Is it normal that many modern day atheists use ridicule as a conversion tactic?

52% Normal

I haven't really seen this here so much,but it seems to be quite a common trend on other websites, especially in the forums for religious debate. A lot of the modern day, militant atheists have started a new technique of ridiculing Christians and other theists for their beliefs, claiming that they are helping "free" the people from their religious shackles.

I'm not really religious anymore. My ideas about the universe are my own, largely based in theoretical physics and new research over the past few years.

But I know when I was a Christian, people who approached me with a condescending attitude, people who resorted to mockery, people who were downright rude, strenghtened my resolve, and I could debate with the best of them back in the day. The people who most changed my mind about religion were the people who tried to change me least.. I respected their views on the world because they respected mine.

And don't get me wrong, I think atheists should continue to fight for separation of church and state. But I don't think putting down every religious person you meet is going to help that, it's just a way of making yourself feel superior more than anything else. I have friends of all sorts of different (and no) religions. They are all intelligent people who are moderate about their beliefs. I see no need to try to change the or tell them they're wrong.

If someone were to tell me "hey sup wanna go bomb an abortion clinic?" I'd probably at least be nice enough to give them a ride to the hospital and wait for the police to pick them up after I've gotten in a lick or two. ;P

Sorry this was kind of long, I've been debating about it a bit recently. So what do you guys think? Comments preferred, I'd like to see what you all think of this one.

is it normal that atheists think ridicule and mockery is an effective technique in "opening the eyes" of theists?

Voting Results

52% Normal

Based on 44 votes (23 yes)

Help us keep this site organized and clean. Thanks!

[ Report Post ]

Comments ( 46 )

nightmare28

11 years ago

People often ridicule something they do not understand, but it goes both for religious and atheists, liberals and conservatives. And for some reason wherever there is an ideological argument, the longer it goes, the more chance the nazis and communists will be mentioned.

Comment Hidden ( show )

5

5
- shade_ilmaendu
  
  11 years ago
  
  Hey, you just fulfilled Godwin's law by mentioning Godwin's law. :D
  
  Comment Hidden ( show )
  
  1
  
  1
[Old Memory]

11 years ago

Not religious of an athiest, but religious people have their fair share of pointless debate tactics. A lot of the time they think faith is enough to win a debate.

Comment Hidden ( show )

3

3
- shade_ilmaendu
  
  11 years ago
  
  This is true. But let me present this hypothetical situation to better get my point across. You're debating with a Christian who is intelligent, polite and using proper debate techniques, not committing any fallacies.
  
  Do you think you would have a better debate with said individual if you.
  1. Mocked and insulted them the entire time.
  or
  2. Kept a calm discourse and discussed your problems point to point.
  
  If someone is being ridiculous I would call them out on it in a heartbeat. But for those moderate theists out there who aren't hurting anyone with their belief, I don't see how ridiculing them would be effective, or why I as a nonbeliever should even care if they're not out causing problems in the name of "god."
  
  Comment Hidden ( show )
  
  2
  
  2
- TerryVie
  
  11 years ago
  
  yeah, i'm with lilly on that one. I have seen such topics or discussions go off-track as often when religious people brought faith into it to "block" science, as atheists bringing ridicule into it to "block" faith.
  
  Both sides start it as often as the other, but the result is usually the same.
  
  It's sad it goes that far, but on the other hand, if a person refuses reason, there's little else you could do, and ridicule is still better than contempt.
  
  Comment Hidden ( show )
  
  0
  
  0
  - shade_ilmaendu
    
    11 years ago
    
    I definitely agree. :) But the trend I've been seeing a lot is ridicule of all religious people and religions, even if they're being reasonable. Or not even in a debate, they just go around making fun of religious people all day. And whenever someone posts anything about god on facebook, they go say hurtful things to them and then post it on the internet like "just Pwned this Christian".
    
    I feel like if you really want someone to agree with what you're going to say, you wouldn't immediately disrespect them. If someone in my own age group were to treat me the way they treat people, I wouldn't give credence to anything they had to say simply for the bad attitude they said it with.
    
    I've definitely been in my fair share of debates gone retarded. It just seems like more often than not the people I see arguing this position are just trying to stroke their own ego while putting other groups of people beneath them.
    
    Do you think someone would change your mind about a topic by mocking your beliefs about it?
    
    The website I've seen most of this on has a lot of... interesting... people for lack of a better term.
    
    Sorry for the length, again. :P
    
    Comment Hidden ( show )
    
    0
    
    0
  - [Old Memory]
    
    11 years ago
    
    Agreed.
    
    Comment Hidden ( show )
    
    0
    
    0
flutterhigh

11 years ago

Are you a redditor, perchance?

Comment Hidden ( show )

2

2
- shade_ilmaendu
  
  11 years ago
  
  How did you guess? ;P
  
  Comment Hidden ( show )
  
  0
  
  0
RomeoDeMontague

10 years ago

That shows arrogance not intelligence. People who are arrogant will always believe they are more intelligent since something like "I am black, white, atheist, christian, girl, boy" and that does not make them more intelligent.

They are just too stuck on themselves to hear any other argument and so when someone tries to argue with them they say "Haha because you are stupid and im smarter than you". Which is not a real way to win an argument. I see many of these debates and it goes like this. Athiest: Im smart and your dumb I win Religion:God is the awnser to all just say god did it. God made it rain, god made it snow, god make me poor. These are the more extreme cases.

Though you cant really have this type of debate with normal people since the well minded people are pushed away. those who are not very certain about anything try to put out an a reasonable argument and are either told "You are stupid or listen to the word of the lord".

So this group of well minded people often are either going to ignore or stay out of the debates since they know they cant win. Since each side is like "Join us!" and at the end of the day you have a bunch of frustrated people that say "Fuck all of you" and the rest who keep preaching what they believe as the word of god.

For atheist they believe they are god and for many Christians they believe anything there god/religion says is fact and must be listened to.

While the reasonable people just walk away and become irritated we cant just learn to live in peace. Since everyone is such a stubborn moron. Some of us do not care. Some of us just want to be left in peace and not have to go to war every-time its brought up and yet everyone wants to drag them into it.

This goes for every debate. Red/blue, Black/white, atheist/religion. There is always going to be one person who is not going to push what they believe on other and want to be respected. However they never will be since the idiots who see the world black/white are going to push them to join the side.

Comment Hidden ( show )

1

1
[Old Memory]

11 years ago

Both sides aren't very clever really.

If you believe in god how can you prove he exists.

If you don't believe in god how can you prove he doesn't.

I'm Agnostic because i have a brain larger than a grape.

Comment Hidden ( show )

1

1
- shade_ilmaendu
  
  11 years ago
  
  This is probably one of my favorite replies. :)
  
  I've debated with quite a few atheists in the past months who are just as blind as the people they criticize.
  
  It's not good for your mental development to adhere to anything that resolutely, beliefs are harder to change than ideas and all that yadda.
  
  Comment Hidden ( show )
  
  0
  
  0
  - [Old Memory]
    
    11 years ago
    
    "I've debated with quite a few atheists in the past months who are just as blind as the people they criticize."
    
    Exactly. If you really look at both types of person, they're just unintelligent, uninformed thinkers.
    
    Because both ideals are based on assumption, as there is no proof.
    
    And "assumption is the mother of all fuck-ups"
    
    Comment Hidden ( show )
    
    3
    
    3
Zippy

11 years ago

I very much agree with you. I'm an atheist and I don't ridicule my theistic friends. I enjoy a good debate sometimes if they're up for it, but I see no reason to just throw insults. It does no good at all and the few atheists who do do that have earned us a nasty reputation amongst some people I think.

Comment Hidden ( show )

1

1
Captain_Kegstand

11 years ago

Every group that has an opposition has, at some point or other, used ridicule as a conversion tactic, or to discredit the other party. You see in in religion, politics, debate, you saw it in the whites that didn't want blacks to have equal rights, you see it in sexist men that will try and ridicule/discredit women.

I am on OP's side, in the fact that I wish we could all be more tolerant, but human nature is to ridicule and cast out anything that is different. You can even see an example of this in playground bullying in children!

Comment Hidden ( show )

1

1
Mmmpfh

11 years ago

Normal, sadly. But nice to see you understand how foolish it is of them. I'm pretty much agnostic myself, so I don't take sides but when it comes to athiests versus Catholics I've noticed one incredibly annoying trait on both.
That is, as you said, the more annoying athiests resort to mockery and condescending remarks and refuse to see any positive in religion, and hardcore Catholics are just way, way too pushy.

Comment Hidden ( show )

1

1
- shade_ilmaendu
  
  11 years ago
  
  Ugh, I was raised Catholic. Those people don't celebrate their faith, they mourn it.
  
  Lately I've had a Baptist and a Jehova's witness showing up a lot trying to "save" me and take me to church. XD
  
  After getting away from Christianity, I studied more religions while not adhering to any of them. The text are very insightful from a philosophical perspective. Hell, I've been having a hard time even bringing up philosophy in those forums, people are seriously lumping *philosophy* in with mystical kinds of thinking.
  
  See that's something big that I thought. I as a nontheist (don't know what to call myself) don't want someone trying to force me to accept god back into my life. Why should I be doing the same thing to them? As long as they're not hurting anyone with their faith I don't see why I would ever need to bring it up.
  
  Comment Hidden ( show )
  
  0
  
  0
  - Mmmpfh
    
    11 years ago
    
    You sound agnostic, which is what I classify myself as. You believe in some form of higher power, be it god or a great undetermined force, but you don't lean towards any one religion, but in fact appreciate the points each of them make. I think generally that's what an agnostic is. Not positive though, maybe you should look it up, haha
    
    Comment Hidden ( show )
    
    0
    
    0
    - shade_ilmaendu
      
      11 years ago
      
      Sounds about right. Essentially my idea (better to have ideas than beliefs ;P) is that the Universe is itself the higher power. Kind of pantheism without the mysticism, and I'm really into Taoism as a philosophy.
      
      It's not that there's some greater being up there, but the universe is in itself one large body made up of all of us smaller beings, in accordance with the universe being a fractal. So there are probably different forms of consciousness out there, some of which would be considered higher because they're at a higher evolutionary stage, but they're not god, just other life forms, not so different from us really.
      
      The higher power is essentially just nature doing what it does, the order (or chaos) of the universe. Life perpetuating itself.
      
      The meaning of life is whatever we make it. We are the perceivers.
      
      Comment Hidden ( show )
      
      0
      
      0
[Old Memory]

11 years ago

Nobody even used the word "atheist" five years ago so everyone who calls themselves one is a poser.

Comment Hidden ( show )

1

1
- coolio75650932
  
  11 years ago
  
  im an athiest and im no poser i just honestly dont care if god did exist if god told me to piss off i would sit there and not even hear him
  
  Comment Hidden ( show )
  
  0
  
  0
  - [Old Memory]
    
    11 years ago
    
    Yeah but a few years ago you would have just said "oh i don't believe in god"
    
    Now people who don't believe just cling to this word like a religion and it's lame. Everytime i hear someone proudly state that they are Athiest i think "oh here we go".
    
    It's like posts people make saying "i get bullied because i'm an Athiest". People get bullied BECAUSE they believe in god. It just makes me sad at how people need a label these days, and always proclaim "i'm an Athiest!" when a couple of years ago they'd just say nothing. It's poser as fuck and half of them use the term to feel special.
    
    That's why i'm Agnostic, because i'm not stupid enough to think i know anything about the afterlife.
    
    Comment Hidden ( show )
    
    2
    
    2
    - coolio75650932
      
      11 years ago
      
      ya but im not that kind of athiest im the kind that keaps quite about it unless some one asks but thats me what about YOU?
      
      Comment Hidden ( show )
      
      0
      
      0
      - [Old Memory]
        
        11 years ago
        
        "what about YOU?"
        
        I'm Agnostic and i hate posers.
        
        Comment Hidden ( show )
        
        0
        
        0
        
        -
        
        coolio75650932
        
        11 years ago
        
        im no poser...
        
        Comment Hidden ( show )
        
        0
        
        0
        
        shade_ilmaendu
        
        11 years ago
        
        Only posers die you fucking idiot!
        
        ....I'm gonna sound like an asshole if you don't get the reference. XD
        
        Comment Hidden ( show )
        
        0
        
        0
        
        See More Comments =>
Marisol

11 years ago

It isn't an effective technique. It is sad that they have to resort to ridicule and mockery to make a point.

Comment Hidden ( show )

1

1
- shade_ilmaendu
  
  11 years ago
  
  Ahh, I accidentally thumbed you down trying to reply!! Thankfully the site let me thumb you back up :P
  
  Maybe it's my customer service experience talking on this one, I just feel that you get a better response out of people by being respectful.
  
  Comment Hidden ( show )
  
  0
  
  0
  - Marisol
    
    11 years ago
    
    Hehe :) And I do agree that being respectful is better than being the opposite, regardless of the differences in perspectives.
    
    Comment Hidden ( show )
    
    0
    
    0
tigerneko

11 years ago

the only reason we are forced to fall back on ridicule is because most christians will blindly follow their book, and won't take any sort of reason into consideration.

Comment Hidden ( show )

0

0
- shade_ilmaendu
  
  11 years ago
  
  I know there are times when I see so blatant stupidity that I find it hard to bite my tongue. Usually manage to, but to err is human. XD
  
  Comment Hidden ( show )
  
  -1
  
  -1
Imsupernormal

11 years ago

Stupid Christian.

Comment Hidden ( show )

-1

-1
- shade_ilmaendu
  
  11 years ago
  
  Did you read the post?
  
  "When I was a Christian..." That was about 4, 5 years ago. Went to one of those Jesus camps and got my head all fucked with. Been agnostic since my senior year in high school. ;P
  
  Comment Hidden ( show )
  
  0
  
  0
  - Imsupernormal
    
    11 years ago
    
    Shut the fuck up.
    
    Comment Hidden ( show )
    
    -2
    
    -2
    - shade_ilmaendu
      
      11 years ago
      
      You're a silly goose. :P
      
      Comment Hidden ( show )
      
      0
      
      0
- coolio75650932
  
  11 years ago
  
  you shouldent say that or the nuns will beat you with there rulers XD
  
  Comment Hidden ( show )
  
  0
  
  0
Nogoodusernames

11 years ago

If anyone would like i am willing to have a clean-peacefull religious debate with anyone. I am willing to side with either christianity or islam. I will debate against you if you do not insult my religion/god.

Comment Hidden ( show )

0

0
- robbieforgotpw
  
  11 years ago
  
  Ok let's debate. You argue your case for Christianity.
  
  So nogoodusernames, What makes someone a Christian? Support your answer with Scripture from the bible.
  
  Comment Hidden ( show )
  
  0
  
  0
coolio75650932

11 years ago

im athiest only cuz god hasnt made my dick bigger yet -.-

Comment Hidden ( show )

0

0
childofgod

11 years ago

the way people communicate is taught to them. nothing anyone says or does should ever effet your soul.

Comment Hidden ( show )

0

0
Ono

11 years ago

Like pretty much everyone else, I don't think this is a quality that atheists display any more than anyone else. Human qualities rarely seem truly affected by a person's beliefs.

Comment Hidden ( show )

0

0
FocoUS

11 years ago

Many Atheists use ridicule? I'm sorry while I do believe there are SOME atheists are like the ones described, I don't think you should speak in an attitude that addresses ALL atheists as people who talk down every christian they meet.

I'm atheist and so are my parents. All my life I've heard that not going to church is wrong. A few people even had the guts to tell me that I was going to hell. One person even called me a lesbian. But this discussion isn't about people of all beliefs (or non-beliefs) learning to keep their noses out of eachother's business it's soley about atheists. Thanks for that. We appreciate being singled out and called bullies.

Comment Hidden ( show )

-1

-1
- shade_ilmaendu
  
  11 years ago
  
  Oh dear, I didn't mean for it to come across this way. I'm agnostic myself, it's not like I'm some crazy bible thumper doing any of those things you're talking about.
  
  I'm talking about a forum on another website in which a lot of young athiests are saying that ridicule is the most effective technique for "converting" theists to atheism, which is the premise I do not agree with.
  
  Never once did I say anything about "all" athiests. There's truly no reason for your anger.
  
  Comment Hidden ( show )
  
  0
  
  0

Are You Normal?

Is it normal that many modern day atheists use ridicule as a conversion tactic?