Elevatorgator
small, mindless undead
chaotic evil
Armor class: 14
Hit points: 1d4
Speed: 10ft
Attacks: annoying whine
Weaknesses: die at a touch from any female party members
Yesterday, I was complaining about the low information content and tedious predictability of most atheist content on YouTube. It was only a matter of time — less than 24 hours — before some regressive numpty chimed in to blame women, trans people, and Atheism+, claiming that atheism has turned into a religion. He hasn’t learned a thing in over 15 years.
@SmilingSynic
The atheist content on social media peaked fifteen or so years ago, until the introduction of Atheism Plus made the movement “jump the shark.” Indeed, the welding together of atheism (and other expressions of anti-theism) with social activism and progressive ideology turned much of the movement a quasi-religion holding laughably anti-scientific, mystical positions on, for example, human sexuality, in the form of gender identity. Atheism as a movement even adopted tactics found in religions/cults, including the shaming of those like Richard Dawkins who questioned, rightly, the basis of the transgender movement (in scientology, Dawkins would have been identified as an SP, or Suppressive Person, lol). Atheism used to be AGAINST religion, until the movement was hijacked by some who actually turned into something much LIKE a religion. I have zero interest in modern atheism as a movement, and am now embarrassed that I used to listen to podcasts on the topic.
No, Atheism+ was a great idea, ahead of its time, and most atheist organizations have adopted its principles to some degree. It was merely howled out of open existence by regressive twits who harrassed the organizers, joined it to undermine its membership, and who were appalled at the idea that mere women could fight back against a hierarchy that denied them a proper role.
Dawkins has since identified himself as sympathetic to Christian religion — he just hates those wicked Muslims. If anyone has become a religious proponent, it’s the supporters of an authority-based belief system that exists to oppress outsiders.
I think Modern Atheism As A Movement is now embarrassed that dull-witted trolls such as @SmilingSynic now claim to be the only True Atheists, in opposition to those bad anti-scientific atheists who think that women and gender identity and progressives are real.
Dawkins was and is a huge disappointment.
He now calls himself a “cultural christian”, meaning not a believer but nevertheless buys into the whole rest of christianity. You can also tell here that his mind is failing.
There is no such thing as a christian ethos. Christianity fragmented at the time of its founding and has been splitting ever since. There are now something like 45,000 sects and they don’t agree on anything. Before we took their armies and heavy weapons away, they used to fight wars among themselves.
They don’t even agree on such basics as the number of xian gods. It can be 1 or up to 5, counting Mary and satan.
Dawkins isn’t much different from many or most people who claim to be xians anyway. Do you really think the fundies of the GOP really believe in jesus or care about what is in the bible, which they never read? They never walk their talk.
True.
We are still here.
Atheism is the low hanging fruit of modern thought.
It doesn’t take much knowledge of the real world to realize that the gods don’t exist. We can easily explain everything with what science has found out about the world. And the universe looks exactly like it would if the gods don’t exist.
Dawkins and a lot of other atheists and atheist leaders managed to find the low hanging fruit and run with it. Which counts for something I guess. For one moment they could speak truth to power.
Moving beyond that turned out to be impossible for him and the others though.
They can’t accept human equality or let go of the bigotry and hates they were taught when they grew up.
I did larf when I read that.
Sounds like this person is another one of these people whose interest in atheism went pretty much as far as “No one’s gonna make me go to church, or tell me what I should and shouldn’t do!”
All logic aside, I can’t stand hymns and Xmas carols, nor can I buy an “ethos” based on superstitions & archaic hierarchy.
“Cultural Christian” is such a nebulous term, an educated person should be too embarrassed to even use it without irony.
I doubt Richard Dawkins would feel he has anything culturally in common with Ethiopian Christians, besides the label “Christian,” despite the fact that they are also “Cultural Christians.” Except, in their case, they actually believe in the religion.
It’s intentionally vague, because that allows it to be used as a unifying slogan, but as soon as you ask people to define it, it turns out nobody agrees on what it’s supposed to mean.
raven @2
No, they only imagined they were speaking truth to power. For one thing, they are part of The Power — i.e., a few of the many privileged beneficiaries and components of the power structure. All they were doing was shouting pseudo-provocative slogans, like shouting F*** in Times Square. There was no way any of them was going to actually do something that would put them at odds with the source of their luxurious lifestyles.
@6 Walter Solomon
Well yeah, because the Ethiopian Christians are generally specifically Coptic, and Dawkins’s cultural Christianity is being the Anglican church’s pet atheist specifically, trotted out to spew pablum about how terrible that Muslim call to prayer is, unlike those pretty pretty church bells.
Atheism+ (as it now seems to be called) is not such a new invention. And in fact, atheists appear to hold differing views, as is exemplified by the following video:
I do believe that an unconditional commitment to human rights is definitely something an Atheism+ movement could be well-justified to pick up.
“The question is not: Are they moral?, nor: Are they smart? The question is: Can they suffer?” – (almost) Jeremy Bentham