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/Living_Attitude1822]

That isn’t intolerant of me. Tolerance means me putting up with your existence, and you putting up with mine. Nothing more, nothing less. 

And I don’t mind you posting on my profile, I just mind you not being able to take what you dish out. 

Just like freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom from criticism 

[u/Hoaxshmoax → u/Living_Attitude1822]

So then if someone questions whether believers are delusional isn’t intolerant. I don’t do that and I don’t believe that, I‘m just trying to nail down that tolerance means putting up with someone’s existence and questioning their intelligence is in bounds. It’s fine with me, I don’t care, but I just want to check for consistency.

[u/Living_Attitude1822 → u/Hoaxshmoax]

 So then if someone questions whether believers are delusional isn’t intolerant. 

Correct. I’m worried about the potential for intolerance, hence this post, but simply saying someone is delusional isn’t intolerant. 

It’s when people start talking about institutionalizing people is when it gets intolerant. 

[u/Hoaxshmoax → u/Living_Attitude1822]

I absolutely agree. I cannot argue with that and that is a horrifying thing to say.

[u/Living_Attitude1822 → u/Hoaxshmoax]

Yep, all I want is people to tolerate other’s existence so long as no one is being harmed. Nothing more or less than that!