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Does anyone else get: “ You can’t be an Atheist, you’re so nice and friendly”? It’s like if you’re an Atheist you must be an angry and evil demon!

Greysdad 4 Mar 10
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32 comments

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0

"You just need to read the bible."

"Reading the bible cemented my Atheism."

You forgot to cherry pick.

8

Same here. It's hilarious, if not a bit sad, that people actually believe that humans need religion to be moral.
If one needs a religious text and the threat of eternal damnation to decipher right from wrong, then they must struggle morally more than I.

Mea Level 7 Mar 10, 2018
7

I hate the "what happened?" AWW type of reactions

7

I am an angry and evil demon, not that there's anything wrong with that.

Same

7

There's so many out there that think you can't possibly be a moral, friendly, kind, compassionate human without knowing "god", or accepting the Jesus-man, or some such silliness. If you're not an admitted "god-fearing" (how I dislike that term !), sinner - you be goin' to hell ....

6

Actually I get "you're such an asshole, are you sure you don't believe in God?"!

6

haha, yeah, people think I am joking.
I work with a lot of religious people in a week, many of these are really gullible, nice people, but they believe so strionly what they have been told. When they start on about religion, I will say, I am not into it, I am an atheist, a heretic.
"no you're not!"
is the usual response.

5

All the time! I've started telling those who say it that I left my horns in my other purse, and do they want to have a baby for lunch with me?

5

Yes, and sometimes they tell me that I'll change. Nope. I'm not buying it! The more I know the farther away I get from religion.

4

I am an angry and evil demon, I thought this was angry evil demons anonymous am I in the wrong place?

AEDA I like it!

3

Its a strange one for people to think that you can't be a good person doing good things if you are not religious. What the hell and what a lie Just because there was Madelyn Murray Ohare was an Athiest doesn't mean that everyone is a bitch like her.

As much as I admire the work of Madelyn and ‘The First Family of Atheism,’ ..she did set an angry tone..

3

I've never experienced this, but if I did I would have to ask the person if they had ever met a nun

😂

I have met none nuns.

2

I particularly like the ones "So does that mean you workship the devil?" To which I like to answer something like "Golly gee no. Those people are silliar than you guys."

I don't believe in your Sky Daddy.
Why would I believe in your Ground Goblin?

2

I haven't experienced this much myself, largely due to being British.

The native white British population doesn't really 'do' religion anymore, and hasn't done so for several generations. Being agnostic is the norm, and being religious is seen as a bit odd, and something most people keep quiet about, since they are likely to be seen as being a 'bit soft in the head'.

The situation is a little different with immigrants from the third world, as they tend to bring their religions with them.

The reason why this is an issue in America is that a lot of Christians are operating from a false premise - that premise being that morality comes from God. Ergo, no God = no morality.

Many small town mid western (I.e. bible belt) Americans are quite insular it seams and have little knowledge of the world outside of the USA.

They are probably not aware that there are countries out there that are almost exclusively agnostic, whilst having much higher standards of living, better education, better healthcare provision and better social security arrangements than America, whilst also having far lower rates of crime, creating less pollution, recycling more and donating a much larger percentage of their GDP to foreign aid.

"By the way, I am aware of the irony of being a country of agnostics whilst also being one of the few countries that actualy has a state religion (Anglican Church of England) so don't bother pointing that out" 😉

Nomad Level 6 Mar 11, 2018

Brilliant. Thank you. Though such an accurate description both saddens me, and shames my nation (usa), it gives me hope for the world..

2

People who have met me once or twice always say I'm so nice. And I wonder who the hell they're talking about

Ha ha ha! Know exactly what you mean! Classic response MrPKitty.

2

You can thank Madalyn Murray O'Hair for that.

She was America's first exposure to Atheism and also an absolute bitch.

I've long thought that she was an unfortunate example. I see some of the old timers in the local meet-up revering her for being so open and think to myself "but she didn't make us look good" .

@SherryMartin She was more Narcissist than Atheist.

LOOK At Me!

I’d say the US rhetoric demeaning the “Godless Communists” predated Madelyn… And, she likely needed a near reckless anger to combat the forces in place at that time. Action like hers is what ‘gave’ women the vote -- and kept me from praying in grade school...

@LoriMcAfee Many considered Cassius Clay/ Muhammad Ali a cocky narcissist … but like Madalyn, he could fight 😉

@Varn Loved that man.

Only hero that never let me down.

What a man...what a man...what a man.

What a mighty good man

He's a mighty, mighty Good man.

@Varn She even treated her family horribly.

She was not a good Atheist spokes person.

1

And then there's the people who are convinced that Atheists are actually Satanists. Um, nope, don't believe in that imaginary being either.
I mostly don't talk about my (lack of) belief publicly, though, I work with children. It's tacitly assumed by most people that I must be Christian. Uggh.

Exactly - just as my 'acquaintance' thought my actions were guided by 'God'! LOL

1

I just remembered, although as I said earlier most Brits don't really 'do' religion, and so this doesn't happen here, I was named by my Universities’ Christian Society (which was tiny and full of oddballs) as ‘The Antichrist’ three years running!

I even had ‘666’ graffitied across my door.

Might have something to do with how I kept demolishing them in the annual ‘creation vs evolution’ debate. I was always polite about it, it’s not my fault I had evidence to support my arguments and they didn’t 😉

I took it as a compliment mwa-ha-ha!

Nomad Level 6 Mar 11, 2018

'Most Brits....well, I live in South Cumbria and there are still lots of members of The God Squad nut jobs in these parts. Classic remark during that NHS campaign I reported on above....a middle aged guy refused a leaflet and said to me in all sincerity "You don't need an NHS when you have found God." My flabber was well and truly ghasted!

1

Yep. 'Surely, you must be a Christian in denial.' ' You give to charity. Only Christians to that!'

1

A lot of evangelical churches talk about non-believers or people of other religions in that way. It seems like they have this intrinsic need to instill fear and ignorance in their followers. That's a big part of the reason why I never accept the label. If I get quizzed down by someone, I just explain to them that I don't see things the way they do, but I don't accept the label. Labels are so limiting and actually stop most intelligent discussion on any subject. I also explain to them that I believe we can learn far more about each other by observing how we behave around others and observing the actions of others. In the end that's where the real truth of ones' character lies.

1

I haven’t personally been told that but it doesn’t surprise me. Lots of religious people assume terrible things about atheists.

0

Ha ha. I've been there. ^_^

0

Well our whole baby eating thing does throw off a lot of theists.

0

And swallow children whole

0

During a conversation with a casual aquaintance whilst attending a local "Save Our NHS" (National Health Service) town centre campaign, she remarked "I remember you from the days of the anti war and anti apartheid campaigns - you were always so busy! And here you are, still at it!" Then, out of the blue - "Are you guided by God?" I'm glad I was not having a sip of my orange juice at the time otherwise she may have been sprayed with the stuff. In a matter of fact and calm manner I explained I had stopped contemplating religion shortly after I had completely lost my belief in Santa Claus. She seemed to be very surprised. "But you've always campaigned for freedom and justice and human rights - I've seen you in the town centre and sometimes on TV and in the local newspaper and you've said it was love that drove you to do these things. You've even campaigned against cruelty to animals! Are you sure it isn't God working through you?" "Well," I replied,"you obviously can't have carefully read the articles or listened to my broadcasted views otherwise you would know that not only am I an atheist but also a communist - I am politically motivated, as are tens of thousands of my comrades all over the world." As she turned to move away her parting remark was "Sorry, I'm not at all political." And I thought: just as you can lead a horse to water but not make it drink, so you can lead people to knowledge but not make them think. Clearly, no chat on a campaign stall happens as smoothly as this so I've applied much licence in reporting it here - what is here is merely a synopsis, with the dross eliminated.

0

The one I hate is I'll pray for you!

Don't you hate that, prayers go nowhere and another thing, they will pray for you but you never see them as a friend as it should be. Its their way out of ever seeing you, pretenders

@JennyJohnson you do realize everyone understood what you meant without commenting to your own post right? /s

lolz it's all good I get bugged by that too.

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