Is American Atheism Evolving Towards A Cult?

[Atheist-Lite]

This is why I consider myself a nihilist. See how the atheist position ties itself in knots?

[amused]

Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD) is a group that was formed to resist an idiotic behavior. Prior to its formation, it was basically okay to murder someone with your car if you were drunk.

Atheists are a group that resist the idiotic behavior of taking no responsibility for life's events, and instead giving up responsibility to an imaginary god.

Neither are a cult nor a religion.

[Seth]

Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD) is a group that was formed to resist an idiotic behavior. Prior to its formation, it was basically okay to murder someone with your car if you were drunk.

Which, of course, is complete revisionist nonsense.

Atheists are a group that resist the idiotic behavior of taking no responsibility for life's events, and instead giving up responsibility to an imaginary god.

Neither are a cult nor a religion.

Actually, both are both.

[Svartalf]

Given the number of Americans who claim to follow jesus but are actually following very culty ways when not in actual cults, I'd say that the tiny minority of atheists who derive into cultlike hatred of religion can safely be discounted as the inevitable % of wackos in any group.

How do you know the followers of Jesus are being culty rather than following Jesus? After all, you don't know what Jesus wants, and perhaps they actually do have a line to the Man and you just don't know it.

Atheists, on the other hand, have no excuse.

When they follow lots of weird habits that are neither advocated in gospel, nor prescribed in OT, like making snakehandling and speaking in gibberish, or worse, firewalking, an integral part of the divine service, or when they downright pretend to be christians and say in the same breath that they have had additional revelations from above, like is common in, say, Utah, my point is made... same thing when they rtewrite the book and try to recruit everybody as willing spreaders and givers of their all... so long as they follow the dictates from the Tower, or else they'll be cast out, or when they prophesy the second cumming even though big J hisself said nobody knows the day or the moment... did I make my point?

[Svartalf]

caze = mistype for case
chretin = christian with beliefs strong enough that they impair intellectual abilities
my appraisal = that the culty element among atheists is statistically identical with the inevitable number of wackos in any group and does not constitute a trend.

what the fuck? If you're a lady, I'd be happy to demonstrate.

It appears to be easier for a camel...wait, wrong metaphor. It appears to be easier to convince you that Atheists are a cult than it is to get you to admit that Atheism is (or can be) a religion. Interesting.

it appears that it would be easier for you to be buggered by a rutting camel than to show intelligence.

[Seth]

Given the number of Americans who claim to follow jesus but are actually following very culty ways when not in actual cults, I'd say that the tiny minority of atheists who derive into cultlike hatred of religion can safely be discounted as the inevitable % of wackos in any group.

How do you know the followers of Jesus are being culty rather than following Jesus? After all, you don't know what Jesus wants, and perhaps they actually do have a line to the Man and you just don't know it.

Atheists, on the other hand, have no excuse.

When they follow lots of weird habits that are neither advocated in gospel, nor prescribed in OT, like making snakehandling and speaking in gibberish, or worse, firewalking, an integral part of the divine service, or when they downright pretend to be christians and say in the same breath that they have had additional revelations from above, like is common in, say, Utah, my point is made... same thing when they rtewrite the book and try to recruit everybody as willing spreaders and givers of their all... so long as they follow the dictates from the Tower, or else they'll be cast out, or when they prophesy the second cumming even though big J hisself said nobody knows the day or the moment... did I make my point?

Nope. All you did was throw up strawman and red herring fallacies. What others may do by way of cultish behavior has absolutely nothing whatever to do with whether or not Atheists engage in cultish behavior. In fact, your diatribe is indicative if Atheistic cult-like behavior.

[Coito ergo sum]

Cult: a particular system of religious worship, especially with reference to its rites and ceremonies. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cult

Atheism is not a system, and does not entail religious worship, and has no rites and no ceremonies. Therefore, under that definition, it is not a cult.

[JimC]

Cults in general, and atheists in America, have one and only one property in common.

They are not "mainstream"

One shared property between disparate groupings is not worthy of the use of the term "evolving towards"

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Given the number of Americans who claim to follow jesus but are actually following very culty ways when not in actual cults, I'd say that the tiny minority of atheists who derive into cultlike hatred of religion can safely be discounted as the inevitable % of wackos in any group.

How do you know the followers of Jesus are being culty rather than following Jesus? After all, you don't know what Jesus wants, and perhaps they actually do have a line to the Man and you just don't know it.

Atheists, on the other hand, have no excuse.

http://atheistforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=27972

[Robert_S]

It's not a cult yet? What the hell am I going to do with this truckload of Kool-Aid in the meantime? Warehouse space ain't all that cheap!

[JimC]

It's not a cult yet? What the hell am I going to do with this truckload of Kool-Aid in the meantime? Warehouse space ain't all that cheap!

Donate it to your local primary school...

[Svartalf]

Cults in general, and atheists in America, have one and only one property in common.

They are not "mainstream"

One shared property between disparate groupings is not worthy of the use of the term "evolving towards"

mmmh... evangelical chretinity (as in 'bornagain') is pretty mainstream, or at least that's what it looks like when you see the movers and shakers in the GOP and what electorate they choose to pander to.

[Svartalf]

It's not a cult yet? What the hell am I going to do with this truckload of Kool-Aid in the meantime? Warehouse space ain't all that cheap!

sell it to the westboro church.

[Jason]

It's not a cult yet?

Actually, it is. I won't, however, waste my time trying to convince and bunch of indoctrinated cult members that they're part of one.

[DaveD]

Given the number of Americans who claim to follow jesus but are actually following very culty ways when not in actual cults, I'd say that the tiny minority of atheists who derive into cultlike hatred of religion can safely be discounted as the inevitable % of wackos in any group.

How do you know the followers of Jesus are being culty rather than following Jesus? After all, you don't know what Jesus wants, and perhaps they actually do have a line to the Man and you just don't know it.

Atheists, on the other hand, have no excuse.

When they follow lots of weird habits that are neither advocated in gospel, nor prescribed in OT, like making snakehandling and speaking in gibberish, or worse, firewalking, an integral part of the divine service, or when they downright pretend to be christians and say in the same breath that they have had additional revelations from above, like is common in, say, Utah, my point is made... same thing when they rtewrite the book and try to recruit everybody as willing spreaders and givers of their all... so long as they follow the dictates from the Tower, or else they'll be cast out, or when they prophesy the second cumming even though big J hisself said nobody knows the day or the moment... did I make my point?

Nope. All you did was throw up strawman and red herring fallacies. What others may do by way of cultish behavior has absolutely nothing whatever to do with whether or not Atheists engage in cultish behavior. In fact, your diatribe is indicative if Atheistic cult-like behavior.

Your knee-jerk responses make you look like a cult all by yourself.

I typed that very carefully.