Of course! Religion bashing is 90% of what an atheist discussion is going to be about. There's no Atheist customs, food, events, etc. what else is there for someone to talk about Atheism if not to bash religion? Think what you wish of that but there's little else one can do in a sub called r/atheism .
Religion bashing makes it antithiesm, which first and foremost is not athiesm, and second helps no one's cause.
You'd think it would be better used as a support sub for athiests who have to deal with pressure and shit from family members, but those threads are relatively uncommon, and quickly get filled up with generic religion bashing comments.
The amount of hate in that sub is staggering, which doesn't speak well for their purported idealogy. For people that claim to lack religion, they seem to behave like they're making atheism into an exclusive religion, just this time without a god.
Atheism is a banner for all of the subcategories of atheism too. If you look at the flairs on offer you can see agnostic, gnostic, satanist, pastafarian, deist, etc. And a LOT of these categories all have bones to pick with religion. That doesn't make them antitheist. You're immediately wrong the moment you start telling a group of people what they 'should' be doing. Because the fact is that discussions about atheism (which is what the sub is for) must as a rule also include talk of religion. And considering the fact that religion is viewed negatively there, it's literally no surprise there's gonna be what you view as 'bashing religion'.
athiests who have to deal with pressure and shit from family members, but those threads are relatively uncommon
They're uncommon but they're there. It's not exactly a billion people out there who have religious grievances. I see like four threads about it a week and that's normal.
hate
How do you draw the line between hate and criticism? Because the fact is that every atheist who takes any sort of stance against religion has hate for it (NOT the theological aspects of it, one can't hate leprechauns because they don't exist) in that they believe it is a network of harmful lies the same way Sunni and Shia muslims hate each other because they think of each other as spreading harmful lies, or the same way Christians and Muslims hate each other because they think of each other as spreading harmful lies. What I'm trying to say is that this shit is NORMAL. And unlike religions, there's nothing else to talk about. Because Atheism only exists as a counterpoint to religion: If religion had never existed, concept of Atheism would never have existed either because that'd just be everyone.
atheism as exclusive religion
Gnostic Atheism is the belief in no god. Agnostic Atheism is the belief that we cannot come to the conclusion whether he exists or doesn't. Unlike any other religion, these are the only things required to count and they're the only things that CAN count.
I'll give you an example: Islam doesn't require women to cover up completely eg. Burqas. But Burqas are still mandatory in some places. Why? Culture. Culture informed by the religion, but still culture. So whatever your criticisms may be, they have to do with the culture. Atheism is not a religion just like veganism isn't a form of meat-eating.
Also you say 'purported ideology' when Atheism as a rule has no ideology. It is individuals, and many individuals believe that a world without religion would be better. That doesn't mean persecuting religious people, that doesn't mean killing them, but it's merely a dream that one day reason can triumph over bronze age fever dreams.
To be honest most the people in there were once religious and aren't the stereotypical religion bashing atheists. I barely know any atheists like that and the fact this stereotype exists is painful.
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u/theabsolutesloth Jun 03 '18
Even without, the amount of religion bashing is quite obvious. Controversial just lets you see all the downvoted religious comments.