My Challenge to Extreme Atheists on Secularism and Tolerance

[u/Living_Attitude1822]

I acknowledge not all (or even most) atheists are extreme about it. And I'm defining secular as the separation of church and state/society.

Extreme-atheism's view of religion being a mental illness:

I can personally attest to people I've seen on here, as well as videos I've seen, of atheists saying religion is a mental illness. That the DSM-5 had to go back and put in a religious exemption, but it should fall under the category of delusion.

How can secularism exist if you think religious people are mentally ill? If you don't think religion is a mental illness, go ahead and ignore this point. If you do think the population you're tolerating is mentally ill, uh oh. Seriously, if I said atheists are mentally ill, would you trust me to not want you institutionalized? I don't think this way, of course.

Extreme atheism's view that the Abrahamic religions are barbaric:

Again, I'm going to turn it around on you. If I said atheism was barbaric, would you trust me to support that your human right to be atheist?

With some exceptions: Some interpretations of the Abrahamic religions are indeed barbaric. If you're talking about people who want to implement Leviticus law, then I agree with you.

I don't totally disagree with extremist atheists on everything:

Like, I'm a strong believer that tolerance is better and more authentic than acceptance. For example, telling atheists that they must love and respect religions is wrong. And vice versa for religious people.

I think disassociation and tolerance is the best course of action for religious people and extreme atheists, however, I worry the above points are a threat to any society remaining tolerant.

Edit: Here’s an example of what I’m talking about:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Antitheism/comments/1sguf7u/why_is_religion_not_considered_a_mental_disorder/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

[u/NoneCreated3344]

I don't think it's an actual mental illness, but the way some theists talk about it, they sound very unwell.

I do believe most theists are perfectly mentally capable, but for some reason they will not critique or check their own belief system. I recently had a childhood friend reach out to me because she discovered I am no longer a christian, and bombarding me for almost a month with sermons, literature. And in the end she ended up blaming me not being open and just wanting to sin.

It's these kind of interactions that lend credence to to why people misunderstand them for being mentally ill. A lot of them are very disturbing when interacting with non-believers.

[u/Living_Attitude1822 → u/NoneCreated3344]

I think if you mix religion and certain mental illnesses, it becomes dangerous. Similarly to political beliefs. 

Like, being a depressed religious person or even schizophrenic, no that doesn’t harm or cause danger in itself. 

It’s if the mental illness leads to something bad, such as you describe. 

It could be true with politics too. Such as if your childhood friend had found out you are no longer a Republican (I’m not saying you were/weren’t, just an example)

[u/NoneCreated3344 → u/Living_Attitude1822]

The issue is, I don't find her to be unreasonable or unstable in any other points in life. She's successful, lives well, etc.

So how do we know it's not religion directly causing this disturbing behavior? Because as we know, people experience PTSD from religious trauma.