this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2023
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Atheism
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Think about it this way, the only reason for an atheist community to even exist is to stand in direct opposition to theism. Without theism, there is no atheism. Therefore, atheists will tend to speak against whatever the dominant religion is in their culture or their former religion, only occasionally deviating to speak against other religions when they cause problems. As an example, Islam is not a problem in my day to day life, so I generally only address it when speaking about news events or issues as they arise and come to my attention or affect me directly. As a westerner of European descent, if I were to fixate on Islam even though I honestly find it to be more problematic dogmatically than Christianity, I would probably be labeled a racist or a bigot. There's also the consideration of how much energy and personal bandwidth I really want to devote to arguing about concepts that I think are dumb.
I don't think you should fixate on any religion. I think you should fixate on religion itself. I understand that you deal with Christianity more, but this isn't a-christianity, its atheism. I understand why you might want to focus on Christianity, my problem is that its framed as a critique of religion in general. I don't like being wrongfully grouped in with Christians. I just want it to be specified when something you talk about is only a problem in Christianity.
If you keep having problems remembering not to take posts that are not directed at you personally, maybe this isn't the right group for you?
This isn't the group for me, I'm not an atheist. I made this post to try to fix a problem I saw here, not to make it a better space for me. I assumed that people would receive this better and understand the problem once I pointed it out.
If you believe in a supernatural deity, then you’re not being wrongfully grouped.
How exactly? Is every religion the same to you?
In the context of atheism, yes. They all rely on blind faith in a deity.
Ok, I agree, but that's not the problem. The problem is criticisms of specific religions that are framed as criticisms of all religions.
I don't know which posts you're taking issue with exactly, but I personally try to be pretty precise when I criticize religions because I think that's the best way to criticize them. Speaking broadly about all supernatural phenomena being bullshit only gets you so far in a conversation. Vague statements like "the world would be more peaceful without religion" are only so meaningful.
The other thing to consider is that religions aren't monolithic entities either. If I'm criticizing American Christian theocrats, I'm generally not addressing moderate Christians who believe in separation of church and state. If I'm criticizing jihadists and burkas, I'm obviously not addressing moderate Muslims. Context has to be taken into consideration. If people feel personally attacked by what I say because of a general association with religion broadly or a specific religion, it's kind of a them problem, not a me problem. And, btw, I'm saying all this as a nontheistic satanist who has plenty of experience having my own religion misunderstood.
Good, that's all I want. As long as you specify that you are talking about an individual religion, it won't bother me. You aren't my problem.
I'm not trying to be rude but wouldn't that just come with the territory? If you call yourself a satanist then I imagine a lot of people would reasonably assume you believe in and worship Satan.
Right, what I mean is I just don't let it bother me when people have misconceptions about my beliefs. Their attacks are meaningless because they don't even understand what I believe. By mentioning this, I was trying to suggest not letting it bother you so much if people make broad criticisms of religion because they probably don't know what your specific beliefs actually are and might not even be speaking to them. It's kind of like when people say All Cops Are Bastards. That's obviously an absolutist statement that can't possibly be true, but people like to be hyperbolic to get their point across.
It doesn't bother me when people make broad criticisms of religion, it bothers me when there is no distinction between specific religions and all religion. I may have worded badly what I said before, I am not very insulted by what I see here. I am more just disappointed because I think it detracts from the experience here. I just want people to know what they are criticizing and clarify if it is needed. Communities like this often devolve into echo chambers and I think the lack of clarification makes it more difficult to have open and respectful conversations on these topics. My experience here has been much better than the atheism subreddit, which is why I care enough to point out this problem. I want to keep it that way, and I want it to be even better than it is now. I don't want this to be yet another group of people making the same 4 posts about how smart they are and how dumb Christians are. But that's all I see in the posts that I'm talking about.
Only if they can't be bothered to ask questions and do a little research instead of making assumptions.
Do you really not see how that could cause confusion? Christians believe in and worship Christ, why wouldn't they apply the same logic to you? Everyone makes assumptions when they are that obvious, I don't understand how you can blame that misconception on them.