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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]19:22 here.

The prefix "a-" just means "without". It seems like that's what several atheists here are describing.

It's neutral in attitude. It doesn't mean "anti-". For example, we agree that "apolitical" means you don't have a political affiliation or interest.

That said, there is a subset of atheists, perhaps small, who are "anti-theist." Anybody like the negative impact poster or 00:00 (same person?) who spends hours everyday trying to derail threads and piss people off and then try for creative ways to weasle out of their own responsibility is definitely "anti-theist." Some anti-theists probably get their "anti" from bad experiences with religion, while others seem like bored children (I'll let you guys peg 00:00.) I'd venture that anti-theists are the ones who have their identities wrapped up in opposing religion.

Now, conformism is a seperate issue. I think the Dawkins/Harris/Mayer type of loudmouth is, actually, seen as "cool" by some atheists. Not by all. If we were doing Vann diagrams I'd venture that many of the bored children type of anti-theist are also conformists. YMMV.[/quote]

I do appreciate you backing us up on the ridiculous linguistic issues people are throwing out.

There's a subset of theists that are anti atheist too. There are subsets of almost any population that are anti x, y, z. By making this specific point about atheists you seem to imply (IMO) that this population is significant in atheism. Significant enough to be a commonly thought of defining quality of atheism. That's wrong and shows your own bias just as much as the atheists here who bemoan their entire life is like a Justin Bieber concert they were forced to attend.

Generally people who are jerks are jerks regardless of their faith or lack thereof and it manifests itself as jerkish. People who bomb abortion clinics and the average member of ISIS aren't really that different in motivation. . Evangelical priests getting people to seems them money for their private jets over the TV aren't all that different from scientologists. Neither should represent their faith. Do atheists the same courtesy.[/quote]

I was quite careful to say I think the loud-mouthed anti-theists are a subset of anti-theists who are, in turn, a subset of atheists. So, they're a small subset.

However, it's clear that the obnoxious anti-theists are louder than the rest of you. You can see this just spending five minutes on DCUM. There are a few here who spend their days trying to derail threads and stir the pot with their snark.

These obnoxious atheists have a significant, if not the most significant, presence here on threads about the trinity or Islam or other topics that arguably don't involve atheism at all. These are the atheists many people see most frequently.

We can quibble about their numbers in proportion to the atheist population. But I don't think you can argue they aren't a significant negative presence here. I think we both agree it's unfortunate. But they're probably the face of atheism for many DCUMers. 
[/quote]

I think that is very unfortunate. I only come to the religion board when a thread pops up that specifically mentions atheism, because I don't see the other threads as relevant to me, so I am not exposed to these posters frankly. But just like I don't assume all marriages are in ruins after visiting the relationship forum or all people hate dogs after someone dares to post a dog thing in off topic, or all families are horrifically dysfunctional after reading family relationships, I don't make broad assumptions about a religious sect based on their representation in an anonymous online forum. [/quote]

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