Atheists and Agnostics..... Are you Anti-theists as well?

Question

Do you agree with this quote in it's context?

"I'm not even an atheist so much as I am an anti-theist; I not only maintain that all religions are versions of the same untruth, but I hold that the influence of churches, and the effect of religious belief, is positively harmful."

Quoted from Christopher Hitchens

Answer 1

Yes, I am. And the quote sounds familiar. Will you edit to tell us who said it?

Answer 2

Atheist, and I don't have much time for preachers, of any religion. If a person is happy enough to believe in a dogmatically organised religion based on scriptures thousands of years old, then I'm happy for them as long they don't go round preaching and assuming a divine moral superiority over the rest of the world.
I can't help but ponder what a better state humanity would be in had it never occurred to primitive man to deify and worship natural occurrences, thus starting what led untold passionate hatreds and bloody wars in the name of one or another religion and claiming 'God' was on their side.
And now, in our society, atheism is on the increase at a rate never seen before, which in turn pushes the believers into more fundamentalist attitudes. 'Recent' direct political results of this are the Islamic revolution in Persia (Iran) and what has been happening for the last four or five years in the politics of Turkey, where religion is once again butting in.

The Spanish Inquisition.
The Crusades.
The Protestant - Catholic wars (plenty of those).
Religious terrorism.
The war on terrorism....etc...

All "positively harmful".

It must be said in defence of religion that it has inspired some of the world's most beautiful works of art and architecture (and even music). And like it or not, it's around to stay for a while yet and may inspire future great works or even deeds.

Answer 3

Hitchens' point is well taken. Indeed, my activities in this forum are for the purpose of discouraging religion, which is a waste of resources and a corruption of intellectual power. But this is not based on an opposition to the concept of god, per se -- one could believe in such a thing were there any reason to do so -- but rather to obviate the negative effects of belief.

Answer 4

Nah, I think religion works for some people, so long as it's used as a personal tool, not a public cause.

The author of this quote seems to make the false assumption that many people make, namely that that theism = religion. In reality, there are a some non-theistic religions out there, as well as an overwhelming number of theists who do not subscribe to a particular religion.

Answer 5

I'm more of a moderate on that, but the amount of ignorance and being mostly willful ignorance tends to lean me that way.

I think that people should be able to believe what they want, but they should not equate science with belief nor should they accept everything they hear from others of their faith as fact. The other thing is no religion should enforce it's morals through civil laws.

Answer 6

I hate to say it, but any time man assigns a will to a deity that causes him to think of others as less than they are, then yes, I have to be. Assuming that there is a god, saying that it is anything other than completely oblivious and uncaring about the mold and microbes at the bottom of this old, discarded petri dish that we call Earth is a sure way to cause people to work against eachother, rather than with eachother.

Answer 7

yes, but there is a distinction between religion and churches. churches have been corrupted in the past and present and give religion a bad name. in essence, they are a business and they use unfair marketing strategies. Generally, I think people that are religious are harmless, but they become fanatics as a result of some churches. organized religion can be dangerous.

Answer 8

Drink! ah,

I can't find any evidence of atheism in america. I mean, i don't see any buildings dedicated to atheism that care for the sick (drink) and I don't see schools dedicated to atheism to help promote that doctrine

I think atheism is a lot like the theory of the cow jumping over the moon (drink), sounds good on paper, but there just isn't anything visible to say, yes, now that is atheism.

but I'm just here for learning, hoping to find evidence and of course, the drinks

Answer 9

im agnostic. and i agree to a degree, but i also believe in some cases religion can be helpful, and is needed by some.

some people cant live without the feel of dependancy on a superior being. they need a "reason" to be alive. i think everyone needs/has a different reason for living.

*shrug*

granted there are quite a few negatives to religion too.

Answer 10

I'm atheist and agnostic but I don't dislike all theists some of what they do is very good. I mean charities for the poor and feeding the hungry is great it only ones that push their views onto others that bother me. Most theist's I know are very nice people.

Answer 11

That is a hard line to draw. Religion is a very powerful force, like nationalism. It can be used to really help people or create tremendous suffering. I don't know that I am flat-out against religion, but I hope that people will be true to themselves and their morals first, and what their dogma/preacher/etc. is telling them second. I am against the idea of unquestioning faith.