What is the stereotypical atheist like? What about the stereotypical Christian, Jew and Muslim?

Question

I always am a little surprised when someone who does not fit my mold of an atheist, Christian, Jew, or Muslim tells me they are as such. I know what my "molds" look like, what about yours?

Include any appearance details, level of education, country of orgin, intelligence, job or family life, as detailed as possible.

Answer 1

as i read your question it seems to me to be something you are asking for the purpose of checking your perspective against the perspective of others so you can learn - you seem to be wanting to re-examine your ideas and test them to see if you need to adjust - i consider that open minded and generally a good idea - because taking a good hard look at the stereotypes we carry around can go far in helping us to realize the absurdity of them


therefore isnt it amazing that so many people have answered you by criticising your tendency to "pigeon hole" - they seem to have completely missed the point that you want to do some self examination - so i have a comment for the crowd.... try reading the questions a little more carefullly without putting your own spin (or preconceived notion) on the person asking the question

its a good question on many levels - my stereotypes are as follows ..... atheist : generally educated , intellectual , possibly colder in personality , mostly eastern european in nationality.... christian: too conservative on everything .....jew: well educated , intelligent , caught in a rut as to style of thinking ...... muslim : i dont think ive formed a stereotype of them - i dated a girl who was half lebanese and half syrian - she was wonderful

Answer 2

This should be interesting, though I am unsure as to your true motive...

I used to think of myself as an atheist, simply because I did not believe in God. I have personally revised my "status" as agnostic, as being atheist would have been just as "black & white" as the fundamentalists.

As an agnostic, I DO NOT believe that there IS a "God" that I haven't found yet, and I'm just "on my way back" to Christianity. I believe that logically there are things we will never fully understand, and there are things in the Earth's past that are always interpreted but cannot be truly known. There is not an invisible being that controls my destiny.

The power to live, choose, and be a moral person comes from within me rather than having my beliefs spoon-fed from birth and never questioning the fallacies. I am happily married for over 7 years to my first wife, and she will always be the best thing in my life.

I am an athletic male, 34, and I work in the medical industry designing and building expensive machines that help cure cancer, sickle cell anemia, and other life-threatening conditions. I have a Bachelor's degree in electronics engineering that I have used in the semiconductor industry and telecommunications before making the jump to medical equipment. I am currently in school to earn a BS in mechanical engineering as well.

I own my home, and have two silly greyhounds that we adopted. I am an avid bicyclist, both road and mountain, and have ridden in the past eight MS-150 charity rides to benefit the Multiple Sclerosis foundation. I plan on conquering a new challenge this year by riding the Triple Bypass, a one-day, 120-mile bike ride with over 10,000 feet of climbing, reaching elevations well over 11,000'.

I have done all this with nothing more than inner strength and the accumulation of experience and knowledge. I found out that there was no God over 15 years ago, and not once have I encountered an obstacle that I could not overcome by mortal means.

I shudder at the idea that my life is nothing more than a tryout for a ticket to Heaven. What a waste of potential! I do not fear death, and when my time comes I want to be able to exclaim, "That was wonderful! What's next?"

Answer 3

The tendency to seem flighty. To change without following through. I find this not only within myself sometimes, but also within many people I meet in the community. Every religion has good and bad aspects. I think Christians probably stick with one idea too long, to the point where if you find that to be demonstrably wrong, you keep doing it anyway out of a sense of loyalty. (Look at Bush, or the whole Free-Trade idea) We pagans tend to be the opposite, and fly toward the next idea with the wind. The Goddess cult survived European Christiandom... ok... It didn't it's a revival.... ok... Nothing survived at all, and it's all just inspired by Thelema, Spiritualism, and Theosophy... ok... There are some aspects that survived as Mesopaganism, but it was different than paleopaganism, and the new neopaganism... ok...

Answer 4

i am rather dissapointed that you have a mould actually, not eeryone bases thier life and actions around their religious beliefs, or lack therof. Although of course everyone has expectations, this cannot be denyed. Christains, i think christain, i think angry white male hating everyone else that isn't an angry white male christain. of course this is entierly untrue, but it makes for a funny mental picture, damn racists haha. Jew? hmm, anyone associated with the culture that invented the bagel has to be a decent person, and most likely works harder than everyone else because they are jewish and working hard has never been enough for them. again, extremely steriotypical, i like it. muslim? i don't know, they're muslim, i have no real special thoughts on muslims, i think muslim i think someone from the middle east, that's about as far as i get, don't really have a specific stereotype for them, sorry that was boring. Atheist? there are two basic catagories of atheists, the scientific atheists, and the "angry lesbian" atheists. Scientific atheists are basically normal people that just don't believe in god because they have been convinced that he is not nessecarry for anything, and they are fairly fair people. The "angry lesbian" atheists, these people are funny, and a disgrace to atheists everywhere, they frequent this forum actually, the "angry lesbian" atheists is reffered to as such for the simple fact that they decided that god doesn't do anything for them and decided that he doesn't exist, then went and looked up a bunch of information just to hack on and insult people with religious beliefs, they have an actual hate for religion and they view all people with religious beliefs as stupid, hence the reference to angry lesbians, they decide they hate men and figure that women will be more satisfying, but it's not natural and they are just angry all of the time.

Answer 5

Im an atheist. Male.
Six feet. 220. Dark Hair. Blue eyes.
Bachelors Degree in Marketing from Michigan State University
United States of America
IQ 128 on all the tests I keep taking.
Job in the leader of my industry, human resources outsourcing.
I am married to a wife and I have a 3 year old son.

I am the stereotypical Jim Darwin, an Atheist.

Answer 6

Do you want the stereotypes from the perspective of other people or MY perspectives?

Since I'm an atheist, I can tell you about me and leave it up to you to decide if I'm "stereotypical" - I've gone through some college but no degree; born and raised in United States; I consider myself fairly "on the ball" when it comes to smarts but I'm certainly no Stephen Hawking; I work in the insurance business and I have a husband and son.

Sex: female. Political persuasion: independent leaning far left on social issues. Sexual orientation: bisexual. Hobbies: Y!A, D&D, sketching.

Answer 7

I'm an atheist. Apparently I worship Darwin, like Hitler and am the embodiment of all evil-it's a lie, I don't even like Darwin.

Answer 8

maybe you should open your mind and try not pigeon-holing people into your little categories...are you shocked when you meet a black man that doesn't play basketball? do you expect Asians to be bad drivers? that's the problem with people in this world...it is easy to expect rather than to accept...

Answer 9

just because of what one jew, christain, or muslim does or says doesn't mean the rest of them are like that.

Answer 10

why do we have to fit your molds? the rest is personal