For once, Inmalafide wrote a piece that doesn't involve enough foul language it manages to insult all 6.6 billion people on the planet. Of course I merely skimmed the article, so maybe I missed something, but regardless, his article highlights how the left hates religion, which reminded me about one of the more curious phenomenon out there - the Angry Atheist.
The Angry Atheist confuses and confounds your average conservative or even your average innocent bystander. Most people don't know where the visceral hatred Angry Atheists have comes from and are kind of shocked by it. Most people's thinking is:
"Well, if you're an athiest, then what do you care about religion? Shouldn't you be some kind of easy, laid back, live and let live sort of guy? What's with all the hatred, mockery and ridicule of people who just happen to believe in a religion?"
Thus when an unsuspecting person breaches the topic of religion or mentions their particular faith, they are completely blindsided by the ensuing screed delivered to them by the Angry Atheist.
However, being brought up on an extremely religious household and becoming an agnostic myself, I believe I can explain why some atheists are so angry and thus explain this phenomenon.
First, understand I have no skin in this game. I couldn't care less what people's religion is. If there's any problem I have with religion, it's that most participants of all religions do not participate in the religion for anything as noble and selfless as worship or a god, but rather for ulterior and selfish motives. Finding a spouse, socializing, business connections, belonging to a team, heck, even rationalizing taking over the world. Whatever the reason it isn't for "god." But for the few sincere and legitimate practitioners of religion, I respect them and leave them be. So whether you're a Jew or a Catholic or even an atheist, I don't care.
Second, NAAALT (Not All Atheists Are Like That). I know the majority of atheists are the laid back, live and let live types. I have atheist friends and I am certainly no fan of religion. Remember, we're focusing on the ANGRY Atheists who feel compelled to foist themselves into people's personal religious decisions. Not Bob at the water cooler who doesn't go to church.
With those caveats out of the way, there are two primary sources of Angry Atheists,
The first source are formerly religious people that had religion forced on them. And not just forced on them, they suffered some kind of abuse. I'm not talking sexual abuse, but psychological abuse. A brainwashing that religion forces on the child, to the point it IS a cult. Cults being what they are, they destroy the individual for the "commune" of the cult. You are no longer your own person, and as a child, not only are you not #1 in your own life, your parents and your family put you second to the cult as well. I would estimate around 30% of all Christian-based religions are at this cult-level in the US, and, naturally, when a young person grows up and "escapes the cult" they have the wool removed from their eyes and realize they were merely being used by a sadistic and self-serving commune. They also realize that their youth was not just wasted, but taken advantage of, and the only and natural consequence is hatred and revenge.
In this case the Angry Atheist has a legitimate beef with religion. But instead of attacking the religion on genuine and weak grounds (ie-most people don't believe it and participate in it for ulterior and self-serving reasons) they just bash it in general. They lack the finesse to surgically strike at people's hypocrisies and just call them "idiots" instead. They have such a hatred for the religion, they need to "undo it" and therefore lack the ability to realize that a true revenge would to let people remain in the religion/cult and that will cause more damage. And finally, they also lack the ability to move on and let it go. Their experiences were so bad, they just cannot let the injustice of what happened to them stand, and thus partially lessen their lives in the process. A bit of forgiveness and understanding might be called for.
The second reason or "variant" of the Angry Atheist should shock no one - they're crusaders.
It is no coincidence your average Angry Atheist is also a leftist. The reason why is that atheism is the easiest religion of them all, requiring no effort, thought, ponderance or work. You simply "declare" you're one and POOF! You're in the club and you now "belong."
In this sense, it's the epitome of irony, because the Angry Atheist is simply joining another religion. It's just not so much an "absence" of religion (as a true laid back atheist would be), it's an "ANTI-religion religion." They have a vendetta, they have a crusade, they (like all other religion people) now have a purpose and belong to a club - we must destroy other people's religion. If anything, it's a testament to the most cowardly (and borderline psychotic) mentality of a Crusader-Angry-Atheist because his/her "religion" is simply to destroy something others have built. They can't just let it be. And it is here we see the parallels between Angry Atheists and leftists because their psychologies are the same.
First, both are hypocrites. Leftists and Angry Atheists are such because the average liberal does not "care about the poor" nor does the Angry Atheist "really want to stop cultish and abusive religions." They are in it first and foremost for themselves. The leftist will ALWAYS trumpet and parade their ideology first thing in a conversation because that is CORE to their being. The Angry Atheist will as well. They claim membership to these groups FOR THEIR EGOS, not for anything as noble as "helping the poor" or "stopping abusive religion." They are crusaders, and most ironically (again) they are the most devout, zealous, and extreme of religious people. Their religions just happen to be godless.
Second, both are usually worthless people (I am reminding normal Atheists, this does not include you). They have no value beyond their religion. They are too lazy to go and develop a skill, a trade, a career, and develop themselves as a human and live an interesting and productive life. And instead of enduring or expending the effort, rigor, development, trials, tribulations and challenges in life that would give them a core and worth, they instead claim allegiance to a "holy and noble crusade" they really couldn't less about to fill that hole. The average leftist joins the Peace Corps and does nothing to help Africans while the Angry Atheist rips on religious people because their liberal arts degree isn't getting them a job.
And finally, they are envious. Since they are too lazy to go out and get what they want out of life, they must criminalize and villainize what others have. The leftist criminalizes "wealth" and "the rich" while never resting a second in their lives to concoct lies and false rationalizations to confiscate said wealth. The Angry Atheist wishing to belong to something, but not wanting to expend any effort to meet the standards of that club (not to mention, no doubt also envious of religious people's tendency to be wealthier as well), rips on religion, allowing him to immediately join a group of anti-religion religion, thereby giving him an identity and belonging.
If you got intellectual warm fuzzies, buy something you have to buy anyway on Amazon for the ole Captain. Proceeds go to his "Poor Starving Bachelor Fund"
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