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Quote# 89792

Is there really such a thing as an utterly authentic atheist? I think so. I have a dreadful feeling that there exists a sort of human sub-species who have lost their spiritual capacity completely. These authentic atheists do not profess belief in God, nor even disbelief. Instead they seem entirely deaf to such ideas. They do not hate the Church or say the Bible is a fairy tale. They do not spit out bigoted remarks that blame the Pope for the holocaust or missionaries for murder. They do not attack the arguments for the existence of God, say the universe is random, or call Rick Warren a simpleton. They do not rage against God, any more than someone born blind has dreams in color. These are the authentic atheists. They plod through life eating, working, shopping, breeding and sleeping, and God never seems to flit across their consciousness. Members of this sub-species may be sparkling sophisticates or ill-bred boors. They may be the decent and moral folks next door, or they could be despicable murderers. In a frightful way, it doesn’t matter. If they exist, perhaps they have bred and spread like the alien bodysnatchers, and exist in our midst like spiritual zombies—indistinguishable in the teeming mass of humanity except to those few who see them and tremble.

Dwight Longenecker , Pharyngula 62 Comments [9/27/2012 3:34:23 AM]
Fundie Index: 65
Submitted By: Tolpuddle Martyr
WTF?! || meh
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#1451814
Cid Highwind

First way to make attacking someone easier: dehumanize them. Just what this douchebag does by calling "authentic atheists" a "human sub-species" and "spiritual zombies". Arse.

9/27/2012 3:40:13 AM
#1451820
Canadia

I think you'll find that "dreadful feeling" is not one based in reality.

9/27/2012 3:47:55 AM
#1451821
Oh My Dog!

perhaps they have bred and spread like the alien bodysnatchers

Your getting dangerously close to the truth, be very careful. Tell no one what you know.

9/27/2012 3:49:06 AM
#1451854
Diatryma

Hrr. See me and tremble. Hrrr.

9/27/2012 4:20:10 AM
#1451856
UHM

Apatheism. That's the word you're searching for.

9/27/2012 4:23:31 AM
#1451858
Filin De Blanc

Sounds like this guy has been watching too many horror movies late at night.

9/27/2012 4:25:44 AM
#1451862
Deez

"They plod through life eating, working, shopping, breeding and sleeping..."

"...may be sparkling sophisticates or ill-bred boors. They may be the decent and moral folks next door, or they could be despicable murderers."

Congratulations, you just described all of humanity.

9/27/2012 4:29:46 AM
#1451867
Dyz

I actually met an apatheist once. Not a sparkling sophisticate nor an ill-bred boor. Just a lot of unused potential wasted on watching TV.

9/27/2012 4:31:59 AM
#1451872
David B.

"They do not rage against God, any more than someone born blind has dreams in color. These are the authentic atheists. They plod through life eating, working, shopping, breeding and sleeping, and God never seems to flit across their consciousness."

The lucky, lucky bastards!

Which paragon of secularity do they live in, these fortunate folks who are not bombarded daily with religious nonsense, or lambasted for not sharing an imaginary friend with the majority?

9/27/2012 4:35:37 AM
#1451875
Leighton Buzzard

Well, if it doesn't matter, what are you whining about?

9/27/2012 4:36:31 AM
#1451884
dionysus

They do not hate the Church or say the Bible is a fairy tale. They do not spit out bigoted remarks that blame the Pope for the holocaust or missionaries for murder. They do not attack the arguments for the existence of God, say the universe is random, or call Rick Warren a simpleton. They do not rage against God, any more than someone born blind has dreams in color. These are the authentic atheists. They plod through life eating, working, shopping, breeding and sleeping, and God never seems to flit across their consciousness.

Isn't that what you want? Atheists that never challenge your beliefs and just leave you to your fantasies? I swear, you fundies will find a reason to complain about ANYTHING. I'd pay $1 million if I could have fundies just mind their own business like these "authentic" atheists.

9/27/2012 4:47:18 AM
#1451886
Lezemotu

Sometimes I wish that could be me. but there are always fundies pissing me off.

9/27/2012 4:48:33 AM
#1451890
whatever

I suspect very few such people exist. Stuff about God is so much part of World culture it's impossible to escape from.

@Lezemotu

You've hit the nail on the head!

9/27/2012 4:50:43 AM
#1451900
Adey

"lurch", "lurch".
"Weez cum fur yur brianz."

Damn, there's none here,someone has already eaten them. Must be the Zombie Jesus.


9/27/2012 5:02:24 AM
#1451901
Leighton Buzzard

@ whatever

I don't know so much. Outside this place and talk.origins, where all I'm doing is laughing at loonies, thoughts or speech about gods don't enter my life hardly at all. I have friends and colleagues who are all religions and none, but they don't bring it up unless I ask. In fact, I have a number of friends, let alone colleagues, I don't know what their beliefs are at all.

9/27/2012 5:02:47 AM
#1451902
Doubting Thomas

So would it make you feel better if all atheists were vocally attacking the church and the idea of God?

9/27/2012 5:03:18 AM
#1451903
anevilmeme

Wait, what?

So now atheists that don't get in your face and challenge your beliefs are now subhuman zombies????

Seriously is there anything you people won't bitch about??

9/27/2012 5:07:21 AM
#1451908
whatever

@Leighton Buzzard
But you visit FSTDT every day, just like I do... so you are in a World where God's existence or non-existence is constantly on the table. The same goes for everyone who visits here regularly.

Think back to childhood. If you are in the UK (which I suspect you are... correct me if I'm wrong) then Christianity would have been all around you at school. That was certainly the case at my primary school. The headmaster was a strict fundy from the Western Isles, and he used to subject us to loads of Bible readings and prayers every Monday during assembly. I didn't mind. I found the stories enjoyable, but I didn't really give much personal consideration to the reality of God in my own personal life at that time. However, most people do at some time or other.

9/27/2012 5:13:59 AM
#1451925
farpadokly

Depends what you mean by "spiritual". You could take it to mean, whatever isn't covered by daily needs, or whatever is beyond the material. Here are some examples of these things: Love, art, pleasure, empathy, solidarity, compassion. Are there people who are entirely without these? If there are, then it's a tragedy, as this guy says. But we have to ascribe that tragedy, as always, to a specific social and systemic cause, to the totality.
And it's a fallacy, a false dichotomy, to say that one must either be a base materialist, with no notion of the finer and nobler things in life, or else a blindly obedient and ignorant theist, in thrall to some dogma or other. What about the existentialists? Distrustful of science and dogmatic materialism, but carving out their own meaning in life? It's nonsense to suggest that one must either be in thrall to some hierarchy, or spiritually empty. And by "spiritual" I don't mean so much belief in a spirit, as an appreciation that there is more to life than materialism, like an appreciation of the qualitative, experiential, emotional richness of life, experienced through love and art and compassion and solidarity.

9/27/2012 5:40:56 AM
#1451934
Mister Spak

"I have a dreadful feeling that there exists a sort of human sub-species who have lost their spiritual capacity completely. They may be the decent and moral folks next door, or they could be despicable murderers. In a frightful way, it doesn’t matter. If they exist, perhaps they have bred and spread like the alien bodysnatchers, and exist in our midst like spiritual zombies—indistinguishable in the teeming mass of humanity except to those few who see them and tremble."

R'LYEH CTHULHU FTHAGN! IA! IA! CTHULHU FTHAGN!CTHULHU FTHAGN! PH'NGLUI MGLW'NFAH CTHULHU R'LYEH WGAH'NAGL FHTAGN! IA! IA! CTHULHU FTHAGN! PH'NGLUI MGLW'NFAH CTHULHU R'LYEH WGAH'NAGL FHTAGN!
IA! IA! CTHULHU FTHAGN!
IA! IA! CTHULHU FTHAGN!
CTHULHU R'LYEH WGAH'NAGL FHTAGN! CTHULHU FTHAGN! PH'NGLUI MGLW'NFAH CTHULHU R'LYEH WGAH'NAGL FHTAGN! PH'NGLUI MGLW"NAFH CTHULHU R'LYEH WGAH'NAGL FHTAGN
IA! IA! CTHULHU FTHAGN!
IA! IA! CTHULHU FTHAGN!
CTHULHU FTHAGN! PH'NGLUI MGLW'NFAH CTHULHU R'LYEH WGAH'NAGL FHTAGN!
FHTAGN!

9/27/2012 5:49:08 AM
#1451964
Sentry Gun

Those authentic atheists like you say, are people that see your worldview as totally cut out from reality, and don't even try to argue with your sorry deluded ass.

Atheists activists still have hopes for you. Or try not to let you fuck up the world depending in which country they live.

9/27/2012 6:12:43 AM
#1451972
OhJohnNo

I don't really know what to say about this. One could take it as either a sign of batshit insanity or proof that fear really is the most subjective emotion in the world.

9/27/2012 6:23:50 AM
#1451982


Congratulations, Dwight, you've just described agnostics.

Well, except for the sub-human part. For that, I would like to say on behalf of my fellow agnostics... Fuck you with rusty razors.

9/27/2012 6:32:01 AM
#1452011
Veras_the_Brujah

@anevilmeme

He's saying that people who are aggressively atheistic (or even realize that some people are theists) are not true atheists. They just hate God.

9/27/2012 7:18:28 AM
#1452033
Sharon Young

Can't tell if he's dehumanizing agnostics, apatheists or both.
If it's the first, that offends me personally.
If it's the second, that's just as offensive.
Either way, this is just... just...
You should be trembling.

9/27/2012 8:10:38 AM
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