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But I seem to notice a lot of fanatical atheists these days, growing in proportion to the already large groupings of fanatical religious believers.


I'd like to hear any personal experiences, and if you feel the same way.

Don't confuse fanaticism with passion? You are assuming I am confused now? Lovely. xp

Here:

Fanatic: a person who is zealously enthusiastic for some cause, especially in religion

Passion: :suffering; particularly in Christianity, the suffering of Jesus leading up to and during his crucifixion; great emotion.


So I guess I did mean fanatical, but it would be impossible to be enthusiastic and not show great emotion. So yeah....


So fanatics can be overzealous for a (cause) and not just a religion, although that is the main type of cause tagged to the word.

The cause here being that some atheist go a little too far to preach a message about their lack of belief in a God, with mountains of evidence.

I understand we needed this evidence to protect ourselves and justify our own beliefs, but when you go preaching "the good and logical news", well.....its still the same enthusiasm used by religious preachers.

One relies heavily on logic and one relies more heavily on faith. That is the main difference. What can make any one of these believers fanatics is the amount of zeal they put into their ideology.


So far, you claim to not talk about atheism much to atheist friends. Alright. Good start. Obsession does seem like a disease, since it takes away focus from other important activities. I study the bible, but I'd rather read it once and TRY to learn a new language another week than spend two straight weeks over the same material. Got to keep the mind fresh. biggrin It's healthy for us to be challenged.

I saw a Church Sign that read. "Don't make God a Priority. Make him your life."

I mean, I got the message. But it did sound obsessive. There were plenty of more clever ways to convey that message without coming off as self destructive. But I digress, now I'm just ranting. lol

I would have to agree, in the realm of online society it seems there is a clear growing number.

Persecution for Atheists lies outside the house when you go to a local school, apply for a job, socialize with neighbors, ect...

But with that fear gone (mostly), on the internet, I noticed the level of hostility towards Christians or others who believe in deities growing.

I also have respect for people who come here to say they believe in God. Not to confuse that with the flaming type that come online to stir things up with atheists in the well known (YOU'RE GOING TO BURN FOR ETERNITY) type comments.

I wonder is this modern trend will eventually lead to a new group of our community openly leaning towards atheism. Whether it be in a healthy or overzealous sense. Most likely a mix.



ninja

There are a lot of very fanatical atheists....online. Due to the nature of the internet there is not much you can do about that.

I wonder if the reason why so many atheists are so openly hostile online when they are not in real life, is because of pent up aggression of not being able to speak about their atheism in the same way religious people are allowed to talk about their religion in the public sphere.

If you walk around, and any attempt to even lightly converse about your disbelief results in angry people attacking you, lashing out, and ostracizing you, it creates a powerful aggression.

Sometimes the only way for people to release that aggression is to do it online with the protection of being anonymous.

But that doesn't mean I support the idea of being aggressive online, to the kinds of people who otherwise, at least in your community, mistreat you in real life.