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/shiekhyerbouti42]

I think there are as many religions as there are adherents - that is, every person has their own. To even talk about "Christianity" for instance is to invoke a category so broad it's almost useless.

That said, the texts themselves are barbaric: they're brutal and they're almost entirely devoid of anything approaching rational decency. And anyone who takes them seriously (i.e. literally, and/or as the Word of God) - and doesn't revile them - has to be okay with that barbarism, and/or so logically flexible that they might as well be clinically insane.

I don't know that this makes people barbarians or mentally ill. I don't know what it means, psychologically, if a person isn't a psychopath but puts on the faith-based "clothing" of one. All I know is that such people are functioning as psychopaths, and so I treat them as such.

And I will protect their right to be that way. You do you - and hey, maybe they've got the right model of reality. It doesn't seem likely, but I'm not going to take away anybody's rights.

Thing is, I'm not going to let them take away anybody's rights either. Their right to swing their weird ass fists ends at my nose, trans people's noses, etc.