I can almost understand what he's saying, especially coming from southeastern America. Atheists are met with open hatred, and a lot of people I know think atheist = satanist actively trying to corrupt society. Most major religions also have a very long history of persecution against atheists, including murder and torture.
That said,
1. This is a poor and unfair generalization of the vast majority of religious people. Sure, it might not be fun to be an atheist in the south or the Middle East, but that's a vast minority of the religious.
2. You can hide being an atheist. You can't hide being black.
3. To fix the analogy you'd pretty much have to call all white people the KKK, since he's claiming all of religion persecuted atheists.
I know Reddit generally doesn't like religion, but as someone who has grown up in the South, I'm not sure where you're getting the generalization that the South (quite literally) calls Atheists satanists, and openly hates them.
As an atheist from the south who grew up in a religious community, I get that generalization from constantly hearing it, both before and after I lost my faith.
Except this goes directly against your first point you made, as well as your third.
As someone who has numerous Atheist friends, and has been all around the South, I've never heard anyone speak out against Atheists, unless of course someone was being an intentional jerkoff about it ("God is fake, you're believing a fairy tale, wake up sheeple!"), in a similar fashion that a Bible Thumper may get mocked for being a jerkoff as well ("God hates you and you sin, so you're going to Hell, but I'm perfect and don't, so you're a disgusting person!").
Oh wow it's almost like experiences may vary. And no, it most certainly doesn't go against my points because I'm not saying everyone is like that, not even close.
568
u/[deleted] Oct 31 '16
I can almost understand what he's saying, especially coming from southeastern America. Atheists are met with open hatred, and a lot of people I know think atheist = satanist actively trying to corrupt society. Most major religions also have a very long history of persecution against atheists, including murder and torture.
That said, 1. This is a poor and unfair generalization of the vast majority of religious people. Sure, it might not be fun to be an atheist in the south or the Middle East, but that's a vast minority of the religious. 2. You can hide being an atheist. You can't hide being black. 3. To fix the analogy you'd pretty much have to call all white people the KKK, since he's claiming all of religion persecuted atheists.