Inspired by some of the discussion in this thread. I don’t think it’s appropriate place for that discussion there, but hey why not have a separate thread for it

If I think religion is not good in general, am I Reddit and cringe and basically Richard Dawkins?

  • mathemachristian [he/him]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    24
    ·
    2 days ago

    To me it’s the difference between “There is no god.” and “If you believe there is a god then you’re stupid.” or the only slight variation “I believe there is no god because I’m smart” typically dressed up as “I believe there is no god because I am an entirely logical and rational being and well-versed in all the different logical fallacies, anyone who believes there is a god is not as logical and rational and either needs to be educated or is incapable of understanding the high forms of logical calculus I perform.”.

    The smugness and showing off ones atheism as a sign of superiority is what I typically mean when I talk about “reddit” atheism.

    There also is a very strong islamophobic undercurrent, where they are trying to justify their racist feelings of superiority towards all the MENA countries by being “equally” as derisive of christians (a.k.a. republicans/red states). I have never seen a reddit atheist extend good-faith, it’s always dunking or debate-broing to flex how “logical” they are.

    • TonoManza@lemmygrad.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      2 days ago

      Nah, because this is a perfect description of me during my edgy atheist phase. Going from that last type of reddit atheist, with the islamophobia included, to converting to Islam after a lot of looking into it trying to “debate-bro”.

      • mathemachristian [he/him]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        2 days ago

        So you weren’t on reddit while an atheist but were acting similarly to what I’m describing and that’s the reason for why people don’t mean that when they talk about reddit atheism? Sorry I am tired and want to understand properly.

        • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          2 days ago

          It wasn’t far off from the much more successful (but still cringe) pitch for “singularity” cultists to brand themselves as capital-R “Rationalists.” They may as well have called themselves the Very Smartists. big-yud

          • mathemachristian [he/him]@hexbear.net
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            2 days ago

            oh, that’s when the gamergate crowd discovered atheism right? I tuned out after that. The Amazing Atheist was just peak cringe, but him going white supremacist (I forgot how open it was) turned it from i-cant to what-the-hell

            • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              edit-2
              2 days ago

              It’s not quite lined up chronologically; a lot of Reddit New Atheists were that first then became freeze-gamergaters when their “debunk creationism” Youtube heroes chudded out.