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Is this sick or what?

Now Eos, you know what we communists in the Dominion of Canada believe does not matter in the least to god fearing Bushies.

Walt
 
Actually, I have to say that this sentence seems a little akward to me.
When questioned about what belief group doesn't share their vision of American society, 54 percent of survey participants indicated that atheists provided the greatest threat.
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Does the "question" really fit with the "answer".

Q. What belief group doesn't share your vision of American society.
A. Atheists are the greatest threat.

Me thinks the article writer failed to explain either the survey questions, or the results correctly.

Walt
 
Basically I got that atheists are viewed as the most likely to doom us all, and muslims were in second place.

I like your question though. More interpretations on the article would be helpful.

A nationwide telephone survey of more than 2,000 Americans has revealed that the non-religious are viewed as the greatest threat to the American way of life.
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edited for spelling :p
 
Be careful with polls like that. Everything depends on the sample size, demographics, etc.
 
Yep. They could polling homes primarily in the Bible belt, but that such opinions exist is hardly surprising.

Turn on the TV any sunday morning, and the preacher will be standing there waving his arms around ranting and condemning 'atheists' as the cause of all problems, such as lack of guded prayer in schools.

Why pay heed to the fact that these court cases are usually brought up by one kind of Christian that was getting stomped on by another kind of Christian? It's all the fault of 'atheists'.

Usually, they then go on to call atheists 'devil worshipers'. After all, to a mind utterly broken by religion, there could never possibly any state of being without worshiping something.
 
Perhaps there be something ignorant in the state of America.
 
CFLarsen said:
It's clearly a typo.

It's not "threat", it's "treat". :D
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Oh phooey, I can't fix it now :p :D


So how to fix it in real life. The other thread that was on this subject before my posting has some good suggestions.

Being tolerant and showing others how wonderful and thoughtful and moral we atheists are.

That's easy.
 
Hi all,
Thought I would share a POV I used to have. When someone would say that they were atheist, it would immediately illicit an 'eeewww' reaction. After all, how could someone deny God or their own spirituality? It seemed unnatural and somehow dirty. I remember my first experience of even hearing about atheism was Carl Sagan's Contact. I was perhaps 14 or 15 when I read the book, and the very mention of it made me squeamish. The idea continued to bother me in a way I couldn't quite put my finger on until relatively recently when I assessed my own knee jerk reaction. Now I don't really give a crap because it doesn't hurt me for someone to have those views, nor does it threaten society at large from where I stand. Perhaps my old way of thinking is pretty common stuff. After a bit of thought, I can clearly see atheism is no threat to me or those I care for. Perhaps most people haven't really given it much thought and thus voted based on their own knee jerk reaction.
 
Building on what The GM said, I think a lot of religious Americans are afraid of the word, "atheist" as if it's some evil word, which of course it isn't. And then when someone is actually brave enough to state they are an atheist, then they are attacked for it in some way. Man, I wish people could just relax and be friendly (what a concept)...
 
The GM said:
Hi all,
Thought I would share a POV I used to have. When someone would say that they were atheist, it would immediately illicit an 'eeewww' reaction. After all, how could someone deny God or their own spirituality? It seemed unnatural and somehow dirty. I remember my first experience of even hearing about atheism was Carl Sagan's Contact. I was perhaps 14 or 15 when I read the book, and the very mention of it made me squeamish. The idea continued to bother me in a way I couldn't quite put my finger on until relatively recently when I assessed my own knee jerk reaction. Now I don't really give a crap because it doesn't hurt me for someone to have those views, nor does it threaten society at large from where I stand. Perhaps my old way of thinking is pretty common stuff. After a bit of thought, I can clearly see atheism is no threat to me or those I care for. Perhaps most people haven't really given it much thought and thus voted based on their own knee jerk reaction.
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From what I've seen and experienced a common misconception is that atheists are anti-God, ie they believe in God but are against him, thus making them evil. The problem a lot of religious people have is in understanding how someone can just not believe in a god of some sort or believe that there is no god.
 
The GM said:
Hi all,
Thought I would share a POV I used to have. When someone would say that they were atheist, it would immediately illicit an 'eeewww' reaction. After all, how could someone deny God or their own spirituality? It seemed unnatural and somehow dirty. I remember my first experience of even hearing about atheism was Carl Sagan's Contact. I was perhaps 14 or 15 when I read the book, and the very mention of it made me squeamish. The idea continued to bother me in a way I couldn't quite put my finger on until relatively recently when I assessed my own knee jerk reaction. Now I don't really give a crap because it doesn't hurt me for someone to have those views, nor does it threaten society at large from where I stand. Perhaps my old way of thinking is pretty common stuff. After a bit of thought, I can clearly see atheism is no threat to me or those I care for. Perhaps most people haven't really given it much thought and thus voted based on their own knee jerk reaction.
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By Jove, you've almost got it!

It's great that you don't see atheists as a threat, but it seems you're not quite all the way round to seeing what an atheists is exactly. (At least most atheists I know on this forum.)
. . . After all, how could someone deny God or their own spirituality? . . .
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This sentence implies that atheism is "Counter-religious belief", whether it be Christian or Buddhist or Muslim or otherwise. It still hints at an agenda, and I think that's what the ignorant fear. They perceive an enemy that actually cares about their silly beliefs.

It's correct to say atheism is "Non-religious belief". We have no positive or negative relationship to any faith or myth-based organizations. Those things are simply not a part of our lives.

Edited to add: looks like wollery beat me to the punch.
 
wollery said:
From what I've seen and experienced a common misconception is that atheists are anti-God, ie they believe in God but are against him, thus making them evil. The problem a lot of religious people have is in understanding how someone can just not believe in a god of some sort or believe that there is no god.
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Right on, wollery! I've recently had some conversations with christians about this very subject. It was a "revelation" to them when I defined what an atheist is.
 
MLynn said:

Right on, wollery! I've recently had some conversations with christians about this very subject. It was a "revelation" to them when I defined what an atheist is.
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MLynn, you better be careful. You're like an atheist double agent in Christian land.

And by the way: The doves cry at dawn by the big red barbershop. You have your orders.
 
Hexxenhammer said:
MLynn, you better be careful. You're like an atheist double agent in Christian land.
And by the way: The doves cry at dawn by the big red barbershop. You have your orders.
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It looks like I'll have to buy the whippet a trenchcoat, and dodge red, P*ssed-off, flaming smilies!
P.S. I still don't care about the chick's butt ;)
 
A most despised religious group at all is an absolutely terrible thing to consider in the first place.

Why this minority 0.4% population of Americas is so unpopular, I would not have a reason. Then again, arent all atheists money-grubbing materialistic anti-moral intolerant god-hating baby killers?
 
No, those are the Jews. The athiests are the devil-worshipping sadists who put razor blades in Halloween candy, play D&D, and wear a lot of eye makeup.
 
Well, it looks like the chrisitians are succeeding in makine "atheism" a dirty word...they've convinced the first President Bush that atheists can't be considered "patriots" or "citizens", and now these SOB's are repeating that bull! See also the post right above it.


And they whine about how they're going to be persecuted? What crap. No one is going around saying that christians are "unpatriotic"!

Once you've convinced most of the countries' people and its leaders that a group of people are "unpatriotic", how do you think they're going to be treated eventually?
 
I would suggest that it's probably the case that many people who do not love God also do not love this country.
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Oh for goshdarn sakes! The two ideas are like comparing a bowling ball to a banana!

And how the heck do you "hate your country"????

I can see despising fellow countrymen who are unreasonably ignorant-those countrymen who would make an atheist a scapegoat.

I don't believe gods. I don't hate them. How can you hate something that does not exist?
 
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