Atheist movie coming out in New York and Los Angeles

[patrick1]

Dibble, I think you may make atheism out to be a better default position than it really is.  I just don't buy it. There are many people who are just a-holes. They will latch on to whatever belief system (doesn't have to be a theist one), use it to their advantage and make other people's lives miserable.   Basically, I don't really think that it is the idea of God that is the problem here, rather the ancillary stuff humans build around that idea.

[patrick1]

Some of my general scattered thoughts on the interesting exchanges above:

1. I think the goal of a rationalist society is a fiction and fool's errand. That has no bearing to the central thrust of what we are talking about, but it seems on some atheists' agenda. I also think that it is a false dichotomy that atheist=rational, theist=irrational. Ive met plenty of people on both sides who are not wrapped too tight.

2. The atheist, irreligious or whatever the preferred self appellation viewpoint is not exactly a new phenomena. The track record of societies that impose or seek to eradicate religion has been poor from the drop.

Further, I tend to think that a religious or atheist's individuals actions have far more to do with their individual makeup and conditioning than their dogma. Theism is such a broad and because of that meaningless term. Is it only the monotheist who deserve to be talked out of their folly?

[patrick1]

"Don't confuse the modern atheist movement with the regimes you're talking about - the methods and ideologies in question are very different, and it's disingenuous of you to try to act like the two are the same."

The above is why you get pushback. Not all religious, religions etc are made alike either. In the belief that you are rightly guided, one makes several of the same errors that true believers make.
The starting point that your movement seems to have is that your side is rational and others are irrational fools.  Neither side has any concrete proof on their side so I think it foolish for some Christian to mock an atheist and vice versa.

[patrick1]

This is a straw man. I did not claim all religions are exactly the same - they aren't, that's just an obvious fact and I didn't think it needed to be said. Some religions don't tend to try to insert themselves into government or force themselves on others, and you'll find that we atheists tend to leave them be, even if we find them irrational. I mean seriously, how often do you hear atheists gripe about Buddhism or Shintoism?
 

The starting point of our movement is this - there are people who want to force their religious beliefs on others, to one degree or another. These people are doing this when there is no evidence for their beliefs, and in some cases there is evidence that contradicts those beliefs.

Our movement doesn't need proof for our side because we aren't trying to force people to be atheists - all most of us really want is for governments to be secular and society to not treat us like trash because we don't have religion.

So basically, it is the actions done in God's name that is the what you have issue with?

[patrick1]

So basically, it is the actions done in God's name that is the what you have issue with?

If someone wishes to act in the name of God, Allah, Zeus, Ra, Amaterasu, Baʿal, or any of the other hosts of deities that people have worshiped throughout history and it does no undue imposition on others who disagree with them then I have little problem outside of thinking they would have better uses for their time. It's when they do cause undue imposition that I have a problem, regardless of whether or not it's done in someone's name.

...unless it's for Thor, then it's ok.

I think that is a fair outlook on things.  However, I am not sure it that needs to be framed in the religious context.  You can replace those deities with a host of other words and still have it be correct. Further, I think even the extent to which religion influences society or the other way around is open for debate. There are vast differences between the way the same religions are practiced throughout the world. The pre-existing society is usually a good indicator of how that will be practiced.