Stigma Against Anti-Theism

 


Stigma Against Anti-Theism

 


In this post I am not referring to the fear and hatred theists harbour towards anti-theistic ideas. That is only natural and the expected outcome. No, what I find particularly irksome regarding opposition to religion is that often the most vocal defenders of maintaining the 'sacrosanct' status of it are fellow atheists.


It is disheartening to witness some atheists criticizing their peers for being 'edgy' or disrespectful when it comes to challenging religious beliefs. Anti-theists are often seen as too strident, or aggressive, even at times accused of being no better than the fundamentalists whose influence we seek to combat.


I find it difficult to understand why the god claim must be given any more reverence than other entities which most would freely admit are entirely fictional. Why must deities be treated with any more seriousness than Harry Potter, the God-Emperor of Mankind, Godzilla, or the flying spaghetti monster?


While some may argue that these are private beliefs and should be respected as such, I disagree. Not only are they blatantly absurd, but enormously harmful to human society. It is not in the scope of this post to elaborate on the litany of ways in which religion has been harmful to humanity but given that the target audience of this post comprises primararily of secularists, it would be safe to assume that you would be familiar with many of them. Consequently, opposing and ridiculing such beliefs should be seen as not just acceptable, but necessary in order to dismantle the notion that religion is beyond criticism and hope that it jumpstarts the process of helping theists identify the cognitive dissonance that many of them have no choice but to partake in.


However, this task is made much harder if supposedly moderate atheists are immediately willing to denounce such actions as irreverent or inconsiderate and in the process kowtow to the fanatics. In light of the rise of religious extremists across the world, whether that be in the US, Iran, Turkey, Russia, or India, I believe it is imperative for there to be vocal and united opposition from those who have moved beyond such childish concepts.


Finally, I want to emphasize that I am by no means advocating for insulting or mocking people who happen to hold religious beliefs, after all they are also ultimately victims of childhood indoctrination. But rather I want to encourage the de-stigmatization of anti-theism amongst fellow atheists or those who prefer agnostics, even if that is a distinction without a difference. Because at the end of the day, we all want humanity to advance by the principles of reason, rationality, and logic rather than be bound by the shackles of faith, superstition and irrationality.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Against Xenophobia: An Argument For Immigration

Against Xenophobia An Argument For Immigration     Introduction I doubt it has escaped anyone's attention that recent years have seen a surge in anti-immigrant sentiment across the world. In this article I seek to go against what appears to be a dominant narrative where often both sides of the political spectrum operate on the assumption that immigration should be considered a net negative and viewed with suspicion.   Often when anti-immigration politicians or political commentators use the words 'immigrant' or 'immigration' they often tend to conflate what are really different, distinct groups. Mainly, refugees, expatriates, international students and actual immigrants. For the purposes of this article, I am willing to engage them with their own definitions of the terminology. Consequently, my argument will refer to all of the different kinds of foreign individuals enumerated above. Furthermore, due to me being the most familiar with the situation in the United Kin
Read more

A New Faith

  A New Faith Was the new imperial religion a net negative for the Roman civilization? Introduction This write up aims to critically analyse the impact of the abrahamic religion on the trajectory of the Roman Civilization (~753 BCE - 1453 CE) and make an argument for why I believe it to have ultimately been a net negative. It is worth noting that historian Edward Gibbon had also made a similar case when he first wrote his seminal work 'The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' (1776 CE). However, it is now considered by many to be outdated and operating on faulty assumptions, though I believe it still has some merit, on the whole I admit that it is a flawed assessment. I seek to articulate a more modern position based on new research as well as my own logical analysis of the circumstances of the empire and how its new faith influenced its decision-making for the worse. The body of this essay will be divided into three sections. The first would explore my primary argument, that
Read more

For the Next Millenium

  Homework for humanity to work on for the next millennium, preferably the coming centuries: A New Ideology Institution of the 'Imperial Truth' as the official ideology of the United Nations and Humanity. Its key tenets are: Anti-theism, materialism, anthropocentrism, internationalism and utilitarianism.  Towards Unification All countries will be forced to pay a tax to the UN equating to around 1% of their GDP which will go to the UN Treasury. This will be enforced by the UNSC who will determine how to spend it.  Formation of the CANZUK Union, consisting of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and South Africa. Formation of the Moscow Federation, consisting of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. Centralization of the European Union into the European Federation. Formation of the Republic of South Asia, consisting of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Burma. The UNSC must always consist of the 6 most powerful countries in the world. Which would be: t
Read more

A Defence of AI

 A Defence of AI This post aims to address the most common concerns that are usually brought up regarding the development of artificial intelligence systems. The points that I seek to refute are: the derivative nature of AI generated content and the risk of theft, dangers of deepfakes, job loss, artificiality and soullessness of AI generated content, and being used solely for profit and the benefit of monopolistic corporations. For the sake of efficiency, I am assuming that the reader is familiar with these arguments and will not elucidate them here. In the eventuality that this is not the case, here is a link to an AI generated summary of them. Firstly, I shall confront the notion that since all AI generated content is trained on a set of data whose creators may not have consented to it being used for that purpose, it should then be considered an imitation of their work and therefore theft from them. While it is admittedly true that all such content is to some extent derivative and e
Read more

The Komnenos Restoration

The Komnenos Restoration Research Question: To what extent was the Komnenos dynasty (1081- 1185 CE) successful in restoring the Roman Empire following its decline in the eleventh century? Word Count: 3987 Word from the author: This analysis is somewhat outdated and based on obsolete ideas and research. However, it still has some valid arguments that are well presented while the remainder may prove persuasive to others even if they no longer convince me, so I feel it is worth uploading. Contents Introduction: 2 Body: 4 Treaty with Venice: 4 Reforms of Alexios I: 5 The policy of vassalization: 6 Failure to reconquer Anatolia: 8 Impact of the crusades: 10 Diplomacy with the Crusader States: 11 Failure to secure substantial gains under Manuel I: 12 Conclusion: 13                               Introduction: This essay will analyse the impact of the factors which played a part in shaping the course of imperial history under t
Read more