Matt Walsh and the Case for Destroying Someone’s Faith

[@GeneticallyModifiedSkeptic]

Of course the first video with the new mic would also be the one where I have Covid voice. Enjoy!

[@karthik6062]

G modifified skeptic, Dude You must look into Hinduism and highlight flaws in their scripts. If you look only into Christians and Islamic way of god, culture, rituals and declare all gods are irrational, then you're in survival ship bias in your judgement. Further , almost all atheists don't look into Hinduism and raise questions.

[@thedude0000]

0:54 THANK YOU!!! A lot of people simply don't understand where the label originated.

[@allthe1]

Enjoyed.

[@MordechaiKestecher]

Abort yourself! It's alrig.... it's AWESOME to be white! All religious people are accountable and if you're not anti SJW, you're mentally ill!

[@hglundahl]

Did you get it after a vaccine, or did you have the sense to not take those things?

[@darceylopez6065]

My grandmother was a bible thumping devout southern baptist. She devoted her life to the homeless and she fed people. It didn’t matter who you were, if you are hungry, she would feed you. I saw people with blue hair in the 80s sleep on her couch. She went to the slums and got prostitutes off the streets, both gay and straight. Judgement was up to God, Judgement was not up to her. She simply helped people who were in need. Where are these people now?? She would never invoke her beliefs on others. She believed she was called upon by God to help people. Not Christians or baptists, but people. She loved everyone.

[@woodygilson3465]

And if she had one day realized that gods aren't real, she'd likely have continued out of her own goodness rather than religious imperative. Which just goes to show how irrelevant and needless "religious imperatives" are.

[@marocat4749]

@@woodygilson3465 Does that matter? She likely did act out of her own goodness and seemed just to , why does it matter if she was a good person. Like would made that have her a better person. Aklso even if you think thats useless, why not. We do a lot superstitious and silly things. Why cant she enjoy what she does if she likes it and there is no harm.

[@woodygilson3465]

@@marocat4749 I think you might have missed my point. Obviously she was a good person. My point was, good people don't need a book written by barbaric desert primitives to tell them to be a good person, so if she had found out that gods aren't real, I doubt it would have changed her good nature. Like the OP, I'm also from the South. Like the OP, my mother's side of the family are all Southern Baptists. And, like the OP, I love my grandma, too. She was a social worker my whole life, specializing in child abuse and family services. She's retired and lives in a nursing home now, but she's a good woman because she's a good woman... who just happens to be religious. Like the OP's grandma, I'd imagine.

[@SurtierWood]

​@@woodygilson3465 two things, the Bible is ancient history that contains thousands of years of wisdom which helps us to become better people when we learn about it. Secondly, if you believe in evolution then you believe humans evolved into worshipping god and being religious so if you are not religious you are basically saying you are less evolved than religious people, so why even bang on religion when you can see all the good religion does, why not just let people be religious, it's a contradiction you'd be exhibiting the same behavior you accuse religious peep of having. And if you try to demonize certain religions because of religious violence then you should know atheism is deeply rooted in pagan Greeks who also engaged in violence against religious people, France was at one point highly influenced by the cult of atheism which believed humanity would only evolved if religion was eradicated so they killed nuns preists promoted beastiality sodomy and incest. So check ya self before ya reck ya-self Judge not lest you be judged ma boi.

[@kman314wastaken]

Based

[@Invalourrr-vb3xo]

My main issue is when religious folk present there beliefs as objective fact.

[@allthe1]

*when folk

[@redtiger7268]

This is not relegated to only religious people.

[@Invalourrr-vb3xo]

Yall down here do be correct, it is absolutely not just a religious people problem, anyone can behave in this way.

[@rubif5797]

Humility is a great Indicator of a decend human being. People that are full of themself are usually insufferable.

[@diablo.the.cheater]

@@Invalourrr-vb3xo But religion is a great excuse for these kinds of behaviors so it is wrong

[@mainecoonmami]

I know that you’re talking ideological arguments, but I want to throw my perspective in the chat: Many of us see anti-theism as a psychological healing transition because we have been severely harmed by the church. I can’t wait until I can be simply an atheist instead. But I’m still so angry at what religion has done to my family.

[@GeneticallyModifiedSkeptic]

That is 100% understandable. I’ve been there myself and know that anger among atheists is often justified. Eventually we build a different social circle, heal, and realize that “religion” is much broader than just what hurt us and our loved ones. Wishing you peace and healing ❤️

[@GreenLantern1916]

Well said, Denise! I know exactly what you mean! :)

[@rubif5797]

You will get there. I am sure of it. But some resentment i guess will never fade.

[@brianh9358]

@@GeneticallyModifiedSkeptic The individual beliefs associated with a religion don't necessarily result in harm to others or society. However, I do see that most organizations and formal structures that support religion tend to become harmful over time. This isn't true always, but is a tendency. If you look at the history of say the Southern Baptists, the Catholic Church, the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Mormon church, and Muslim clerics - they have all committed or supported harmful acts, laws, politics, and movements. There are a few religions which tend towards less organized authority structures - such as Buddhism, which cause less harm but are not completely harmless. So, I guess what I'm trying to say is as an atheist I tend to speak out against the organizations that are sponsoring and pushing harmful agendas rather than directly attacking the beliefs. In fact, in many cases the very "beliefs" that their religions espouse are in conflict with what the organizations do.

[@arenkai]

To this day I still have panic attacks when I see kids chanting in churches and my kid sister gets bursts of anger. It's so disgustingly vile to us and bring back the indoctrination days to mind. She's more anti-religion, and truth be told, I think she'll always be... While I'm "simply" atheist

[@IAmNumber4000]

My anti-theism mainly revolves around how religion is used to reinforce power. I think that’s a perspective that a lot of anti-theists miss out on, and end up with an incomplete view of the role of religion. It’s not just that religion allows you to do horrible things, like you said, any belief system allows you to do that. My problem with religion is that it totally obscures the true nature of power within a society. It allows a ruling class to keep their people afraid of even _thinking_ about breaking traditional norms or expressing themselves, because “God knows what you’re thinking”. It conditions them into thinking a happy and fulfilling life isn’t necessary, that it’s okay to suffer because one day you’ll be dead and get to go to heaven. Religions like Calvinism, etc. are ideology perpetrated by the ruling class to work their people to the bone, and have them die in poverty, because of the imaginary carrot and stick that is heaven. It is mind control.

[@ionceexisted]

As a Christian myself, this is a thoughtful comment and worth being mindful of as a follower. The consideration of how this “power” or politics(?) can be exploited unfortunately. There is this fantastic stage production called “Doubt” that kinda hints to this as a theme. You’re right about the benefits of doubting as a failsafe of sanity.

[@princegobi5992]

Yep, we need more materialist analysis like this on atheist tube, though atheism doesn’t necessarily prescribe an ideology, the problem is that the same modes of analytical thinking need to be brought to economic theory, power, class, and egalitarianism.

[@johnrosswilhite9532]

Yeah, this is a huge problem with Christianity at the moment. It’s so sad because the actual religion doesn’t necessarily promote this- Jesus was angry at this world, he wept over this world, he never taught to blindly follow authority, hell he was sometimes even violent towards authority. It seems to me, at least in the USA, fundamentalism has been the dominant Christian position. Like the word of the Bible must be taken fully literally, and fundamentalism places a huge emphasis on the Old Testament as well (which is largely a “obey the law and your masters” book)

[@siaotak4657]

Literally most politicians have NOTHING to do with the Church so idk wtf ur on 💀💀

[@raveneskridge3143]

if you mean christianity say christianity.

[@thescoobymike]

We can say stuff like “you can have your belief but just don’t force it on me” but that kind of statement makes zero sense to a true believer. If they REALLY believe it then, in their minds, it would be morally wrong for them not to enforce it. That’s what my mindset was when I was a believer and it took me deconstructing in order to leave that behavior behind.

[@cobrasys]

That's only true of proselytising religions. When the dogma of the religion says "until _everyone_ believes this exact thing, the Kingdom of Heaven will be ever beyond your reach", then the enforcement becomes part of the belief, but that is absolutely NOT true of all religions. I was raised Jewish, studied for my bar-mitzvah with an Orthodox rabbi and were around religious people throughout my childhood and adolescence, and enforcing beliefs was never even mentioned - on the contrary, bigotry in religious Jews tends to be exclusionary: they _don't want_ people who aren't "truly" Jewish (_i.e._ not born of a Jewish mother) in their in-group, and they're very prejudiced even against people who convert earnestly. They cling _very_ closely to the "chosen people" thing and effectively enforcing their beliefs on everyone else would remove their perceived "special" status in the eyes of God.

[@Onoesmahpie]

The sad part is even if religious devotees are not forcing their beliefs on anyone, or being outwardly hateful, the spread of religious modes of thought is devastatingly destructive to society in that it is a ticking time bomb, waiting for a hateful, charismatic charlatan to come along and set it off, using what the 'good intentioned' predecessors unknowingly created. We all suffer for the religious peoples' ignorance.

[@thescoobymike]

@@cobrasys I should’ve been clearer because I’m referring mostly to Catholicism since that was my religion I was brought up in

[@timothywilliams8530]

@@cobrasys "enforcing beliefs" you were not forced because you were already following them, you were not free from their influence your mouth was wide open drinking the cool aid. NO ONE forms a cabal of religious zealots to decide how to make the world more christian, the christians in an area just exist and vote, the jews exist and vote, their presence propagates their religious moralities into law. You don't need a group of pastors to have a huddle and draft a bill for congress.

[@electcheese2144]

@@timothywilliams8530 Luciano said, "Enforcing beliefs was never even mentioned." Also, nothing here is talking about making laws, but trying to convert people. I have known some people who felt obligated to try to convert me to their beliefs. Now, with that said, not everyone is like that. I know quite a few Christians who could care less that I'm Atheist, and I could care less that they are Christian. They are still my friends, and we can all respect each other.

[@heathcliffO_o]

Gotta be honest, I'm swinging the other way. As time goes on I become more and more antitheist. The biggest reason for that shift has to be having children. I keep seeing, more and more how religious ideology primes people's brains to value belief in something over evidence. Believing it happened is as good as knowing it did. I don't want that for my daughter and it's a hard fight to try and keep people from preaching at her.

[@timothywilliams8530]

I'd recommend teaching her how to identify BS of any form. Philosophy is completely left out of the education system even at higher education yet that is where true and false, right and wrong are determined.

[@williamhutton2126]

Atheists who are not anti-theist just need a little more brain power to get there. There's clearly never been any greater tool for harm in this world than religion. Those that disbelieve this unequivocal fact are just as vacuous as the religious. I absolutely want to burn down their harmful worldview. Pretending they have some stance worthy of further debate or discourse only legitimizes their perspective and extends the detriment caused by it.

[@Thebeautifuleye]

Why?

[@heathcliffO_o]

@@Thebeautifuleye why what?

[@ScottDCS]

I think Professor Dave has a book about identifying BS.

[@Rawnblade13]

I won't deny that I myself am an anti-theist. It's hard not to be these days when you live in the US and religious people shove their beliefs down our throats every day across the country at the expense of everyone, becoming increasingly authoritarian and dictating how we're supposed to live just because of their religion. The oppression of LGBTQ people, banning of abortion, fuck, even dictating what clothes we're allowed to wear! I recognize the same things you do, but it's hard to remember that when you live in this kind of environment...How can you not start to think religion is evil when you're surrounded by this bullshit?

[@FakingANerve]

How indeed. The loudest voices on the right are pushing _harder_ toward a Christian theocracy *and they aren't even hiding it anymore.*

[@JustBuyTheWaywardsRealms]

In France we have the "Laïcité" and it is very powerfull to prevent those kind of thing. It's so important in our country that it is one of the hidden motto with liberty, equality, fraternity.

[@vahidebrahimi9750]

I can relate to that. I live in Iran and I'm very much tempted to say 'if you think you've got it bad, you should try living under an actual Islamic theocracy.' But I'm not gonna :-) It's really difficult not to associate these bad ideas with some inherent quality of your opposing side's beliefs, specially at times like this. But I think realizing that religion is not just the things that you and I are against, can go a long way in understanding the religious point of view and make for better arguments.

[@brandonkennedy4160]

I totally identify. My parents are still very deep in the Mormon, church, and even though they’re not actively trying to bring me back to the church as often anymore, it’s still mostly what I hear about when I talk to them, and that church along with many others, still make me very angry. But it’s important to try to treat every individual with decency and respect, until they give us a reason to do otherwise. I can also get very angry when people accuse others of being atheist simply because they had some resentment towards the church or its people. But like I said, being patient, trying to show others respect, and setting boundaries when they refuse to do so it’s perfectly good.

[@kristinayoung8070]

Yeah, same here. I’m an anti theist, but I also don’t believe in actively stomping out ALL religion. I think it’d be ideal that religion was gone, but that isn’t realistic, so I will focus my effort on that which causes the most harm - fundamentalism. I don’t think anti-theism and not wanting to eradicate all religions is mutually exclusive.

[@PatrickWDunne]

I agree that Matt Walsh is the perfect example of why it's okay to destroy someone's faith. His argument with Joe Rogan shows that he can't articulate why he's against gay marriage without bringing up religion.

[@AJwx291]

Yes, we should destroy the superstition called Transgenderism.

[@toeachitsown2050]

People are allowed to be religious. You don't have to agree. You can't destroy someone's faith either. People were never meant to all agree

[@nathangriswold6999]

​@@toeachitsown2050People are allowed to be religious. What I will stand against, and combat, are people who seek to use faith to justify being shitty to another human being(ala Matt Walsh)

[@toeachitsown2050]

@nathangriswold6999 I'd say most people feel the same way. Jesus himself talked often against hypocrites. People who are shitty, act that way with or without religion.

[@gaetzwarren8146]

Jesus never once said hate gays...rather he tought God's kingdom, which is God idea of his creation, male and female.

[@Sienisota]

I suppose I'm more anti organised religion, than anti religion. The moment people organise around a religion on any bigger scale, grifters, scammers, hypocrites and abusers arrive to use that religion for malicious ends.

[@cobrasys]

Same thing for me. I don't care what people believe in, and think everyone should be allowed to believe whatever they want. It's when those beliefs infringe on the rights and well-being of others that I take issue with them, and that's what organised religion ends up causing one way or another.

[@Onoesmahpie]

Religious modes of thought leave open a door through which bad faith actors and charlatans can get to you, no matter how innocuous the religion, if it makes nonsensical claims that require one to bypass the logical thinking faculties in their brain, it is dangerous simply by virtue of teaching its members to be comfortable with ill-defined diction, emotionally motivated decision making, and bad arguments. We as a society need to rely on logical reasoning more in general, but especially with regard to how we think about religious subject matter.

[@mayconlcruz]

@@Onoesmahpie I understand and share this feeling that we as human beings need to overcome the need to justify the existence of the transcendental in order to be able to give meaning to our lives. However, I cannot see a scenario where treating faith with hostility will help our cause. For a person to at least understand a life without beliefs, he first needs to see that existence is capable of giving us meaning by itself, and that is a herculean task. It's something that will take a lot of time and parsimony to put into practice, and being hostile can ruin all of that.

[@theflaggeddragon9472]

Exactly. Ending religion is not really the goal. It's fighting dogmatic belief which is often weaponized by oppressive POS like Matt Walsh.

[@pameladeleone135]

@@cobrasys You said it for me. They DO cause A LOT of harm. I don't think I have enough time left in me to get over what they did to me. They didn't care if I killed myself when they were pushing to convert me. Cruel people, is what religion seemed to make them. That's how I saw it.

[@timothyhoft]

As a former Fundamentalist Christian, I am very grateful for the new atheists for helping me come to reality; to finally see fact from fiction. There is nothing "cringe" about that.

[@jjphank]

You’re gonna go to hell so be careful And investigative because we have all the evidence on the side of the Bible! from psychology to science ! Matter and energy cannot be created nor destroyed, therefore no matter nor energy would’ve existed to do the causing. Consequently, whatever did cause the universe to exist, would need to be immaterial and exist beyond time and space! Genesis 1: 1 God creates time space and matter! The KILLER is, Entropy! Entropy is somewhat opposite of evolution and why did this come into the universe if everything’s getting better? Genesis 2:17 says death came into the universe through the first sin! First two chapters of the Bible not the 500th chapter or the thousandth chapter; explain what evolutionists have not explained;, The first two laws of thermodynamics! So the Bible explains how matter, space, time, entropy, and energy get here! DNA does not auto encrypt, it did not write itself the code writer is outside of the code. 3300 billion lines of computer code in 1 humans DNA, would fill the Grand Canyon 50 times of Books, let alone plant and animal DNA and it did not write itself! One person‘s DNA could stretch to the sun and back 61 times! Psalm 139:16 “in my members you have written many books“. John 21:25 “I suppose everything Jesus did the world will not have enough room for the Books, telling of it“ Job 38:35 “were you there when I created the lightnings and they say ‘here we are!”’ This is God talking to Job! 3300 years later, James Maxwell discovers that light rays and electricity are two forms of the same thing! The Bible Predicted telecommunications

[@Morning404]

Same here. Just because I've moved on from some other beliefs they have doesn't mean I can't appreciate them for helping me out of Christianity.

[@GeneticallyModifiedSkeptic]

I agree that the Four Horsemen fighting religious fundamentalism was good. I never criticized that.

[@SableRhapsody]

This is how I feel about the new atheists. I wasn't a fundamentalist Christian, but my family and community were. The New Atheists gave me the courage to stick up for myself and the validation that I desperately needed as a teenager. Over a decade later, I don't agree with their anti-theism. But I will always appreciate what their books and talks did for me.

[@woodygilson3465]

*Amen!*

[@watsonwrote]

I remember being very anti-theist as a teenager but grew much more accepting of religion as I learned more about cultural beliefs and practices. I believe a lot of my anger was backlash against how I was raised and the kinds of religious people I had interacted with to that point. I still believe that all religion are myth and fantasy mixed with garbled historical accounts of mundane things, but I'm no longer annoyed and angry at the mere idea of people believing impossible things. Social media has proven that religion isn't the sole driver of such beliefs nor does it have a monopoly on spreading distorted or outright false concepts of reality. I've also come to believe that people are entitled to freely practice their cultural heritage, which includes religious beliefs and traditions, as long as those beliefs are not badly harming others or suppressing others' beliefs and practices. My anger is now squarely with religous beliefs and practices that put people in harm's way, violate human rights, and impede changes that will benefit humanity

[@sam5992]

"as long as those beliefs are not badly harming others or suppressing others' beliefs and practices." That's why I'm an anti-theist.

[@SuboptimalPrime]

Whenever someone makes a factual claim about anything, it is open to critique and fact checking. However, when it comes to religion, we all just silently accept superstitious claims because it's their cultural heritage and it doesn't harm anyone. That does not seem right to me.

[@ruski77]

⁠@@sam5992 Literally. Because in a SHIT ton of circumstances, this is true.

[@theharshtruthoutthere]

@@ruski77 BIBLE is the only book which: heals, guides, judge, warns, helps. Bible guides souls out from Babylon. Bible helps to let go from Babylonian entertainments. Bible helps us see, what has value. Bible fills souls with knowledge, with peace. Bible clears out future, for both, for the saved and for the lost. Bible gives us stories from which to learn, and through which GOD warns us, the generations lived after. Don+t stay muslim, catholic, Hindu, new ager, atheists, ignorant, satanic, Mormons, dont be a thief and a robber. John 10:1 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. Religions are masonic lies, false ways into heaven which masons have made. Follow not nor believe masons, who give you lies after lies. Seek out CHRIST, follow HIM and leave lies behind and your old life in the BABYLON: Revelation 17:2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. Revelation 18:3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. Revelation 18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

[@TheseUseless]

I still don’t like religion. It’s never going to go away. And you should always have the right to follow it. But the idea god definitely is (or isn’t) real is inherently a bit stupid.

[@pawpkitty]

Let's be clear. None of us want to ban religion outright. What we really want is freedom from religion infringing on our rights and wellbeing.

[@GeneticallyModifiedSkeptic]

💯

[@browntie]

I’ve never seen an atheist call for the “banning” of religion. Who are these bad atheists you guys are talking about?

[@browntie]

If you guys are saying non-woke atheists are bad. The I have no hope for humanity.. I thought all atheists would have gotten the whole WOKE thing right because of the whole evidence base lifestyle. I guess there are even MORE types of idiots than I previously thought. :/

[@pawpkitty]

@@browntie they are out there.

[@dortemadsen2166]

@neilcarpentergunsnglory1347 Yep, as long as they are not talking about their "right" to discriminate because that does not exist.

[@richarddeese1991]

Thanks. @7:06 - "The moment someone's religion extends its grasp beyond the individual, and seeks to limit the rights of others, their religion becomes fair game." That is a beautiful sentence, and a timeless statement. tavi.

[@randomdudeoti]

The problem is what defines “rights”. I get what he means, but the problem is that anything a person says that they disagree with they can label as them “disregarding rights” and try to debunk their religion. Though I do believe it is with the assumption that they can debunk it, when in reality it is a more complicated subject.

[@thoticcusprime9309]

@@randomdudeoti no its not

[@anainesgonzalez8868]

Religion extends its graps beyond the individual by definition. It is a colective practice that, again by definition, seeks to limit the rights of the people involved in it

[@anainesgonzalez8868]

@Baker Banking define voluntary

[@anainesgonzalez8868]

@Baker Banking every religion “says” some things that are true 🤷🏻‍♀️

[@Pigaroulettes]

Very interesting video ! As an "almost anti-theist" myself, I don't think the problem with religion is the belief in things that aren't true. I think the biggest problem is dogmatism. I think accepting ideas without evidence or without any possibility of changing your mind is always wrong. And I think most religions tend to value dogmatism and criticize doubt and need for evidence.

[@EdithBromfeld]

Yep, I challenge Internet atheist dogma constantly.

[@SupremeSquiggly]

@@EdithBromfeldI don’t know how that’s possible. Atheism has no dogmas. It’s a single position on a single issue.

[@EdithBromfeld]

@@SupremeSquiggly Atheists assert all sorts of dogmatic claims - such as your dogmatic claim that atheism has no dogmas. Atheism is the doctrine that no deity exists.

[@SupremeSquiggly]

@@EdithBromfeld Are you ok? Take a breath and address the points honestly. Saying atheism has no dogmas is a statement of fact. Since atheism has no authorities nor principles (since it’s the single position on a single issue) it literally can’t have a dogma. Atheism by definition isn’t a belief so it can’t be a doctrine. There is a difference between soft and hard atheism. Hard atheism taking the positive position that no god/gods exists. But it is definitely not a required or necessary position. Please share what other dogmatic claims, that you claim, atheist make.

[@EdithBromfeld]

​@@SupremeSquiggly YOU are stating one of the several dogmas "atheism has no dogmas" Other atheist dogmas include the dogma that atheism is a response to a claim, not a position on God's existence. Atheists consistently lie with dogma that BELIEF in God is a CLAIM with a burden to prove. You even assert a dogma (lie) claiming that atheism isn't a belief position - when it certainly is a belief position. All my dictionaries and SEoP affirm atheism to be a belief position (DISbelief) - the doctrine that no God exists. Atheists dogmatically assert no evidence of God exists.

[@Nick_Vendel]

I'm an anti-theist, but i do agree that the argument of "all religion is bad, because it CAN lead you to doing bad things" is weak, all (or at least most) ideological beliefs can lead you to doing bad things. I think a theist that is actually dangerous is the person who honestly believes that "they're on a mission from God" or "doing the will of God", as i think rather than doubt their actions and try to consider different perspectives they instead remove their doubts by shifting responsibility on to their idea of God, like "i didn't do bad things because i wanted, i did it because God commanded me, you can judge me, but i know i'm right because i did what God wanted". I do think these people are small minority, it's just i feel like there's enough problems within the popular religions that only make it worse for those people, making them more extreme instead of less. In general, i know theists are people just like me, and even if i'm right and they're wrong it can still act as a sort of "Placebo effect" for them, improving their lives and who am i to come in and start shitting on the way they peacefully live their lives, as long as it doesn't affect me or the others.

[@xraselver7634]

I think ironically your last part misses that it obviously does effect everyones life. If "peacefully" just means war or violence, then most of the world is peaceful most of the time, but that doesn't adress suffering or other problems. "Tolerance" isn't well intentioned, if it means "not helping someone in showing them better options/information which leads to better outcomes". People always get their impressions of the world from somewhere, so it makes a difference. What we all share is reality, so we should focus on improving this understanding for all people.

[@Nick_Vendel]

​@@xraselver7634 "I think ironically your last part misses that it obviously does effect everyones life." Except it doesn't affect everyone. Some religions do reach for that sort of power, but they often don't have enough to affect everyone, or even majority of people. "If 'peacefully' just means war or violence, then most of the world is peaceful most of the time, but that doesn't adress suffering or other problems." Last part wasn't addressing "most of the world" on geopolitical scale, i was talking about moderate theists that live without pushing their beliefs or problems onto other people, y'know "peacefully live their lives". They aren't the ones going around creating "war or violence". "'Tolerance' isn't well intentioned, if it means 'not helping someone in showing them better options/information which leads to better outcomes'" I agree to a degree, but you need to understand that intolerance and aggressive pushing of your beliefs onto others is a thing that also might provoke conflict. No one asks you to not do anything, do share your perspective, just don't go around "preaching" your beliefs as it doesn't do any good to your cause, it only forces those who disagree with you into a more defensive stance. Give some respect to people with opposite viewpoint, their religion/belief might be bad, but it doesn't mean that they are, they might just misinterpret, misunderstand or just be ignorant of some details, alternatively you might be. We all prone to make mistakes, we all human, that's kinda where tolerance for me plays the role. "What we all share is reality, so we should focus on improving this understanding for all people." Like you said, people "get their impressions of the world from somewhere", often not the same place, thus their interpretations are different, that's why it's often hard to persuade person that your worldview is better as it is often just another interpretation in their eyes, and they're biased towards their own interpretation.

[@xraselver7634]

@@Nick_Vendel Edit: accidentally sent it too early ^.^' With "affecting everyone" I mean it literally, like whatever you do or don't has an effect on you and by extent everyone else, because you are either interacting or lack interaction with different people. On the part with "peace" I can refer to the first part again and also because the whole world is so interconnected, even doing "nothing" allows harm to continue in the sense of being powerful/comparatively wealthy does come with responsibilities. On the topic "tolerance" I also agree back with you. Although I think it is quite condescending to compare critical thinking with "preaching". Since living in reality is necessary for peaceful and prosperous co-existance. And lastly it is important to not let ignorance get the upper hand, when the biggest problem is just many people that have simply never heard the undeniable evidence that backs up realistic/natural explanations. I know lots of people where the cause for misunderstanding is just them never having heard better explanations and what logical fallacies are.

[@Nick_Vendel]

@@xraselver7634 "On the part with "peace" I can refer to the first part again and also because the whole world is so interconnected, even doing "nothing" allows harm to continue in the sense of being powerful/comparatively wealthy does come with responsibilities." fair, but i don't believe that doing nothing can equate to doing something harmful. Sure, it might be part of the issue, but a lesser part. "Although I think it is quite condescending to compare critical thinking with 'preaching'." I didn't really compare the two, which is also why i put it in quotes. I've just seen a lot of conversations where even people who are very logical and meant well would start pushing their opinion/perspective onto their opposition... it never ends well, and is just sad. Hell, i feel like i've been on both sides of that, being way too "preachy" and being "preached" at, it's hard to notice it during the dialogue. "the biggest problem is just many people that have simply never heard the undeniable evidence that backs up realistic/natural explanations." Honestly, there's enough people who deny them and what's worse those same people will say the same about their explanations, that's what i mean, we will get stuck in our own biases and it is really hard to let go. Arguing endlessly about how your position is the correct one or how opposition is wrong often just leads to people outright ignoring the arguments. "I know lots of people where the cause for misunderstanding is just them never having heard better explanations and what logical fallacies are." Sure, ignorance like i said is one of those things, and in that case providing explanations would probably help, but it isn't always that simple, i would even say in majority of cases, persuading someone of your position is very hard, even if you feel like you're providing the best arguments there are.

[@xraselver7634]

@@Nick_Vendel Yeah ofcourse doing harm isn't equal to letting harmful things happen, but it's a simple misconception to think of good, neutral and bad when it's more like good, somewhat harmful and very harmful. And yeah the way you express something can change everything, that's really important and depends on the individual. Just in general stating facts cannot be "preachy" in itself, although people can misinterpret it as such. It is extremely important to spread the understanding, that "yes you can absolutely be wrong and pretty stupid, BUT that's no reason to just be ashamed and give up, it actually gives you the opportunity to do better and be happy that you managed to do something remarkable".

[@anthonydelfino6171]

I'm an unapologetic anti-theist. But I also recognize that this comes in large part to my own experiences. Being young and gay in the early 2000s I was a frequent target of religious hate groups targeting me because of my sexuality. And as I see these same types of people rising again using their religion to attack my trans friends, and their rhetoric being used to inspire people to commit mass shootings in gay spaces, it's very hard for me to see the virtue or value in religion.

[@airlesscanvas6425]

I am a bisexual agnostic theist and I grew up in a family and a church that was accepting of that. It provided me with a sense of purpose and community, in fact it was what kept me from suicide growing up. So for me it is very easy to see the virtue and value in religion.

[@anthonydelfino6171]

@@airlesscanvas6425 I'm glad you had a more positive experience. But mine was the opposite. My family disowned and shunned me after my coming out. Their pastor asked me to come talk with him, only to then yell at and berate me when I thought I would do in to try to be polite. And on top of that, in the 2000s we had the fundamentalists pushing anti-gay legislation and Bush trying to call for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex couples from marrying. So in my life, it's only ever been a negative, and I think the country would be better off without organized religion

[@airlesscanvas6425]

​@@anthonydelfino6171 Just because you had a bad experience does not mean everyone else will. These things happen not because of organized religion, but because of bigotry. If religion was inherently bigoted I would not have had the good experience I had.

[@Henry-yh6vv]

And some trans activists are threatening and even carrying out attacks on women in some cases, if they don't go along with trans ideology.

[@Espartanica]

​@@airlesscanvas6425Just because you had GOOD experiences doesn't mean they were the majority.

[@jasonGamesMaster]

I am totally anti-theist, but I am also willing to live and let live. Preach to me and I'll break it down for you, but you do you and let me do me, then more power to you. I support your right to be wrong.

[@Onoesmahpie]

As a society we need to allow religion, but not encourage it. Encouraging religion means teaching people to think illogically, and based on emotion/intuition. There is a bad faith actor born every day willing to take advantage of such people.

[@jasonGamesMaster]

@@Onoesmahpie in the US, separation of church and state is in the founding documents. If we weren't witnessing an extinction burst of repressive, authoritarian policies at the moment then it wouldn't even be a question. As their number continues to decline so will their sway. The number of "nones" today was unthinkable just 20 years ago, and I don't see it changing. But it all takes time. Societal change is a generational concern, not one of days and years.

[@l3unnies]

Oo, worded it nicely.

[@theunholybanana4745]

Totally agree with the live and let live, too many people (both theists and atheists) will try to convert the other unprovoked.

[@inkryption3386]

​@@theunholybanana4745 it is usually the theist provoking

[@briannamay5459]

Religion destroyed my life and made me alone, depressed and miserable. Me being a straight trans woman, as a kid I thought I was gay. I cried and repressed myself because I thought god hated me and I felt so miserable. I was attracted to men and I couldn't control it no mattrr how much I prayed and even ended up going to conversion therapy It just made my mental health worse. I don't understand what is wrong with me so I tried to take my own life

[@kurtrichter5500]

I'm glad you're still with us. There's nothing wrong with you. It's the others that are wrong for treating you that way. I hope now you can heal and work on feeling more secure with yourself. Religion can go to hell.

[@gabrielsalahi3656]

So you’re a man with an obvious mental illness that thinks their a woman when they aren’t

[@LadyDoomsinger]

I experienced something similar - though I grew up in a loving community, nobody ever said an unkind word, or rejected me for being trans - yet I was left feeling "wrong" just because I was trans. And I grew up among "moderate" and "progressive" Christians. It was the culture itself that was toxic, not the individual people. I hope you are doing better now. I wish I could say something comforting that would make you feel better - but I know from experience how hollow platitudes like "I wish you well" or "I'm there for you" can feel. The best I can offer is solidarity. You are not alone.

[@gabrielsalahi3656]

@@LadyDoomsinger you aren’t trans. You’re just confused on what boys and girls are

[@LadyDoomsinger]

@@gabrielsalahi3656 Gee, I never thought of that. Everything is so much clearer now. Thank you for telling me what's in my own head. I feel so much better now.

[@Maurus200]

As I have gotten older I have found that anti-theism will always exist with me on a social level. Forcing the masses to comply with a religion is always a step too far and does cause harm. This harm has been extremely evident in the LGBTQ+ community.

[@AJwx291]

The lgbt ideology is itself a religion

[@BurntCookiesYT]

@@AJwx291 look up the definition of religion

[@mishaf19]

@@AJwx291which spiritual beliefs??? The god of YAS queen? Deeply unserious person.

[@AJwx291]

@@mishaf19 Men born in women's bodies and vice versa

[@jefft5152]

​@@AJwx291 Please defend your stance. Demonstrate the LGBTQ+ religion.

[@Halophage]

I tried to reject outright antitheism in my younger days of being an atheist because I thought it was too extreme to use blanket condemnations. As I get older, I am becoming more and more willing to issue a blanket condemnation over the concept of faith and the mechanisms of magical thinking, especially considering our incredibly conspiratorial zeitgeist.

[@davidcross4815]

Agreed. It has been said, correctly I assert, that the moderates are the tall grass that the extremists hide in. All religions, save perhaps Buddhist, a non deistic religion, are outright lies and concoctions from ignorance. Therein lies the biggest problem, the perseverance and preservation of said ignorance. Anti-theism is as valid as anti-ignorance and anti-facism.

[@secutorprimus]

Forrest Valkai has offered, to me, a very healthy variety of antitheism, and has helped me to solidify my opposition to spirituality of any kind. With tiered levels of priority, of course.

[@Halophage]

@@secutorprimus I love Forrest. What a guy.

[@scratch7971]

I’m not atheist, but I’m absolutely anti theist. Whatever helps people cope with nihilism is fine with me, I don’t know what happens, either. But “religious” people go into church structures for free power, they don’t believe anymore than we do, and the people in the pews go there because they have no other way to have social lives. (In the US, the church has a monopoly on interactions in rural/small town communities, making religion as effective as it is here.)

[@secutorprimus]

@@scratch7971 I would personally use both the terms atheist and antitheist for myself.

[@davidvernon3119]

As a person who would consider himself a devout anti-theist, your arguments for pluralism are strong. You’ve given me something to think about. Thank you

[@treeforged9097]

Let me try to bring you back to reality. As far as I can tell, his only argument for "pluralism" was that he could not empirically verify that believing in false things was harmful and that believing in true things was helpful. The problem with that argument is that harmful and helpful in that context is a value judgments and value judgments definitionally cannot be verified empirically. I cannot empirically verify that cutting off someones head is a bad thing, that does not change the fact that I am justified in my value judgment that cutting off peoples head is a bad thing. Likewise, I cannot empirically show that believing in a false thing is a bad thing, but I am still totally justified in my believe that believing in false things are bad. If we found out somehow that objectively speaking people who believed in an afterlife lived longer and happier lives I would still believe it was a bad thing because I value truth more then I value happiness or slightly longer life. What possible value judgment is this guy using to justify believing in a false thing? He did not mention any in the video because he knows he cannot make that argument. The only other things he said were ad hominims against the vary people who gave him an audience in the first place. That is the truly cringe thing about this video.

[@AzureKnight2]

Honest question, but are they strong? My impression was they were rather weak, but I accept that I may have misunderstood something. I accept the premise that not everything about religion is bad, and that it can even do some good. But I don't think it's an argument against antitheism if one can say that religion is bad overall, and that the same good can't be accomplished through means other than theism.

[@UniDocs_Mahapushpa_Cyavana]

What about just being anti-religion?

[@jjphank]

YOU’RE WRONG;; You cannot out psychologize the Bible for God not to throw you into hell for all eternity. In other words, you cannot come up with a good enough excuse here and now, so you will not be able to on judgment day. If you say you did not want to be born, God is going to say you should’ve been born again, that means become a Christian so that’s not gonna work. And there are no other excuses try to think of one. So now you know for the first time in your life, that the Bible is smarter than you and it is a steel trap, smarter than all of mankind, What should you do then? So at least investigate and look to see that these things are true, because right now you just learned the Bible is smarter than you, and you will be accountable for your life on judgment day before God! Prophecy, the Bible is 27% prophecy, that’s future history written in advance. God‘s really sticking his neck out to get it cut off if he’s wrong, but he hasn’t been wrong about the thousands of prophecies that were fulfilled, so he’ll be right about the end of the world prophecies as well and you’ll have no excuse on judgment day for not looking for truth! Caveat: you cannot look for God in times of chaos says Isaiah 45:19, so you better do it now. In other words,You’ll be too worried about your own survival when chaos hits, than your eternal destiny! Statistic probability of 40 writers writing the Bible with zero margin of deviation, proves God wrote the Bible through the 40 writers! God authored the Bible! DNA does not auto encrypt, the code writer is outside of the code of the 3300000,000,000 lines of computer code in the human genome of our DNA! So who wrote the code to such sophistication? 1,000,000 seconds is 12 days, 1,000,000,000 seconds is 32 years! That’s the difference between 1 million and 1 billion! One person’s DNA could fill the Grand Canyon up to 50 times full of books. John 21:25 “I suppose everything Jesus did, the world wouldn’t have enough room for the books telling of it.“ this verse would be fulfilled! Psalm 139:16 “in my members you have written many books“! Psalm 139 is about the human body!

[@davidvernon3119]

@@AzureKnight2 maybe i misspoke, but part of the argument is one that i hasn’t considered and it resonated with me. Gms quotes a friend: “Even correct beliefs could be misapplied”. I appreciated this comment

[@monkewithinternetaccess6107]

As a creative writer, I always make it a point to accurately depict beliefs. If they come across as bad, that's on them

[@futurestoryteller]

Some of the most heroic people of the 20th century, and probably well before that were informed by their beliefs as much as some of the least. Religious people are just people. American fundamentalist belief shows insidious blind faith doesn't even need to have root cause in actual doctorine. If anything biblical text advocates in favor of abortion, it's political tribalism that's captured the American religious mind. If you strive to accurately depict belief and you find the end result is bad, that's not on them, your bias infomed that

[@jjphank]

You cannot out psychologize the Bible for God not to throw you into hell for all eternity. In other words, you cannot come up with a good enough excuse here and now, so you will not be able to on judgment day. If you say you did not want to be born, God is going to say you should’ve been born again, that means become a Christian so that’s not gonna work. And there are no other excuses try to think of one. So now you know for the first time in your life, that the Bible is smarter than you and it is a steel trap, smarter than all of mankind, What should you do then? So at least investigate and look to see that these things are true, because right now you just learned the Bible is smarter than you, and you will be accountable for your life on judgment day before God! Prophecy, the Bible is 27% prophecy, that’s future history written in advance. God‘s really sticking his neck out to get it cut off if he’s wrong, but he hasn’t been wrong about the thousands of prophecies that were fulfilled, so he’ll be right about the end of the world prophecies as well and you’ll have no excuse on judgment day for not looking for truth! Caveat: you cannot look for God in times of chaos says Isaiah 45:19, so you better do it now. In other words,You’ll be too worried about your own survival when chaos hits, than your eternal destiny! Statistic probability of 40 writers writing the Bible with zero margin of deviation, proves God wrote the Bible through the 40 writers! God authored the Bible! DNA does not auto encrypt, the code writer is outside of the code of the 3300000,000,000 lines of computer code in the human genome of our DNA! So who wrote the code to such sophistication? 1,000,000 seconds is 12 days, 1,000,000,000 seconds is 32 years! That’s the difference between 1 million and 1 billion! One person’s DNA could fill the Grand Canyon up to 50 times full of books. John 21:25 “I suppose everything Jesus did, the world wouldn’t have enough room for the books telling of it.“ this verse would be fulfilled! Psalm 139:16 “in my members you have written many books“! Psalm 139 is about the human body!

[@Handle947]

I think anti-theists are extremely important because religious people will NEVER stop trying to seize their societies under their control, & so it’s important to have a group of people who are actively and constantly combating that.

[@gaetzwarren8146]

So a sect of satan?

[@joolding6022]

This video is almost nonsense. Anti-theism is the real issue? Did GenModSkep go insane a year ago? Did he make this in a fugue state?

[@sulk7080]

I’m a relatively recent anti-theist. I lost my faith after the big “new atheist” movement, and I never really had discussions with other atheists about anti-theism. Hearing them described as mostly alt-right misogynists was shocking to me- the attitudes of my prior faith, especially in regard to women and the LGBTQ+ community, is a big reason why I am an atheist at all. I’m an anti-theist just as much as I am pro-science. My issue with theism is that it baselessly asserts things that aren’t supported by evidence, which can lead to (and has led to) the rejection of science, the rejection of facts, and the rejection of human rights. This doesn’t mean I go out of my way to upset theists that haven’t done anything wrong. That’s not being an anti-theist, that’s being a dick. This doesn’t mean that all religions should be opposed. I just have yet to see one religion that I would support. Until then, I remain anti-theist.

[@ElusiveEel]

Sargon of Akkad's viewerbase is now Christians, not "new atheists". I'm pretty sure most of the people he's talking about have since converted to Christianity or stopped being Conservative. I have similar views except I judge that in most cases lying to people (including yourself) is bad, much more so than any potential good that might arise from it, and so I'm opposed to religion and faith in general. That said the people that hold the beliefs are different from the beliefs themselves and so do not always deserve derision, .

[@warriorworkouts5397]

I just recently transitioned to a different job after 7 years as a Religious Affairs Specialist in the National Guard, trying to help uphold pluralistic values. I’m Indigenous and still participate in many of my peoples’ rituals and ceremonies as a cultural practice. But I still count myself as an anti-theist. We are not a pluralistic society/nation but rather one that claims it is / aspires to be. Truthfully we are not even a single society and are actually an empire, with many warring subfactions. Unless we let anti-theists finish the hard work of getting religion out of the public sphere we can’t make the transition to an actually pluralist society.

[@timothywilliams8530]

EIther I or this comment section has no grasp on what a "pluralist" is. If you get rid of religion we are no longer pluralist, just atheist.

[@nordos]

@@timothywilliams8530 it depends how you define 'getting rid of religion'. I think, this comment does not mean the eradication of religion per se, but making it 'vanish from the public', e.g., no institution using it, no laws being formed by it, etc.

[@timothywilliams8530]

@@nordos That's genocidal. The religiously inclined are not going to just "give up" their faith no matter how much we want them to. The Herald Camping's of the world are in too deep to ever change and thus the only way to remove religion from the public is to remove the religious from the public. Maybe by putting them in a specific concentrated area where the religion can't get out, and then take out all the bibles in hotel rooms and burn them I guess. That's not even hyperbole that's just historical. ---- dramatics aside there is no way to remove the religion while keeping the religious from participating in society without resulting to horrendous acts. Religion IS the basis people like Matty Wash use to form their morality, morality they would then vote on.

[@darlenegriffith6186]

@@timothywilliams8530 I don't think that Warrior Workout wants to entirely eradicate religion from society, at least from how I understand his words. I do think that his concern is, if given a foothold into the law-making process, radical religious types will engage in hegemony, leading to ill-treatment and abuse toward many who don't hold the same beliefs as they do. For example, consider the goals of the dominionists and reconstructionists. They are endeavoring to take over every aspect of society. Their movement is based upon the belief that Christians should control seven areas in our society: family, religion, education, media, entertainment, business and government. If they had their way, we would be living in a Christian totalitarian regime.

[@xmwest6814]

@@timothywilliams8530 Yeah, i do think the idea here is that (at least in the US) we must remove Christianity from the public perception for a while. When these Christians are pushing religion into public shools, banning books, etc etc, they need to be removed, and in this case, shamed. Maybe I'm reading the room wrong? But that's how I'm reading/seeing this.

[@c.f.bellairs1055]

I strongly believe we wouldn't have made the headway we have as a society without people like Hitchens and Dawkins calling out the hypocrisy of the bigoted religious people who claim they're all about love and acceptance. I understand the aversion to anti-theism, but it's infinitely more respectful of the listener's intelligence than organized religion.

[@emmadasilva1794]

However, it's also true that certain societies wouldn't have made the progress they have made without their religious pasts. For example, Christianity was one of the bases for the arguments for human rights in the West.

[@AzureKnight2]

@@emmadasilva1794 I think you're confusing Christianity with the Enlightenment. Especially given the many centuries that Christianity was used as one of the bases *against* human rights in the West.

[@emmadasilva1794]

@@AzureKnight2 The enlightenment definitely contributed, yes, but many have argued (Christian and non-Christian alike) that the enlightenment occurred because of Christianity in part. Christianity certainly has been used to block human rights, but it has also been used to argue for human rights. It was one of the only ideologies arguing for the sanctity of human life when it was conceived and during the first few hundred years. In Roman society, it was the Christians who would take in babies who were left out to die for various reasons like disability, for example. Originally Christianity was also a religion that spanned race and ethnicity since part of its central message was that Jew and Gentile can both be saved, not just Jew. The current evidence of the irrelevance of race and ethnicity to Christianity is how widespread the religion is around the world to this day. It's not a white man's religion today and it didn't start that way either. When someone wants to do something, evil or not, he will likely appeal to the ruling ideology of the time to justify it. Christianity is no different in that regard. It was the ruling ideology for much of Western history and thus has been coopted for bad use. But also because of that, Western civilization's progress must also be attributed to the ruling ideology of its day. Famous philosophers of the enlightenment like Kant, Rousseau, and Locke, though they weren't devout Christians (some less than others), used Christian modes of thought in their philosophies because they couldn't help it. They were very influenced by it because it was the ruling ideology of their time. I believe western civilization would not have progressed as far in terms of human rights and politics and such if not for the influence of Christianity. But that doesn't mean that Christianity was the sole reason for the enlightenment or other things like that. Just saying in similar terms to your original comment, that the same "headway" would not have been made without it. There's more I can say but KZbin comments aren't the best for long form communication.

[@AzureKnight2]

@@emmadasilva1794 You seem to contradict yourself. You say you feel it's all thanks to Christianity, but then say that if it's bad it will be attributed to whatever ideology happens to be in power. All without addressing that the same can be said for whatever is "good," ignoring the possibility that those that want to bolster their religion will co-opt progress to put themselves onto a pedestal. And your claim that Christianity has ways of thinking that are unique to Christianity is an extraordinary claim, and to meet that burden of proof requires extraordinary evidence. If you want to proselytize your religion here, you need to do a *lot* better.

[@emmadasilva1794]

@@AzureKnight2 You misread my comment, then. I never claimed that it's "all thanks to Christianity," in fact I said twice that Christianity was only a part of it. I'm well aware that Greek and Roman philosophers highly influenced the enlightenment, and Western civilization in general, as well, for example. Additionally, I never said that there are Christian teachings that are wholly unique to Christianity and no other religion, belief system, ideology, or philosophy. I merely said it was unique in its early days for its specific time and place. You never refuted my actual claims directly and strawmanned me instead.

[@neilcates3499]

I am anti-theist for several reasons. The main reason being that we have a lot of problems in this world that we need to deal with. And, to do that most effectively we need to face the reality that all we know that we have is this planet and each other. We cannot solve problems with thoughts and prayers.

[@redman7775]

I'm athiest until the religious start saying, "My book says you *can't* do that." Then it's war.

[@parcormasteryesiknowispell4337]

I've been thinking this a lot. In my experience, Christians will go on and on about how they know for sure that God has our best interest at heart despite them also claiming God to be too complex for us to understand. When scrutinized scientifically they label us as being "materialists" and accuse us of thinking nihilistically. Yet, as soon as you bring up gender nonconformity or gay people being parents now they want to talk about science and the data and shit. Its incredibly disingenuous.

[@literallyjustdragons1902]

as an antithiest I would just like to say, we shouldn’t be respecting beliefs we should be respecting people who have beliefs no matter what they are. We should try and root out the bad ideas that are undeserving of respect not the people that believe them. My reasoning for this is suppose that somebody says that the human voice is not meant to sing. You can imagine the wild things people might do because of that. Bad ideas breed and the beliefs that are now mundane may grow into something that hurts people. We shouldn’t try to hurt people, we should try to help people reason as best we can and that would benefit us all.

[@EdithBromfeld]

Atheists Mao, Stalin, Lenin, Pol Pot, Ceausescu, Milosevic, Castro, Kim Jung II, Mussolini, have mass slaughtered over 100 MILLION people this past century alone and brutally repressed BILLIONS under horrific atheist regimes without any moral inhibitions or concerns for human significance. Atheism is madness. Facts matter. Atheists must never be trusted with power.

[@vahidebrahimi9750]

You know your religion is trash when someone brings up an imaginary scenario as an example of a bad idea, but it's actually part of your religion's teachings. 🤣

[@adampower9757]

@@EdithBromfeld hope you learn what religion did in this arena.

[@EdithBromfeld]

@@adampower9757 Posturing won't change the horrific facts. Atheists Mao, Stalin, Lenin, Pol Pot, Ceausescu, Milosevic, Castro, Kim Jung II, Mussolini, have mass slaughtered over 100 MILLION people this past century alone and brutally repressed BILLIONS under horrific atheist regimes without any moral inhibitions or concerns for human significance. Atheism is madness. Facts matter. Atheists must never be trusted with power.

[@sharpienate]

@@adampower9757 Secularism bred pluralism, not religion. Religious people adopted pluralism and rational human rights because the culture shifted beneath their feet, not because they wanted to do it. Just because a rational and progressive individual happens to BE religious, does not mean an institution of religious claims should be awarded causation FOR progressive ideas.

[@ts4743]

when i see religious people make fun of trans people or the left in general for not being able to define a woman, i always like to remind them that their book tells them that the first man was made form clay and the first woman was made of the man's rib and how ridiculous it is.

[@Muffln]

This is something I haven't yet thought of, while I am generally skeptical of some of the sort of new ideas of gender, I do not know how people can be so critical, much more than me, of these ideas when they also believe that the first man was made from clay and the first woman was made from the mans rib. To actually believe in this and be highly critical of newer gender ideas is pretty hypocritical considering some people claim that there being more than 2 genders goes against biology but somehow this story doesn't. The idea of the existence of more than 2 genders is far more plausible and at the very least more psychologically sound than a man being made from clay and a woman being made from a mans rib.

[@ts4743]

@@Muffln i have a feeling we would probably disagree on a lot, but i'm glad you see the hypocrisy in fundie gender criticals. it definitely makes me feel like i'm not going crazy and tells me that at least you're operating in good faith, which is rare to find in these discussions.

[@codecixteen]

That still doesn’t define woman.

[@ts4743]

@@codecixteen i have a definition but you won't accept it so there's no point

[@codecixteen]

@@ts4743 It's regrettable that you feel this way. Peace be upon you.

[@OdderMoniker]

I’m honestly obsessed with Matt Walsh. I watch every episode of his show; not because I agree with him completely (for the record, the only thing I really agree with him on is his disdain for big pharma) but because he’s a master at manipulating his own talking points to exclude religion, even though that’s clearly his only motivation. It’s terrifying but quite impressive.

[@LavenderWars]

I check him out every once in a while and leave pissed every time. it is amazing how easy it is to fact-check his lies, yet people still blindly follow his blatant scapegoat tactics.

[@mikolmisol6258]

Statistically, most people hate Big Pharma. I think it's certainly a mistake that many people think that hating Big Pharma and hating their products cannot be separated. On Science-Based Medicine, a pro-science and thus also pro-vaxx basion of the web, Big Pharma is constantly bashed for their huge conflicts of interest and corruption of science even as their vaccines are rightfully recognised as useful thanks to all the evidence from independent scientists that we now possess. I think it can be dangerous for hating Big Pharma to be a distinctly right-wing thing in the sense that left-wingers may feel compelled to swing the opposite way - which they should not! I believe the pharmaceutical model is essentially broken and the industry must be nationalised because the model is ridiculously wasteful. The industry privatises publicly-funded research for cheap and the spends billions on advertising rather than biomedical research.

[@moma8518]

⁠@@LavenderWarscan I get some examples of lies he commonly tells or scapegoats he uses?

[@gapsule2326]

@@moma8518 everything related to trans people

[@moma8518]

But how does his motivation affect anything if his reasoning is still based in reality and evidence. Allowing abortion for all cases is objectively the wrong thing to do, (aka giving the freedom to women to kill their unborn child for any reason and any stage), there are objectively only two genders (you can say gender expression is on a spectrum, but saying men can turn into women and vice versa is totally delusional and objectively wrong) and mutilating children is not right, and the family unit is (generally) more important to society and people than living out your life solely for yourself. Also I see many people exaggerating and extreminizing Matt’s views, he doesn’t believe abortion should be banned legally for every single case (rape, severer injury to mother, very early on, etc.) and is rational enough to know that there should be common ground. He also doesn’t want to legally ban transgenders into non-existence, he thinks that if your an adult you can do whatever you want, but he does want to illegalize gender surgeries for minors, which is a position everyone should be on board.

[@bendesch98]

I can't say I found your argument against anti-theism very compelling. Our beliefs shape our actions, and I think it's a huge problem when you've got people who don't even acknowledge the possibility of being wrong who come together and plays a big role in politics. I don't have to be able to individually critique every possible denomination or faith to rule them out or find their flaw or the harm they bring, if they teach that they are right and that everyone else is wrong and will burn in hell for disagreeing, then it is not a good thing to have. As cringe as some of the loudest anti-theists are, it is a movement that is very much needed in our time.

[@mickeydecurious]

I think that's the point of you all reflecting your religion and what's a reflecting isn't Love, is it kindness, isn't accepted its hatred misogyny and just wanting to rule over another person. I've been watching you people, I've been listening to your pastors, and I see what y'all really want to do. There is no difference for Christianity in the way they act; as in your Evangelical fundamental Christian Republicans.

[@gabrielsalahi3656]

I wouldn’t say that it’s completely true that religions like Christianity say “oh yea, you’re going to hell for not following one of our like 24 total sins” Every single one of their sins most people agree on are bad. Don’t murder, don’t steal. Blah blah blah all of the obvious stuff It also believes that you will do wrong. Everyone does wrong. Even the super hardcore Christians will do wrong. And it should be your goal do fix those wrongs. Technically the Bible believes that the average Atheist will have less sin than the average Christian because it knows that the average Christian will tend to interpret things in their own way instead of the obvious way it should be I can’t see how believing these things is overall harmful when all good people live the exact same way as Christians

[@Trotoloko]

​@@gabrielsalahi3656The worst sin of all is of not being a believer, have you read the Bible, at least?

[@TrueFork]

I was raised Catholic, and one thing I got out of it is the idea that it's really important that the things you believe are really true, which eventually led me to atheism. It's been somewhat of a surprise to me that people who were "raised atheist" often don't share this view, and some appear willing to accept ideas unquestioningly, dogmatically, supported by flawed reasoning, etc as easily as some theists. The argument about whether religion is harmful or beneficial does little for me. I find some religious stories inspiring, just as I can be inspired by good fiction. Overall I'd rather read Plato or Zhuang Zi than the Bible, but none of that has any bearing on what is or isn't supported by the evidence. In general I respect people's beliefs as their source of inspiration and meaning, it's only wen they start making spurious truth claims that I feel any urge to challenge them.

[@Pj-ey5fl]

I am anti-theist, let me explain. I went to Catholic school when I was young starting at first grade. In those years I faced abuse by those at the school. Since then, I had done trauma work to deal with this part of my life. In the process of doing this work I have come to understand that the abuse I faced was not simply a byproduct of a few bad people, the abuse could only have taken place because of a belief system that allowed it to happen. Once I started understanding what had happened to me, I had expressed these feelings to other theist who somehow managed to dismiss what I had to say, because, as I see it they had to to protect their religion. Also, I am a trans woman, and the abuse that I face today is also a byproduct of faith, even though not entirely. Again, the Bible is used to justify this abuse upon me. It is not simply an issue of a few bad people. It is inherent to the faith. So excuse me for not agreeing with you. It is clear that what has happened to me in my life was justified in the name of God.

[@allyabernathy4098]

i am so sorry all of this happened to you 😢 and i actually don’t disagree, i interpreted what he’s getting at as the idea of other religions not having those same issues inherently; systems of belief that are much more in tune with nature and less about man’s ego, which is deeply engrained in the three abrahamic religions.

[@Valorius]

Please define the "abuse" you went through. Because I went to a big inner city public school and I can guarantee you that the average student there endured far more actual abuse than you did at Catholic school.

[@Racnive]

​@@Valorius I think this is an extremely unkind response to someone who has expressed a traumatic experience. I further dispute the suggestion of comparing suffering as though that should discount her experience. It isn't a contest and shouldn't be.

[@Valorius]

@@Racnive I don't care what you think.

[@marocat4749]

That is not all religious popl ever. While i do agree with you that youhave a right to be angr at religious bigots. Maybr better to direct that at bigots rather than their religion. Ther are progessive christians and, hey should not be put off. I mean, rather than goig after all religion there, maybe its better hating on the people abusing that to their end and justify crappy behaviour. You have any right to not like christianity or agree with anything. I just find it better to go after the practices than generalizing. And good to point and show and be mad at that abuse and . How that people are wrong with the bible itself for example, Or ad absurdum to bring slavey back according to the bible. Ok i mean there are actual critical christians that dont buy in the faith and it looks better to adress the abusive practices that going for "all religions bad" Dont let anger in the way to be smaarter about it looking that bad. ?!

[@jaredcullum117]

My biggest issue with Faith-based religions is that they make people vulnerable to believing in or acting on things without really understanding them. For example, many Christians in the US seem prone to following the extreme ideas touted by organizations like Fox News (or at least much of Fox News' viewership is Christians, as opposed to atheists). Mainly I think it's the fact that the teachings of many religious organizations create undo trust in authority figures, as long as they subscribe to the same beliefs (or claim to).

[@MrSeedi76]

It's actually the other way around. These people are drawn to religion because of their authoritarian mind set. There are studies confirming that. It's quite obvious that Jesus never endorsed "family values". If he came to earth today, the same people claiming to follow him would crucify him. By today's standards (at least in US American fundamentalist Christian circles) Jesus would be considered a leftist liberal. He was the one "eating with the tax collectors, prostitutes and sinners". Walsh and his ilk are the homophobes, xenophobes, etc. who'd judge him like they did 2,000 years ago.

[@whitegoose2017]

This gender ideology going around has so many of the attitudes present in those 'faith-based' religions as you call them. People seem inclined to believe that with just the power of word they can change what are biological realities. Now some go the extra mile and actually start self-mutilating themselves. Even that is not uncommon in religion.

[@mytmouse57]

The essence of those religions is literally bucking the status quo, raising one’s consciousness and overcoming social conditioning. What you’re talking about is tribalism and deliberate ignorance that has attached itself to religion. The same way it attached itself to a healthy love of country and created militant nationalism. And so forth.

[@noahkolar8625]

@@mytmouse57 I agree that many of the actual tenets of strong American brand of Christianity encourage those to be status quo buckers. I also think Jared is not misplaced in saying that it does still create tribalism. Convincing that one group that they ALL are the independent thinkers is surprisingly easy, regardless of their party or religion. I'm sure everyone who's a passionate part of anything ever believes that. It's true that most of the guidance-centered passages in the gospels and epistles, as well as some Old Testament pieces, certainly encourages against plenty of their current behavior. And I know quite a few Christian families in my area that agree with that and take a more moderate stance on political issues. But the type of people to have their news doused in bias and shoveled down their throat with a spoon, FOX or CNN, probably aren't doing their devotionals.

[@joegibbskins]

@@mytmouse57I think that’s partially right. I think there are various aspects of religion, that while not unique to religion, are enhanced by it. Ie it would be though to get something like the current GOP or even the “prosperity gospel” from a literal reading of the Bible, particularly the New Testament. And yet the most popularly attending churches do just that, because they aren’t making rational arguments, and they aren’t even educating their congregations into their faith. They are attaching an emotional narrative into pre-existing beliefs and then reinforcing those beliefs. Ie America as a city on hill, unquestioning reverence for inherited culture, etc. Then they give you a narrative that the culture you inherited was ordained by God, and that those questioning it are doing it because they are knowingly in league with Satan, and you were born right at the start of a cosmic battle, and people get swept up in it in a way that you really can’t get too without pure argumentation. At the same time, there are tons of churches that are less emotional, and even affirming, and yet they lack those emotional appeals and so they have less congregants and the congregants they have are less divided. A good way to see this is the Catholic Church where the most enthusiastic supporters are Trads who go to mass in a language they don’t understand and experience primarily emotionally and then get led by priests who are extremists within the church into fascism. It’s complicated because some of them are integralists who want to oppress all non-Catholics and Catholic women, but also want a democratic socialist government, but those people are a minority of a minority. Most of them just have white nationalists Maga beliefs with smells and bells. Meanwhile the church is withering away in more moderate and leftist spaces despite having the most progressive Pope since John XXIII

[@rajanogray9088]

This reminds me of Karl Popper's paradox of tolerance. A tolerant society cannot remain tolerant if it tolerates intolerance.

[@TrueFork]

and this line of reasoning has been used to justify censorship and cancel culture to silence any opinion that diverges from the official narrative

[@Uncanny_Mountain]

This is why we must call for Direct Digital Democracy without parties or politicians. Citizen initiated referendums with thresholds and a social contract means Communities can vote their own laws. As well as a Public Authority to audit police and prosecute bad actors in our own courts. Thorium energy renders their global energy monopoly obsolete

[@juanausensi499]

It's not really a paradox. Imagine you are committed to save as many lives as you can. One day, a guy tries to murder you, and you can only stop him by killing him. Should you do it? I think the answer is a clear yes, and it's not a paradox: in the long run, more lives are going to be saved if you live and the guy dies. In the same way, in the long run, a society would remain more tolerant if it doesn't tolerate intolerance.

[@TrueFork]

@@juanausensi499 the concept of "tolerance" was invented in France at a time when non-Catholics, particularly Hugenot Protestants, did not have the right to marry or inherit property, and other such discrimination by the state. Tolerance meant that *the state* should treat citizens equally and not discriminate based on their beliefs or opinions. Because it was no business of the state to police beliefs and opinions, aka "separation of church and state". I think today the concept has been perverted so the state can once again treat citizens unequally, this time discriminating those whose opinions the party in power labels "intolerant".

[@juanausensi499]

@@TrueFork Can you give me an example of that?

[@CRasterImage]

I didn't realize that anyone viewed Hitchens' views as "cringe." I also puzzle at the label anti-theist in his case. He explicitly said that he wasn't against others having their beliefs. He might argue that the net-negatives outnumber the net-positives, but that is a bit different.

[@loganquakenbush2155]

Honestly it's not cringe, being called cringe is just a bad argument. People who disagree with you and dont have a rational reason to do so will always result to downplaying or discrediting you socially instead, I.E. calling anti theists "cringe" without ever addressing why they're wrong. Honestly in this video I feel like I was told to be nice but dishonest about my beliefs, that religion is only fair game when they start it but i live in a christian society in a wider religious world, it's been started for a long time...

[@carmencita22]

The whole video has so many fake premises, I’m so let down.

[@thedaijal2935]

​​​@@carmencita22 Yeah, no shit, especially in the beginning with his pro-woke bullshit about 'new atheism' leading to the alt right. Apparently, if you don't agree COMPLETELY with the left on EVERYTHING, you're just a neo-nazi bigot. Which, I guess, means guys like Bill Maher, Ricky Gervais, and Michael Shermer are Nazis. Wow, who'd have thought, huh? 😂

[@jjphank]

& 2,000 years later,, You cannot out psychologize the Bible for God not to throw you into hell for all eternity. In other words, you cannot come up with a good enough excuse here and now, so you will not be able to on judgment day. If you say you did not want to be born, God is going to say you should’ve been born again, that means become a Christian so that’s not gonna work. And there are no other excuses try to think of one. So now you know for the first time in your life, that the Bible is smarter than you and it is a steel trap, smarter than all of mankind, What should you do then? So at least investigate and look to see that these things are true, because right now you just learned the Bible is smarter than you, and you will be accountable for your life on judgment day before God! Prophecy, the Bible is 27% prophecy, that’s future history written in advance. God‘s really sticking his neck out to get it cut off if he’s wrong, but he hasn’t been wrong about the thousands of prophecies that were fulfilled, so he’ll be right about the end of the world prophecies as well and you’ll have no excuse on judgment day for not looking for truth! Caveat: you cannot look for God in times of chaos says Isaiah 45:19, so you better do it now. In other words,You’ll be too worried about your own survival when chaos hits, than your eternal destiny! Statistic probability of 40 writers writing the Bible with zero margin of deviation, proves God wrote the Bible through the 40 writers! God authored the Bible! DNA does not auto encrypt, the code writer is outside of the code of the 3300000,000,000 lines of computer code in the human genome of our DNA! So who wrote the code to such sophistication? 1,000,000 seconds is 12 days, 1,000,000,000 seconds is 32 years! That’s the difference between 1 million and 1 billion! One person’s DNA could fill the Grand Canyon up to 50 times full of books. John 21:25 “I suppose everything Jesus did, the world wouldn’t have enough room for the books telling of it.“ this verse would be fulfilled! Psalm 139:16 “in my members you have written many books“! Psalm 139 is about the human body!

[@woodygilson3465]

He was both and repeatedly said as much. He believed religion and magical thinking have no place in the public sphere, much less modern rational discourse. He also said that if you were religious, that's fine, be religious, just don't bother anyone else with it. The notion that anti-theism and pluralism are mutually exclusive is a demonstrable fallacy.

[@ZombieDill]

I question Matt's thinking quite often

[@kermitthorson9719]

i question Matt's humanity

[@tennicksalvarez9079]

Who is that? And why?

[@littlelordfuckleroy3822]

@@kermitthorson9719 he has none

[@letsomethingshine]

@@tennicksalvarez9079 They are talking about Matt Wulsh. From what I've seen of his regressive-grievances media grift, he portrays himself as a very depressed psychopath low-tone macho-male who needs religion to prevent him from committing horrendous knee-jerk crimes against who ever gets in his way. He seems to ignore that it is secularism that would make sure he gets arrested and dragged through our pro-multi-religion (unfair tax rules that non-religions and anti-religions are not given) secular society's justice systems.

[@kermitthorson9719]

@@tennicksalvarez9079 Matt Walsh? the self identified christian supremacists that insists on the eradication of freedoms that he doesnt like? that fascist?

[@gabrotaschen3808]

Questioning a religious belief does not require rejecting the civilization or culture built around it. Religion has played a crucial role in shaping society, art, literature, and philosophy. While we may not believe in a religion, we can appreciate the wisdom, poetry, and philosophy found in religious texts. Rejecting specific dogmas does not mean abandoning the cultural and intellectual richness associated with religion. We can still value the insights and inspiration offered by religious poetry, literature, and philosophy. Not believing in a religion doesn't imply hatred towards it; we can respect others' beliefs and recognize the diversity that enriches our world. It is possible to question and reject certain religious beliefs while appreciating the broader contributions of religion to human civilization and culture.

[@SuboptimalPrime]

I don't think there is anything wrong with being an anti-theist as we should discourage superstitious thinking and promote critical thinking instead

[@Valorius]

Right....like trans women are women. Loons.

[@SuboptimalPrime]

​@@Valorius And where did I claim that? Loon

[@Valorius]

@@SuboptimalPrime you are trying to imply that being an atheist promotes rational thought but it is atheists that are leading the charge trying to convince people that boys are girls and men can get pregnant. Because you are not rational thinkers at all. You are cultists. Atheism is a cult.

[@SuboptimalPrime]

​@@Valorius Lmao, Atheism is simply the lack of believe in a God, which is rational given the lack of evidence for it. In other news, people (atheists and theists alike) can hold rational and irrational views at the same time depending on the topic, e.g. trans issues or religion. What you are doing is implying: "look at these atheists thinking trans women are real women, therefore atheism is irrational and a cult" which is a logical fallacy but I doubt you even understand this concept. For you it's easier to lump everything together and generalize because you're such a smooth brain thinker.

[@stylis666]

I think you're on to something that GMS is missing in this video: there's a difference between being wrong and encouraging to think critically or being wrong and constantly and fundamentally encouraging to stay wrong even or especially in the face of evidence that shows us wrong and glorifying that behaviour. Faith does the latter by definition and it's by definition abusive and harmful to people and societies. So in other words, I think it's a good thing to encourage people to let thoughts flow freely and to encourage assessing thoughts to see where they are wrong by testing, talking (bouncing ideas and getting feedback), applying critical thinking skills, etc.. And it's a terrible thing to encourage people to stay wrong and how to rationalize staying wrong, which is what all faith based religions necessarily do because faith is believing something in absence of or contrary to evidence. Doing that continuously, like faith does and religions encourage people to do isn't just harmful, it's extreme psychological abuse. Other superstitions and wrong ideas/ideologies do that as well and that's just not an excuse. I would be hammering on those if religion wasn't the worst and the biggest factor in societies around the world that uses, excuses, encourages, and glorifies faith as a mechanism to abuse people and societies. Another thing that GMS overlooked is how many harmful systems "promote healthy pro-social behaviour", as he put it. It's a terrible excuse. It's the exact excuse that is used to promote things like public executions and worse. Worse as in things like nazism, authoritarianism, facism, etc.. It's the same mistake we make when we say something is natural in a context that implies that natural is good and healthy. It's entirely possible to have healthy pro-social behaviour in a system that oppresses minorities to such an extent that they are effectively genocided out of the public sphere. GMS seems to see his mistakes though. He says that we should criticize bad ideas and beliefs even though many religions condemn criticism, all of them discourage it, and some punish it with death or worse. For some reason the basis of all of those things: faith, gets a pass. It's like he's saying that if you are in a group that is struggling, it's totally fine to tone police and not worry about any underlying or foundational problems. Why do that if tone policing works just fine to promote healthy pro-social behaviour. Sure, maybe not for everyone, but who cares.

[@GaneshDevdas]

“From the beginning men used God to justify the unjustifiable.” ― Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses

[@JamesR1986]

Before I watch this video I am reminded of Ross Douthat's somewhat well known tweet that "If you dislike the religious right, wait until you meet the post religious right"

[@katelynnehansen8115]

Beliefs guide actions, so I take issue with all superstitious beliefs. While there is a gradient of harm, I don’t think we should be discouraged from criticizing any belief based on shaky or no evidence. I try to be kind and earnest and not condescending, but if I hear someone claiming as fact tat which is unlikely to be true, I will push back. As a species I want us to be clear thinking, rational and intellectually honest as possible to make the best choices as a collective, which means we need to hold each other in check.

[@rainbowkrampus]

Yep. I consider myself an anti-theist precisely because of your first line. A person may not be guided to direct harm by their current set of beliefs. But they're going to pass that set of beliefs to their children. And them to their children. Somewhere in the chain there is room for something to break. Meanwhile, I'd argue that there is harm being done the whole time, passing on a poor epistemological framework as valid or meaningful. Nobody has perfect information. But accepting and passing on faulty information as true is accepting special pleading for false ideas.

[@mountainaccident2001]

thats precisely why i cannot agree with his position in this video and remain an anti-theist. religion is the number one thing holding us back from radical social ans scientific progress.

[@katelynnehansen8115]

@@rainbowkrampus exactly. Even if it seems mostly benign and trivial, accepting poor evidence for an unshakable belief (because most superstitions require a complete lack of doubt) leaves one more likely to be tricked by other bad ideas. You’ve already lowered your standards of credulity and humility to admit you might be wrong.

[@katelynnehansen8115]

@@mountainaccident2001 I absolutely agree. I know that the world wouldn’t be perfect if religion disappeared, but it is the root of so many issues, it’s harm so multi-faceted, that it’s disappearance would be cause for celebration.

[@rainbowkrampus]

@@katelynnehansen8115 It's kinda annoying because I agree with a bit of what Drew said here. Some people do overgeneralize religion. But I'd argue that over atomizing it is just as much of a problem. Looking at the landscape of "spiritual, non religious" people has really been the thing that makes me worry about things in the long term. So much harmful stuff gets passed around those circles due to the acceptance of undemonstrable "forces" etc. A thing we know about such people is that in times of stress or mass social unrest (read: the worsening effects of climate change) they tend to become more religious and more hardline. Looking at people and their beliefs as a snapshot at a given moment in time is not sufficient to come to an answer on this subject. Beliefs change over time. Unfounded beliefs tend to lead to worse beliefs given the right conditions.

[@venetiaastrop280]

My biggest issue with religion in general (but christianity in particular) is how it heavily discourages critical thinking. Magical thinking as well is key aspect of most religions and christian fundamentalists in particular having to disconnect from reality completely in order to justify their beliefs at all. This wouldn't be so big of a problem if this belief wasn't being pushed onto society as a whole, encouraging outright denial of science and scepticism of even the most basic logic because to them their religion is the only answer they, or anyone else, should need or want. This ability to explain away any issues, inconsistencies or flaws with their religion is essential because otherwise they'd be forced to actually think about their faith on a critical level. This avoidance of critical thinking is also extremely easy to manipulate and exploit as we've seen recently in regard to republicans and others on the right latching onto christianity and using it as a means of carrying out their increasingly fascist, alt right agenda. The ultimate goal of this is ensuring class inequality so the wealthy business owners and oil barons who influence this infighting can continue to exploit the working majority.

[@nomissnoearn3642]

This statement hasn't defined your worldview. You also attack "most of religion" because some forms of it have been devastating to the lives of other people. I have a few questions. 1 Which religions are disconnected from reality? 2 What justifies your own beliefs and what justifies science? 3. Since you are arguing against religious people of one party (republicans) what right do you have to destroy religion as a whole?

[@thoticcusprime9309]

@@nomissnoearn3642 All religions are worhtless trash, end of discussion

[@thoticcusprime9309]

@@nomissnoearn3642 its not a belief either, I dont have to care about insignificant humans and what they believe in. Fact. especially when i can end all of your lives if you ever tried to fight me 1 on 1. Fact

[@marocat4749]

Yes i too want actual securalism, and having other religions less opresse by one would, it would make that way more tolerant. More secular, less pushing on others. Also you cant fight religions existing, people ar suprstitiouss and rligius peope do exist, always will, keeping it secular and not have oe opressive minority, like pluralism is adcocating for that actually. Also eliefs dot have to be religiious ad critical thinking skills in schools ,more good, but even if you would manage tto have no religions, it would still have culty groups doing that. like groups of personality.

[@alicelaybourne1620]

I am so glad to hear someone say what I have been saying for 8 years or so. At some point my favorite YT atheists began questioning progressive politics, then downright started spewing hate instead of common sense. It was a strange transition. And because they saw themselves as voices of reason in regards to religion, they thought they were right about everything.

[@thedaijal2935]

Oh, yes, how dare anyone question "progressive" politics. THE HORROR!!! BLASPHEMY!!! 😂

[@thoticcusprime9309]

common sense is a stupid term

[@twojointsjay7330]

@@thedaijal2935 there's a certain hypocrisy to it. Progressive politics is what allowed atheists the right to speak on things. Weird to try and stop that from helping other marginalised groups.

[@brandonmcgregor9912]

@@twojointsjay7330 That doesn't necessarily mean all things that come from it are inherently good or sensible. If one values intellectual honesty and integrity, then one on a matter of principle should allow and welcome some questioning. If anything to say or believe one should not question it is the actual hypocrisy, not the questioning itself.

[@twojointsjay7330]

@@brandonmcgregor9912 progressive politics _is_ the questioning. What is being 'conserved' that gives 'conservatives' their name? Put simply, it's the Status Quo. Conservatism is about conserving the status quo, whatever it may be. Progressive politics is about scrutinising and challenging this status quo. Anyway, nobody ever said "all things that come from it are inherently good or sensible," so you're arguing against a strawman of your own invention.

[@sarah_757]

My parents raised my siblings and I with very fundamentalist ideas. They got the idea from James Dobson that children should be punished, and punished harshly, for expressing independent thought or desire. Which they did, frequently. My childhood absolutely sucked (we moved 15 times in 4 years). To extend to my parents, they were being abused by the same system that in turn abused me. Talking to my dad now that part of our lives is long over, he told me he so deeply regrets what he did. He said "I put the church before my family". I still have a lot of anger towards these abusive systems. I want to see them dismantled, ground into the dust. The organizations have been abusing people (too many children, but adults are not immune to abuse by their church). And the anti queer hate speech that comes out of the mouths of people like anyone on the Maga side is 100% influenced by fundamentalism. These politicians are saying the same hateful things I heard preached in churches in the 80s when I was still forced to go to church. I want to see justice meted out upon these organizations. My maternal grandmother was maybe one of the best humans I've ever known. She was Lutheran, and it informed her compassion and kindness. It provided her with some socializing and a peer group and all those things are positive. I have no beef with institutions like this. Christian Fundamentalism, though, can eff right off!

[@ProsecutorZekrom]

Believing in God has been and always will be due to a person’s struggle with mortality and the meaning of life. To some people, life would be meaningless if religion weren’t true. To me, and I’m sure to other atheists too, life is even more meaningful and exciting when we realise that we don’t have all the answers yet. Some people can only accept their own mortality if they believe they’ll go on to a new place after death. However, this isn’t a true acceptance of your mortality. To accept your mortality is to accept that one day, you won’t be. You will be forgotten, your atoms scattered across the universe. Accepting that is no easy feat, this may even upset nonbelievers to think about. But to me it just makes me want to make the most of the time I have. I don’t necessarily look down on religious folk, but I do think it’s easier to believe than it is to not believe for those reasons.

[@Scarlett_Rose_JD]

Hope you and Taylor are both feeling better! I definitely wasn't expecting another video this soon. All the best!

[@MrAdamo]

In my experience, running through the whole “if this changed, would you change your belief” argument leads to them either facetiously denying it or calling me illogical

[@RoseNZieg]

I used to say that even if God comes down and appears before me, there's no way I would believe in him. I don't need some idiot telling me what to do.

[@k8tina]

Your comment/perspective reminds me of a conversation I had with my mother, a very devout Catholic. I'm Pagan and my mother feels it's her religious duty to her god to "convert" me to her belief system (ie Catholicism). Whenever I ask her questions of "if this changed, would you change your belief", she cannot give me a calm, honest answer. She will jump to accusing me of being blasphemous, saying it is against god's will to question him (or her), and saying that I'm going to Hell.

[@vahidebrahimi9750]

@@RoseNZieg See, that's the thing. If God were real, he wouldn't be an idiot, would he? I'm an atheist but I don't really buy this argument which is kind of similar to Hitchens' argument about how God is a dictator and therefore believing in him is irrational. Like, if you believe in God and you think he's all knowing and all powerful, then it would actually be irrational NOT to do as he says.

[@displayer6023]

@@vahidebrahimi9750 I think what Hitchens said was that if god were real, he wouldn't be worthy of worship

[@vahidebrahimi9750]

@@displayer6023 well, yeah. that's what I'm objecting to.

[@joshuanewsted2560]

Thanks!

[@bills-beard]

Always happy to hear when someone who considers themselves intellectual or skeptic admits to changing their mind about something when presented with new information. Thats the process, folks.👏👏

[@m-yday]

11:27 "Then, with cool rationality and solid evidence: shatter it, unapologetically." What a raw line.

[@richardh8082]

IT IS SELF EVIDENT THAT THEISM IS NOT HARMLESS

[@EdithBromfeld]

Atheists Mao, Stalin, Lenin, Pol Pot, Ceausescu, Milosevic, Castro, Kim Jung II, Mussolini, have mass slaughtered over 100 MILLION people this past century alone and brutally repressed BILLIONS under horrific atheist regimes without any moral inhibitions or concerns for human significance. Atheism is madness. Facts matter. Atheists must never be trusted with power.

[@mell7249]

Depends on the beliefs of that group though. We should not be attacking people sinply for having unverifiable and unlikely beliefs. We should be advocating for the end of coercion and opression in religious circles and by religious circles. Promote historical and scientific literacy so that they may examine their own beliefs critically, so that they may understand their own beliefs with nuance and be able to criticise and grow beyond their own scripture. Sadly this will only be possible if we can attack concentration of power both within churches and by churches in culture at large, because dogma is the method by which they maintain their power and extract their consent from the masses.

[@danielcrafter9349]

It is also evident that theism isn't *totally* harmful The problem ISN'T belief or faith - it's *dogma*

[@dataexpunged93N15]

Imo, it's not necessarily the theism itself that's the issue, but how people treat it. If it consumes your life and you excuse harmful behavior and bigotry because of your religion, and you push it onto others, that is harmful. Someone having a personal belief that doesn't really impact other people or conversation isn't necessarily an issue. I see it as a coping mechanism for some people more than a devotional kind of thing.

[@richardh8082]

@@mell7249 Unfortunately the 'good' ones bolster the belief of the dangerous ones, therefore not harmless

[@Lady8D]

As far as gender, etc goes. Imo we should be asking them what metric they're using to determine how many there are. Because scientifically speaking, it's a hell of a lot harder than xx & xy or penis & vag, etc. There are as many variations of external genitalia, internal genitalia, hormonal variations & chromosomal mixes/mismatches, etc as there are genders. It's possible to be born with XX yet present externally as XY, for example. So anyone claiming to be backed by science yet simultaneously claiming the issue is black & white/A or B/Male or Female - I'd love to know what scientific data they're using to validate that position and whether or not it goes beyond what we were all taught at preschool age.

[@GhostLeeCat]

As an ecclectic pagan I found this discussion very interesting. I'm very much a pluralist (obviously, it would be pretty much impossible to be an eclectic pagan if i wasn't) but I also take some very strong stances against mass organized religion. You put my thoughts to words pretty well in this video. I find myself challenging bigoted ideas based in faith within my own communities quite often. Because of how individualized our practices as pagans are, that also means that biases from the practioners are reflected in their beliefs.

[@TenMinuteTrips]

I had to look up the definition of “eclectic paganism” to figure out what the heck that was. No offense but…. I’m not going to paste quotes here. From what I gathered from a quick read, is that eclectic paganists have no idea what they believe but feel the need to believe in something. Okay, just a quick paste: “…the eclectic approach borrows from several different cultures, philosophies and time periods.” It doesn’t surprise me then, that you would have found, as you say, bigoted ideas based on faith, within your own community. Human nature is that people will bring their biases to the table. I am an atheist. I would not describe myself as anti-theist or even agnostic. I make two things very clear in my discussions with Christians. One: I do not believe in ghosts. Holy or otherwise. Two: I do not believe that the so-called apostle Paul ever saw a risen Jesus while on the road to Damascus. This position pretty much rules out anything else claimed by Christians. It also rules out any form of non-commitment paganism. I simply don’t believe in mumbo jumbo. Again, no offense intended.

[@TheLordCommander]

I just want to say that I'm really impressed by the evolution of your ideology. When challenged, you did your own research and changed your beliefs based on new information, and how they informed your core values. Not enough people conduct themselves in this way and makes me really happy to have you on my feed.

[@jjphank]

WRONG - You cannot out psychologize the Bible for God not to throw you into hell for all eternity. In other words, you cannot come up with a good enough excuse here and now, so you will not be able to on judgment day. If you say you did not want to be born, God is going to say you should’ve been born again, that means become a Christian so that’s not gonna work. And there are no other excuses try to think of one. So now you know for the first time in your life, that the Bible is smarter than you and it is a steel trap, smarter than all of mankind, What should you do then? So at least investigate and look to see that these things are true, because right now you just learned the Bible is smarter than you, and you will be accountable for your life on judgment day before God! Prophecy, the Bible is 27% prophecy, that’s future history written in advance. God‘s really sticking his neck out to get it cut off if he’s wrong, but he hasn’t been wrong about the thousands of prophecies that were fulfilled, so he’ll be right about the end of the world prophecies as well and you’ll have no excuse on judgment day for not looking for truth! Caveat: you cannot look for God in times of chaos says Isaiah 45:19, so you better do it now. In other words,You’ll be too worried about your own survival when chaos hits, than your eternal destiny! Statistic probability of 40 writers writing the Bible with zero margin of deviation, proves God wrote the Bible through the 40 writers! God authored the Bible! DNA does not auto encrypt, the code writer is outside of the code of the 3300000,000,000 lines of computer code in the human genome of our DNA! So who wrote the code to such sophistication? 1,000,000 seconds is 12 days, 1,000,000,000 seconds is 32 years! That’s the difference between 1 million and 1 billion! One person’s DNA could fill the Grand Canyon up to 50 times full of books. John 21:25 “I suppose everything Jesus did, the world wouldn’t have enough room for the books telling of it.“ this verse would be fulfilled! Psalm 139:16 “in my members you have written many books“! Psalm 139 is about the human body!

[@einienj3281]

As an atheist, I'm always told how Stalin was an atheist too.. 🙈🤦🏻‍♀️

[@myrpok]

I bet he ate bread and drank water, too. We'll have to stop doing those things if we want to truly differentiate ourselves from him.

[@berlamarti1449]

Stalin was good and a net positive for the world.

[@myrpok]

@@berlamarti1449 that might be true, if you consider wanton murder, rape and destruction to be 'good'. And hey that may be the case. I dont want to yuck on someones yum.

[@berlamarti1449]

@@myrpok I tend to consider defeating fascism a net positive yes, I don't know what you are on about with all that other shit.

[@myrpok]

@@berlamarti1449 Just google Lavrentiy Beria. One monster out of DOZENS i could give that Stalin personally is responsible for setting loose in the world. I dont even know why I need to justify my comment, anyone who has looked into history will see what Stalin is responsible for.

[@stuckinks3569]

I’m so glad to learn it’s a little better now. I completely left KZbin because of the anti-theism from several years ago. It started giving me nightmares and concerns for my son, who was being forced through catholic catechism by his dad. I had been an atheist from teenage years, but was raised in the church as well. Intelligent conversation is delightful to see in these spaces again! Glad to see you’re still here!

[@samuelrodriguez4946]

This is an interesting take on anti-theism because I think there is a bit of a focus on the negative side of what many of us actually do believe. I’ve been following your channel for quite some time, and I think you and I would agree on a lot, but I actually am a strong advocate for the Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins types. I believe by-and-large “faith” is the gateway to some pretty reprehensible beliefs and actions. However I admit that the majority of people who are religious definitely dont want to hurt anyone. But lets not forget these people still vote and raise children, and although the vast majority of religious people dont want to harm anyone, they often times DO hold beliefs that do no one any good. I come from a very religious family and community, and I can tell you that they mean well, but will sneak in ridiculous and harmful beliefs that are anti-science, among many other -ists and -isms. The religious/faith-based way of thinking is overall outdated, and the less we accept or tolerate it the better. I know people crave meaning and often times spiritualism. But There are replacements for it all over the place, like with local community centers and philosophy that is accessible to people through KZbin and other places. We can maintain our so-called “natural” desire for religion and spiritualism with a scientific approach given enough time. But in the meantime the rough and tough anti-theist movement (those like Dawkins or Harris) should remain strong, I believe.

[@eragon78]

Religion is what makes a good hearted person do bad things. Ive known plenty of good hearted religious people in my lives, and theyve done some of the worst and abusive things to those I know because they were just trying their best to help. My mom is just trying to do her best, but I grew up my whole life learning to fear hell and to actively hate science. Coming out as an atheist was one of the scariest moments of my life. Many far worse things too growing up in a very religious family. Religion caused a deep scar on my growing up for me and those around me. This was all caused by good hearted people due to irrational faith driven beliefs. Never would a good hearted person do these sorts of things if it wasnt for some religion telling them to that they genuinely believed out of faith alone. Faith is definitely something that should be eradicated, because it is one of the few things that can make he most kind hearted people do the most fucked up things because they are brainwashed to believe its what is right.

[@samuelrodriguez4946]

@@eragon78 I understand your perspective. I remember being nervous admitting to my family and friends that I was an atheist. It took me some time to get the moxie to do it, and when I did it felt like i wasn’t lying anymore. Thats a bit irrelevant to your point, but man trust me it felt a helluva lot better to just live the truth. Its unfortunate that something like faith can lead to such catastrophic beliefs, ones that can ruin lives. I believe that in time, as society progresses, there will be a gradual release from things like faith, but we have to be patient and remain strong critics of religion in the meantime.

[@linus6718]

I kind of disagree that these -isms are inherent to most religions, considering that the bible's new testament overwrites the mindless laws of the old and puts a bigger focus on love for your neighbor and fellow sinner. You're also kinda forgetting that non-Abhramamic religions like Hinduism and Buddhism exist

[@KingMB_XJ_Official]

"Being religious is okay as long as you don't use it as an excuse to be terrible" is literally what Moral Orel is about.

[@themplar]

I'm definitly in the anti theist camp. And this grew specially the last couple of years. I gained a distain for religion and the people following it. The dishonesty is something i cannot stand anymore. The harm i see christianity doing is not something i must stand against. I try to be nice about it, but i am very direct and unapologetic in language, and the dishonesty and often vile things/threats turned me a bit to harsh. Sometimes i try to regroup and start over trying to be nicer about it. I do understand there are good people in religions, however the religion itself requires a moral bankrupcy. Watching channels like yours make me want to try to be nicer. But i i will stand against all of religion.

[@rjk-h6m]

I see similar with Islam. The level of delusion and ignorance of people has made me more of an anti-theist. There definitely are good people in religion, but when we start questioning them, they do turn there back immediately. I wonder if they pretend to be good.

[@Onoesmahpie]

Most religious followers, even nasty extremists, are essentially victims of the American right wing propaganda machine. I'm certainly not saying it excuses their actions, especially if they are being directly hateful, but it is more helpful to try to understand why they are they way they are, rather than to hate them. On the other hand, I find it completely reasonable and almost obligatory to hate the billionaires funding the machine. If the public experienced widespread hatred toward such individuals it might be possible to actually get the wheel turning and severely limit the reach of those with substantial wealth.

[@ceedee873]

Get off your high horse dude, like he said the ship has already been turned around. You're playing an arg and you don't even know it.

[@Vhlathanosh]

@@rjk-h6m yes, I have no doubt most of them pretend; religion just gives them cover to go unnoticed.

[@jjphank]

Come on youngster, let’s have a conversation cuz the Bible wins on everybody; You cannot out psychologize the Bible for God not to throw you into hell for all eternity. In other words, you cannot come up with a good enough excuse here and now, so you will not be able to on judgment day. If you say you did not want to be born, God is going to say you should’ve been born again, that means become a Christian so that’s not gonna work. And there are no other excuses try to think of one. So now you know for the first time in your life, that the Bible is smarter than you and it is a steel trap, smarter than all of mankind, What should you do then? So at least investigate and look to see that these things are true, because right now you just learned the Bible is smarter than you, and you will be accountable for your life on judgment day before God! Prophecy, the Bible is 27% prophecy, that’s future history written in advance. God‘s really sticking his neck out to get it cut off if he’s wrong, but he hasn’t been wrong about the thousands of prophecies that were fulfilled, so he’ll be right about the end of the world prophecies as well and you’ll have no excuse on judgment day for not looking for truth! Caveat: you cannot look for God in times of chaos says Isaiah 45:19, so you better do it now. In other words,You’ll be too worried about your own survival when chaos hits, than your eternal destiny! Statistic probability of 40 writers writing the Bible with zero margin of deviation, proves God wrote the Bible through the 40 writers! God authored the Bible! DNA does not auto encrypt, the code writer is outside of the code of the 3300000,000,000 lines of computer code in the human genome of our DNA! So who wrote the code to such sophistication? 1,000,000 seconds is 12 days, 1,000,000,000 seconds is 32 years! That’s the difference between 1 million and 1 billion! One person’s DNA could fill the Grand Canyon up to 50 times full of books. John 21:25 “I suppose everything Jesus did, the world wouldn’t have enough room for the books telling of it.“ this verse would be fulfilled! Psalm 139:16 “in my members you have written many books“! Psalm 139 is about the human body!

[@Soonzuh]

It *is* preferable that all religion be abandoned, just as it is preferably that all superstition be abandoned. Is that possible though? Not bloody likely.

[@DGT_-mv5ju]

Why is it preferable?

[@minaashido518]

@@DGT_-mv5juthe belief in the divine can cause a lot of harm, for example praying instead of going to the hospital (rare but existent) But more importantly it leads to belief in other supernatural things such as crystal healing (very dangerous) or the zodiac (not dangerous but bad for other reasons) and other such falsehoods, spreading a heck of a lot of misinformation

[@ATTACKofthe6STRINGS]

Ever time I watch one of your videos, I walk away impressed. Your ability to explain your point, your journey, the issues you have decided to talk about, is incredible. Honestly, I don’t think a better KZbinr exists on this front. There might be better video essayists about whatever issue they’re interested in, yada-yada, but you’re the best creator I’ve seen at explaining what you specially want to say. You’re a living masterclass in how to be understood by an audience.

[@andymcpandy2128]

Matt Walsh has not earned his beard.

[@Marine_Veteran_Vegan_Gamer]

I have a giant lower-case t on my chest. It reminds me everyday of my brainwashed days. It's a memorial tat for my mother. I was thinking of covering it up with a supernova. That'd look way cooler. Lol

[@floccinaucinihilipilifications]

That’s hilarious

[@allthe1]

Double barred galaxy

[@gigianderson9494]

I always think of it this way. Why don't I have issues with the fly pasta monster? The answer: Even though it's silly and stupid and I don't believe it's real, it doesn't hurt anyone. When its beliefs start to hurt people, start to take away mine and others' rights, then I'll have a problem. It's not that you believe in unicorns or fairies. it is that you want me to believe in those things to and have and will hurt me and others to MAKE me believe.

[@silkozmic9619]

Well, A friend of mine lost 2 of her brothers, one had a terrible accident when he was 18, and the other died in his 30s from untreated diabetes. I went to the funeral of one of them and I asked her how her mom and dad were doing. She told me she was more worried about her dad because her mom was a strong believer and she was sure that she was going to see her sons again. I can't argue against that. Sometimes people need to believe in something like this to keep living. I have to add that she never tried to impose her faith on me or anyone she knew they were an atheist.

[@matthalaboo6694]

I must have missed the memo that atheist arguments were "cringe." Especially since I've never seen a theist successfully refute them.

[@thedaijal2935]

Yeah, I guess I missed that, too. Dude sounds a bit like SE Cupp, except less pleasing on the eyes. Cute wife, though...

[@wax99]

I have always loved your channel. You possess behaviors I want to pursue. Calmness, approachable, true skepticism (as in willing to accept a change of mind), and incredible level-headedness. Thank you for the video. Much needed with our current political state in the US.

[@duckner]

All that's great, but we need to be aware of the snide comments and insults he throws around. And strawmans and ad-hoc arguments. Its tiresome

[@wax99]

@Allen Lantz I think being mindful of committing fallacious arguments, in general, in general is just a good idea, period. However, I will need your help identifying examples though. If you can pull a video of him being snide, making a strawman, or even an ad hoc (which I think you meant ad hominem), I'd be more inclined to believe you.

[@treeforged9097]

@@wax99 This video is a good example of that. Referring to the new atheist as cringe is definitionally a snide comment. As for a strawman, Richard Dawkins is a biologist and the majority of his public advocacy of atheism is about getting creationism and prayer out of schools, which was a real issue in the early 2000's, he advocated for gay marriage back when that was a controversial position. The idea that he was a gateway to the alt right as implied in this video is totally unfounded. Most of the alt right are conservative Christians like Peterson and Walsh. Dawkins has publicly stated that the bible is a literary masterpiece that is necessary to understand if you want to be an educated person. He has also commented on the extraordinarily good things that religion has done such as the great works of art and music it has inspired. To implie that he was just blanket against religion in all contexts is just a wild ad hominem. If Dawkins would see this video he would say it miss represents what he believes, which is why it is a strawman. If Dawkins and him were to have a conversation they would probably find no disagreement between them relevant to this video. The entire video is just a flex were the genetically modified skeptic is just trying to say that he is more evolved and enlightened then Dawkins is. Which he is not.

[@wax99]

@Treeforged whoa Nelly! Did we even watch the same video?? Sorry, but this was a heck of a reach...but I'll take you seriously. He explained why he thought the videos were cringe. Cringe is not being snide; they're not even synonyms. Cringe is feeling embarrassed on someone else's behalf. Snide is being derogatory. I find this petty but simply cannot agree with you on this. I think you misunderstood the point about new atheists. He spends the first 5 minutes explaining how some comments made by new atheists resonated with people who already had an alt-right ideology. It didn't take much for everything he said to be exalted and misconstrued. I mean, if you and I are watching the same video, yet you came out with an opposing view, then it's easy to see how alt-right people can watch a single video with more vitriolic content from new atheists and base that to justify their behavior. That comment was not a strawman on Dawkins' ideology, it was an explication of what happened after. I said I would try but cannot take the last comment seriously. Sorry. All in all, I was expecting something more upfront and blatant, but the other person never responded so I guess they might be perusing his content.

[@RedAngelSophia]

When a friend told me that all belief in God should be forbidden (don't remember whether he said illegal or just socially forbidden) ---- my objection was that if I were to support his position, then our movement would become one of _what_ to think rather than of _how_ to think - and that is something I do not want.

[@loopiloop]

I am an anti theist. I grew up in an atheist household and never suffered first hand religious trauma. I have however suffered a lot of trauma from people holding onto secular beliefs even after the justification was disproven. I have grown up to believe that all forms of emotional reasoning, faith related or not, are inherently harmful due to their short-sightedness and limited overview. I know that this is something that I'm pretty much alone with, but I see these heuristics as something to recognize and purge. I think it isn't a slippery slope argument to say that any form of belief not based on verifiable justifications sets a dangerous precedent that alters the way we see the world and negatively impacts our basic problem solving skills.

[@mannahatta_mannahatta]

I agree. There are things I have knowledge about, based on evidence. There are things I have opinions about based on observation and reasoning. And then there are things that I don't know about/don't understand, etc. I see no need for belief.

[@Leszek.Rzepecki]

Whether you can be quietly atheist, or need to be more stridently anti-theist, depends a lot on where you are. Here in the UK, where Christian demographics in England just recently slid below the 50% mark, and we have representation of non-Christian religions as well as a healthy non-theist sector, one doesn't have to be stridently anti-theist. Religion is still the backdrop, the backbone of the UK monarchy, but it's not a threat to individuals. The situation in the US is starkly different, where Christian Nationalism has a political wing which, under Trump, has basically dominated the other party in US politics, the Republicans. Republicans have chosen trans people especially as the scapegoat to try and get the right-wing vote. They have passed draconian and punitive legislation in several states, which has resulted in families with trans members having to look to flee to other states for refuge. This, in a so-called secular democracy. Theocracy is on the ascendant across the pond. In the US, if you aren't an anti-theist, you aren't pulling your weight.

[@katharinelong5472]

While I agree on the threat posed by religious extremism here in the USA, it’s not the case that all American Christians are right-wing loonies. Joe Biden and AOC are Catholic, Raphael Warnock is a Baptist minister; most American politicians are Christian, even among Democrats. Even in Texas, where I live, many Christians are opposed to the fascism of the US right, and they draw on their Christian traditions for that. I’m an atheist, but I’m not anti-theist because there are still so many pluralist, pro-democracy, pro human rights Christians working for justice alongside atheists and others.

[@jjphank]

You cannot out psychologize the Bible for God not to throw you into hell for all eternity. In other words, you cannot come up with a good enough excuse here and now, so you will not be able to on judgment day. If you say you did not want to be born, God is going to say you should’ve been born again, that means become a Christian so that’s not gonna work. And there are no other excuses try to think of one. So now you know for the first time in your life, that the Bible is smarter than you and it is a steel trap, smarter than all of mankind, What should you do then? So at least investigate and look to see that these things are true, because right now you just learned the Bible is smarter than you, and you will be accountable for your life on judgment day before God! Prophecy, the Bible is 27% prophecy, that’s future history written in advance. God‘s really sticking his neck out to get it cut off if he’s wrong, but he hasn’t been wrong about the thousands of prophecies that were fulfilled, so he’ll be right about the end of the world prophecies as well and you’ll have no excuse on judgment day for not looking for truth! Caveat: you cannot look for God in times of chaos says Isaiah 45:19, so you better do it now. In other words,You’ll be too worried about your own survival when chaos hits, than your eternal destiny! Statistic probability of 40 writers writing the Bible with zero margin of deviation, proves God wrote the Bible through the 40 writers! God authored the Bible! DNA does not auto encrypt, the code writer is outside of the code of the 3300000,000,000 lines of computer code in the human genome of our DNA! So who wrote the code to such sophistication? 1,000,000 seconds is 12 days, 1,000,000,000 seconds is 32 years! That’s the difference between 1 million and 1 billion! One person’s DNA could fill the Grand Canyon up to 50 times full of books. John 21:25 “I suppose everything Jesus did, the world wouldn’t have enough room for the books telling of it.“ this verse would be fulfilled! Psalm 139:16 “in my members you have written many books“! Psalm 139 is about the human body!

[@angesystem23]

I ask you to consider that people of minority faiths are in just as much danger as atheists--I'm a pagan in the Bible belt, and I am terrified of most of my coworkers finding out about my religious beliefs. Atheists and religious minorities need to work together, because Christian nationalists are absolutely coming for all of us.

[@jjphank]

@@angesystem23 Pansy alert

[@Leszek.Rzepecki]

@@angesystem23 I certainly wouldn't dispute this. The enemy isn't religion as such, it's coercive religion like Walsh's, who'll brook zero dissent.

[@ggalloway1]

I noticed a similar trend among "skeptic" channels, and wondered if this was just a skewed experience on my part, or part of a larger social shift. Thanks for bringing some light on this subject.

[@evynmartin2679]

i don’t think there’s a single way a religious person who believes something like “abortion is murder” can ever make an objective decision on legislation surrounding it

[@phiality9070]

Exactly. Religious senators are deluded senators

[@pythondrink]

How could any decision be objective?

[@evynmartin2679]

@alexnayebi1974 okay but, sex isn’t consenting to being pregnant. what do you think birth control is for? this argument falls apart when considering how much S.A. never gets reported and is often never believed. it will quickly be reduced to “well she was asking for it” and women will be forced to raise kids they did not ever consent to even if you think that consent to sex is equivalent to consent to pregnancy. do you then also think men should have an obligation to be a 50% parent to that child, since they also consented to sex? and there’s no such thing as a comatose person that has zero brain function coming back from that. if you are brain dead, you are never going to be a “person” again. the fetuses do not yet have brain function, and the potential for life doesn’t matter when no consciousness is ended.

[@joedatius]

@alexnayebi1974 why should punishment be the goal? If you get pregnant for whatever reason and that pregnancy would result in a worse life for both you and the possible child including disease, poverty or even death then why shouldn't someone abort pregnancy so that they could have a child where the child would be more safe and happy. Your whole brain activity doesn't really stand up because brain activity doesn't mean consciousness. we kill millions of animals every day who arguably have more brain activity and consciousness then a fetus and yet you dont seem to care. life factually does not begin at conception, this is an idea you CHOOSE to believe in but it has no basis in reality. if so then we would have to ban condoms.

[@brianhurd3355]

When I was raised as a religious fundamentalist I was constantly taught that my actions under pressure reflected not only on myself, but on everyone I knew and cared about. Lives were at stake - Eternal outcomes weighed in the balance. Being a poor reflection of my family's ideals could lead to poor views of my faith. It was something I took pride in at the time, and took seriously. When I examined, challenged, and overturned my beliefs, anti-theism was a natural state. Realizing I was an apostate was an emotional upheaval, and my anger and disgust at the whole religious system and model of control defined those first years. Nowadays, many years beyond that initial state, I am removed enough from the pain of that transition that I see no reason to attack those who defend these systems. It's not that I don't find many of these politicized, fascist, nationalistic voices infuriating when they win support by touting faith and religious freedom. If anything they are far more vile than ever these days. The only difference is I now weigh the cost and benefit of my words and actions - because crucially and even poetically - just like before, my actions under pressure reflect not only on myself, but on everyone I know and care about.

[@jjphank]

The Christian religion> You cannot out psychologize the Bible for God not to throw you into hell for all eternity. In other words, you cannot come up with a good enough excuse here and now, so you will not be able to on judgment day. If you say you did not want to be born, God is going to say you should’ve been born again, that means become a Christian so that’s not gonna work. And there are no other excuses try to think of one. So now you know for the first time in your life, that the Bible is smarter than you and it is a steel trap, smarter than all of mankind, What should you do then? So at least investigate and look to see that these things are true, because right now you just learned the Bible is smarter than you, and you will be accountable for your life on judgment day before God! Prophecy, the Bible is 27% prophecy, that’s future history written in advance. God‘s really sticking his neck out to get it cut off if he’s wrong, but he hasn’t been wrong about the thousands of prophecies that were fulfilled, so he’ll be right about the end of the world prophecies as well and you’ll have no excuse on judgment day for not looking for truth! Caveat: you cannot look for God in times of chaos says Isaiah 45:19, so you better do it now. In other words,You’ll be too worried about your own survival when chaos hits, than your eternal destiny! Statistic probability of 40 writers writing the Bible with zero margin of deviation, proves God wrote the Bible through the 40 writers! God authored the Bible! DNA does not auto encrypt, the code writer is outside of the code of the 3300000,000,000 lines of computer code in the human genome of our DNA! So who wrote the code to such sophistication? 1,000,000 seconds is 12 days, 1,000,000,000 seconds is 32 years! That’s the difference between 1 million and 1 billion! One person’s DNA could fill the Grand Canyon up to 50 times full of books. John 21:25 “I suppose everything Jesus did, the world wouldn’t have enough room for the books telling of it.“ this verse would be fulfilled! Psalm 139:16 “in my members you have written many books“! Psalm 139 is about the human body!

[@roguedogx]

0:30 Shaun speaks fluent sarcasm, and it sounds like he's working on a daily wire project.

[@dontgotovideos5560]

Its hard not to be an anti theist when I think that a world without religion would be genuinely better.

[@joedatius]

@alexnayebi1974 neither of those are anti-theist regimes. if they where they would of destroyed all forms of religion within their borders. instead most actually have strong ties to whatever most influential religious power is there. the USSR was always incredibly religious and always had strong ties to the orthodox church. not only this but none of the mass deaths caused by either the Soviets or the CCP has ever been tied to some kind of anti-theism and have almost always been tied to faulty economic plans and mistreatment of farmlands and the allocation of resources.

[@LRVitusR]

Religion is inevitable because we are bound to those who came before us and to those who come after us. If a person believes that they are not bound to a religion, then they simply do not know which religion that binds them, and thus their ignorance is the source of their unwitting slavery.

[@Oysters176]

I agree, but what fundamentally can be boiled. If we were to create a fantasy world, what would become of it? Perhaps no churches but shrines. No Miracles of special people. How things fundamentally work/are.

[@thereallocke8065]

My question is how do you fundamentally challenge a religion without some moderates catching strays? For example hell doctrine imo is abusive but even less extreme forms of Christianity practive it. It still needs to be challenged and hopefully modified or abandoned

[@chris_troiano]

I really appreciate sharing your old unlisted videos and how you and your content have grown over time ❤ ContraPoints did a retrospective on “New Atheism” as she saw it when she was in that community as a Patreon exclusive video a couple months ago and this is a beautiful follow-up without even attempting to. I think that there was an ethos missing back then, with the loudest voices coming from people who never really seemed to understand religion in the first place. Anti-theist is a great word for it. Most atheist content I watch now comes from post-deconstructed people who come across with more authentic and relatable motivation. Trevor from Belief It Or Not is especially good at this. A vulnerable young person who is losing faith can get so much more from a community that shows love and sympathy than one that is reactionary and scornful.

[@nightmarerex2035]

why not re-list them instead showing crumbs and bits? oh i question ALL atheism christanity stanism eta so not "singling out" but when someone [DATA EXPUNGED]es something i ?????????????????????? ??????????? even MORE and LESS likly to belive them!

[@sam5992]

They don't get attention, though. Compassion doesn't drive clicks.

[@saltriverpirate3172]

Christopher Hitchens set me free. That man's courage and intelligence were the catalyst that helped me to recognize the truth of Voltaire's statement, "Faith is the belief in what reason cannot". I am deeply indebted to that great man. Hitchens acting as a polemicist for reality was awesome. Can't recommend 'The Portable Atheist" enough. Becoming rational is an internal choice, no one can ever convince anyone else of anything. "Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience" Mark Twain. "It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere" _Voltaire Best of luck, be free

[@NestortheArgonaught]

Atheism can’t even account for why things move.

[@Binzob]

@@NestortheArgonaught ?? and how does religion do that?

[@YaamFel]

​@@NestortheArgonaughtAtheism is not a system of beliefs, it's just the lack of a single belief, it does not need to nor should it accouny for "how things move". We have physics for that

[@NestortheArgonaught]

@@YaamFel saying, “Atheism isn’t a system of beliefs it is the lack of belief” is equivalent to a fundamentalist saying, “the Bible is the true, inspired, inerrant Word of God.” This is a comfort phrase used to keep you from thinking. I am a philosopher who greatly loves Aristotle’s Physics. Just read the first chapter. It is a definitive proof that physics is not enough in itself. If you’re first thought is that Aristotle has been debunked and therefore you don’t even need to understand him then you are taking something on faith alone and not being skeptical/rational.

[@NestortheArgonaught]

@@Binzob Religion explains that things move because God made them. This is actually a very sophisticated notion despite most people’s bigotry towards people of faith. Check out Aristotle’s Physics or Aquinas’ Summa if you want to see a real thinker in action.

[@Ricky-yo6uv]

The problem people seem to be having is that they forget that the label "atheist" doesn't really describe anything about who you are in the slightest, only one of the things which you are not. Hell, the whole reason why non-belief even became a major identity component in the first place was because a lot of theists (not all, but a lot, and at the very least the ones with the most institutional power) have this tendency to project dark reflections of their own religious identities onto those in whom a religious idenity is absent.

[@lukevillarreal1458]

Even if an orator has underlying theistic reasons for holding a specific belief, if their arguments present secular evidence and reasoning, do they not stand to be judged on their own?

[@silly_lil_guy]

fun fact: this is a direct quote from Matt Walsh - "I violate my kid's consent all the time"

[@carmencita22]

Yes, but why don’t you explain in what sense? He says that in the context of going to bed early, going to school, eating vegetables, etc. Y’all stop distorting everything he says, it makes it look like you guys don’t have any real arguments against what he says (about children and gender).

[@moviemaestro800]

@@carmencita22 That angle implies that any of those subjects specifically are a matter of personal consent at all, rather than a matter of necessity. Reminds me of those who insisted that it violated their consent when businesses barred the unvaccinated from entering, when one's participation in society implies consent to some forms of compliance, so long as it is a proven net positive for both yourself and society as a whole. As far as I'm concerned, there's no consent violation to encouraging good health, and taking steps to be well educated. Problem is, we know that's not Walsh's opinion on child rearing. We know it comes from a philosophy of control, rather than education. He is most definitely the type of person who would shame his own kids into kissing his cheek upon demand, even if they weren't comfortable with that, and absolutely would insist to them that they have no right to privacy, even as they are well into puberty, and should have every right not to be spied on by a man who sees teen girls as "fertile." 🤮 That is where the violation part rings true to our ears, even as he implies at face value to only referring to that which is necessary to a child's health. Because, think about it. If a child refuses to sleep when needed, or refuses to eat healthy foods when there's no option for sweeter and less healthy foods they would instead insist on, they will still suffer the consequences even without a show of force from parental authority as we typically imagine it, via tiring out anyway, or eventually giving in to the need to eat the only food available anyway. It was certainly how I have learned to not do harmful things. I can definitely confirm that it was better to learn from personal failings making me suffer independent of other's control, than to learn from fearing getting beaten. If I don't sleep when I should, I suffer the consequence of being extremely tired the next day. If I don't eat enough healthy stuff and too much junk food in one day, I literally feel sick to the stomach the next day. If I don't go to school, I miss important information needed to pass a course, and get ahead in life. Where in that equation does the threat of additional authoritative punishment make me more aware of those consequences, exactly? It may not be as dramatic, but the lesson will eventually be learned, if the parent has half a brain, and is willing to educate rather than force a regime of control. Discipline is most certainly about punishing bad behaviour, but it also is about setting examples, so as to avoid perpetuating the worst possible choices, because no one learns how to be a good person simply out of fear of reprisal. To paraphrase what Robert Heinlein once said, there is no such thing as a juvenile delinquent, as to be delinquent implies failing in your civic duties as an individual, when to be juvenile is to imply no individual civic duties and continued dependence on a parent/guardian who should absolutely take any and all the blame for any shortcomings the juvenile holds/performs. The types of parents who are still on good terms with their kids (like mine with me), and whose kids grew up well-adjusted (such as myself), were most definitely those who raised them through more sophisticated and intellectual methods than simply grooming them to fear physical punishment, if they didn't blindly obey their self-appointed godly word of often logically inconsistent justifications. That is a proven way to end up with a child who will go no-contact on you, upon the first legal window to do so that they can accomplish. Just ask my partner, also raised by narcissistic conservative catholic hypocrites with control issues. 😉

[@carmencita22]

@@moviemaestro800 thank you for taking the time to respond to my comment. I agree with you in that punishment doesn’t work when raising children. But there’s instances in which you need to tell your children no, specially for things that can have long term effects/ are permanent. For example, drinking alcohol, doing drugs, getting a tattoo, etc. Among these things I include taking drugs like puberty blockers which can have long term effects on bone density and on fertility. I think saying that people like Matt Walsh are obsessed with teen fertility is a bad faith argument - they’re worried some people won’t even have the possibility, in the future, of having kids. I disagree with Matt Walsh on so many things (for starters I consider myself a feminist and a atheist) but he’s right that we should protect children from irreversible damage.

[@moviemaestro800]

@@carmencita22 Problem is that the "irreversible damage" claims folks like him make aren't backed up by the facts. Today's puberty blockers are fully reversible now, which ought to make that talking point outdated, but grifters like him insist on maintaining that myth for easy money. It's basically the "vaccines cause autism" claim of this decade. 🤷‍♂️

[@moviemaestro800]

And, again, lest we forget that his brand of parenthood most definitely involves ruling through fear and control, rather than through education and encouragement. It's how his type rolls. I have seen parenting of his flavour before, and those who were brought up under it grew up more mentally damaged than those who were raised like I was.

[@Th3Chr1st]

This video definitely calls me out a bit as an antitheist, but I think it's thought provoking. I think Pluralism and Antitheism might be a distinction without a difference. As an Antitheist, I think the world would be better without influential entities organized around delusions. A Pluralist seems to just want to see these organizations get along. I think either would be a better future than the present. I think that organizations built around ancient delusions are inherently insecure and threatened by each other, so they will likely never get along in the way a Pluralist would hope for. That being said, I think intellectual honesty is much lower on humanity's priority list than would be required for the antitheist vision of the future to happen. Regardless, I think Drew is being pretty uncharitable with Antitheists in assuming that we all only aim to service our egos with our condescension towards religious nonsense. Nonsense is nonsense regardless of its popularity. One does not have to be an egomaniac to point that out. The goal of my speaking out as an antitheist is to weaken the grip of religious ideas on anyone who cares what I have to say. Maybe I am cringe, but I'll happily be cringe in a world where religious zealots, bigots, and abusers leave me and my loved ones alone.

[@nuclearsimian3281]

Anti-theism is really the only type of thought that keeps churches in check, really. If you leave massive theocratic organizations alone, and without objection, like anti-theism provides, then you end up with too many Matt Walsh types. Atheism is inherently non-confrontational. Its very much about discussing the belief. Anti-theism is about describing the damage the church actually does and fights back against it on the front line. If compared to the structure of an army, atheism is the infantry force, anti-theism is the vanguard that deploys independently and can move and reposition quickly. Both are essential. Atheism combats the groupthink and allows for debates. Anti-theism is there to combat the papal pederasty, the transphobic bigotry, and the involvement of old white rich men shoving their hands into a doctor's office to stop women from deciding how to get their bodies to work.

[@_shadow_1]

I personally respect any atheist that is willing to address the fact that religions and philosophies outside of harmful variants Christianity in fact do exist and are willing to separate those from the conversation at least to some extent. Those that don't do this simple courtesy are just as ignorant, and in some cases then even more ignorant and biased than even the religious groups they oppose, because at least least those groups acknowledge that there's a difference between them and the "pagans".

[@wirbelchen5379]

I don't think most forms of religion are harmful, I perceive them more as... unnecessary, as most fall prey to the same inconsistencies and arguments as the more extremist position. And sure, sometimes it is fun to critique a bit and argue a little, but at the end of the day, that's nothing I would try to forcibly take away from people. Even if I wanted to, I know that's not how people work.

[@mikolmisol6258]

I rather think it is somehow cruel to discover the truth but then also keep pretending that those who believe lies (which includes assertions with no evidentiary or logical support) just want it that way, and that it is somehow better for them. It's not. No one would knowingly choose to believe a lie! This seems rather like trying not to 'enforce democracy' on other nations. Maybe democracy is not for them. Maybe they prefer to be ruled by autocrats with absolute power. Except that is literally absurd. No one would knowingly choose to be ruled over by an autocrat! Believing in religion gives you a mild placebo effect at best, and often leads to coping behaviours which have been proven to result in harm such as interpreting adversity as punishment from god. Many theists argue from consequence and mistakenly believe that reality is too harsh to bear without your invisible friend. But it's not. Reality is not any worse without a god. Now, I am not a militant atheist. I never mount unsolicited attacks on the beliefs of theists. I have never done that. But I also refuse to pretend that their belief is just as good as my knowledge. I will never pretend that their belief is justified just to make them feel better. I will not lie to them.

[@jasonGamesMaster]

It's not your place to choose for others. You are not god. You are advising the same authoritarian regime you say no one wants to live under... seems suspicious since you obviously do. THIS is why trying to wipe out religion (at least by any type of coercion) is morally not just wrong but reprehensible. Yes, they are wrong, yes the US is currently going to hell in a handbasket because of religious ideology run amok, but if we start trying to take control of people's lives then how are we any different? We have become the intolerant, controlling, freedom hating bigots that we are fighting against.

[@xavier84623]

Faith is an actual vice. For real, believing in whatever you want regardless of evidence is morally wrong imo, these lies always have real world consequences.

[@NestortheArgonaught]

But religion isn’t believing in what you want, right? A religious person ok it’s their belief in a system bigger than themselves and subordinates his or her own will to that system, no? This of course also applies to political ideologues who subordinate their will to a political party or movement. Only a radical Individualist would believe something just because he or she wants to believe that.

[@xavier84623]

@@NestortheArgonaught it’s not as simple as “what you want”, it’s more of what your compelled to believe because cognitive dissonance is uncomfortable, or for whatever reason, the reason doesn’t matter to much, the key is lack of evidence. And again I’m talking about faith, not specifically religion, but I think most religions we have are faith based so I see how that relates.

[@CHUCKLZLORD]

Religion is the stories that mankind has told itself about its history. Believing in it doesn't make you evil or ignorant or anything like that. Using that faith as a cudgel to wield against others is where I (and most others) draw the line. Respect others beliefs, unless those beliefs call for harm to others.

[@NestortheArgonaught]

What about beliefs that tell women in crisis that their child is just a clump of cells and isn’t a person yet so you should just kill it? Political fundamentalists who only hold their positions because they are told that this is what good people vote for have caused the destruction of millions of lives.

[@Binzob]

​@@NestortheArgonaught being anti choice is inherently evil.

[@jmcsquared18]

As usual, I think people like Dawkins or Hitch would disagree with your characterization of their stances. The idea that atheists are strident and shrill activists who want to forcefully destroy all false beliefs was a stereotype that Dawkins himself couldn't understand. Are there anti-theists like this? Yeah but I think Dawkins and Hitch would reject them as being authoritarian. Moreover, I'm trying to figure out precisely why criticizing the left when it deserves it is cringe. Since when did such criticisms become taboo? To be honest, this is something that I'm starting to view as the new cringe thing. We've made progress, but it's because some decided to be vocal enough to point out the absurdity in this nonsense regardless of how many got offended by it. I still live in a state where Greg Locke preaches in my state's capital and where my alma mater's new president just condemned gay relationships, but I'll never be an evangelist, thanks to people like Dawkins and Hitch. What a lot of people have decried as being antagonistic, I saw as clearheaded thinking and sober rationality.

[@thedaijal2935]

It's not cringe. They just don't like it because they consider it wrongthink, and wrongthink must be punished. True, actual free thinking is verboten, and fuck forbid if you say men can't get pregnant! 😂

[@xylh5085]

In more recent years, I've mellowed out on my anti-theism because I realized that my beliefs were reactionary and purely lashing out at how much religion hurt me. I think the tendency for people to be highly suggestible to ideas that confirm their biases, a general lack of critical thinking, a lack of well-rounded information sources, and unchecked emotions are the main contributors. Getting rid of all religion won't fix those problems. I agree however, that scrutinizing dangerous beliefs and actions that hurt society is valid across the board.

[@marknieuweboer8099]

If you recognize that religion is not the root of all problems and not always hurting - and if you recognize that non-religious ideologies can do harm too you're not antitheist. I bet you'll not shy away from the question who you prefer, the catholic saint Franciscus of Assisi or the nazi atheist Martin Bormann. Believe it or not, a couple of months ago someone "argued" that Bormann was not an atheist because he was a nazi.

[@AndromedaD]

"the ship doesn't need turned around" I've been told I'm going to hell as often as I've been told I was completely moronic based solely on my perceived religious beliefs in the comments of atheistic KZbinrs. We're not going to fight the christofascists like this.

[@KillerCammy85]

Fantastic video, I used to be anti-theist but my mother in law wavering in her belief has shown me there can be a balance and that religion doesnt equal persecution. It offers her a lot of support and community and she in turn has been there for us during some very difficult times. Its hard at times reconciling religion with the suffering of so many people, but I have seen a lot of change over the years to do better and religion is starting to be held accountable for their behaviours. I say starting because this is just the tip of a very big iceberg. I should also edit to say we dont see a whole lot of extemist fundamendalism where we live in Ontario so I only have my own experiences to work from but my father is First Nations so there is people I love who have been severely hurt by religion.

[@frostiesr345]

I didn’t even know what antitheism was. I guess I fall more into that camp as if I could I would gladly eliminate all religion at the snap of a finger. I live in the Bible Belt and that definitely makes me more jaded towards religion and particularly Christianity. One of the guiding figures in my life was a priest. He was best friends with my dad (my family wasn’t very religious). Since he passed I have felt a deep sorrow that someone so brilliant, funny, and admirable dedicated his life to what is ultimately a waste

[@blacksterangel]

In a way, I went through the opposite direction in a way that I started off as someone who "doesn't believe in God but would simply agree to disagree with those who do", to someone who can't stand to seriously converse with a churchgoer, especially those who can't help injecting his/her belief into literally every type of conversation. I still hold the belief that not everything that is taught by christianity is bad, but you would be hard-pressed to find a church that would only teach the good stuffs without also teaching the bad stuffs.

[@kellydalstok8900]

I have been around a bit longer than you, Drew, and I grew up without religion in a not very religious country. The thing I dislike about religion is, that it receives such deference from non-religious people over here. Say you are about to enjoy a meal with a group of people and only a small portion of those people are religious, everyone will be expected to wait before starting to eat in order for that small group to have their silent prayer before their meal. And everyone seems to think that is normal. Religious people are also free to start their own schools with government money. If they think those are necessary, why not fund those schools themselves. And why are those schools so important to them; can’t they do their own indoctrination at home, or is their belief so fragile that it can’t survive without a constant stream of reinforcement? In secular schools religion simply isn’t mentioned, neither in a negative nor in a positive way. Besides, there is no religious reading, writing, maths, geography, history, biology, chemistry, Dutch, English, French, German, and PE in religious schools either. Only the few orthodox christian and muslim schools don’t teach evolutionary science, and damn it, that is allowed by our weak ministry of education.

[@crazyprayingmantis5596]

Yep, for some odd reason we give religion way too much undeserved respect

[@DouglasBernes]

"Faith is the excuse people use when they don't have a good reason to believe in something."--Matt Dillahunty

[@obcursus]

I’m been a new atheist before and you were my favourite channel back then. I’m glad you are critiquing bigotry unlike many others channels 🧡