megachiropteran:

youarenotyou:

onceuponanotsolongago:

I feel like I just keep going on tangents of “And this is why Dawkins is a complete douchcanoe!…. Oh and this too!… Oh how could I forget this!”

Pretty much if you want to be an atheist that’s awesome. Have fun.

BUT

IF YOU ARE GOING TO START CRITICIZING OTHER PEOPLE AND THEIR RELIGION YOU NEED TO CHECK YOUR FUCKING PRIVILEGE, OKAY?

Here are some general things to watch out for… if you are saying/doing them YOU NEED TO STOP (Yes, Dawkins actually does ALL of these things):

• referring to indigenous peoples as “primitive” and/or comparing them to children
• comparing things to mental illness THAT ARE NOT MENTAL ILLNESS.
• making jokes about people who are actually mentally ill
• saying that religion caused slaves to work better for their masters
• comparing oppressions. No, the oppression you experience because you are an atheist IS NOT LIKE BEING GAY, BLACK AND/OR JEWISH. JUST STOP.
• valuing only one way of being or thinking
• Discussing large groups and wide spread ideas as if they are homogeneous. You want to talk about “Islamic law”? Okay, which “Islamic law”. Also, surprisingly the 1 billion+ Muslims don’t actually all agree with each other.
• Holding ideas like “Eastern Religions aren’t really religions, they are ways of life” and that all Buddhists are peaceful.
• Thinking that we need to abolish religion to save teh womenz. Seriously, get off your horse, women don’t need a fucking white knight.

basically.

it’s pretty amazing how an ~*accomplished scientist*~ can break all the rules of scientific thought ever when trying to prove that it’s the only way to think.

One of my BIGGEST complaints with the rationalist community that I have encountered is this idea that as rationalists we are somehow above all bad things ever, and are both rational and objective. We pride ourselves on questioning things that many people seem to take at face value and fail to question our own authorities, our own history, our own culture.

I can’t say I understand the pain that comes with having heavy religious indoctrination that teaches you to hate yourself and fear divine retribution, but just because my father is an atheist and my mother agnostic doesn’t mean they were/are morally upright people who do everything based on empirical evidence either. They believe fucked up things that have little to no evidence and do awful things (they do good things and believe positive things as well, they are humans, but for the sake of argument we’ll leave off there.) They still manage to be bigoted in the places they have privilege, regardless of evidence.

When atheist, rationalist communities wonder why more people don’t agree with and join their communities despite there being a great deal of people who agree with them, I have a simple answer. Its because a lot of you are douchebags. Those of us who aren’t are not impressed by you either, for the record. All you do is make life harder for us and others that could really benefit from finding a community of like minded individuals. Stop holding us back, douchebags.

(via lindentea)