One thing I’ve seen, both in the article comments and in the Reddit discussion, is people who doubt that these myths really exist - in other words, that there are Christians who really believe that about atheists.
The myths do exist, but mostly in “evangelical” Christians. They’re much rarer in more secular countries, like those in Europe, or in less evangelical sections of Christianity, such as Catholicism, which is much “tamer” these days than so-called “born again” (American) Christians. Therefore, it’s quite possible that you have been lucky and have never had to deal with people who really believe in these myths.
But those people exist - especially in the United States. The Reddit discussion provided me with an article: U.S. trust lower for atheists. Some lovely bits from the article:
researchers found that Americans rate atheists below Muslims, recent immigrants, homosexuals and other groups as “sharing their vision of American society.” Americans are also least willing to let their children marry atheists.
Unbelievable, right? But there’s more:
“Many Americans seem to believe some kind of religious faith is central to being a good American and a good person.”
Right-o. We can’t have people around thinkin’ for themselves, or questionin’ authority, no siree!
Those surveyed tended to view people who don’t believe in a god as the “ultimate self-interested actor who doesn’t care about anyone but themselves,”
“Ultimate self-interested actor” certainly sounds impressive. 
But, again, we’re all evil, as nobody can be a moral person without God, right? That’s myth 3.
Still, Ries said, “I don’t believe that anybody is really an atheist. I believe that deep down everyone knows there is a god.”
Aaaand… that’s myth 5 for you.
“I know atheists aren’t studied that much as a sociological group, but I guess atheists are one of the last groups remaining that it’s still socially acceptable to hate,” Foley said.
Indeed, it is.
“I would rather have my kids marry someone of a different religion than someone who has none,” she said.
Right. Better a different irrationality, than being rational.
That’s just one single article. I’m sure that I could find evidence of most of the other myths existing, and maybe I will. But I hope that this will convince some of you that I didn’t just make up a list of myths as a straw man argument.
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I do whole heartedly agree with all of your statements. Although I am buddhist, I do agree that most of the population is out of control do to the fact of religon,
I seriously believe that if everyone was athiest then our country would be a better place, Though it would be nazi-like to do this and totally ethicly wrong to change religon.
When I declared I was bhuddist I was under public scrutiny.
I feel your pain
Touche!
I also think that some of the coments on your post of the list prove a few as well as actual ways some people think.
To Bryan- IMO, even without religion, people would still be f’d up.
I think that a lot of religious people use their religions as justification for sociopathic views.
Just as well, a quote from K-Pax…
“You humans, most of you, subscribe to this policy of an eye for an eye, a life for a life, which is known throughout the universe for its… stupidity. Even your Buddha and your Christ had different ideas, but nobody seemed to want to listen to them. Not even the Buddhists or the Christians. ”
…easily points out the hypocracy in a lot of people.
How many people are you really going to change with your logic
The only people you will reach are the ones that aleady agree with you.
I say fuck them They are a crazy dozing beast ( deffinately not sleeping ) Leave them all to their own fate
And dont piss them off. We will be jews to those crazy nazi’s if were not carefull
and i know you who read this will not agree. And believe me just typing this shit down feels like the satellite dish flying out of cartmans ass
I take this point not to antagonize not to appease but just to offer my opinion
agree disagree it dosent fucken matter i will recieve just as musch enjoyment at the stimulation of defending myself as i will
speeling on about trippy shit ( although the latter is my favourite ).
I live in new zealand and all that i see there is to look farward to
Is another fuck another laugh another drink another joint and another love and another book/experience.
Enjoy your life
excuse the english and my own individual slang. science is my language
nice very agreeable
stupidity is the dam problem
and without that i feel religoin will take care of itself
Dead on. These myths DO exist, especially in my hometown. My parents alone have spouted off at least 6 of those.
I can’t say I’ve ever encountered any of the myths anywhere but the internet (IRC, forums and so on), but then again, I live in Sweden, and most people I know are either agnostic or atheist.
I love being European, for me it’s quite the opposite.
I would hate for my future children to bring home a religious fundamentalist. (believing that what the bible says is real, and that kind of crazy talk)
I am a 17-year-old honors student with a GPA of 3.9 at a major university. I am a junior; I entered college when I was 15.
I have an IQ of 154.
I have studied biology, geology, chemistry, physics, quantum mechanics, psychology, and sociology.
And I am an evangelical Christian, a Southern Baptist actually. I live in the southern United States. I have witnessed to several of my friends.
Surprise! - I don’t hate atheists.
I believe that many atheists are intelligent, friendly people, who are fully capable of being both reasonable and moral. I recognize that atheists have a wide range of philosophical and ethical viewpoints, and that to make any sort of generalization about atheists (other than “they believe there is no God,” which is, I believe, fairly self-explanatory) is stupid. I know happy atheists, and sad atheists. I know many atheists who are wonderful, loving parents.
I have simply come to the conclusion that there is a God, and that he is the God of the Bible.
“atheists are one of the last groups remaining that it’s still socially acceptable to hate”
im not sure if youre actually as open minded and intellegent as you say you are, where i come from and all over the world its not acceptable to hate anyone for thier race or culture…unless their a christian. there are many places all over the world where the punishment for being a christian is death, and many people die willingly because of it every year. now you could just be thick headed and say that thats because of thier stupidity, but is it really rational to say that many people are stupid? youve been claiming that athiesim is the only rational conclusion all over this website but i really dont see a lot of rational thought from you. sorry if i offended you, i didnt intend to.
by the way, what sprawwl said was very well put.
Argh! The worst thing they do is when they say “I know that deep down, everyone knows there’s a god.”
It’s like they know it pisses me off.
And yeah, that survey only goes to show how close-minded those people are who claim to have the most open minds.
Rob: it seems like you’re grouping all Christians together here… please, feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, but… by saying that “they” do it, aren’t you implying that they *all* do it?
By the way: the Bible doesn’t support that “everyone deep down knows that there is a god.” I can chapter-and-verse you if you’d like.
well, i dont know what rob meant by it, but i know i dont group all people of any religion when i say stuff like that. However, i have seen and heard many people say alot of these things, and i know they arent true. i tried being a christian for a while, and i was brought up to do so. i just couldnt get passed all the hippocracy in the bible, and the dramatic change between the old and new testament. in fact, i once asked a very religious friend of mine why god suddenly changed. He told me it was because he realised what he was doing was wrong, and jesus opened his eyes to it. Then i said, ok, that makes sense. But isnt god supposed to be perfect? just one of many many many questions i have about the christian faith. unfortunately i havent had the ability to try any other religions, though i plan to at least learn about more as the years go by.
Lunchbox: what hypocrisy are you talking about?
Also: I wouldn’t say that God changed between the testaments. His mercy was revealed throughout the old testament, just as it was shown through His sacrifice of His Son in the new, and his sense of justice was shown through that same sacrifice, just as it was shown more explicitly throughout the old.
I don’t know about these myths in other parts of the world, but here in America they absolutely exist. That stands to reason, though. I think Americans are more prone to this problem and here is why:
Right before I decided I wasn’t dealing with Christianity anymore when I was a kid, I became the most religious Christian on the face of the planet. After all, I’d been put through a scary Christian school (real Christians apparently don’t believe in plate tectonics, according to my teacher) and I was losing my religion and I was scared. I didn’t believe what people said I should believe. In fact, according to the people I respected in life my beliefs made me evil. Therefore I clung desperately to those beliefs, hoping if I was dedicated enough to the cause I would believe in it sooner or later. This denial is common human behavior and not confined to religion. Reason and evidence are ignored because if you listen to the reasoning and the evidence you might just cross the line and stop believing altogether. In America, where right now it seems that the majority of our society is Christian or trying really hard to be, nobody wants to be an “evil” atheist, and so the ones who secretly doubt often become those who denounce atheists with the most hatred. Those who can shrug and let it go are the ones who are secure in their beliefs.
Well Sprawwl you must have been reading a different book than me because when you talk about God’s ‘mercy’ it seems somewhat at odds with entire cities down to the last man, woman, child and goat which is condoned if not actually performed by ‘God’ in the OT. And as far as Jesus’ ’sacrifice’ goes as I understand it he was a God or part of ‘god’ (that whole trinity thing has never made any sense) since the beginning of time, spent thirty years in a human body and then went back to the aether where he herds flocks of human souls around the meadows of heaven or whatever it is that one does in the aether. So what exactly was the ’sacrifice’? Thirty years of bodily functions and a bit of pain at the end? Big deal. He went back to being god of the universe. Not much of a sacrifice there. If he is living on in the aether then HE DID NOT DIE for us or for anyone else.
Ah that should be ‘exterminating’ cities. Carry on.
OK
im a christain
and i just happend to be looking up english homework for mythology and its about the most retarted thing ever and this website came up….
i would just like to say
stop saying that christians think all these things about you ppl
cuz its not true
yes i will say that atheist lact these things…faith and trust…
but…another topic is that christians are hypocritcal…not true..at people are perfect only jesus was..so yes christains will make mistakes to it should be things that are out of control but if they lie or use an curse word thats exspected out of anyone
so
all i have to say…is the way you atheist think that the world got started makes no sense what so ever like for instace the big BANG or whatever that is a bunch of bull….so bassically thats saying if i had a bunch of car parts floating around in my garage for a few years one day there all gonna hit and BANG i have a FARRARI…no i dont think so….
so think things over
thanks ..
anonomous
For what it is worth, yes rational individuals avoid faith as a basis for their life, but trust is not absent. Trust does not rely upon nor is necessitated by the belief in impossible beings, so is not forced to not exist in the rational person. Atheists can and do have trust just as xns and other religious folks may have trust. Trust is separate and different in kind from faith.
So because I’m a Catholic that means I can’t think for myself? Maybe you should have someone do a “myths about Christians” segment for you, or at least someone explain to you that your generalizations aren’t always right.
ok, i’m going to throw in my two cents about this, not that it will cause anyone who reads it to change beliefs (athiests believe more or less similarly to me, and the majority of “believers”, for lack of a better term, are so heavily indoctrinated they’ll just scoff and say insert evil diety here must have put that that evil thought in his mind to tempt me)
i believe that believers are wrong because they believe in something that is utterly without change. any belief system that is so rigid as to allow no room change at all is destined for failure at some point. life is change, and change is life, if a belief structure does not allow for adaptation, it invites failure with open arms. that being said, i believe in science because science doesn’t claim to know anything about the universe at all. we have a lot of theories, ex.- we THINK that gravity is a constant and that any body of matter in the universe will have a gravitational pull relative to it’s mass, but we’re not 100% certain and if you can find a better theory and prove it to us we’ll scrap this old one and use yours. that’s why they are called “theories.” scientists are not so arrogant as to believe that they know exactly how the world works, and for that matter humans probably never will know everything, or at least not for a very very long time.
that being said, we do have some pretty good ideas
[quote post="126"]all i have to say…is the way you atheist think that the world got started makes no sense what so ever like for instace the big BANG or whatever that is a bunch of bull….so bassically thats saying if i had a bunch of car parts floating around in my garage for a few years one day there all gonna hit and BANG i have a FARRARI…no i dont think so….[/quote]
either this is blatant flame bait (which i suspect, but am still going to use to fuel my own point) or someone actually believes this because he or she has a belief structure that is much too rigid. Wikipedia does a fair job of explaining the big bang theory as well as the reasons it is currently the favored theory (such as cosmic background radiation and redshift).
for my part i do not believe that all christians are idiot fundamentalists, although i do know quite a few of those personally, but i believe they are a mixed group of people who for some reason or another need to believe in a power greater than themselves. for some reason, these people need an all-powerful being to cope with their day to day lives. some of these people are old or depressed and need a friend, some need the threat of hell to live good lives, some just go for the free cookies and coffee. whatever your reasons for going to church/synagogue/temple/whatever, i do not fault you for it. everyone must walk their own paths through life, i simply ask that you let myself and my friends believe what we will and not force upon us your insane, illogical rantings. just as you believe that i am the godless one to be pitied i believe you are the reasonless one to be pitied. also, please note that i said pitied there, not hated. i do not hate people i’ve never met. that seems to be a quality that all “good believers” share, but not athiests. i’ve met plenty of believers who hated other believers because they prayed to different gods, or me because i pray to none, or even because their skin color/sexual orientation/country of origin was the “wrong choice.” as if any of those things are “choices.”
/endrant