I am addicted to Reddit.com. If you haven’t heard of it, it
is basically a website where users submit links to share with the world. The
links can be sad, funny, serious, stupid, political, religious, etc. Within
Reddit are “subreddits,” which host links that cater to certain audiences. For
instance, there is r/Gaming for video gamers, r/Politics for government nerds
like me, r/Nosleep for those who like scary stories, and many others. There is
one subreddit, however, that just doesn’t sit right with me. It’s called
r/Atheism, and it’s exactly what it sounds like plus some.
Usually I don’t have a problem with atheists or agnostics,
but some of the links on r/Atheism are just plain insulting and some of the
users are straight-up bigots. Instead of talking about secular subjects (like
perhaps public policy, scientific theories, or whatnot), they dedicate their
time to bash and belittle anything religious with snarky and insulting
messages. They generalize the entire Christian community by focusing on religious
lunatics and non-mainstream Christian groups. In my eyes, this group of users
is a bunch of bullies; they try to make themselves look smarter and better than
everyone else by trying to break the spirits of everyone else.
Don’t believe me? Check out this picture that was posted 15
hours ago on r/Atheism and has gotten 565 up-votes since:
This is insulting because this guy thought that religious
people were simpletons before visiting the site, and now he wants to avoid them
like he’s afraid of them. Religious people aren’t idiots and we shouldn’t be
feared, or avoided, or whatever that Yao Ming face means. R/Atheism creates
bigots and this is an example of such an instance.
So, instead of bashing people of faith, why don't these people talk about useful and productive things? I know some religious groups give Christians/Muslims/etc a bad name, but you're not doing any favors for the reasonable atheists' and agnostics' name, either.
If you want to check it out for yourself, here’s the link: http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism
It is quite sad how common it has become for others to react in a belittling way toward Christians. If you disagree with another's personal point of view, then be constructive with your arguments, not insulting; it's just poor taste.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you. It would be nice if it was a constructive way for them to talk about being atheist without bringing something negative to people who are religious. Hoever, I think that we had it coming at least a bit because of how some people who are religions talk about atheists and agnostics. I'm okay with people who do not share my beliefs, but I do not try to force my beliefs on them, which is I think what they are trying to attack here. While I do not like their approach for this topic, and agree that it is lacking taste, I can understand why they did it.
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