I think there's a difference from the average atheist (and in the modern world, such a person is more likely to be an apatheist or at least an agnostic), and the more zealous people who frequent places like /r/atheism or even alt.atheism back in the day. Such communities are more self-selecting, and it has more to do with the temperament of the people present than their actual lack of religious belief.
Atheism is very different. You don't see atheists having fancy churches. You don't see athists demanding hurting over people over their "religious feelings".
I wonder, given the rising popularity of atheism, how many of the people described in the study fall under the unthinking atheist, in the same way someone raised by Christians or in Christian peer-groups can easily become Christian without conscience thought? It stands to reason that as it gains in popularity, atheism would appear more like the general population. I feel like the ‘convinced, dogmatic atheists’ is a group that's become the minority.
I suspect that this is mostly a first-generation atheism problem, and most atheists these days were still raised religiously. They spend a lot of time being religious about other things, or treating atheism religiously and attacking religion with religious levels of fervor.
Yea, this is an important distinction. The overwhelming silent majority of Atheists simply don't believe because they have no reason to, and they generally try to avoid the topic because it is unimportant to them and just causes conflicts(due to the prejudices deeply ingrained in euro-christian society...no we're not immoral). ANTItheists are essentially evangelical atheists. That's exhausting, and as atheism isn't inherently evangelical, these folks are mostly self motivated by the belief that organized religion has such a negative effect on society that it's worth devoting significant personal effort to combating it. They're lightning rods for attention, but far from the norm.
Isn't this roughly the same as my "spluh" comment? :)
In a religious culture, it's hard to find anyone more religious than an atheist. The reason for that, I think, is that you have to make a choice to be an atheist when it's not the default.
Reddit is an interesting lesson for everyone with vague interest in society and human (tribal?) behavior. One of less pleasant experiences I had was on Atheism subreddit. Atheists like me like to think they're a bit special, they're more civilized, and don't exhibit the behaviors attributed to religious folks (intolerance, agression, mob mentality). Except that Atheism subreddit is eerily similar to how religious folks behave at times. My conclusion is that it's not so much atheism that makes certain folks more restrained, but isolation. Online, on a site like Reddit where atheists can group together, they're just another tribe. Only a bit (if at all) better than others.
Oh, and the top voted link at the moment was a sex tape of some woman who declared she's having sex with a stranger just to spite her husband who joined a sect which made him sell their furniture. And she was going to making him watch the video.
This distinction between non-religious and atheist is new to me and sounds like an Americanism. Over here in Europe if you don't believe in a god you're an atheist, simple as that.
Some people are agnostic, meaning they are religious but don't subscribe to a particular god or doctrine. However no one makes the distinction between atheism and non-religious that you're making here. It may have something to do with the fact that society in the US is so pervasively religious that the only way to escape it is to explicitly identify yourself as an atheist.
Atheism itself though has grown into a full blown region. There is a point where your "not-golfing" becomes hobby, and it seems that atheism, at least for some, crossed that line long ago.
I grew up in a very religious environment, but I have been an atheist for 10 years (I'm 30 now). I don't see much of a difference between "loud atheists" and "loud Christians." The intolerance is the same, the language is the same, and even the "I'm a better X than you" and "You're not a real X" are the same.
I was raised atheist by atheist parents. My mother was raised in one of the weirder Christian sects and got out of it before they married. I have always been an atheist despite growing up in a small town with a church on every block, including one whacky church that actually did things like book burnings and burning Michael Jackson in effigy for corrupting the youth. Most of my friends were catholic, growing up, and that led me online for friends on days when they had CCC. 300 baud hayes for the win and online atheist communities, etc.
That said, as I've gotten older, I think I've concluded that many people - maybe even most - have a sort of need for religion that I somehow never appreciated. Without religion, I think we end up with the modern world, and by that I mean the weird secular religions (on all parts of the political spectrum) that keep springing up in the absence of a formal church, complete with weird notions of sin, apocalyptic thinking, etc. As an outsider, and as someone fascinated by cults and moral panics, it's interesting how similar the structures and language are between these movements and (new) religions are.
So 100% atheist.. but a suspicion that the world would be better off, Chesterton's fence-style, with a dominant religion secretly run by atheists.
Yeah, you thought they were idiots and formed antibodies against their belief system. But there are sophisticated religious people. And IMO sophisticated religious people are much more likely to have pondered deeply the ineffability of existence and accepted that it is incomprehensible except by faith. Whereas atheists just want to point out that it can’t be turtles all the way down and then become suddenly disinterested in the question beyond that.
There are plenty of people who don't affiliate with any religion but who are not, in fact, atheists. Not that it wouldn't surprise me if atheists, as a group, were growing.
I'm always surprised at the obsession that many atheists have with dumping on religion. Atheism in itself has taken on the characteristics of the very religions they "preach" against all too often. Not to say there aren't quiet, private atheists (just like there are quiet, private people with religion), but they are particularly vocal in the nerd centers of the intertubes (See the religion and atheism sub-reddits on Reddit for a laugh).
I used to get annoyed with pushy religious people, now I get to wade up to my neck in pushy atheists.
That's what congregations like the Unitarians are like. I go once a month to the local one, and I've been an atheist my entire life. I'd guess about half the people that there are, too, but no one really seems to mind one way or the other, as long as you're friendly and civil to everyone else. Mostly it's a discussion group, and I quite enjoy it.
Many atheists understand this. Honestly I think that religious people suffer from the same delusion as atheists. Just like the atheists see religious extremists and tend to over look the rest of the religious moderates around him, Christians, Islamists, etc. see only the atheists that openly taunt and threaten them (whether or not the threat is real or perceived).
I would wager that most atheists are not that extreme. They were brought up and now live in a world seeped with religion. Those that live in areas where religion is repressive learn to hide it while those in the developed world (especially the US) usually have to adapt. Likewise much of the people in the US have no problem with atheists. Many will be confused or question your decision, maybe be a bit condescending, but few will be spiteful. Atheists make up 14% of the population. They may be concentrated in the West and East but they are nonetheless everywhere. I know many Christian families that grew when one of their family members came out as an atheist and they had to deal with an entirely different world view (and often a different view on knowledge and faith), even if it was in the teen rebellion stage of atheism.
I know many extreme atheists and even they dont lack empathy for the religious or their religion. They're extremist because (this is my hypothesis based on nothing more than self reflection) atheists see the possibility for the same fulfillment, morality, and answers in a different world view, one that is largely naturalistic and does not come with the "moral baggage" of ancient (and largely static) religions and philosophies. This view, however, is shared by relatively few people, seemingly in growing numbers, and the few have to be vocal.
Atheists have a reputation for being anti-religion. This certainly isn't inherent to Atheism or reflective of all Atheists. However, I have met many Atheists who were highly intolerant or disrespectful of religion.
I'm sure part of it is the size. /r/atheism has over 94 thousand subscribers. In a group of people that large, there are inevitably going to be a bunch of super-assholes. The true measure of a subreddit is its ability to keep the assholes in check and denounce them when they rampage. A quick skim of a few threads suggests that /r/atheism is fairly average in that regard.
Athiests (the community) are known for being outspoken about the damage that certian religions have caused and are causing, but they're also known for supporting the free exchange of ideas including those that they think are harmful. Atheists (the definition) aren't known for anything because atheism doesn't demand any specific behaviors.
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