Is it normal that i have had many negative experiences with atheists online?

I have most definitely witnessed this type of behavior from atheists online & I'm not religious. I definitely don't believe in a God (no offense meant).

It's a strange phenom because quite a few atheists are guilty of the same behavior that they accuse religious people of perpetrating. Intolerance, condemnation, insistance that everone converts to their viewpoint, insulting language, complete confidence that they are right. Kinda hypocritical...just sayin!

The thing is, there's so many people that happen to be atheist that absolutely do not behave this way. I think it's the nature of the internet to attract people with very extreme views on every subject because those are the types arrogant of people that really feel the NEED to disseminate their viewpoint, blather it everywhere & become intent on changing everyine's mind. The internet attracts those people like flies on shit because it's a huge opinion forum. The most outspoken gather anywhere they think their voices will be heard. Public soapbox, I guess.

I see it on here all the time, regarding many issues. All conservatives are nazi racists. All liberals support communist ideologies & burn down buildings because BLM.

It's absolutely obnoxious & the internet is plagued with it.

If you feel attacked and maligned and challanged and victimized and painted as an awful human being because of your beliefs, I don't blame you for being upset.

If it effects you so strongly that you feel you have PTSD, then you should absolutely get off the internet or limit your time online. It's not ok to continue engaging with something that makes you feel horrible.

If it makes you feel any better though, I'm not religious, but I absolutely respect your beliefs. I'm against some aspects of certain organized religions (basically condemation/hatred stuff) but I'm not against your belief in God. I think a lot of religious people channel their beliefs into treating others with kindness & doing charity & that's fucking awesome. I respect that so much.

Not every non believer hates you & thinks you're a retard. It's just the internet man. The loudest people are the crazy ones.

ive never had an atheist bangin on my fuckin door wakin me up to try and convert me to atheism

That's sad to hear, people like that make all atheists look like angry buffoons, and they're entirely missing the point anyway. The only thing that really matters is that people are tolerant and nice to each other. So the only religions that atheists should have a problem with are ones that do discriminate. Otherwise, with people like you who don't excuse any religious discrimination, there should be no animosity held toward you at all. They could instead actually have a fascinating philosophical discussion with you about the origin of the universe and all that.

And even with people who believe in discriminatory religious rules, getting angry at them is only gonna make them feel persecuted and drive them back to their religion even more. So that's just fucking stupid.

I could understand if they were angry at you for stating that women should all wear hijabs or something like that, but it's strange that they'd get angry at you simply for having harmless beliefs. I'd even think that maybe they're angry because they secretly still believe in god deep down but are suppressing it because they don't want to believe, similar to how self-hating gay people are usually the most homophobic people there are.

Unfortunately, I have seen this as well. If someone says something as simple as "Thank God" or "I'll keep you in my prayers", someone who wasn't even a part of their original conversation will go on a tangent about how there is no God, how prayer does no good, etc. But why? It's completely fine if you choose to believe that, but why is there a need to impose it on others who are not imposing their beliefs on you?

I also don't understand when people say that people who offer thoughts and prayers are doing nothing to help the people those thoughts and prayers are directed to. Who is to say they're not simultaneously doing what they can to physically help, while also praying? Also, sometimes praying is all you can do, because the rest is out of your control. Not to mention that what good does bitching about thoughts and prayers do? I'm willing to bet that the people complaining about people offering thoughts and prayers offering no real help, are also doing nothing to offer any real help, themselves.

I say, believe what you want to believe, or don't believe whatever you don't want to believe, and allow others the freedom of their choice. This goes for all sides.

Most atheists are only like this when they first become atheists because they are angry about having been lied to for so long. That said, I was an atheist before I even had two digits in my age and I can still be like this.

I'll be blunt about why: Religion is harmful to society overall. It's harmful primarily for two reasons:

1. It stifles scientific progress, science that can save and better lives.

2. Most religions reinforce and validate a lot of discrimination and immoral behavior.

On science: The religious generally fail to understand that science isn't inherently for or against religion; science is in a sense merely the body of what is confirmed to be real. The second demonstrable scientific proof of any religion surfaced, that religion would then be considered part of science, but the opposite has been the case.

Allowing religion to continue unchallenged for the sake of comfort in some practitioners wouldn't be a big deal if various popular religions didn't lead to constantly arguing about settled issues like vaccines, confirmed medical science otherwise, the shape of the Earth, evolution, etc.

On moral issues: Religion also wouldn't be a big deal if it didn't constantly lead to reinforcement of sexism, homophobia, racism, etc.

As much as I hate the views of users like Clunk, one thing I must credit him for is that he doesn't bullshit about what the texts say; fortunately, most followers of mainstream religions are now able to so sufficiently follow their own internal moral compass that they delude themselves about the awful things the texts say and employ cognitive bias so as to latch onto what they like and reject what they don't. A common argument is that the New Testament does away with the Old Testament. Rather, Jesus clearly states that he didn't come to strike a word from the old law but to fulfill it, and also that he doesn't come with peace but a sword. At a certain point you also have to ask yourself how much you would trust a book on mechanics that abruptly says halfway though that the first half was bullshit. Maybe it's time to find a more consistent book.

I roll my eyes when I see social media posts condemning Republicans (who I violently disagree with, to be clear) for not being "real Christians" or not reading their texts. No, they're doing it better than any Democrats (who I usually agree with). The shit says what it says. The hate is called for. That said, the shit is bullshit.

On psychological comfort: I said I would perhaps be okay with religion if it didn't impede scientific progress or promote outward hatred, but on one hand I have to question if that would be selfish of me.

My mother was highly religious and surely thought that while I was a good, good boy and later man in her eyes that I would surely burn in Hell forever for questioning her god. I used to wrestle with myself about what I would do if her death was slow enough for me talk to her as she died. I was pretty sure I would tell her she was right all along, that only recently my studies of physics had revealed the truth of God and that she would surely see me in Heaven with her eternally. I would do this to add whatever comfort I could to her death process, which none of us know the extent of the suffering.

On the other hand, I had to ask myself if this was the ultimate disrespect to my dying mother. So in turn, I began to ask myself if it was disrespectful to treat the religious as if I could honestly see their beliefs as any more rational than that of the belief in fairies, etc.

As far as the living go, I eventually hit a point whereat the third topic became regardless because the stifling of scientific progress and reinforcement of terribly immoral, archaic beliefs was bad enough for me to firmly say it needs to go.

It's no different than on here; I could act like I'm tolerant of pedos and raping dogs for the sake of letting others be, but I'm really fucking not.

I am sorry for the stress this has caused you but I encourage you to see the /real/ light. If you think religion conforts you, wait until you see how comforting verified comforts are that you don't have to live seeing constantly disproven, which is what's stressing you now.

Matter and energy can neither be created or destroyed, and information cannot be destroyed. This means anything you ever loved will always exist in spacetime. I wish you luck.

People on both sides get too fanatic and too sure at times. I get why some atheist do that because there certainly are theist who go too far in the name of their religion, and refusing to think "regardless" of it can obviously cause some problems. They are not right in bullying you

If my previous comment causes you any distress, feel free to tell me which aspects of the loss of religion would pain you the most and I can do my best to comfort you and offer consolation. You don't have to agree with me; it could just be consolation in the "what if I'm right" sense.

Im also a "theist" I think. From what I've read it described my beliefs better than agnostic