Top Ten Reasons Why Atheists Suck Redux

Like many other people on the net tonight I clicked on the Why Atheists Suck post that someone posted onto Facebook and I found the following ten reasons why the author, Jonah Peretti on Buzzfeed, thinks that he is right about atheists. OK. These are Jonah's opinions. That's fine. What confuses me is why Jonah's generalizations deserve any notoriety whatsoever. Why are people reading this?

Jonah’s post is prejudice, boorish, loutish, and simply ranting. Maybe that is the sort of thing that Buzzfeed regularly posts, I really don't know. But, just for the fun of it (read for the Clearing-of-the-Air of it) I'm going to stoop to responding to his claims. I'm not going to write up my own rant piece entitled Top Ten Reasons why Believers Suck. Why not? Because there is no possible way to characterize all believers accurately anymore than one could characterize all atheists accurately. And because that’s mean. But mostly, the reason why I wouldn’t write a piece with that slant is because it does nothing to contribute to the conversation.

Atheists really enjoy being smarter and more rational than everyone else. Have you noticed that about atheists? I have.

NO, I haven't noticed that. However, what I have noticed is that if you choose to engage an atheist as to HOW they are an atheist or WHY they do not accept supernatural claims, then we will tell you why.

If these reasons feel insulting or smart and rational to you, well, it's not about enjoying being smart or rational just to kill your buzz. It is about being rational rather than accepting claims at face value. Go ahead and be insulted when this rational method is used on religious claims, but also know that these critical thinking methods are addressed to every single claim that we come into contact. We do this in our minds and if we are online we share it with our readers.

It’s not what we do, it is who we are and how we move through the world.

Using this type of thinking has brought medical and technological advancements to the world in which we live. It is why you go to the doctor when ill instead of praying over an illness. It is why we are on our computers instead of waiting for riders to bring word from the next village. It is how we can have a probe on an entirely different planet. It is why we use clean medical supplies instead of dying from infection. It is why Erik Von Daaniken is no longer on our radar. It is why we don't read horoscopes to seriously plan our days. It is why we know about germs, moon rotation, diabetes, weather prediction, extrasolar planets, the Mariana Trench, algae blooms, global warming, epochs of Earth, DNA, the Higgs-Boson particle, etc.

Do I, as an atheist, enjoy being smarter than someone who strictly believes in Biblical claims? Not at all, I would honestly enjoy it more if more people used this type of thinking.

Atheists tend to be haters who don't believe in anything. you get excited about something cool and they are all skeptical, asking lots of critical questions, and basically kill the positive energy.

Are you looking for positive energy? Get into astronomy, photography, poetry, opera, politics, community service, geology, physics, exercise, model trains, etc. Get in to these things, ask questions, and you will STILL be able to love and enjoy it. Questioning these huge and beautiful things will never reduce them, only increase them. If you are excited about a thing that is reduced by knowledge, I can’t help but wonder about those things myself…

As for not believing in anything...on the contrary; I believe in SO MUCH!

They love reading Reddit.com, which is a perfectly good site, but they get all smug about how Reddit is better than other sites. Like is there some rule tat if you don't worship God, you have to worship Reddit instead?! WFT?

Honestly, I don’t have the time to research Reddit right now. I’ve never been there and don’t really know what the site’s focus is. But the thing is, without getting too pedantic about wording, I don’t worship things. But I do find many things to be awesome. My thought is that the author if this list hasn't had much contact in the real world with real atheist. I have no doubt that his online interactions with atheists have been highly contentious.

Atheists love to mock hard working, religious Americans who love their kids, work hard, and go to church.

Some do, it’s true. Some do not.

Some religious Americans mock atheist who love their children, work hard, and do not go to church. Some do not. I think a great deal of this huge gap between believers and unbelievers could be eradicated if we all simply agreed to meet outside of a discussion of belief or disbelief and simply looked for human being to connect with.

Atheists think they are rational and scientific but isn’t it more rational and open minded to say that God *might* exist? Should real scientists keep an open mind?

Is it rational to think that God might exist? Well, I used to...right up to that moment when it became grossly clear to me that the concepts around god and religion are entirely man made and so I no longer entertain that idea. My rational and scientific mind did have a period of serious belief, until it could no longer tolerate the cognitive dissonance.

So please understand me and put this one to rest:  I DID consider it. Strongly and for an extended period of time. I found it impossible to maintain a belief is any and all gods after many years of attempting to trust in faith. Now I trust in nature and it hasn't failed me even once.

Atheists are some of the biggest trolls on the Internet. They will probably start trolling me just for writing this post.

Not likely, Jonah. I don’t have the time for such nonsense.

Are there atheist trolls? Absolutely. But, on my atheist, and skeptic sites you will find thousands of Christian trolls. I have come to the conclusion that a person who trolls must have a certain personality trait where argument is appealing to them.

Have you ever known someone who would rather be right than loved? And eventually you are like, “dude, ok, ok, you are right” but you are also thinking “what an a-hole!” That a-hole is almost certainly an atheist.

I would FAR rather be loved. I will not, however, change who I am for you. Nor will I ask you to change for me. I have had enough experiences of people who were wonderfully loving friends while I was a believer who, then, completely left our friendship when I became an atheist.  

I could tell you of the many, many experiences that the kids and I have had where Christians would more likely give us pain and hatred than friendship.

Talk to my kids sometime. They will tell you of their ongoing pain from their experiences with Christian friends who have been so hurtful to them. If you would hear what we have gone through, you just might think about some of those people What an a—hole.

ALSO please know that we have Christian friends who are wonderful and who we love very dearly as well as knowing atheist people who we do not care for.

Atheists are the kind of people who enjoy telling small children that  Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and the Easter Bunny are all fake. Thanks for ruining all the fun, Atheist! I guess you tink a 5 year old knowing "the truth" is more important tan them having a happy childhood.

My kids enjoyed Santa, the Tooth Fairy, the Bunny, fairies, and plenty of other magical things until these things no longer made sense to them and they figured them out themselves. After they figured out the truths, I asked them if they would have preferred the stories for the fun or have preferred the facts. They enjoyed the nonsense as well as the discovery. So, we did it right.

I guess we will see what my kids do with their kids one day.

Atheists are selfish. Instead of praising God for good things that happen in their life, they just praise themselves. Like “wow, I really deserved that raise. Praise myself!”

If it is considered selfish to acknowledge one’s own hard work and effort, then call me selfish. If it is selfish to praise the effort of my children for their own accomplishment, then, please, call me selfish. But I also know that this idea of selfish comes directly from the guilt trip of the religion. Some believers have a huge mental block when it comes to discussing personal power.

They just suck. You don’t even need a reason. It is obvious. Just accept it.

Or don’t accept it. It is, as always, your choice how you interact with the world around you. It is always your choice how you relate to the billions of people on our beautiful planet who are different from you.

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