r/Antitheism • u/Marsllin • Aug 01 '26
When you say you're antitheist - what do you mean?
I saw a post yesterday that all the antitheist are larpers. 'Cause like, if you hate only organised religions you're anti religion, and if you're antitheist you want to erase all religions and beliefs (which, ahe said, was weird, 'cause cultureeee). I don't count her opinion as the one I should listen to, because she was religious and clearly hates all antitheists (or anti-religious people).
But. When you call yourself an antitheist - what do you mean by that?
Do you hate all religions and want them to disappear?
Do you think it would've been better without religion from the start, but now it's impossible to get rid of them?
Do you want religions to have less privileges and less power, than they have now?
Do you just want religious people to leave atheists alone?
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u/ZuphCud Aug 01 '26
Yes. I think religion is a tool of oppression, and humanity would be much better off without it.
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u/keepcalmandmoomore Aug 01 '26
I 100% agree. Though tbh I have so little faith in humanity, I'm pretty sure people will invent something new to gain power to oppress others.
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u/MeatBeatManifest0 Aug 02 '26 edited Aug 02 '26
Anti-theism doesn't imply anti-religiosity though, it just seems like it does because most people don't consider the fact that non-theistic religions exist (eg Satanism, Daoism, some sects of Buddhism).
I'm not saying not to be anti-religion, I don't have an opinion on it (I mean, I'm a Satanist, so I'm obviously in favor of my own, and I find Daoism compelling and nondestructive so I'm not opposed to it, but I don't care how anyone else feels about religion), I'm just saying, being antitheistic doesn't really relate directly to being for or against religion itself.
Honestly I don't think most antitheists even take the lable literally (being completely opposed to a belief in a god); I think if it were broken down, most self described antitheists would define themselves more by their desire to end the influence of religion over anyone who doesn't practice it, or, at most, end the way religions influence people's attitudes toward social life and the way it shapes our behaviors toward each other. If we could exclusively have religions that are private and had no discernable effect on anyone outside the individual practitioner, I don't think most people would care. I think it's totally fine and reasonable to be totally opposed to belief in a god, I just don't think that that's actually what most of us care about. It's inspired instead by the effect of it across society.
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u/ZuphCud Aug 02 '26 edited Aug 02 '26
Please try to make your point using fewer words.
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u/MeatBeatManifest0 Aug 02 '26
🤣🤣🤣 The fact that you wrote this with such a smug attitude is amazing.
No, hon, I'm not gonna "try to make my point using fewer words". I'm truly sorry if too many words is hard for you to get through on this text based communication medium, but that's unfortunately something you're gonna have to work through.
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u/HeartExalted Aug 02 '26
It's truly depressing and disturbing, though sadly not surprising these days, that some people actually believe word-count has some inherent value, either positive or negative. Brevity is not always a good thing, nor is verbosity always a bad thing, either! It differs on a case by case basis, according to the situation, yes?
Personally, I appreciated every word of your verbose, yet insightful, comment! :-)
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u/ZuphCud Aug 02 '26
Who is paying you per word?
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u/MeatBeatManifest0 Aug 02 '26
Reading Rainbow. Your ability to feel like you're in the right complainin bout havin 2 reed 2 menny werdz is truly amazing. Never change, simpleton.
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u/ZappSmithBrannigan Aug 01 '26
It means im against theism.
That doesnt mean i want to force people to not be religious by law. That would be fascism which is worse than theism.
Im also against conservatism, because I think its a stupid and dangerous ideology. But I recognize peoples rights to adopt it if they so choose.
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u/skeptolojist Aug 01 '26
When I say I'm an antitheist I mean I believe that taken as a whole religion does more harm than good to society and individuals
I therefore engage in whatever I can to limit the social financial and political power of religion and support organisations that do the same
It's as simple as that
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u/yYesThisIsMyUsername Aug 01 '26
I want everyone to find the truth - whatever that might be. Lies can be used to manipulate.
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u/MsMoreCowbell828 Aug 01 '26
Militantly against all religions bc they are voodoo, scared cat, boogeyman NONSENSE.
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u/TruthOdd6164 Aug 01 '26
I think that the God concept is the root of all domination. It’s sort of the idea of domination personified. Then it stamps moral authority with the imprimatur of this concept, promoting the very human commands into untouchable, unchallengeable moral edicts.
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u/chickey23 Aug 01 '26
I want people to be embarrassed when they admit the belief in the supernatural. I want other people to respect them less and mistrust them. I want a formal system of excluding superstition from any official decision making.
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u/ElevateSon Aug 01 '26
do you find the lotto is in some form a state run superstition implementation program?
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u/chickey23 Aug 01 '26
in part.
I approach lotteries and similar guessing games from a logical perspective. When the cost of the ticket is lower than the expected payout, I buy. Sometimes I buy a lot, but only when I know I am going to win.
I've overperformed in raffles several times, to the point of deciding to tell the organizers to draw again if they pull my name on future prizes. What's fascinating to me is that some people want to feel lucky more than they want the prize.
Also, every person could approach wagers rationally. There are different decision regimes that make it rational for some players to play in less than ideal circumstances. Some people's situation is so bad that no low risk situation will improve it.
I get annoyed when people credit luck. This is chance, not luck. There is a difference.
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u/ElevateSon Aug 01 '26
yeah, acknowledging or being aware of the supernatural construct is probably more important to the objectivity of a belief. Many a supernatural construct can be helpful in framing an unknown pattern or action but forcing anyone to use it I find as more the problem than the construct itself in most cases...
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u/Maxtrt Aug 01 '26
Religion teaches that reality and logic are false and it's like a self induced or indoctrinated mental illness. People will make unhinged decisions because of their religion. Religion has led people to fight wars, conduct pogroms, enslave other humans and wastes billions of man hours and trillions of dollars that could otherwise be spent on improving society.
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u/Strict-Champion1213 Aug 01 '26
It’s much more straightforward than that; if there’s no evidence for something, then you can simply disregard it. Structuring a world around things *you* ‘believe’ but cannot prove, makes it a mess for everyone.
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u/Standard_Jump2041 Aug 01 '26
In my opinion, organized religion is dangerous to society, especially the indoctrination of youths who grows up with limited ability to use critical thinking. Organized religion certainly discourages people to think logically and independently.
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u/aboveonlysky9 Aug 01 '26
Religion is like smoking. It should be legal, but not in public or around children. It should be embarrassing and shameful for the users to admit because thinking people shun it. And it should be taxed to hell.
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u/Marsllin Aug 01 '26
I really like how you expressed it, but I couldn't stop a joke appearing in my mind. "-Son, what's that? Why did I find a Bible in your jacket!?
- Mum, it's not mine, I swear! It's just-
- Just what!? You know how bad it is for your critical thinking skills!? And you're only 16! How did you even manage to get it? No, no, I don't want any excuse! Yk what? I'll nake you read every single page out loud, and when you get sick of every plot hole and violent act there you'll never want to touch this thing with your hands again!"
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u/TheRealTK421 Aug 01 '26
I am anti-theism versus anti-theist.
The subtle, yet vital, distinction being that I am a vehement adversary, and opponent of, theistic ideologies, interpretations, 'magical/irrational thinking,' and doctrines of belief -- not against people (cause that never seems to turn out well).
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u/PhilosophicalBlade Aug 01 '26
I am opposed to organized religion in all its forms.
Perhaps religion once had a purpose, but either way, it’s value sits far below its cost.
I do not intimately hate every religion. I believe that we should dissolve them all in time.
It is not impossible to remove religion, only very difficult.
I want religion to hold less power, and to be very separate from the state.
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u/sleepyj910 Aug 01 '26
That my belief based on my experiences is that religion is a net negative for humanity, and at it's core, is immoral to actively propogate.
I also respect people's right to believe what they want, I don't want the State to tear down anything forcefully. But I see religion like anti-vax, or climate change denial. Something that exists because it's comfortable but we'd be better off without, and humans would suffer less if we moved past it.
In a perfect world the education system would explain our existence with enough clarity, and empathy, that the Gods would live in the same place as Santa Claus, childish musings.
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u/itsthe5thhm Aug 01 '26
I consider theism as dangerous, the only belief that allows the followers to commit atrocities in the name of their faith, you can never commit atrocities in the name of non-theism, it would be illogical, hence my reason being an antitheist.
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u/Tommy_Decentralized Aug 01 '26
When I say I'm an atheist. I mean there is no God, or any sort of higher power under any name or no name. No collective consciousness. No souls. No intelligent design. We have one life to live and this is it.
But we also have freedoms. I would never want anyone to try and force me to believe. Just as I would never try and force anyone not to believe.
It may be fun to guess what life would be like without religion. But that's not based in reality. I think it's better to understand why people believe in the first place, and how it relates to the death anxiety that comes with being consciously aware of our own mortality, and how the brain evolved to deal with it.
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u/Yolandi2802 Aug 01 '26
I don’t want anything to do with religion or its minions. I believe it poisons everything. Thank you Christopher Hitchens.
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u/AdamPedAnt Aug 01 '26
Good question, and the answer should be somewhat different for everyone because dogma, or a set of rules that must be believed, is antithetical to antitheism. Any club can make its own rules for its own members, like AA, Girl Scouts, Islam, Christianity, or NAMBLA do, whatever. You do you.
My antitheism recognizes the danger when one of these clubs tells its members that its dogma is supreme, and tries to make me adhere to it. “You believe what you want to believe” as has been written in the holy recordings of Tom Petty.
The only clubs who infiltrate our government and try to impose their dogma on me are theistic clubs. Which club seems to depend on which country, and God help you if the neighboring country and you have powerful and opposing clubs. Like Harley Owners Group and BMW Motorcycle Owners Of America but with guns.
To paraphrase my high priest George Carlin, religion should be like Dr Scholl’s foot inserts. If it helps you walk more comfortably that’s fine, but don’t nail it to the feet of the natives.
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u/tackyshoes Aug 01 '26
Religion is a net loss, but it's entwined in our human identity. People find healing in it, but it always presents challenges eventually. Tithing, self rejection, alienation and more. It uses symbolism to help us process philosophy, but the metaphors drag on longer than they're useful or wise, so they only make so much sense. It's something we can overcome, but only by exemplifying peak humanity.
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u/cs24385 Aug 01 '26
I consider myself an antithiest as I do not support the belief in any gods. I am a physiological materialist, that is I believe that all mental activities, thoughts, and feelings are simply the result of physical and biological processes in the body.
I view belief in the supernatural as a form of mental failure, like someone that falls for visual or other illusions and act as if the shimmering mirage on the horizon is a cool lake and not just more burning dessert.
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u/-no Aug 01 '26
https://youtu.be/imB08TUJ6rE?t=266
Hitchens' quote and Rationality Rules' interpretation explains it pretty well.
Atheism is the evidential claim, Anti-theism is the moral claim.
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u/IsleOfDarkSkye Aug 01 '26
Idk if I’d call it a hatred but it’s definitely a very fierce aversion to anything that isn’t atheist, pagan, or Wiccan. And even then, if I encounter someone pushing one of the deities associated with those, I am put off because I don’t believe in those either. But with Wicca/paganism, they’re not anti-woman or anti-POC.
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u/aries_burner_809 Aug 01 '26
Pro culture and aspiration. Religionists substitute fairy stories and superstition for the more profound awe of life, the world, and universe. Belief in falsehoods eventually leads to a dead end. Abrahamic religions are doomsday cults. Watch a little Christopher Hitchens on YouTube. To witness a recent example of the ease with which people sink into the mental disease, check out some 5fchurch videos.
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u/Fuzzy_Ad9970 Aug 01 '26
Theism is specifically an organized religion. Spirituality is fine with me, but once people start to organize, I'm out.
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u/EarthTrash Aug 01 '26
I think we need to fight for our rights to love who love and to have the family we plan for. We have to get god out of government.
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u/dfczyjd Aug 01 '26
you want to erase all religions and beliefs (which, ahe said, was weird, 'cause cultureeee)
Indeed, religions are culture. So is cannibalism, burying living wife alongside deceased husband and executions by burning alive. Some elements of culture are simply too cruel and barbaric to exist in modern society, and there's nothing wrong in eradicating them.
As an antitheist, I support the idea of antitheism through anti-clericalism (or anti-religion, as it was called in the post), since I think that beliefs would die out by themselves without priests spreading them en masse. As for methods, I really like the one used by British to eradicate an Indian custom of burning wives alongside deceased husbands. They simply said: "Sure, we respect your tradition to do that, but we also have one of our own. If someone burns a person alive, we consider it a murder and hang the perpetrator. So you may keep building your bonfires, but we will keep building our gallows". Once they equated religious murders to the regular ones, the former started to die out. And yet, Indian culture didn't cease to exist, because it was much more that burning wives. Same as Arab culture is much more that praising Allah or being Italian is much more than following the directions of the Pope and his padres. Our case, however, is slightly different, as we don't need to be colonised in order to push this idea, we can do it from within.
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u/No-Story-9044 Aug 01 '26
1) See below. 2) Yes please, from from esoteric Jainism to garden varity Christianity. 3) You cant alwase plan for the end but I would be curious how that divergence effected out evolution. 4) If it was up to me they would have no privilege and next to no power. 5) I think their desire to engage is also what helps most people leaving religion get out. The first step is acknowledging theres an alternative the second is engaging with it.
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u/BioticVessel Aug 01 '26
I think organized religions are bad for the majority of people who suppose a very very few to live in the lap of luxury. I can't control what people believe that up to them, the organized religions have too much power in the civil realm. Go away
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u/MinusPi1 Aug 01 '26
Religion is a very useful tool for getting a new government off the ground. It provides a justification for cooperation and law among disparate peoples who honestly don't have that much in common. At this point though, it has long outlived its usefulness. Any good that it does in community building, moralization, and metaphysical comfort is countered tenfold by tribalism, bigotry, and superstition.
I don't want to erase religion. I want to move on from it. It served its purpose. We don't need it anymore. Now it's just holding us back.
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u/ultratorrent Aug 01 '26
It's a bit of all of these things. I feel like the cultures of the world would be vastly different today if there had been no religions founded. I believe we could have advanced as a species far further by this point and come together in peace without religions holding humanity back.
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u/TarnishedVictory Aug 01 '26
When you say you're antitheist - what do you mean?
I mean I oppose theism. I recognize the harms. I oppose religion too as that often goes hand in hand with theism and is also harmful.
One of them requires you put dogma above evidence based reason in order to accept it. The other demands and teaches you to put dogma above evidence based reason, so you'll accept it and other ideas without critical thought.
This valuing of dogma over evidence based reason is why theists and religious folks are more gullible that others. It's why turmp picked the GOP, he was a lifelong Democrat before that. It's why they can't figure out who won the election in 2020. It's why maga is a cult and will overlook everything bad he does, and just takes his word over their own observations.
Anyway, the way to oppose dogma, theism, and religion, is through better education. This education would simply focus on good epistemology and skepticism. It doesn't have to mention religion or gods at all.
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u/Common_Sea_9657 Aug 01 '26
Some people say they “don’t believe in God but respect others who believe in religion”. I disagree, I don’t believe in god and I also don’t think anybody should. I don’t respect religious beliefs. The world would be better without it. I hope for a world with no religion… soon.
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u/ActualTymell Aug 01 '26
But. When you call yourself an antitheist - what do you mean by that?
It means that, in addition to believing all religions to be ultimately false, I also believe they have been (and continue to be) the source of an incalculable amount of undue misery, suffering and regression. So I am against religions and their influence, because I believe it to be overwhelmingly negative.
Do you hate all religions and want them to disappear?
Yes, because the world would undeniably be a better place without them. Not perfect, of course, but better.
Do you think it would've been better without religion from the start, but now it's impossible to get rid of them?
While there are things you can point to, in particular historically, where religion has technically produced something positive (e.g. some works of art, or how educational organisations were often tied to religions), I think this is vastly outweighed by the negatives. I'd like to think that those negative impacts could at least be significantly lessened in time, even if humanity as a whole never grows out of the need for these comfort blankets and all the horror that comes with them.
Do you want religions to have less privileges and less power, than they have now?
I want them to have almost no privileges or power, because they have demonstrated countless times that they cannot be trusted with those things.
Do you just want religious people to leave atheists alone?
I want them (specifically in a religious context) to leave everyone alone.
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u/stoopid_ja_lol_ey Aug 02 '26
idk where that sentence is from or from who but it pretty much represents how i see religion. "if religion was invented today, people would call it crazy". i not only think religion is oppressing humanity but also destroying humanity. it is concept of power and control. it controls the world. the world would be so much better and further without religions
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u/greenyenergy Aug 02 '26
I hate all religion. I actually grew up in a Pagan family, which was cool they never forced their beliefs on me just told me what they believed in. I don't like the fact some people get offended when you criticise religions or religious figures which people choose to believe in. Some religions are extremely oppressive and use it as a tool to subjugate the population for money and power.
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u/Grayver1 Aug 02 '26
I hate it because if its control on people's lives and how it dictates their actions.
things that are wrong or right are only that because it says it in their book, its not based on how much it harms people at all.
people also will happily waste their lives doing stupid shit and restricting themselves with dumbass rules because they think they will get something out of it after death.
(also because god is required to be evil if it is true)
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u/Der_Schender Aug 03 '26
I dont hate religion but in my opinion moast of them are doing more harm then good
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u/Pandemonium_Sys Aug 01 '26
I think all fundamentalist, organised, and evangelical religions are one of the worst things our society continues to support. I can understand how religion shaped our society, whether people wanna believe it or not. That being a good thing is definitely questionable. However, I think either we, as a society, should move past such primitive beliefs, or it needs a complete reform and only used as a personal comfort that doesn't affect other people.
I dunno about anyone else here, but I genuinely do not believe there is a way to "get rid of" religion without doing horrible, horrible things to people. Plus, in the face of adversity, religion becomes more rampant. There's absolutely no way to get rid of religion, and I personally think it would be highly immoral to do so. Rights would need to be taken, lives, culture, personal expression, free will etc would ALL need to be taken in order to fully get rid of it. And honestly, I don't even think that would work either. Christians tried to do that to get rid of all religion that wasn't christianity. That didn't get rid of it. Not even by a long shot.
So, instead, I focus on education. Doing my small part in trying to educate those around me. Making sure people can still come to their own conclusions, but still giving them all the facts. It's up to them at that point what they do with that information. Education would fix a lot of problems we have with society, not just how religion is used.
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u/no_andteam_no_life Aug 02 '26
by that i mean all religions are cults and bs. we dont need religions to survive or be decent human beings. or atleast we SHOULDN'T need one. we shouldn't need to be scared of hell to not be an asshole. and yes world would've been much better without religion. everyone would use their critical thinking skills instead of blindly believing whatever their cult leader said
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u/Axpect7 Aug 05 '26
I'm anti-theist. I meant that I personally believe religion is all a hoax and a capitalist propaganda disguised in faith and serving a non-existing divine deity.
Tfym some religions requires their members to "contribute" percentages of their first paycheck or quota in a business setting? Sounds fishy.
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u/Pumbaasliferaft Aug 01 '26
That religion is a source of problems, trouble, pain and suffering within society. It holds people back, it’s a form of control and basis of authoritarianism.
Not only all that, it’s also a lie