just a quick question, for the atheists

[MrsBucketxx]

I have just came. across a facebook page, of a christian woman, who was against tattoos and making. all sorts of realy off the wall comments and being. offensive and sometimes really funny (not intentionally)

and it got me to thinking are there any really odd atheists (famous etc) that ram their point of view at you like that.

or do we not realize as they ate just seen as generally nutty not spiritually nutty?

ducks and awaits flaming**

A fair question, but it may not work because while there will be lots of atheists who are funny/odd/offensive they mostly won't be linking it to their atheism. As you say you don't realise people are atheists - unless they are one of the few famous names.

I might be one if I were famous or if you had a camera on me when something religious comes on the TV and I start to rant. I'm pretty sure that my suggestions about the pope for example would be sometimes funny, often illegal and always anatomically impossible. There's usually a rush to change channels or cover the kids ears.

On average I reckon a religious person with an odd opinion backed by their church is more likely to be forceful about it than an individual atheist. "God says you should stick a carrot in your ear on Wednesdays" kind of thing.

I think the distinction is that a person like that will likely be saying "As a Christian I know incontrovertibly that all people with tattoos are evil" when in fact it has very little to do with her religion, and is just an extreme view that she has personally taken and is justifying with religion.

People are much less likely to say "As an atheist I believe ", because atheism doesn't come with any baggage like that, whereas religion has had a lot of practice at judging things and attaching religious significance to them, and you can nearly always find people who will give a spurious religious justification for their unpleasant views.

You sure it wasn't a spoof/parody account? There's a lot of similar type accounts on Twitter also to.

no seems pretty serious, how its allowed I dont know.

There are obviously some insane, bizarre, whacky people out there who aren't religious, but I'd echo the above comments that people don't do crazy things in the name of atheism.

Whilst it's not usually used to make this particular point, I think it sort of fits in to ask the infamous questions oft posed by the late, great Christopher Hitchens:

1. Name an ethical statement made or an action performed by a believer that could not have been made or performed by a non-believer.

1. Now name a wicked statement made, or an evil action performed by a believer, precisely because of their religious faith.

Chances are the 2nd question was pretty easy to answer several times over, but the first, not so much.

The only thing atheists generally have in common is that they don't believe in gods. So just as there are smug, obnoxious, kind, irritating, pompous, wonderful Christians, Buddhists, Muslims and Jews there are the same sorts of people represented in the subset 'Atheist'. So yes, there are bound to be.

I feel a Venn diagram coming on....

I don't have to do anything because I am an atheist apart from know that there are no gods. There are no other entry requirements. So while I am capable of being weird, odd and obnoxious, it's not because I am an atheist.