Due to constant misunderstanding with my name I feel the need to change my intro. I am hateful, hateful of religion. I hate what religion does to people and that people use it as an excuse to not think. I have spent many years of my life as an Atheist and have learned to handle my emotions, but no other word quite describes how I feel towards religion short of hate. I am outspoken, open minded, and will share my opinion. If you're looking for someone who will always agree with you, that won't be me.
The Out Campaign: Scarlet Letter of Atheism
(Ricky Gervais is my icon photo, I seem to be asked a lot.) Follow HatefulAtheist on Twitter

6th February 2012

Question with 8 notes

Anonymous asked: Are there any theists who you think should be left alone about religion? More specifically, there's this girl who used to be an atheist and who I used to admire for many reasons, but she ended up going through hell and back with all kinds of horrible stuff in her life and to my great dismay converted to theism. It makes me sad because I thought she was so intelligent, but since it's genuinely helping her be happier I almost feel like it's a good thing and I shouldn't talk to her about it...

For the most part I don’t really think there are many that should be left alone on the topic. If someone shows a willingness to talk about the topic they should be willing to discuss it further. If someone doesn’t want to talk about the topic at all and entirely avoids the discussion then perhaps it would be best to leave them alone. Some people simply don’t want to have the discussion and will go to great lengths to avoid it. They are much more comfortable not having their views challenged and will often feel anxiety and general stress from even talking about it. I don’t want to make someone feel uncomfortable, at least not in the physical sense.

If someone was once an Atheist and then choose a religion I think they should have even more reason to try to justify it and explain it. Their views should be better developed because they had to chose on their own to come to that decision. It would probably be an interesting conversation to find out what exactly brought that person to believe.

There is of course the possibility that since she has gone through so much she is simply using it as a crutch. She may see it as a way of feeling better and something that makes life easier for her. If that is the case, it is benign but it should be something she is willing to acknowledge. If someone is willing to admit they need religion because life is simply too difficult for them to handle without it, it would be a bit cruel to take it away from them. I’m certainly not saying we should encourage this type of thinking, we should do everything possible to discourage it at every turn, but if that is what it is used for it should at least be recognized for what it is and hopefully once the crutch is no longer needed it can be put aside like it rightly should.

Utility and validity are two entirely different things. The fact that something may be useful for a person in some situations does not in any way make it valid. It is also fairly obvious that any utility that religion has for anyone is something based on illusion only and is simply a temporary puffing up until reality has to set in. I would suggest at least talking to her and getting her views and opinions. Perhaps she realizes all these things and is simply making the conscious choice to allow the delusion to ease her mind in which case there is really nothing to argue.

()

  1. tsotchke said: You are sincerely suggesting that anon confront this young woman, who is in no way proselytizing or expressing any sort of hateful, fervent zeal, simply because you disagree with her private life choice? lol way to be like the theists you so hate
  2. hatefulatheist posted this