we came to
I don't know how we came to be. At least I'm big enough to admit that. You have no reason other than blind faith to believe what you believe. That is the big difference here.
You are not strong minded enough to admit that you simply don't know, and you need a story to fill in the gaps of things you don't understand. I am confident enough in myself to admit that I don't know and maybe someday I'll look further into the various theories outside of religion, but religion does not provide facts it only provides stories.
- Tarpan
Quote:
Nope. In fact, I rarely do. You can see that for yourself if you dig around a bit. In your case, it seemed appropriate.
We take the debate to the level of the opponent. Again, if you dig into some of the more extended debates, I think you'll find that we're quite capable of engaging opponents in a very austere manner.
I have taught in schools. Unfortunately, my atheism did matter.
Good for you. Please apply some of your critical thinking skills to your belief in god. You'll be surprised.
Oh, the irony.
Says the person who can't even explain the fundamental principles of evolution.
Or can you?
I'm glad I at least got your dander up a bit. That condescending HAHA attitude was getting on my nerves. At least you're expressing something a little more genuine now.
Actually, my mood is pretty wonderful. My girlfriend and I laughed heartily at your posts and then watched a movie. I've had a great night's sleep, and now you've amused me again.
Thanks.
Bless yourself.
Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo. -- H. G. Wells
Good for you! We had a
Good for you!
We had a great night also. Our basketball team won the game and I sleep fantastic. But, woke with a sore throat. I guess I need some nice tea.
I am done in this topic, but will continue to pray for you.
Bless you and your girlfriend.
And we have no evidence whatsoever that the soul perishes with the body---------Mahatma Gandhi
I will read the phone book
I will read the phone book for you. It's just as effective, yet has more information.
- Tarpan
Anyone notice the poorly
Anyone notice the poorly concealed anger in Beliversrule's passive-agressive posts? Why are theists so angry?
“Philosophers have argued for centuries about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, but materialists have always known it depends on whether they are jitterbugging or dancing cheek to cheek" -- Tom Robbins
Vessel wrote: Anyone notice
Everything you have been taught and invested your life into has been a lie and utter bullshit. Wouldn't you be angry?
- Tarpan
Quote: Anyone notice the
Give the man a cigar!
Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo. -- H. G. Wells
Hambydammit
Bolivar Churchills, please.
“Philosophers have argued for centuries about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, but materialists have always known it depends on whether they are jitterbugging or dancing cheek to cheek" -- Tom Robbins
Your funny vessel. Boobs
Your funny vessel. Boobs and all.
Did any of you see the interview of Laura Ingraham and Brian Sapient? Yes, I know, if you saw it she was a big old bully. She rocked!
And we have no evidence whatsoever that the soul perishes with the body---------Mahatma Gandhi
As an atheist I only become
As an atheist I only become angry when my psych meds wear off and then realize that I am still living in this fucked up world that God supposedly made.
Other than that, I'm as happy as lark.
"But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them, bring them here and kill them in front of me." Jesus, (Luke 19:27)
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8uln_drowning-pool-tear-away_music