Fundamentally, pretty much all people are “good.” However, from time to time some people exhibit inappropriate behavior.

An example of inappropriate behavior are those behaviors that jepordize others. For example, blowing ones self up in order to kill non-believers is inapprpriate behavior.

Do what you want to yourself provided it does not hurt others (go out to the desert and blow yourself up, don’t do it in a crowded market).

Suicide is fine provided you don’t leave a wife and/or kids…

I digress, I’m not angry because you are a theist, I get angry because of the behaviors that your theism drives you to do that affect me.

Does that make sense?

A Rational Being

I appreciate the intention to try to understand us atheists. That is a step in the right direction. I think part of the reason SOME atheists come off as angry is that we are so used to be misunderstood, generalized, and even vilified. We are not people who believe in nothing. We are not people without meaning an purpose in our lives. We are not people without moral and ethical principals. We are not people who unable to feel and enjoy love and a sense of wonder. Most of us came to our beliefs through years of careful soul searching and thought. I don’t want to sound angry here, but the Rabbi’s suggestion that we are atheists because we were damaged by bad events in our lives is both offensive and ignorant.

If Rabbi Gellman is really interested in understanding atheism, he could invite a spokesperson of American Atheists or some other organization to guest-author his column one week. If he were to get to know more real every-day atheists, I think he would find that we are, as a group, much different from what he expects. And the next time he writes about us in a national magazine, he might not have to guess about what’s on our minds.

Hi Rabbi Mark,

Let me preface my letter by saying I do not hate religion, I admit that it has done many good thing for many people. Some people need religion to guide them and who am I to stop them. I am personally not threatened by gods, the tooth fairy, boogie man, or any other mythology.

What I am mad about is the current state of religion in the US. The right is using religion to stifle science. Christianity, specifically, does not promote being good stewards of our planet it breeds a view that when I go to heaven the earth does not matter. Well I got something to tell you, other people live here and hope to live here a long time. Global warming is a real issue and Christianity could careless. Then they bring there ?moral? on things like embryonic stem cells research. They call not researching them a ?culture of life?. Stem cells are the #1 thing right now that could expand our healthy lifespan. Stem cells have the possibility of saving 1000s of lives a day. And they call not researching them a ?culture of life?, that is a joke. Religion breeds deathism. Christians who live there whole lives looking forward to dying, and when atheists see an opportunity to live the only life they get longer and Christians try to stop them they get mad. I feel that I may die sooner then I have to because of the Christian luddites that are in charge. Just look at the old head of Bush?s ?Bioethics council? Leon Cass. He has been quoted as saying (paraphrasing now) that the government has the right to ask it citizen to die at 120 years old because that is what the bible says. Instead the top figures on the right tell their followers that adults have stem cells, even in their fat. They don?t bother saying that these cells are harder to grow, differentiate, keep alive, they divide slower, and can only form a few cell types. They dumb down the science to a point to where their followers can?t be swayed by the real science.

The media does not help either. Instead of reporting on the science of what is being discovered they focus of the issues that the right has against it and never/rarely mention the science. The media should be reporting on the differences between types of stem cells, what they can do, possibly cure, and make our lives longer and better. Instead they talk about killing clusters of a dozen cells as the main issue. If the media wants to talk about the ethics that is fine, just present the science first so people can see the context.

I am not mad I am SCARED FOR MY LIFE. I would also like to pigeon hole myself into a humanist movement ?transhumanism?. We believe that technology is close to the point where humanity needs to start transitioning to a new way of life. The current world is not sustainable. One of the main changes that we forecast is the defeating of the aging process. Aubrey de Grey is one of the most public proponents to defeating aging. His proposal is called SENS, Strategies for Engineering Negligible Senescence (www.sens.org). We do not need to cure aging now, we just need to expand the average lifespan by more then 1 year ever year. A challenge you to research the current science on aging research and do a column about it and what it might entail to life and religion. I think it could really help you and your readers understand the atheist position.

Thanks for your time.

Yes, atheists can get angry when they hear people like Rabbi Gellman purport tired sterotypes of atheists being “angry at God” or as all existentialists who value nothing and hope for nothing.

Rabbi Gellman,

In your column ?Trying to Understand Angry Atheists?, I found myself agreeing with you for the first few lines, becoming slightly annoyed at the assumptions made about both atheism and religion in the middle, and finally rolling my eyes at the whole piece. In the interest of brevity, I won?t debate every point, even though I do disagree with most of them. I would, however, like to challenge your most egregious assumption.

You wrote: ?To be called to a level of goodness and sacrifice so constantly and so patiently by a loving but demanding God may seem like a naive demand to achieve what is only a remote human possibility. However, such a vision need not be seen as a red flag to those who believe nothing.?

Atheists don?t believe in nothing. We just believe in one less god than you do. Other than this one area, however, I suspect that you and I ?believe? mostly the same things ? family, education, freedom, fairness, etc.

I?m interested to know, however, where you?re finding this loving, patient, good God. I admit that I know little about Judaism, but my basic understanding is that the Tanakh roughly corresponds to the Christian Old Testament (see ?Judaism 101? at http://www.jewfaq.org/torah.htm).

In 1 Samuel, God commands total genocide of the Amalekites, even going so far as to specify that the Israelites slaughter all infants, children, and livestock. In Joshua, God orders and assists in the genocide of the inhabitants of Jericho. In Numbers, it?s the Midianites? turn. In Judges, the Spirit of the Lord empowers Samson to kill 1,000 people. In 2 Kings, God has bears maul 42 kids for calling a prophet bald. In Deuteronomy 21, God explains the lawful way to rape a beautiful woman.

There?s a lot more, but you get the idea. Is this the loving, patient God you speak of? Or is God maybe like an abusive father who is good most of the time, but occasionally gets drunk and beats his wife and kids? And how is belief in this ? or some other ? enigmatic being a prerequisite for ?disciplining our animal urges??

Best regards,
Bob

Yes I am an angry atheist and I will tell you why.
Religion is used to enshrine discrimination into law in the USA with religious arguments being used to deny gays and les_bians marriage equality. There are no compelling secular arguments to deny us marriage but religious objections are cited as reason for this blatant discrimination.
I am angry that here in North Carolina religious arguments denied us a state lottery until just recently. Tens of millions of dollars were lost to the surrounding states and the lost revenue was made up in higher taxes.
I am angry that churches and other religious institutions are tax exempt yet my tax dollars go to support public services that benefit these organizations.
I am angry that every time I open my wallet I am confronted with a motto which does not reflect the beliefs of every American. In god some of us trust but not all. Also, the phrase “One nation, under god” does not reflect my worldview. What was wrong with the Latin motto “E Pluribus Unum/Out of Many, One”? This is secular and more inclusive of the American ideal.
I am angry that religious objections stifle science and technology. The debate over teaching evolution, the hostility and intimidation of the current administration towards science when it disagrees with national policy, and the backward direction that science and technology is taking in this country scares me.
I am angry that religious considerations dictate when and where I may purchase alcohol.
I am angry that much of my childhood was taken from me becasue of religiously sanctioned homophobic attitiudes. The amount of time I wasted trying to change my core identity and not being open and honest with those I love I can never regain. The lost oppurtunities in my early life to find love will never present themselves again. These same attitudes result directly in the battery, murder, and suicide of gays and les_bians everyday.
As you can see I am angry and rightfully so.
Alex.

and ps its funny how many of you guys get pissed at phreedm saying he never adds any thing but didnt he drop the link on the last thread

http://wrightwing.net/2006/04/28/15/04/272

Not bad, if I say so myself.

Mr. Gellman,

Your column on April 26 is so incredibly flawed; I don?t even know where to begin. In the interests of brevity, I will only address the most egregious of them.

First, not all atheists are angry, and few cling to existential despair. In fact, most atheists aren?t even recognized as atheist unless they ?out? themselves. So let?s just stop with the wild stereotyping. It?s not at all becoming.

Atheists also believe in all sorts of things, just not the god concept. So please quit tying to portray us as pathetic creatures doomed to tragic, empty lives. I, for one, happen to have a wonderful life, free from the fear of a vengeful, infantile deity. So, again, stop with the stereotyping.

I also find it interesting that your litany of motivations for becoming an atheist, not one wasn?t emotionally based. Did you not think, even for a moment, that someone could accept atheism based on methodical, rational investigation? That maybe, just maybe, the atheist found -in atheism- the most reasonable explanation for reality?

Perhaps next time you write column, you may want to do more research than consulting your personal stereotypes and flawed assumptions. There are a number of internet forums that cater to atheists (Secular Web Forum at infidels.org is an excellent example). Surely you could observe their behavior, and ask them why they?re just so darn angry all the time.

In conclusion, I leave you with this piece of wisdom:

?If you don’t know what you’re talking about, shut up.? ? Haladineth (fstdt.com)

Sincerely,

****Real Name****, one of many Proud Atheists

PS ? If you don?t know why atheists complain about living next door to evangelical Christians, it?s because some (you should become acquainted with this word) don?t know when to quit proselytizing.

A little mean, but hey, a little rhetoric gets the message through.

Swintah