Atheism and its negative stigma...
 

I am an atheist.

I don't know what the community is like as far as religion goes here, but it seems wherever you, atheism has a negative stigma. If you proclaim you're an atheist, it's generally followed by the association that you must be a morally-corrupt, hedonistic libertine who has no conscience.

Why is it that an agnostic can just be an agnostic, and you can even simply "not believe in god," but yet when you assert yourself as an atheist it almost always provokes a negative response?

Richard Dawkins made this same point in The God Delusion, so this is obviously not entirely my own argument, just to point that out now.

Thoughts?

I've been openly atheist since 8th grade ~'99 and I have never felt bad about it or treated differently by others who know. Maybe I'm just oblivious.

How is one absolute statement any better than another? To be honest, I think most of the stigma about atheists is the same kind of stigma about the religious: that they impose their belief and deny alternative points of view.

I'm not citing the behaviour of anyone in particular, but to be honest, I don't think perceived hedonism is responsible for modern negativity so much as absolutism is.

EDIT: And regardless of my beliefs, I think Richard Dawkins is an *******, so there's that figurehead atheists have going for them. :laughing:

@Pedestrian - Thoughts on Christopher Hitchens?

Well, I understand your point, but I didn't necessarily plan to say that first. My whole point was to be forthcoming for the purpose of the topic. I don't want you to get the impression that I would walk into a party, stand on a chair to make announcement, and say "Attention, everybody! I would like you all to know that I am an atheist!"
I guess my whole choice of words with "assert yourself" is the fact that many Christians it seems do the same with their religion. (Hence the mannerisms of their faith, from deliberate word choice all the way to bumper stickers.)

I think a lot of the negativity comes from people not understanding what the word means. There are a lot of people out there who associate the word with all kinds of unrelated shit from satanism to communism. And, of course, there are others who associate it with some kind of absoluteism even though it's only absolutist in the sense that any opinion can be described as absolutist. On top of all that, you have the whole "in your face" aspect wherein people in the dominant group think that smaller groups are being "in your face" simply by existing, like straight people who get in an uproar about "in your face" gay people because those people are doing things that straight people do all the time like holding hands.

There some things that atheists believe are 100% correct because, well, they are. We know the world isn't 8,000 years old, for example. I will tell anyone that believes that sorry, but that is not the case (although I'm not particularly likely to try to have that conversation as it is nearly always a waste of time, but if pressed I will say what I *know* is true).

" Atheism and its negative stigma..."
I think it comes from guilt from association, which happens not only atheist, but even to theists as well.

lmao at comparing the two as if you can't choose your religion like you can't choose your orientation. straight ppl...

Do you ever stop trolling?