Is American atheism becoming a sort of a cult?

Question

this is not an attack on atheists.

while there are a lot of intelligent atheists, i find a lot of people who keep pushing the atheist agenda have no clue as to what they are talking about. They seem to just be gushing out buzz words as though they were proclaiming some revelation. The atheists who are actually intelligent tend to be more reserved.

by the way i am not religious, but i am a theist, but i dont follow any religion. My conception of god\the absolute is not the same as the traditional conceptions and views of God.

its a pity too many of you are taking this personally and not really getting my point.

Answer 1

> They seem to just be gushing out buzz words as
> though they were proclaiming some revelation.

I hate to tell you this, but many theists strike us nontheists exactly the same way. It's as though they think some words and phrases have a magical power. Watching them speak about certain ideas, it's like watching a drug take effect.

As to atheism being a cult, I can't think of any criteria usually associated with cults that atheism meets. There is no personal loyalty to a charismatic leader. There's no attempt to isolate members from their families or the outside world. There's no obvious attempt to control atheists' daily routines or reading habits. If Richard Dawkins were to ask atheists to sell all their worldly goods and come join him in building a commune outside of London, I've no doubt that he would be met with a deafening guffaw.

Answer 2

Not really. Atheist is just a person who have no belief in the existence of a omnipotent entity, commonly call a god or gods in some other religions.

Every one was born an atheist, until indoctrination by their close ones or the school, whichever comes first.

There is no common doctrine to be a true atheist. Being an atheist means to be yourself. You can be intelligent or stupid, but it is just you. You do not follow blindly to organised groups who proclaims they speaks for the world.

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To add on :

To be atheist, it would be like a theist (Non organised edition), each theist will have their own idea what their god is like but it is not a common doctrine where all follows. The fact agnostic people are normally between atheist and theist will be the best example. Most disorganised theist are agnostic, they believes in some form of higher power, but unable agree with current definition of the higher power by men.

In short atheists and theists are basically thinking people. Just the opposite direction, they are often in conflict with each other in their ideology, but they often manage to find out the common grounds.

Indoctrinated theists (Like Christianity or Islam) or atheists (Like Mao's and Stalin Version of Communisim, where they believe members of the central party are the elite and the leader of this party is the supreme commander, in personal view, a perverted thesis view where they proclaim themselves the "man-gods") are the ones that are causing the major chaos.

Answer 3

Yes, it mostly has all the aspects of a religious cult. If religion is a monkey on humanities back, then the Atheists have just changed the color of the monkeys fur, not done anything to get rid of him.

Sad really. Only the agnostic community seems to have the free thinkers.

"The more things you totally believe in, the less thinking you're inclined to do. The less thinking you do, the stupider you get." Robert Anton Wilson

Answer 4

How do you define a cult? Think about it, just because idiots believe and follow it doesn't make it a cult. However I think that there are a few intelligent people in every group, Christian, Islam, Buddhism, deism, etc. But most in any group will be dumb sheep, if that is how you define a cult, every religion and non-religious set of beliefs becomes a cult, because most people are dumb, and haven't really figured out there beliefs, yet insist on sharing them with others.

Answer 5

I find the exact opposite to be true.
Any atheist I have discussions with has reached that status through long deliberation, most of the time after spending long years being a religious advocate.

On the other hand, whenever I pose a question about religious dogma, 99% of the answers are tag-lines that peoples' priests or pastors have fed them.

Answer 6

I think the term cult is used way too loosely. I don't people truly understand what that really means when it's realized, but I see the point your trying to make. The mindless acceptance of whatever is fed to you is dangerous and stupid.

Answer 7

Not revelation, revolution. Cult? Not likely. We don't want an organization, just education. As for intelligence, do you have any? I'd match an atheist's intellect against any religious people, any day.

Answer 8

I'm afraid it's on both sides of the field.
You see, Christians have been doing this for hundreds of years.
Go and look at the Churches in Rome, if you wanna talk about cults.

Answer 9

That's has to do with conviction of beliefs rather than any specific religion. Animal rights activists, feminists, Christians, Muslims etc.. everyone has their vocal advocates.

Answer 10

No, it doesn't use any cult recruiting techniques. Cult members typically seek out people who are single, introverted, depressed and minimally educated.