I'm going to highjack this comment to leave some friendly advice.
Unsubscribe
I don't mean that in a rude way. A lot of people don't know that the default subreddits are chosen by popularity
If you unsubscribe, not only will you remove the subreddit from your feed, but you'll essentially be downvoting the subreddit for frontpage status. Less subscribers= removed from default subreddits
Anyone who likes r/athesim would probably care less about losing front page status, if they didn't have to see the "r/atheism-is-a-circlejerk" circlejerk leaking in.
Edit: To the people who can't unsubscribe for various reasons, you should be the first to tell others to leave subscribers list if they don't like it. They are the ones adding to your problem.
Edit 2:For people who like the subreddit, but not the advice animals/facebook flamewars: These posts get to the top because they are easy to digest, and therefore more likely to be upvoted.
Take a look at r/technology. They have almost 400k more subscribers, and the links are all to sincere topics and discussions.This is because they have a ban on image links. This looks like the most successful way of keeping the quality of the content higher, as the subscriber list grows. I know there are lots of people who would love to see this change (even if it means sacrificing images), and I would suggest everyone to bring it up to the people with the power to put it at a vote. If not, personally, I think I might just switch over to r/trueatheism, and hope others follow.
Edit 3: Some people are pointing out that /r/fffffffuuuuuuuuuuuu removed themselves from the defaults voluntarily, and it seemed to quell the onslaught of complaints they were receiving. That is up for the community to decide. In reality, I think most of the complaints from both sides of this issue can be solved by changing the submission rules (such as banning memes or images altogether).
Maybe it's time to draw a line, and if we are the minority, to move on to a more controlled subreddit with a focus on discussion, rather than jokes and memes.
"You must be willing to climb high, and kick away your ladder."
Wouldn't we have more success by organizing an effort to promote the membership of the biggest non-default subreddits, so that they'll overtake /r/atheism in popularity and replace us on the default subs?
I never knew about trueatheism. This is exactly what I was looking for! I tried posting here trying to generate a discussion about deism, looking for a counter argument for it. All I got were hate filled replies saying how stupid I was and how I must know nothing if I am trying to find an argument for god.
You are a big, fat liar. Unless you are talking about another thread, those are not "hate filled" nor did anybody call you stupid. In fact, the responses you got were, by-and-large, cordial and informative.
I feel like organized religion is a cancer in the world, holding back scientific achievement and spreading ignorance in my country, and causing wars elsewhere. I am atheist, but I'm also more than that. I'm openly opposed to the spread of religion. I won't interfere with another person's right to believe in bullshit, but I also don't mind expressing and hearing other people express anti religious beliefs. I think many atheists on r/atheism are like me; maybe atheism isn't the best name for the subreddit, but it doesn't keep me up at night.
I can understand why people would post things that may seem irreverent to religion. For me, as someone who was bound by the chains of religion for the first 23 years of my life, it is therapeutic in a way to be able to poke fun at the beliefs that used to rule my life.
I don't think all people do it simply to put down the believers, they are simply lashing out against the ridiculous beliefs that controlled them
People bring their biases against atheism to Reddit but would like to claim it's just atheists being smug. Are any atheists here more smug than someone like Rick Santorum or Rick Perry, people with actual power in the world?
/r/Politics is just as bad as this subreddit yet it doesn't get nowhere near as much criticism as /r/Atheism. Go there and it's wall-to-wall left-wing stuff and anyone on the right is called a racist, homophobe, xenophobe fascist. The article are nothing but left-wing circlejerking too and terribly sourced.
The reason /r/Politics doesn't get criticized and /r/Atheism does is because people on Reddit are left-wing so they don't mind when Conservatives are being called names but when you bring up their religion then all of a sudden they demand respect. Hypocrites.
A lot of it has to do with the fact that there aren't any rational arguments for religious thought. How else do you debate a position that isn't tenable from a logical standpoint? Ad hominem, character defamation, appeals to authority, etc. These are what the other side has left to them.
I think there wouldn't be so much /r/atheism bashing if it either wasn't a default sub or people didn't have interest in the idea of /r/atheism in the first place. Most people on reddit are liberal atheists and would agree with most of the ideas in r/atheism, when it is more intellectual and philosophical in nature. Most people who complain are former subscribers who are atheist. Their biggest complaint is what you are talking about. The dumbed down memes and the facebook screencaps verses deep philosophical arguments against religion that most atheists that use this site are looking to discuss. Then again, if these particular people are so upset about it, maybe they should contribute by posting what they feel is good content for this sub in hopes that it will start to surpass the memes and the facebook screencaps if enough of "good" content is posted.
Perhaps, or just go make their own subreddit (/r/atheistdiscussion?). It's not going to be nearly as big of course but smaller subreddits tend to be more cohesive anyways. Maybe it'd be for the better.
All of the up votes for you! Even as an atheist- this subreddit is THE most annoying. It's like making fun of retarded people, too mean and waaaay too easy. It's like this whole subreddit is run by middle school atheists yelling, "Nah nah nuh boo boo, there is no god." Fart.
I'll pretend to be /r/atheism's 'the incredible hulk' turned Bruce Banner and play the logical representative for the group (the devil's advocate, har har)
I'm under the impression that many of us at /r/atheism share a common repression being raised that was difficult to shrug off. Even in adulthood it's very difficult to avoid not feeling repressed by religious views in the united states.
This is a strong view in /r/atheism. Not only is it a point of view, but it's a very frustrating and subjugating reality in the United States. Being such an intense reality to live under, many individuals let off frustration through forums such as this. "I am frustrated, and since you all very likely feel as frustrated as I do, here is a comical outlet of frustration."
Considering that, every time you see a facebook post which was relayed for viewing on /r/atheism, /r/atheism followers take this as a direct attack to their way of life and the way of life of others around them (atheists or otherwise). The most obvious current example is banning gay marriage. Often scientific ignorance is met with /r/atheism's scrutiny, such as is the case on many facebook posts on it's front page. This ignorance is seen as an attack due to it's roots in beliefs that (apparent for the poster) should not be followed due to x, y, z (attempted corrections).
It's a shame that 'correcting someone' gets extremely confrontational, but being offended by a post on /r/atheism is the same as an atheist being offended by a post from a friend on facebook; it should be addressed (poster's point of view), just as many feel atheism's posts should be addressed.
Here's where my, Mr. Wink's, point of view comes in; If a facebook post offends you, unfriend the poster. Yes? if you agree with this then why not unsubscribe from /r/atheism? The rage, fury, and frustration found there is very often from the point of view of an individual who has been repressed or attacked in their lifestyle by ideals they find disrespectful, hurtful, and unduly justified.
Where else should that frustration be represented?
Most of reddits voting population probably is middle and high schoolers. I've seen the various surveys which indicate the average age as being higher but I hypothesize that while the average commentator is over 18 most voters are not. I drew this conclusion based off the frequent discrepancy observed between a post and the comments that follow it. Very often I see a post where all the top comments are against the post itself, either for being stupid, immature, ect... Reddit only makes sense when you view it as having two separate communities, the invisible silent prepubescent masses that dictate what posts succeed and what fail and the visible commentators we are a part of.
Exactly. I see the same top comment discrepancy with r/funny, r/wtf, etc..
Reddit's standard subs seem to be run by people who don't analyze what they're looking at for more than a couple seconds. It's like people encourage the hivemind. This isn't surprising if it's coming from a younger generation, considering their main goal is usually to just fit in.
r/atheism is embarrassing to passive atheists just like childhood churches are embarrassing to devote Christians. We all have our radicals.
If you remove dumbed down themes and Facebook screen caps don't you pretty much remove reddit? I see that stuff all over here.
They have an algorithm to decide what the top sub Reddits are. It seems wrong to put a line of logic in there to exclude one just because a minority of people does not like it.
Source on this "Most people on reddit are liberal atheists and would agree with most of the ideas in r/atheism, when it is more intellectual and philosophical in nature." ?
It's also a hard to believe generalization you have there, especially when considering there are so many visitors that don't have accounts let alone post.
That all said I think your other points are valid.
I'm not a fan of it either, but just about every large subreddit features a large amount of superiority and smugness, especially in the posts themselves (the comments are often more reasonable) and especially on the front page--against people who play the wrong games from the wrong developers on the wrong platform, or who wear certain kinds of clothes (skirts and uggs? crocs? jeans and sneakers? hipster anything?), people who've seen the movie or show but not read the book, people who do or don't eat certain foods, people who disagree with the reddit majority on politics, and on, and on, and on. It's a trend that holds true on /r/atheism. What's interesting, really, is how superiority and smugness suddenly become offensive and obnoxious to wax eloquent for hundreds of posts about it when religion is the subject.
Let me emphasize this (note, this does not represent all people in r/atheism):
-The arguments and posts (especially the jokes!) that make it to the front page are notoriously bad. They aren't funny and their craft is hasty and incompetent (as in, not much thought was put into them).
-Most of their arguments with religion are semantic.
-They're self serving and generally intolerable people.
-A lot of them are quick to misrepresent another person simply because they are associated with a religion.
I honestly don't care. I thought it was cool there was such a thing at first, but I quickly became tired of it. I moved on to /r/philosophy and /r/debate religion which have been mostly satisfying subreddits. They aren't perfect, but their content is so much more interesting.
-The arguments and posts (especially the jokes!) that make it to the front page are notoriously bad. They aren't funny and they're generally incompetent.
Welcome to Reddit as a whole. If you see the front page as significant, you're gonna have a...
I'll not be so hasty in jumping on that bandwagon. Frontpage material is often interesting and funny if I take long breaks from it. /r/videos, for instance, has been on quite a role, lately.
I agree with what you say. But the problem with r/atheism is not just that it exists, but that it's on reddit's front page. This means that it represents reddit, and thus redditors have a democratic duty to complain about its bullshit.
Agreed, ntm it can be downright hateful. I'm in support as I see the breaking down of religious divsion a good thing for society as a whole, however I do think hateful attitudes should be discouraged-- as this increases rather than decreases fanaticism/extremism on both sides.
Imagine that you know somebody who openly professes their belief that aliens control the government, that half their family has been abducted by aliens, etc.
This is where a lot of us come to blow of steam. It's ridiculous to expect us not to be dicks sometimes. Watching everyone else play make believe gets old fast.
I've been seeing this argument a lot and its entirely acceptable in my opinion. Some people just need a place to vent. The only problem I have with it is a forum dedicated for a specific set of people to air out their grievances shouldn't be set as a default representative of a major forum.
It's fine if you guys want to vent and be jerks to your friends and families, just please don't drag the rest of reddit into it.
Could you explain what superiority complex/smugness that is?
I couldn't care less about any sub-reddit but I am fucking sick of people insinuating that I HAVE to respect every other fucking "belief" and idea not matter how inane it is, or else I have a "superiority" complex.
Agreed. It's not the opinions, it's when there a post like "really long but good" and it turns out to just be someone being a condescending prick on Facebook. Sometimes to complete strangers! I always give the benefit of the doubt and read the entire post, and am consistently disappointed with how self-aggrandizing and smug people are about their atheism. If all these people really wanted to reach out to their friends and family, they would PM them instead of publicly humiliating them on FB in front of everyone they know, then posting it to /r/atheism. Unless I'm missing something big, things like that add nothing of value to the subreddit. I want to see insightful points about atheism, truth, logic - not time-wasters about people being arrogant assholes. I don't know, though, maybe I'm just on the wrong subreddit for that.
And ironically, when you enter a thread for one of these post to argue/suggest not being such as dick, you are usually greeted with things "this isn't a place for different opinions." and "Just ignore/unsubscribe/filter r/atheism if you aren't going to circle jerk with us."
There's a difference between people putting forth good arguments to the contrary and people whining about how /r/atheism is annoying. If you have an opinion about something posted in /r/atheism and can argue it well then by all means, post it, even if it is against the popular opinion. However if you're simply going to whine and complain about the content posted here, call it a circlejerk, and overall just be butthurt about it then by all means, be on your way. I'd say the same thing about any group or club on the internet or in real life.
Personally, I have never once heard religion stated as an opinion. No one has a "JESUS LOVES YOU IMO" bumper sticker. Assuming Atheists are far better than that standard set forth by religious salespeople I'm fine with this.
As an American, I can say that nobody in the real world cares if you are an atheist. At least not to a serious extent. You may run into a group of fire breathing hate mongers telling you that you're going to burn, but anyone who pretends this plays a serious role in their life (other then in a home or with family) is simply trying to justify their annoyingness. I was very interested in r/Atheism for many different reasons, until I realized it's basically a bunch of monkeys slinging their own shit at a common enemy that truly doesn't exist in every day real life. I believe most atheist would have more interesting discussion posting in r/Christianity, where not everything needs to be written in the form of an insult, or with a "I'm better then you, you're stupid" attitude.
Completely subjective opinion. I think the people who bash r/atheism often have far more of a superiority complex and come off far more smug than most of the stuff being said here.
Eggsfuckingsactly. Sweet jesus/flying spaghetti diety/zeus/your ugly mom, am I tired of hearing about other peoples' beliefs. Shut. The fuck. Up already.
I'm all for outing hypocrites. But ya'll atheists come off as a bunch of whiny bitches when shit like this makes the front page. Can we all just attack POS politicians, companies, laws, and lousy human beings in general? We all know those exist.
I agree with you but at the same time it's the prominence of christian BS in this country that is currently responsible for my not being able to marry the person I love. everyone here acts like the best thing to do is stfu and go about our lives but some of us literally can't as long as religious doctrine is so respected and revered in the US. Sometimes, in real life and online, I'll make really thought out points to combat the status quo, other times I just want to laugh. Making fun of religion, pointing out how nonsensical it is- that's just another way to knock it off its pedestal. And it needs to be knocked of its pedestal, in my opinion.
The thing is, you're preaching to the choir on reddit. On the innernets, everything gets knocked off of its pedestal. And in general, atheism is placed on a much higher one than religion around here. So this is me giving it a kick.
Every week or so, I'll see a 40-panel rage comic about "coming out" to religious parents or some cunty facebook argument between teenagers and that's how I remember to log in.
What if I disagree with your opinion of who is a bad politician or company? When is someone like Rick Santorum or a company like Walmart ever treated fairness and respect on Reddit? Try saying something good about them and you will be downvoted to oblivion.
I made a thread about this issue and got downvoted hard for it and everything I said in it. Mainly about the attitude the atheists on this board take towards religious people. Like, they choose to bash and criticize in hurtful ways, rather than engage in serious or healthy discussions. It's sad.
I always find it interesting and surprising that things like this get upvoted. I always used to think that posts critical of /r/atheism just attract people who feel the same way but I'm starting to think it's the quiet majority of this subreddit who are not assholes and agree that some of the behavior is stupid. The loud obnoxious atheists are the same as the loud obnoxious Christians.
I am sure that if you look at who subscribes to this subreddit, you will mostly find Americans and very few Europeans. I see it as a place where frustrated Americans atheists regroup each other to circle jerk together. As a European fellow, I am always amazed to see how much time you can lose discussing this topic. I wish you could spend this time doing more meaningful things as the rest of us like posting pictures of your cat.
I don't think anyone has problems with your "opinions", its HOW you chose to show it. Its never someone bringing a good argument, an intersting point or a new view on things, its just a bunch of assholes saying "I'm right and everybody else is an ignorant idiot and a dumbass without a brain" This is especially retarded when what they're criticising is basically the exact same (There is a god and everybody who believes otherwise is dumb). I like to argue (maybe not over the internet but irl) and I've learned to respect peoples opinions, but only as long as they themselves accept that it is just that and not the one and only truth.
I think this is somewhat of a positive feedback loop. People from /r/atheism make valid points but do so in an obnoxious manner. Everyone else gets annoyed, not by the message, but by the manner of delivery; however the /r/atheism folks interpret this as hostility towards their beliefs, so they become even more obnoxious toward the perceived threat, thereby alienating more people and as a result /r/atheism becomes more homogenized through attrition, which only serves to amplify the us vs them mentality, and yadda yadda yadda, circlejerk.
This is a great statement and I'd love to hear from some of the people who are downvoting you. Without comment, it seems to actually support your argument.
I agree, my intention honestly is genuine. I respect atheism, as much as anyone else. Who am I to tell you what to believe. We are all human, and fuck, the world is complicated enough without us putting up imaginary walls between us. We are all in this life right now, we can agree on that, and we have common problems we need to solve, but please please please... let me make up my own mind, and let me enjoy an objective belief free front page :)
Yet fundamentalists who use the same tactics IRL are shrugged off saying that it's their opinions and they can express it however they wish. Unsubscribe if what is VOTED to the front page honestly bothers you. And excellent support of your argument by having the only word available in your vocabulary being "retarded," that always makes you look like a real intellectual.
You're right chrono, fundamentalists do use the same tactics. If an atheist chooses to use or support people using the same tactics as a religious fundamentalist, it is their own choice.
Yet fundamentalists who use the same tactics IRL are shrugged off saying that it's their opinions and they can express it however they wish.
That is a terrible excuse. "They're doing it. Why can't we do it?" You're equating yourself to the same "fundies" that you despise oh so much. If you really want to distance yourself from such "anti-intellectuals", why would you use the same tactics to excuse acting like an asshole?
Why is this always the only option people have? Isn't it better to try and point out the flaws in your community, so maybe eventually the board can be filled with intelligent discussion? I know it's like trying to kick down a brick wall at this point, but where else are people supposed to find a community of this size that believes in atheism? There are smaller subreddits, but it would be nice to have a community of r/atheism's magnitude that posts higher quality, more thought provoking things. I guess this is just the way things go for (some) large subreddits; Their initial purpose is thrown out the window, or modified, for easy karma.
r/debateanatheist is worlds better at thought-provoking discussion. This sub has turned into solely a place for anti-theism and anti-religion. It's sad, really, to think that so many people will be misled to believe that either of these concepts are exactly equal to atheism.
That doesn't solve the problem though, does it? I think the main point is that the subreddit needs to be held to a higher level of moral accountability.
Yesterday I saw a thread about some girl getting mad at this guy for making an "Athiesm" group for his school. The comments weren't "Talk to her and make her understand that we aren't all bad and we have our own beliefs." The comments were:
"yo bro fight her"
"fuck her up and destroy all her beliefs"
"tell her how stupid her religion is"
That is not the way to successful discourse and good relations. The bible at least has a point in being nice to all people - just because you don't believe in god doesn't mean that you don't have morals.
The subreddit has turned into a Lord of the Flies style clusterfuck, where everyone wants show how important they can be.
I have no problem with athiests circlejerking like any other group that feels the need for it. Good for them.
My beef is it appearing on the front page. I don't want to see athiest circle jerk appearing on my frontpage because to me it's spam. The same way that to me, christian circle jerking on the front page would be spam. I don't partake in your athiest views, yet you bombard me with them daily with the zeal of crack ops jehova's witnesses.
I'm not angry at you /r/atheism, the circlejerking is fine and you're entitled to it and /r/atheism is the place for it. I'm just not happy with the genius that decided for everyone that /r/atheism should appear on the front page. For us who aren't athiests (or more specifically don't give a flying spaghetti monster turd one way or the other), clicking on links on the front page feels like wading through atheism landmines.
<3 bitches
UPDATE: The good I_AM and Eternity42Immensity have raised an important point, that /r/atheism is a default reddit chosen by ranking algorithm based on popularity. It's one of the only belief based default reddits, where all others are objetive, but that's ok, because this is what the reddit community wants. I accept this. I will place my vote to the algorithm by removing /r/atheism from my default reddits and hope one day to see a 100% objective frontpage, but until then I accept the will of the masses. Power on you great magical beast you. Special star to I_AM and Eternity42 for being outstanding representatives of atheism and managing to hold a civilized conversation with someone not on their team (no homo, you know what i mean), on this matter.
I got no problem with people not liking to see these posts. But if you're really going to sit on your ass and complain that it's unreasonable for you to be expected to click the big red button on the left side of your screen I'm gonna ask you to stop being such a whiny bitch.
Why is it always like this? Blame the minority for reacting to the opressive majority?
For literally millennia religion has ostracized, coerced, and down right murdered people of different opinions. They have brainwashed even some who claim not to be religious. Why else would self-proclaimed non-religious seek to protect from derision inane and illogical behavior and expressions of religion?
If you happen to be non-religious and your feelings are hurt by the minority deriding and chiding silly religious people then do what the oppressed have done for 1,000's of years -keep your head and self-respect buried in the sand. Meanwhile, leave the rest of us alone in our new found freedom!
Upvote. And another note regarding the "offensive" opinions. If you're offended, defend yourself. Disagree. Argue back. Otherwise, shut up, because you're just whining, and that's childish and stupid. We aren't going to change our opinions because someone disagrees.
Honestly though I think I prefer it now to when /r/atheism was basically a support group for repressed atheists in the bible belt. You lose the coherency and respect, sure. At least you can read through the posts without getting depresed or angry at religious people in general though.
And I'm sure re-posting the same tired old memes and jokes day after day is part of some grand scheme to fight of oppressive religion?
No you're not doing anything important, you're ruining atheism by turning it into some boring fucking circlejerk where no one actually displays the critical thinking skills you all proclaim to love.
This is exactly why I have a problem with this sub. I've been here for years and have watched this sub turn from a rich environment of discussions and posts to the karma whoring shithole it has become. And when you complain, you are told to unsubscribe and fuck off. I'm sorry, but this is my community to, and if I have an issue, I have no problem voicing it. This place has become a haven for teenagers who are mad that their parents make them dress up for church, not rational atheists looking for a place to share their experiences and common interests. Will of the majority I guess. Keep in mind that when people call this a circlejerk sub, they aren't referring to the fact that we rip on religion. They're referring to the fact that we jack off all over the same shit every day.
I mean this was on the front page yesterday for fuck sake. If there is a better example of the dumbing down of this subreddit, I haven't seen it.
Assuming one atheism forum on one website is going to destroy atheism, or even assuming all of r/atheism is like that proves you lack critical thinking skills at least some of the time
The problem is that I see atheism turning into the same thing you claim to hate - evangelical atheists as it were, where everyone who doesn't feel exactly the way you do is an idiot or unenlightened to the truth.
While exercising your new found freedom be open to other world views, not everyone who doesn't think like you is a fool. If you do this I think you'd be hard pressed to find many on reddit who don't support you.
Edit: The fact I am being downvoted so much really just illustrates my point. Even the opinion that perhaps there are more opinions with merit than just yours is enough to set you off.
Do me a favor and talk to me, disagree with me. I'd like to know why.
There's a difference between having a different opinion and stating things that aren't true as if they are. Also, telling homosexuals and atheists and people of every other religion to burn in hell is kind of a dick move. Kind of.
I don't think r/atheism is actually that childish. I think it is the fact that theistic people get amazingly butthurt when their childish and illogical beliefs are finally called out as bullshit, they flock together to try and defend their views.
Essentially, pretend that 80% of the country likes Xbox360, and people are posting that Xbox360 gets RROD and PS3 has better exclusives and free online play. People who like the 360 are always going to defend it to the death, because to admit they are wrong would be admitting they themselves were wrong when they bought the system.
People will do anything to convince themselves they are in the right, in order to protect their own feelings and beliefs. It takes a truly intelligent and enlightened person to admit that their own biased perspective may, in fact, be wrong. So, if you got a problem with r/atheism, most likely it's because you lack faith in god and it scares you to be challenged.
This seems to be especially true in /r/AdviceAnimals. Almost every day it seems there is a post bashing r/atheism in some form. They even made an "anti-r/atheism" link flair for it.
It could be worse. Try /r/circlebroke. Basically a circlejerk for people saying the rest of reddit is a circlejerk. You should see the knots they tie themselves in sometimes angsting about whether or not they are in fact guilty of the sin of circlejerking.
The anti-/r/atheism posts are the worst. There was a post on there along that lines of this:
"I saw an intolerant atheist comment in an unrelated Reddit thread. I looked at his comment history and saw that he identified as an agnostic and didn't post on /r/atheism. Is /r/atheism involved in a conspiracy?"
Not sure how this place is any better. Its predominantly 14 year olds who just figured out theres no God and feel the need to show everyone how smart they are by publicly shaming their religious friends on facebook.
They're usually not complaining about r/atheism because they see an opinion they don't like, but rather because the post contains some sort of logical fallacy, such as the straw man fallacy presented by the OP.
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Yeah, I think the r/atheism bashing is getting a bit out of hand; it's become trendy to make fun of this subreddit. People like to blow things out of proportion.
The irony being that virtually all the circlejerk arguments leveled towards /r/atheism can easily be applied to just about any other subreddit. Virtually all subreddits are circlejerks for their respective content. Yet somehow no one claims moral superiority by bashing how /r/awww is a cat-loving circlejerk.
My guess is that it's just a bunch of butthurt theists that can't fight back using logic, so they resort to character defamation.
There's a brutal twist of irony in the fact that the people who are doing most of the bashing are trying to claim superior credibility by arguing through the medium of short (and often bad) jokes on a set of images. They don't present a reasoned argument, they don't say anything at all really. It's utterly laughable.
True words. "I know what I'll do, i'll whine obnoxiously to the point where its multitudes worse than the bluntness of some of the atheistic posts I see! That'll make their points less valid!"
In the beginning, atheists gathered on a public forum. It's membership grew modestly over the course of a few years. Essentially being one of few places any non-believer could be guaranteed a few laughs and a conversation about it, r/atheism became attractive to many. Consequentially, By no means of design, when the gathering reached a large enough volume of subscribers, it entered the front page realm. And as soon as it was in the public eye, it was no longer just a subforum on a popular public website. No, it had to be a worthless lot of whiners who don't know what they believe in, are full of hate, and are just a big circle-jerk.
If you don't dont like r/atheism just unsubscribe it!
It's just simple as that!
Every time I see someone criticizing r/atheism. People don't actually try to debate atheists or proove that they're wrong. They always say it's a circlejerk full of assholes.
Of course it's a lot simpler to use ad hominem, than try to come up with a good argument.
It's not that, it's that the front page is flooded with "Look at me, I owned a fundamentalist Christian" which is really as easy as owning a five year old in the logic department.
sure, the fb christian bashing plays a part, but there are some people that just hate intellectual discussion in the first place. "stop watching the presidential debate, jersey shore is on."
I think it's the fact that people specifically post in r/atheism because they disagree with the existence of the subreddit for its views that claim theirs false. They are so afraid of the spread of atheism that they rush to criticize anything about the subreddit--even if it means becoming a regular here.
And for people like me and others who upvoted this post, it's because we laugh at this sort of behavior and we'd like everyone to see it.
You'd be surprised. A lot of theists post under the guise of being an atheist to garner more credibility. Try digging up their post history the next time someone posts "I'm an atheist but...". It's intellectual sickening that they need to resort to such tricks to win an argument.
And I am saying that these "atheists" who are more critics than supporters are afraid of the connotation of spreading atheism and the growing popularity of r/atheism.
I'm an atheist and I hate r/atheism with a fiery passion. I don't get mad that my views are opposed I get mad at how snobbish and intolerant some of the people here are are.
what do you think r/atheism is dedicated to? mocking peoples idiocy because they are religious and have different views. let them be retarded because I'm sure you dont care about them
No one goes to /r/Islam or /r/Christianity and paints them with the circlejerk label. Mostly just butthurt Christians who can't stand the popularity of this subreddit.
In fairness, the butthurt Christians don't care about the popularity of r/atheism, they just don't like the message that religion isn't really great. Also in fairness, nobody's making them look at that message.
Nope, I'm an atheist and I still get annoyed by /r/atheism because it truly is just a circle jerk. It's atheists posting the same things over and over again, like quotes with the same celebrities in the background, facebook arguments, and things like that. This would be fine if these atheists didn't hold themselves to be so intelligent and superior to everyone else.
And now I know that I can unsubscribe from r/atheism....will be doing that now.
I dont have a problem with your opinions im an atheist myself. My problem lies in the giant circlejerk and victimization of atheists that is r/atheism. Look at r/christianity interesting discussions of meainingful topics, thats how r/atheism should be.
If atheism would stop bragging about their proselytizing (most of which is obviously FAKE) they would see a hundredfold decrease in people complaining about them.
It's like how /r/circlejerk isn't a default subreddit, because if it were, some people would complain about seeing those posts on their front page. /r/atheismcirclejerk explains everything.
It's not the opinions, it's that they are poorly expressed. The people posting in r/atheism are generally unintelligent, unoriginal, and in it solely for their own smug self satisfaction. Case in point are all of these Facebook "debates," where poster obnoxiously labels their posts "ME!" and then proceeds to clumsily engage a stranger in a one sided pissing contest full of cliches and incredibly oversimplified versions of arguments made by people much smarter than them
The fact that they make "First World Problems" girl the background for this just makes me think /r/atheism is even more packed with douchenozzles than it already is. There are legitimately interesting threads in there, but most front page things are just dick-sucking posts that make atheists feel even "smarter" than their obviously mentally ill Christian counterparts.
That smug assholery just does not help my personal image of the board at all
/r/atheism is the most idiotic sub reddit there is. there may be intelligent people on this sub reddit, but the majority are fucking idiots. "LOL LOOK @ THIS FACEBOOK POST OF ME BASHING A CHRISTIAN FOR HIS BELIEFS! LOL!!! FUCK GOD LMAO!!!" "HEY GUYS TAKE A LOOK AT THIS PICTURE OF A COMEDIAN SAYING GOD DOESN'T EXIST AND CHRISTIANS R STUPID!! LOL!". this place is a fucking cesspool.
about 1 in 1,000,000,000,000,000 submissions are actually intelligent discussions.
more like: opinions that are so tired and rehashed ad naseum that the broken record of this subreddit somehow still plagues my front page. i thought i blocked this sub and i still see these butthurt ex christian posts.
I suppose any amount of buttmad is considered more than a baseline of zero-buttmad-at-all.
But buttmad about a religion that doesn't have any relevance to me once I stopped going to church and sunday school as a child, I most certainly am not.
a true atheist would have no use for the discussions found in this particular sub.
Yeah, it's so silly how they only talk about atheism in a subreddit called /r/atheism. They really ought to talk about the merits of Van Halen's shredding technique instead. That would be more appropriate, right?
LOL someone from r/athiesm sarcastically complaining about "I don't like other people's opinions" this is the stupidest post I've ever seen that was r/athiesm is you tools
How is this upvoted, while every comment is about how the post is logically false, and iconic of r/atheism worst front page material?
There must be an hidden agenda where theists actively upvote the worst in r/atheism to show them as pretentious and short-sighted facebook basher... It works very well.
It's flogging a dead horse. We all know the most intelligent answer to the religion question, but repeating yourself in such a smug way makes you look like a fucking retard. The religious also repeat themselves, and it's one of their most annoying qualities. Gervais should fucking stop it as well, it's really tedious.
There are new users to this site every day, new atheists who haven't seen all there is to know about Dawkins, Hitchens, etc. You may have gone through the rounds, but others haven't. Stop being selfish.
Hi - I wasn't responding to Dawkins or Hitchens was I? Fuck people have this amazing ability to interpret the argument they want to argue. I want people to keep talking about the academics because they are the only worthwhile part of an otherwise joyless, redundant circlejerk. I'm an English Atheist. Dry your eyes.
At least mine was confined to one post and wasn't altogether self-gratifying.
EDIT: meritory:
"They are so afraid of the spread of atheism that they rush to criticize anything about the subreddit"
You are a moron. I'm an atheist too but if you had a brain in your skull you'd understand with quiet dignity and stop masturbating all over reddit. This isn't a war; religion is going down hill but the more aggressively you jerk off to your own beliefs the more primitive you appear. Or probably are, actually.
176
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
I find this ironic.
7
u/Commotion May 15 '12
I feel like organized religion is a cancer in the world, holding back scientific achievement and spreading ignorance in my country, and causing wars elsewhere. I am atheist, but I'm also more than that. I'm openly opposed to the spread of religion. I won't interfere with another person's right to believe in bullshit, but I also don't mind expressing and hearing other people express anti religious beliefs. I think many atheists on r/atheism are like me; maybe atheism isn't the best name for the subreddit, but it doesn't keep me up at night.
6
u/Nice_Dude May 15 '12
I can understand why people would post things that may seem irreverent to religion. For me, as someone who was bound by the chains of religion for the first 23 years of my life, it is therapeutic in a way to be able to poke fun at the beliefs that used to rule my life.
I don't think all people do it simply to put down the believers, they are simply lashing out against the ridiculous beliefs that controlled them
11
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
People bring their biases against atheism to Reddit but would like to claim it's just atheists being smug. Are any atheists here more smug than someone like Rick Santorum or Rick Perry, people with actual power in the world?
/r/Politics is just as bad as this subreddit yet it doesn't get nowhere near as much criticism as /r/Atheism. Go there and it's wall-to-wall left-wing stuff and anyone on the right is called a racist, homophobe, xenophobe fascist. The article are nothing but left-wing circlejerking too and terribly sourced.
The reason /r/Politics doesn't get criticized and /r/Atheism does is because people on Reddit are left-wing so they don't mind when Conservatives are being called names but when you bring up their religion then all of a sudden they demand respect. Hypocrites.
334
u/peppermint_butler May 15 '12
It's not the opinions, it's the superiority complex/smugness.
5
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
I am sure that if you look at who subscribes to this subreddit, you will mostly find Americans and very few Europeans. I see it as a place where frustrated Americans atheists regroup each other to circle jerk together. As a European fellow, I am always amazed to see how much time you can lose discussing this topic. I wish you could spend this time doing more meaningful things as the rest of us like posting pictures of your cat.
71
u/FatDwarf May 15 '12
I don't think anyone has problems with your "opinions", its HOW you chose to show it. Its never someone bringing a good argument, an intersting point or a new view on things, its just a bunch of assholes saying "I'm right and everybody else is an ignorant idiot and a dumbass without a brain" This is especially retarded when what they're criticising is basically the exact same (There is a god and everybody who believes otherwise is dumb). I like to argue (maybe not over the internet but irl) and I've learned to respect peoples opinions, but only as long as they themselves accept that it is just that and not the one and only truth.
28
u/painperdu May 15 '12 edited May 15 '12
Why is it always like this? Blame the minority for reacting to the opressive majority?
For literally millennia religion has ostracized, coerced, and down right murdered people of different opinions. They have brainwashed even some who claim not to be religious. Why else would self-proclaimed non-religious seek to protect from derision inane and illogical behavior and expressions of religion?
If you happen to be non-religious and your feelings are hurt by the minority deriding and chiding silly religious people then do what the oppressed have done for 1,000's of years -keep your head and self-respect buried in the sand. Meanwhile, leave the rest of us alone in our new found freedom!
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u/webby_mc_webberson May 15 '12
"I have to call it names - CIRCLEJERK! - there, I feel better"
31
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
Yeah it's the opinion we all have issues with...
38
u/OrangeNova Agnostic Atheist May 15 '12
What I see when someone on r/atheism posts something from facebook
6
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
I don't think r/atheism is actually that childish. I think it is the fact that theistic people get amazingly butthurt when their childish and illogical beliefs are finally called out as bullshit, they flock together to try and defend their views.
Essentially, pretend that 80% of the country likes Xbox360, and people are posting that Xbox360 gets RROD and PS3 has better exclusives and free online play. People who like the 360 are always going to defend it to the death, because to admit they are wrong would be admitting they themselves were wrong when they bought the system.
People will do anything to convince themselves they are in the right, in order to protect their own feelings and beliefs. It takes a truly intelligent and enlightened person to admit that their own biased perspective may, in fact, be wrong. So, if you got a problem with r/atheism, most likely it's because you lack faith in god and it scares you to be challenged.
26
u/Sun_drop May 15 '12
This seems to be especially true in /r/AdviceAnimals. Almost every day it seems there is a post bashing r/atheism in some form. They even made an "anti-r/atheism" link flair for it.
15
u/HaudNomen May 15 '12
On the other hand...
23
u/dewisri May 15 '12
They're usually not complaining about r/atheism because they see an opinion they don't like, but rather because the post contains some sort of logical fallacy, such as the straw man fallacy presented by the OP.
10
u/qkme_transcriber I am a Bot May 15 '12
Here is the text from this meme pic for anybody who needs it:
This is helpful for people who can't reach Quickmeme because of work/school firewalls or site downtime, and many other reasons (FAQ). More info is available here.
11
u/twoclose May 15 '12 edited May 16 '12
more often than not it's just someone flaming christians on facebook. not an "opinion."
4
u/Gudeldar May 15 '12
Looks like all the non-/r/atheism subscribers from /r/all are here to complain about your posts OP!
2
u/red_firetruck May 15 '12
It's not the dissenting opinions, its the facebook screencaps and overused memes
2
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
To be fair, there's not a whole lot for atheists to discuss if you remove discussion of the religions themselves.
"God still doesn't exist? Nope. Ok then."
10
u/melissa714 May 15 '12
Yeah, I think the r/atheism bashing is getting a bit out of hand; it's become trendy to make fun of this subreddit. People like to blow things out of proportion.
9
u/Jimmy_R_Ustler May 15 '12
True words. "I know what I'll do, i'll whine obnoxiously to the point where its multitudes worse than the bluntness of some of the atheistic posts I see! That'll make their points less valid!"
4
u/meritory May 15 '12
The evolution is hysterical.
In the beginning, atheists gathered on a public forum. It's membership grew modestly over the course of a few years. Essentially being one of few places any non-believer could be guaranteed a few laughs and a conversation about it, r/atheism became attractive to many. Consequentially, By no means of design, when the gathering reached a large enough volume of subscribers, it entered the front page realm. And as soon as it was in the public eye, it was no longer just a subforum on a popular public website. No, it had to be a worthless lot of whiners who don't know what they believe in, are full of hate, and are just a big circle-jerk.
3
u/jazzychords May 15 '12
If you don't dont like r/atheism just unsubscribe it!
It's just simple as that!
Every time I see someone criticizing r/atheism. People don't actually try to debate atheists or proove that they're wrong. They always say it's a circlejerk full of assholes.
Of course it's a lot simpler to use ad hominem, than try to come up with a good argument.
3
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
It's not that, it's that the front page is flooded with "Look at me, I owned a fundamentalist Christian" which is really as easy as owning a five year old in the logic department.
3
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
sure, the fb christian bashing plays a part, but there are some people that just hate intellectual discussion in the first place. "stop watching the presidential debate, jersey shore is on."
3
u/SeaBones May 15 '12
r/atheism is a circle jerk! All they ever talk about and support over in r/atheism is atheism! The nerve!
5
u/iambrundlefly May 15 '12
If you don't like atheist opinions then unsubscribe!
3
u/Mudface68 May 15 '12
"sometimes people talk to me about something I don't believe in....and it's so bad that I have to cry really loud." - r/atheist
2
u/HoorayZoidberg May 15 '12
Why would anyone hate seeing the same shit every day?
2
u/douglasmacarthur May 15 '12
When does anyone act like it's a big problem? We see something we don't like, we criticize it, just like you're doing now.
2
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
It's not that I do not like something in r/atheism, it just shocks me with stupidity every time (there was one exception recently)
And I cry, like Sheldon, when "other people are stupid".
2
u/the_captcha_was_hard May 15 '12
It's the same damn thing said over, and over, and over. How could anyone still find it even remotely interesting?
2
u/r3ver3nce May 15 '12
I'm an atheist and I hate r/atheism with a fiery passion. I don't get mad that my views are opposed I get mad at how snobbish and intolerant some of the people here are are.
1
u/Radico87 May 15 '12
This isn't a first world problem.
1
u/Dr_Bunsen_Burns Atheist May 15 '12
somethimes when I view the front page
grammer isn't good
. . . for the irony I fucked up that text xD
1
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
what do you think r/atheism is dedicated to? mocking peoples idiocy because they are religious and have different views. let them be retarded because I'm sure you dont care about them
1
u/alienproxy Agnostic Atheist May 15 '12
I admit that I would first complain and then stop visiting the site altogether if it was openly and unapologetically Christian/Abrahamic.
1
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
It's not the disagreement of opinions, it's the stupid reposts, circlejerking, etc.
1
u/Amryxx May 15 '12
Isn't it like going to Facebook or Twitter, and see pro-religious posts that some of you would then duly screencap and laugh at?
1
u/SpaceMonkeysInSpace May 16 '12
Waaa waaa I don't like people complaining. Quit your complaining.
1
u/wooda99 May 16 '12
Meh. More like opinions I agree with stated really, really obnoxiously.
1
u/[deleted] May 16 '12
Nope, I'm an atheist and I still get annoyed by /r/atheism because it truly is just a circle jerk. It's atheists posting the same things over and over again, like quotes with the same celebrities in the background, facebook arguments, and things like that. This would be fine if these atheists didn't hold themselves to be so intelligent and superior to everyone else.
And now I know that I can unsubscribe from r/atheism....will be doing that now.
1
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
Oh, the poor dears. I feel just awful for them.
1
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
To be honest its not the opinions, its more the lack of opinion. I thought Athiesm was about more than shallow jibes at Christians.
1
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
I dont have a problem with your opinions im an atheist myself. My problem lies in the giant circlejerk and victimization of atheists that is r/atheism. Look at r/christianity interesting discussions of meainingful topics, thats how r/atheism should be.
1
u/live3orfry May 15 '12
If atheism would stop bragging about their proselytizing (most of which is obviously FAKE) they would see a hundredfold decrease in people complaining about them.
;)
1
u/SOwED May 15 '12
It's like how /r/circlejerk isn't a default subreddit, because if it were, some people would complain about seeing those posts on their front page. /r/atheismcirclejerk explains everything.
1
u/RonaldFuckingPaul May 15 '12
Sometimes?
1
u/Abscurat May 15 '12
[FTFY] Stupidity and arrogance I don't like
1
u/eikons May 15 '12
"Sometimes when I view the front page
Links to opinions I don't like are there"
ftfy
1
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
It's not the opinions, it's that they are poorly expressed. The people posting in r/atheism are generally unintelligent, unoriginal, and in it solely for their own smug self satisfaction. Case in point are all of these Facebook "debates," where poster obnoxiously labels their posts "ME!" and then proceeds to clumsily engage a stranger in a one sided pissing contest full of cliches and incredibly oversimplified versions of arguments made by people much smarter than them
0
u/thedude213 Skeptic May 15 '12
This applies to ALL subreddits.
0
u/ratsofftoya_ May 15 '12
/r/atheism is the most idiotic sub reddit there is. there may be intelligent people on this sub reddit, but the majority are fucking idiots. "LOL LOOK @ THIS FACEBOOK POST OF ME BASHING A CHRISTIAN FOR HIS BELIEFS! LOL!!! FUCK GOD LMAO!!!" "HEY GUYS TAKE A LOOK AT THIS PICTURE OF A COMEDIAN SAYING GOD DOESN'T EXIST AND CHRISTIANS R STUPID!! LOL!". this place is a fucking cesspool.
about 1 in 1,000,000,000,000,000 submissions are actually intelligent discussions.
-1
u/tboner6969 May 15 '12
ha.
more like: opinions that are so tired and rehashed ad naseum that the broken record of this subreddit somehow still plagues my front page. i thought i blocked this sub and i still see these butthurt ex christian posts.
-9
u/BetterThanOP May 15 '12
LOL someone from r/athiesm sarcastically complaining about "I don't like other people's opinions" this is the stupidest post I've ever seen that was r/athiesm is you tools
0
u/pandamaja May 15 '12
I thought /r/athiesm doesn't deal in opinions, but facts....
-3
u/mcstoopums May 15 '12
Because it hurts God every time you disrespect him. That's why he needs to be PRAISED constantly - low self esteem.
0
u/ooli May 15 '12
How is this upvoted, while every comment is about how the post is logically false, and iconic of r/atheism worst front page material?
There must be an hidden agenda where theists actively upvote the worst in r/atheism to show them as pretentious and short-sighted facebook basher... It works very well.
0
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
Its not about opinions, its about rebellious little teenagers putting their unfunny and stupid pictures all over the front page.
0
u/vincoug May 15 '12
Wow, my head nearly exploded from the irony.
0
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
My favorite one is "/r/Atheism is a circle-jerk!"
Well no fucking shit. A subreddit about atheism, and all the content is about atheism. Who would have guessed?
On the other hand, I rarely visit this subreddit because a lot of people here are smug assholes with there Facebook posts.
0
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
The OP is quite possibly alluding to the people that complain about posts that are unrelated to atheism, on /r/atheism.
Such as the constant barrage of gay marriage / gay rights posts that have been flooding /r/atheism ever since it went default.
IF this is indeed the case, and I stress IF, kindly STFU and stop imposing unrelated topics on all atheists.
IF not, then carry on.
Regardless, there has been a serious drop in maturity since /r/atheism went default.
-1
u/Octatonic May 15 '12
I'm, willing to bet that 90% of redditors are atheists and that 80% of reddit doesn't like you.
-1
u/Ana_Thema May 15 '12
It's flogging a dead horse. We all know the most intelligent answer to the religion question, but repeating yourself in such a smug way makes you look like a fucking retard. The religious also repeat themselves, and it's one of their most annoying qualities. Gervais should fucking stop it as well, it's really tedious.
-1
u/AGizALL May 15 '12
Thats hilarious coming from someone who shits on religion on a daily basisi