Cancer also makes you lose weight, but in the end it still kills you.
/u/Ninesrs, you do realise cancer does not spread? If they are happy with their "cancer" there is no reason for you and your fellow enlightened prodigies to pretend to give a shit.
But religion does spread, at the very least it's hereditary. It's a memetic virus that's engineered to be spread by it's carrier. The worst offenders are even designed to be contagious, through vectors like proselytization.
Religion does spread, at the very least it's hereditary. It's a memetic virus that's engineered to be spread by it's carrier. The worst offenders are even designed to be contagious, through vectors like proselytization.
You know how sociologists occasionally use biological terms and sound like idiots?
What is it with evolutionary biologists and atheism. I've personally dealt with the cancer that is PZ Meyers, and he seemed to be a euphoric fedora tipper first and a researcher second.
Which explains why he's still an associate professor. Cause he's an insufferable jagoff.
Ad hominem or not. Doesn't change the fact that he's a fucking twit.
I'm not trying to actually make an argument here. I'm simply stating the fact that most evolutionary biologists could be replaced by a pull 'n say and a clustering algorithm.
I saw the OP right after it was posted, and decided to hold back.
It's a shitty thing to equate religious belief with mental illness. One of the indicators of a mental illness is that it prevents a person from living a normal life in some way. Religious belief doesn't fit that description.
Mental illness and religion often come as a package, but it's the mental illness that drives the over-the-top religious behavior, not the religion driving the mental illness.
The reason some people on /r/atheism like to fatuously equate the two things is that they want (intentionally or ironically) for the stigma of mental illness to attach to ordinary non-crazy religious belief.
There are a lot of people working very hard to remove that stigma, and mentally ill people have a hard enough life without being trivialized so some asshole can make a shitty point on /r/atheism.
One of the indicators of a mental illness is that it prevents a person from living a normal life in some way. Religious belief doesn't fit that description.
Uhh, okay. How many religions forbid masturbation -- a completely normal human behavior? How many forbid same-sex behavior or otherwise denigrate LGBTs? (The answer is, a lot of them).
So yes, it does "fit that description," even if, thankfully for the rest of us, most people don't quite so literally follow their faith -- or, less thankfully, continue the normal human behavior while simultaneously internalizing the religious prohibitions as shame, guilt, cognitive dissonance, etc.
I wouldn't call religious belief a "mental illness," but it's at best benign, and at worst, profoundly destructive.
It's shitty for mentally ill people whose everyday life is a struggle against inner demons they can't control, and it furthers the stigma associated with mental illness.
It's a shitty thing to do, and backfilling a fatuous justification for it doesn't change that.
Just to flip this on its head a bit, but I wonder how much easier mental illness would be to deal with if there was no social stigma, which is the case with religion (having a religion anyway, specific religions obviously have varying degrees of stigma in different cultures).
A mental illness prevents a person from being able to function in some important way. Most of them know they are having problems but can't overcome them. Losing the stigma would make it easier for them to get help/sympathy/etc. from friends, family and public infrastructure. But it won't stop the debilitating effects of the disease.
Religion is normal behavior. People going to church are having normal lives. Normal includes both atheists and theists, satanists and zoroastrians and shintoists and christians, etc. They can make plans, have fun, do things, set and achieve goals, prosper, make progress at dealing with life.
A mental illness is something that prevents some or all of those things from being acheivable.
It's all fun and games to throw mud at people you don't like. The problem here is that the mud does collateral damage to people whose lives are already living nightmares (to some degree or another).
Uhh, okay. How many religions forbid, say, masturbation -- a completely normal human behavior? How many forbid same-sex behavior or otherwise denigrate LGBTs? (The answer is, a lot of them).
Not jacking it and hating gays are both normal, social behaviors. You can make the case for the latter being morally repugnant, but as history will show you plenty of people capable of functioning in society hated homosexuals.
The reason some people on /r/atheism like to fatuously equate the two things is that they want (intentionally or ironically) for the stigma of mental illness to attach to ordinary non-crazy religious belief.
Remember, these are 13 year olds butthurt from their moms dragging them to church. You can't expect rational thought from them, much less understanding the actual definition of mental illness.
One of the indicators of a mental illness is that it prevents a person from living a normal life in some way.
Which is a very subjective and context-sensitive indicator. Different civilizations and different ages have trouble finding common ground on what is mental illness. Some people push for gender disphoria to be not considered a mental illness (because suicidal tendencies and unreasonable discomfort apparently don't prevent a normal life), some want to stretch the definition of sociopathic to the point it includes normal rude behaviour.
Religious belief doesn't fit that description.
Even ignoring fanaticism, one could argue that the idea that one's actions are always being watched and evaluated based on some arbitrary rules would put a lot of stress on the psyche and cause abnormal behaviour
It's weird how different Reddit is to how it was six or so years ago. Now a comment with the lightest criticism of a religion gets 30 "fedoras" thrown at it like some weird 1920's Harley Quinn striptease.
I like to imagine that if everyone got to use a time machine once, a lot of people who get worked up over that sub would use it to go back in time just to call Nietzsche an edgelord and disappear quickly into a poof of smoke.
53 comments
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n/a Stuntman119 2017-03-07
/u/Ninesrs, you do realise cancer does not spread? If they are happy with their "cancer" there is no reason for you and your fellow enlightened prodigies to pretend to give a shit.
n/a Fiery1Phoenix 2017-03-07
r/atheism is the real cancer
n/a Sarcastic_Phil_Ochs 2017-03-07
I thought it was /r/TrueAtheism
n/a NinesRS 2017-03-07
But religion does spread, at the very least it's hereditary. It's a memetic virus that's engineered to be spread by it's carrier. The worst offenders are even designed to be contagious, through vectors like proselytization.
n/a cruelandusual 2017-03-07
You're not wrong, you're just an asshole.
Which makes you both right and more fun than all these triggered snowflakes.
n/a YourGayOpinion 2017-03-07
The worst offenders are even designed to be contagious, through vectors like JIHAD MOTHERFUCKER ALLAHU AKBAR!
n/a MRB2012 2017-03-07
You know how sociologists occasionally use biological terms and sound like idiots?
n/a NinesRS 2017-03-07
Take that up with Richard Dawkins, that's a paraphrasing of his verbiage. He's an evolutionary biologist, btw.
n/a Lumene 2017-03-07
What is it with evolutionary biologists and atheism. I've personally dealt with the cancer that is PZ Meyers, and he seemed to be a euphoric fedora tipper first and a researcher second.
Which explains why he's still an associate professor. Cause he's an insufferable jagoff.
n/a NinesRS 2017-03-07
Ad hominem.
n/a Works_of_memercy 2017-03-07
:')
n/a Lumene 2017-03-07
Ad hominem or not. Doesn't change the fact that he's a fucking twit.
I'm not trying to actually make an argument here. I'm simply stating the fact that most evolutionary biologists could be replaced by a pull 'n say and a clustering algorithm.
n/a yetanothercfcgrunt 2017-03-07
You know how there's such a thing as metaphor?
n/a taterbizkit 2017-03-07
I saw the OP right after it was posted, and decided to hold back.
It's a shitty thing to equate religious belief with mental illness. One of the indicators of a mental illness is that it prevents a person from living a normal life in some way. Religious belief doesn't fit that description.
Mental illness and religion often come as a package, but it's the mental illness that drives the over-the-top religious behavior, not the religion driving the mental illness.
The reason some people on /r/atheism like to fatuously equate the two things is that they want (intentionally or ironically) for the stigma of mental illness to attach to ordinary non-crazy religious belief.
There are a lot of people working very hard to remove that stigma, and mentally ill people have a hard enough life without being trivialized so some asshole can make a shitty point on /r/atheism.
(nb: I'm an atheist and a regular at /r/atheism)
n/a Fiery1Phoenix 2017-03-07
Atheists and big word users need to be burned at the stake.
n/a taterbizkit 2017-03-07
Probably true, if you use theists for kindling.
n/a Fiery1Phoenix 2017-03-07
Tolerant left
n/a yetanothercfcgrunt 2017-03-07
What.
n/a DannyLee90 2017-03-07
What.
n/a Invalid_Target 2017-03-07
tolerant right.
n/a Shandracks 2017-03-07
Uhh, okay. How many religions forbid masturbation -- a completely normal human behavior? How many forbid same-sex behavior or otherwise denigrate LGBTs? (The answer is, a lot of them).
So yes, it does "fit that description," even if, thankfully for the rest of us, most people don't quite so literally follow their faith -- or, less thankfully, continue the normal human behavior while simultaneously internalizing the religious prohibitions as shame, guilt, cognitive dissonance, etc.
I wouldn't call religious belief a "mental illness," but it's at best benign, and at worst, profoundly destructive.
n/a taterbizkit 2017-03-07
I'm not going to argue the point.
It's shitty for mentally ill people whose everyday life is a struggle against inner demons they can't control, and it furthers the stigma associated with mental illness.
It's a shitty thing to do, and backfilling a fatuous justification for it doesn't change that.
n/a cdimino 2017-03-07
Just to flip this on its head a bit, but I wonder how much easier mental illness would be to deal with if there was no social stigma, which is the case with religion (having a religion anyway, specific religions obviously have varying degrees of stigma in different cultures).
n/a taterbizkit 2017-03-07
That's the whole point I'm making, though.
A mental illness prevents a person from being able to function in some important way. Most of them know they are having problems but can't overcome them. Losing the stigma would make it easier for them to get help/sympathy/etc. from friends, family and public infrastructure. But it won't stop the debilitating effects of the disease.
Religion is normal behavior. People going to church are having normal lives. Normal includes both atheists and theists, satanists and zoroastrians and shintoists and christians, etc. They can make plans, have fun, do things, set and achieve goals, prosper, make progress at dealing with life.
A mental illness is something that prevents some or all of those things from being acheivable.
It's all fun and games to throw mud at people you don't like. The problem here is that the mud does collateral damage to people whose lives are already living nightmares (to some degree or another).
n/a MRB2012 2017-03-07
Not jacking it and hating gays are both normal, social behaviors. You can make the case for the latter being morally repugnant, but as history will show you plenty of people capable of functioning in society hated homosexuals.
n/a MRB2012 2017-03-07
Remember, these are 13 year olds butthurt from their moms dragging them to church. You can't expect rational thought from them, much less understanding the actual definition of mental illness.
n/a SpectroSpecter 2017-03-07
bro why you gotta bait middle schoolers
it's like challenging a glass vase to a fight
n/a old_grumpy_grandpa 2017-03-07
Which is a very subjective and context-sensitive indicator. Different civilizations and different ages have trouble finding common ground on what is mental illness. Some people push for gender disphoria to be not considered a mental illness (because suicidal tendencies and unreasonable discomfort apparently don't prevent a normal life), some want to stretch the definition of sociopathic to the point it includes normal rude behaviour.
Even ignoring fanaticism, one could argue that the idea that one's actions are always being watched and evaluated based on some arbitrary rules would put a lot of stress on the psyche and cause abnormal behaviour
n/a mmzznnxx 2017-03-07
It's weird how different Reddit is to how it was six or so years ago. Now a comment with the lightest criticism of a religion gets 30 "fedoras" thrown at it like some weird 1920's Harley Quinn striptease.
I like to imagine that if everyone got to use a time machine once, a lot of people who get worked up over that sub would use it to go back in time just to call Nietzsche an edgelord and disappear quickly into a poof of smoke.
n/a Fiery1Phoenix 2017-03-07
Burn at the stake
n/a AHackFraud 2017-03-07
this but unironically
n/a Fiery1Phoenix 2017-03-07
Burn at the stake
n/a AHackFraud 2017-03-07
this but ironically
n/a Fiery1Phoenix 2017-03-07
What kind of moron are you?
n/a Nazi_Frogs 2017-03-07
Because people mature a lot in six or so years, and the kind of shit you find deep or smart in your teens doesn't always stay so when you get older.
n/a nmx179 2017-03-07
Shitposting "dur hur fedoras" isn't maturity.
n/a Nazi_Frogs 2017-03-07
You can't equate someone who thinks they're making a smart point to someone just laughing at a retard for fun.
n/a Imgur_Lurker 2017-03-07
It's maturity compared to being a /r/Atheism Poster
n/a DannyLee90 2017-03-07
gottem
n/a SpectroSpecter 2017-03-07
After a decade of trying and failing to get single-minded edgelords to do anything but jack each other off, most people rightfully stop trying
Is treating the AI in goldeneye 64 disrespectfully immature?
n/a shadowbanned2 2017-03-07
kek atheists are suh le easily le triggered fundies XD
n/a donaldthelion 2017-03-07
When the mayocide comes I think we need to start with r/athiesm
n/a pointmanzero 2017-03-07
I have ZERO respect for people who believe in nonsense like talking snakes.
ZERO. No respect at all.
I consider them human, but barely.
n/a Fiery1Phoenix 2017-03-07
Burn subhuman satanist whitey trash
n/a point_shaver 2017-03-07
Not my fault they make excellent fuel.
n/a Fiery1Phoenix 2017-03-07
Whiteys?
n/a point_shaver 2017-03-07
Yes.
n/a tHeSiD 2017-03-07
Jews needed gas to reach ignition temperatures.. Whites don't even need that. Put them in the sun for an hour and you are done.
n/a pointmanzero 2017-03-07
I just asked satan to give you cancer, thats how magic works right?
n/a Fiery1Phoenix 2017-03-07
No, satan is the product of a western colonialist imperialist religion
n/a pointmanzero 2017-03-07
I support Western imperialism
n/a YourGayOpinion 2017-03-07
Western imperialism is the greatest thing in human history.
n/a pointmanzero 2017-03-07
Continuing Mankind's mission. Uniting human clans. Until there is only one. The dream of Alexander. The dream of Rome. The dream of all of us.
Western imperialism gave us Disneyland I rest my case
n/a YourGayOpinion 2017-03-07
Senatus Populus Que Americanus
n/a yetanothercfcgrunt 2017-03-07
You're not funny.
n/a Fiery1Phoenix 2017-03-07
Im not joking
n/a concernedparent1234 2017-03-07
found /u/aalewis's alt
that's a professional level quote.
n/a techmaster2001 2017-03-07
religion is cancer