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Permalink Reply by nick ellison on February 3, 2010 at 3:42am

well for me. i'm an anti-theist. i believe the difference is atheism is about not believing but not caring if others believe. where-as anti-theism is the not only about not believing but feeling that theism is wrong, and hurtful, and actively trying to educate people against theism. I'm sure i could be more descriptive but I believe i covered what i believe to be the bottom line. how about u Zarta? i know u are an anti-theist but what do u think is the difference between the two?

Permalink Reply by Sandy on February 5, 2010 at 6:27pm

Hi Zarta
The short answer to your first question is that an atheist doesn't believe in a supernatural deity, but I think you can be an antitheist without being an atheist. In my case, I became an antitheist in my teens when I turned against all forms of organised religion. It's only more recently that I've extended my opposition to supernatural bullshit beliefs that screw people up and make them open to exploitation (I'm thinking here of all the crap like The Secret and homeopathy that not only suck money off people but give them false hopes).

I joined this group because I think organised religion (and especially the monotheistic Abrahamic religions) represents one of the biggest threats to the world today, and its hard to find anybody that agrees with me. It's a lonely place to be. Mostly, when I talk about these issues, even with other atheists, they just think I'm being intolerant and overstating the threat. Yeah, they agree that fundamentalism is potentially dangerous, but that's only a fringe minority, isn't it? Most christians, muslims, jews are just getting on with their lives and trying to be good, so why not just let them be? I don't know if I totally buy into Sam Harris's argument that the moderates are providing cover for the radicals, but I do think he has a point. And not only that, they financially support corrupt institutions like the Catholic Church.

The two things that really drive me crazy are (1) the doublethink being promulgated -- God is Just, God is Merciful, Islam is a Religion of Peace -- when all the evidence in the Bible and Q'ran shows the exact opposite; and (2) squeamish political correctness that preaches tolerance where tolerance is not deserved.

Sorry -- that ended up being quite a rant. I'm really a pretty easy-going laid-back person, not a rabid antitheist at all.