I, myself as a Christian, strive to be kind to everybody, but I'm not saying to hate on all atheists. Many of my friends are atheists and they are very kind. But in recent news, I saw this : "Miron Zuckerman through research says atheists are smarter than religious people." ...is this really necessary? It's been hard for me to live out in peace, knowing the fact that Christians are seen like this. I just don't think it's right for atheists to get in people's faces and tell them "God isn't real" repeatedly. Aren't people supposed to express religion freely? It's been hard to do that recently. There has been all hear cases where atheists try to shut down Bible study sessions and what not. I just want to live in a world where people can believe and not try to influence others wrongly. Denying anything and everything they believed in, because "it's science". I just had to get this off my chest.

There are stupid and unnecessary "studies" like that all the time, and also we live in an era where everybody thinks they can freely say any nonsense they want. I'm Spanish, so I really know what I mean by this.

True is that you can determine if a person is smarter or not by the decisions they make, but I don't think that religion is one of those decisions. Maybe in general terms religious people aren't as smart because they simply accept the truth of third parties and don't try to confront the unknown, but not all religious people are like that.

I am an atheist, but I don't sympathize with that guy. I have my own beliefs and the rest of people have their own, I respect that without trying to impose my creed and thus I only expect for the rest to do the same with me. However, some religious factions do want to impose their dogma over everybody and some atheists decide to do the same by destroying faith, essentially fighting the fire with fire.

The world would be a much better place if a) everybody respected an individual's choice and b) people stopped proclaiming their stupidity all abroad. People like this guy, who falls into those two examples at the same time, are what makes me want to watch the world burn. Sadly, there are multiple examples like him and in almost every subject: politics, sports, history, culture...

Atheists and religious people both share one thing in common, they got closed minds around a particular belief. So to call one dumber then the other doesn't make much sense to me. It's called an opinion and we all got one that doesn't make us better or smarter then the other.

Rival groups are always trying to do that too each other. It's like how they claim that:

1. Homosexuality is mentally healthy.
2. Abortion does not take the life of a real human being. It just dismantles a cluster of developing cells.
3. This complex world is the result of a series of events with no intelligent design or divine influence.
4. Disliking my post is going to do something other than give me the pleasure of knowing I made someone mad cause they're a snowflake, and probably a cissgender, white male at that.

Then there are tons of little sub ideologies that may be common with atheists, or not. The first two are subject to personal opinion. There was a time when racism was quite common in evolutionist thinking. You can read about some proponents of evolution talking about how they didn't emphasize with black people starving during the great depression ect.

EX Palen is right though. There are tons of people with different beleifs who don't believe that. I mean, Christians, can really hate other Christians for misrepresenting Yahovah. Some atheists really hate others for destroying the ideology behind a traditional family, the role of women, men, children ect when they feel it is vital to our survival that we understand our evolutionary roots and make the best of it. One of my best friends is an agnostic in France. He's really cool and I love talking to him. He's smart, not controlled by the system, and we agree on a lot except for evolution and a few political values. (As expected, I'm far more "right" leaning as an individual american. He's an honorable and mature individual. The type of friend I'd have over a lot of "Christians" I could keep company with.

Jesus said that the world would hate you for His name's sake. So don't be surprised when a system of different ideology tries to impose that it's better than your people. Be open minded, because I think that atheists do pick on Christians for some good reasons at times. Always seek to better yourself. Enjoy it when you find people who may not agree with you, but of who's judgement you can take more friendly, and of whom seem to be looking for the truth. Not that you or I always have it.

I am an atheist too. I really don't understand the deal. You can follow your religion but why do you force it on others? I am not talking about any specific religion though. There are many people who tell us atheists to 'believe in something, it will help you' and some even try to convert us. I don't really care, I ignore them. I don't care if my friends follow a religion or something, but as long as they don't bring religion or similar topics into regular conversation, I am fine.

I won't type anything else.

I am a Christian and what I am about to say i do not mean to offend anybody. 

I have friends that are agnostic are atheists most of the time we just agree to disagree. But I do pray they find God though. 

Now with all that being said. They are some atheist groups and those like the author that want to cause trouble. Some groups have gone as far to try to pass laws to ban Religious people from praying at school, religious clubs meeting at colleges. They are even some that want to ban the Bible, remove the 10 commandments and censor speech that has religious reference in it. 

I think it is more from the politically correct crowd. The PC crowd lives in a fantasy that laws passed will make people love one another. They also believe that by removing things people will not get offended so easily. The PC crowd does not just do it to religious things though, they have gone after comedians, statues, flags, and just every day speech. The PC crowd esp the atheists pc people cause a lot of problems.  

I know the religious fanatics cause a lot of problems too. But the PC fanatics cause their share of people. 

We have to make a distinction between Atheism and anti-religion. I have an Atheist friend that gets annoyed by the fact that, largely, scientists assert that science has to be Atheist. Atheism and science are not mutually inclusive or exclusive and science doesn't disprove anything it can't test for.


code8rut3 : Well see, from my understanding, practicing Christians are obligated to spread their message. I wouldn't really call that forcing anything. Now I will say that I've interacted with a couple LDS (Mormon) people and they tried to sell it to me like a used car, which I didn't particularly like because it's supposed to be about the message, not a sales pitch. They were kind people, though. The way I see it, tolerance is more about being able to discuss things with each other than just not bringing the subject up.

Speaking as an Atheist and someone who has held that belief for some time I agree. I find it quite ironic that many Atheists criticize religious people for not believing in a higher power and supposedly not being critical only to often have derived their anti religious beliefs from prominent anti religious figures (like the Amazing Atheist) which they usually get most of their political beliefs from without question. There are two sides to the coin, just as there those trying to impose their Atheism, there are many religious people who try to force their beliefs on non religious people like the whole crowd of people trying to make Christianity part of the school curriculum. I have to agree with m0ss that one has to make the distinction between Atheism and anti religion. A vocal minority does not represent everyone following a certain belief.

I used to be quite adamant about my Atheism when I first adopted the belief but over time and being around a lot of very religious people I've come to accept a sort of "live and let live" attitude. People should be allowed to believe what they want and practice their beliefs without constant criticism as long as it does not influence those who chose not to believe it. I've met tons of dumb people arguing that religion should be banned having little to back up their view points and met a lot of religious people who have spent years thinking about the subject and investigating various counter arguments. If being part of a religion adds something person's life and they're not imposing that on others then good I'm not one to take that away from them. Likewise if someone feels comfortable in Atheism and believe that has their development that's great too.

I am agnostic and I think that people of any religion just need to stop being pushy about it. Atheists who try to "convert" people are being rude and disrespectful, and the same goes for religious people that are trying to convert others (e.g. missionaries). We all need to respect one-another's beliefs. Atheists are not smarter than other people, other people are not smarter than atheists. Just because you believe in science doesn't make you a scientist.

To give a bit of a different perspective to this, I am the most liberal person you will ever meet (Without being crazy) I'm pagan, queer, female, pro-choice, and all that jazz

But when Atheists start to bash Christians with their "Atheists are smarter studies" It right pisses me off for two reasons

1. It's rude and not called for
2. it's trying to push their religious beliefs on to someone else

Now, I really don't like it when anyone, Christians and Pagans included, start pushing their religion onto anyone, because its a person's choice on what they worship, if they are influenced by a parent or a community to believe a certain thing it can really damage a person because it makes them feel broken if they don't actually believe in something or when something they can't change about themselves (Like homosexuality) goes against . I know when I first started studying the craft I felt huge amounts of guilt because I was raised as a Christian, and to believe that homosexuality was wrong. it made me feel broken

Atheists making these studies, and talking about how great they think they are is just the same as what most Christian parents do to their kids. and its just not right.