Many people are hesitant to identify as atheists because of the social stigma they may face, making it hard to pinpoint connections and differences among this group.
We're not afraid to come out, we just don't talk about it because religion isn't important to us and we don't feel compelled to have everyone believe in the same thing as us.
It's like disliking avocado and telling everyone you meet that you don't like avocado. Telling someone something you're not isn't a character trait, so there's no reason to bring it up.
Unless of course it's a defense against people pushing their beliefs on you.
One of the things that makes people dislike atheists is the tendency of atheists to mock other people's beliefs. Things like the flying spaghetti monster, noodley appendages, etc, are atheist inventions designed to make fun of other people's beliefs.
You have the right to make these kinds of jokes, but other people have the right to not like you for making jokes that are mocking them. But without the mean spirited memes, there's nothing else that atheists have going on and communities like this wouldn't exist.
Right, it's not like there aren't billions and billions of religious nutters out there. I mean I don't see aethiests killing people for believing in a fairy god monster and yet if you said you're an atheist in Saudia Araiba etc you'd be killed. The fuck sort of tolerating intolerace is that?
Aethiets are pushing up not down, mocking people for believing in fairy tales seems a very sensible reaction ? especially when they inevitably double down on their nonsense.
And their right to tell people that their immoral and going to hell gives atheists the right to mock them.
And you’re also entirely wrong about atheist groups only existing for making memes. I’ve seen many conversations in atheist communities that are people discussing religion, the motivation to hold a belief, metaphysics and epistemological theories, history, biology, physics, anthropology and so on. People in other atheist communities (eg ex-Christian, ex-Muslim) do that as well.
I have to think you know little to nothing about the topic.
"One of the things that makes people dislike religious folk is the tendency of believers to destroy entire relationships over violating dogma, breaking families and refusing to support children."
...which is to say, let's not clutch our pearls over jokes, especially those made by communities that are often very scarred by religious abuse. "Punching up" isn't the problem here.
Have you ever heard how religionists talk about atheists? I respect the right of people to believe whatever they believe, but I don't have to respect their actual ridiculous beliefs. Bringing up the FSM, which is specifically aimed at dismantling the absurdism of creationism, is pretty funny. Are you a creationist? My dad was a real Christian minister, and while I don't believe as he did, I would never mock his actual Christian beliefs. But I'll mock the idiotic beliefs of fake-Christian creationists any time I tell like it.