Atheism and arrogance

The atheist Friedrich Nietzsche wrote: "But now God is dead. You superior men, this God was your greatest danger. Only since he is in the grave, have you risen again. Only now comes the great noontide; only now the superior man will be – Lord!".

The picture of Nietzsche above was taken in 1899. Nietzsche died in 1900.

The atheist Adam Lee wrote:

“

The atheist community has a lamentable tendency to make the same mistakes over and over... Yet there are those who seem to believe that, just by becoming an atheist, they've proven their superior rationality and are qualified to opine on any subject. Worse, this attitude often comes with an arrogant certainty that they have no need to listen or learn from people who've actually lived through moral dilemmas that are merely abstract to them.

”

The atheist activist Lee Moore said about the future of the atheist movement and its significant issues with in-fighting, "We're all kind of like self-centered and egocentrical atheists." See also: Atheist factions and Atheism and social skills

One of the common and well-founded charges against atheists is their arrogance and presumptuousness.

Why atheism is an arrogant ideology

See also: Atheism and presumptuousness and Atheism and irrationality and Rebuttals to atheist arguments and Atheism and intolerance and Atheism and apathy

Atheism, as defined by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and other philosophy reference works, is the denial of the existence of God (see also: Definition of atheism).

Atheists lack proof and evidence that God does not exist and ignore the clear and abundant proof and evidence that He does exist. The logician Mortimer Adler pointed out that atheism asserts an unreasonable universal negative that is self-defeating.

Contrary to the mistaken notion of individuals who are inexperienced in logic/philosophy, there are plenty of cases where universal negatives can be proven. However, atheists' universal negative claim that God does not exist is not a reasonable universal negative claim. Given their limited understanding of the vast expanse of the universe/reality, atheists unconvincingly pretend to have godlike powers when they claim to know God does not exist. See also: Attempts to dilute the definition of atheism

The popular Christian YouTube video maker Shockofgod created an uproar when he asked the atheist community the question, "What proof and evidence do you have that atheism is accurate and correct?"

Study relating the arrogance of New Atheists and the discovery of errors by the New Atheists

The new atheist Richard Dawkins

See also: New Atheism, dogmatism and Jonathon Haidt's study

Using special text analysis software, the social psychologist Jonathan Haidt found that New Atheists very often wrote in dogmatic terms in their major works using words such as “always,” “never,” “certainly,” “every,” and “undeniable.” Of the 75,000 words in Sam Harris's The End of Faith, 2.24% of them connote or are associated with certainty.

Errors in the works of New Atheists

See also: Atheism and narcissism

The works of New Atheists often betray an amateurish knowledge of philosophy/religion. For example, atheist philosopher Dr. Michael Ruse declared concerning Richard Dawkins' book The God Delusion: "The God Delusion makes me embarrassed to be an atheist." Vox Day's book The Irrational atheist found multiple errors in reasoning and factual errors when it came to the works of New Atheist authors. See also: Richard Dawkins and pseudoscience

Social science research indicates that anti-theists score the highest among atheists when it comes to personality traits such as narcissism, dogmatism, and anger. Furthermore, they scored lowest when it comes to agreeableness and positive relations with others.

Atheist philosopher John Gray on the dogmatic arrogance of Richard Dawkins

See also: Richard Dawkins' cult of personality and Atheism is a religion

The economist Tomáš Sedláček (left) and the atheist philosopher John Gray (right) at ZURICH.MINDS 2012

In a 2014 New Republic article entitled The Closed Mind of Richard Dawkins: His atheism is its own kind of narrow religion, the atheist philosopher John Gray wrote:

“

One might wager a decent sum of money that it has never occurred to Dawkins that to many people he appears as a comic figure. His default mode is one of rational indignation—a stance of withering patrician disdain for the untutored mind of a kind one might expect in a schoolmaster in a minor public school sometime in the 1930s. He seems to have no suspicion that any of those he despises could find his stilted pose of indignant rationality merely laughable. “I am not a good observer,” he writes modestly. He is referring to his observations of animals and plants, but his weakness applies more obviously in the case of humans. Transfixed in wonderment at the workings of his own mind, Dawkins misses much that is of importance in human beings—himself and others.

”

Theo Hobson on the angry dogmatism of Richard Dawkins

See also: Atheism and anger

The new atheist Richard Dawkins has encouraged his supporters to go beyond humorous ridicule. He wrote, "I lately started to think that we need to go further: go beyond humorous ridicule, sharpen our barbs to a point where they really hurt." See: Atheism and mockery

In a April 2013 article in The Spectator entitled Richard Dawkins has lost: meet the new new atheists, Theo Hobson declared:

“

The atheist spring that began just over a decade ago is over, thank God. Richard Dawkins is now seen by many, even many non-believers, as a joke figure, shaking his fist at sky fairies."

”

Professor Phil Zuckerman on the smugness of Richard Dawkins

See also: Abrasiveness of Richard Dawkins

Atheist author and sociology professor Phil Zuckerman said of Richard Dawkins: "He is smug, condescending and emits an unpleasant disdainfulness. He doesn’t ever seem to acknowledge the good aspects of religion, only the bad. In that sense, I think he doesn’t help atheism in the PR department."

See also:

• Elevatorgate

• Atheism and social intelligence

Atheist Phil Plait on the skeptical movement

See also: Atheism and logic and Atheism and logical fallacies

The atheist Phil Plait said about the skeptical movement: "Hubris is running rampant. And egos are out of check. And sometimes logic is put by the wayside."

Atheism and the appeal to ridicule fallacy

The appeal to ridicule fallacy, also known as the appeal to mockery and the horse laugh, is a fallacy of relevance. It consists of mocking an opposing argument rather than considering it on the merits.

Historically, atheists have significantly used mockery rather than reason, to gain adherents (see: Atheism and mockery).

Militant atheism, arrogance and religious freedom

Historically militant atheists have commonly endeavored to limit the religious freedom of others while imposing their errant, atheistic ideology on others.

Pretentious monikers

Daniel Dennett

See also: Atheism and narcissism

Atheists have also given themselves pretentious monikers such as freethinker, rationalist and "bright". See also: Brights Movement and Atheism and intelligence and Atheism and the theory of multiple intelligences

Brights Movement

See also: Brights Movement

The ABC News.com commentator John Allen Paulos remarked of the “brights” campaign, “I don’t think a degree in public relations is needed to expect that many people will construe the term as smug, ridiculous, and arrogant.” According to a 2003 Skeptical Enquirer article by Christ Mooney, "From the start, the “brights” label label reinforced a longstanding stereotype. Atheists already have a terrible rap for being coldhearted rationalists who attend Mensa gatherings and dismiss religious believers as simple-minded fools."

The Brights Movement largely came about because the label "atheist" has such a bad reputation. The atheist Sam Harris has said concerning the label of atheist, "It's right next to child molester as a designation." (See also: Views on atheists and Atheism and social outcasts).

In October of 2003 in a article in the Guardian, Richard Dawkins associated being a "bright" with being an intellectual.

Notable atheists/skeptics who joined the Brights Movement

Notable atheists/skeptics still embrace the Brights Movement and are listed as "Enthusiastic Brights" at the Brights Movement website. Examples of individuals who are listed as "Enthusiastic Brights" are atheists/skeptics such as Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, A.C. Grayling, Penn Jillette, Raymond Joseph Teller, Steven Pinker, James Randi, Michael Shermer, Hemant Mehta, Margaret Downy, Mel Lipman, Bobbie Kirkhart, Herb Silverman, Matt Cherry and Babu Gogineni.

Large initial following from more than 84 countries

According to a 2004 Psychology Today article the Brights’ Web site launched in 2003 and signed on tens of thousands of Brights from more than 84 countries.

Michael Shermer distances himself from Brights movement after endorsing it

Contrary to what the Brights Movement website claims, Michael Shermer is no longer an "enthusiastic Bright", as he stated in 2003: "However, when it became apparent to me that the vast majority of people most likely to fall under the "bright" rubric would not use the label, I became, well, skeptical that it would succeed. For the time being I continue calling myself a skeptic." Shermer also wrote regarding the Brights movement: "The reaction was swift and merciless—almost no one, including and especially nonbelievers, agnostics, atheists, humanists, and free thinkers, liked the name, insisting that its elitist implications, along with the natural antonym “dim,” would doom us as a movement."

Atheist Hemant Mehta and the Brights movement

The atheist Hemant Mehta is an author, popular atheist blogger and atheist activist. He also served as a chair on the Secular Student Alliance board of directors. His blog is called The Friendly Atheist. Given the Brights Movement's reputation for smugness, his endorsement of the Brights Movement and his current listing as an "Enthusiastic Bright" on the Brights Movement website, could be seen as a matter of hypocrisy due to the attributes of "friendly" and "smug" being incompatible opposites.(see: Atheist hypocrisy).

Unlike the skeptic Michael Shermer who had second thoughts after endorsing the Brights Movement, Hemant Mehta has never publicly denounced the Bright Movement for its smugness and remains listed on on its website as an "Enthusiastic Bright".

Hemant Mehta's comments about fellow atheist Chris Stedman

Hemant Mehta said of fellow atheist Chris Stedman:

“

If you read the blog posts and Twitter comments about Chris, though, you’d think he was a religious man in atheist clothing. Or that he’s delegitimizing our work. Or that he’s undermining our goals. He’s not. He’s as much of an atheist activist as the rest of us. He just practices it by focusing on cooperation and conversation with people of faith instead of beating his chest with both fists and proclaiming his superiority.

”

See also: Atheism and social intelligence

The Brights did not sustain the Brights Movement

After the Brights Movement failed to attract a subsequent significant following subsequent to their initial launch period and then petered out as a movement, the popular YouTube video maker Shockofgod mocked the movement and the movement's weak website traffic with a video entitled Atheism's future not bright at all. See also: Decline of global atheism and Desecularization

For more information, please see: Atheism and social intelligence and Atheism and intelligence and Atheism and the theory of multiple intelligences and Atheism and leadership

Reddit atheism and arrogance

See also: Atheism and anger

Reddit atheism, also known as r/atheism, is one of the largest internet groups of atheists.

Atheist Vlad Chituc wrote:

“

Readers familiar with Reddit’s atheism community, r/atheism, may not be surprised to learn that I think it exemplifies many negative aspects of modern atheism—hatred, prejudice, and belief by cultural conformation rather than rational inquiry... What is troubling for r/atheism in particular is that the tone of this content often reflects pervasive anger, self-righteousness, and a sense of inherent superiority over believers, reinforcing stereotypes already leveled against the broader atheist community. That so many r/atheism members fought to defend this content specifically is an unsettling indication of the values that many who wear the label “atheist” possess.

”

Self-congratulatory nature of atheist meetings

Jerry Coyne speaking at 2013 atheist meeting entitled The Amazing Meeting (TAM). TAM is an annual meeting.

See also: Atheism and narcissism and Atheism and cults of personalities

The atheist Jerry Coyne said about atheist meetings:

“

But to me the speakers and talks have often seemed repetitive: the same crew of jet-set skeptics giving the same talks. ...a few things bothered me, most notably the air of self-congratulation (which I excused on the grounds of enthusiastic people finding like-minded folks for the first time), the “fanboyness” directed at some of the famous atheists (they hardly let poor Richard alone, and I’m not sure he liked that!), and the lameness of quite a few of the talks. Again, how much new can you say about atheism?

”

The Reason Rally was noted for its ridiculing of religious beliefs (See: Reason Rally and the mocking of religious beliefs).

Prominent atheists admitting that fellow prominent atheists are arrogant

See also: Atheism and leadership

John W. Loftus, one of the more prominent atheists in the atheist community, cites John Draper (a Canadian atheist blogger), saying about prominent atheist PZ Myers: "According to PZ you either agree with him or you are the scum of the earth. If anyone is giving atheists a bad reputation it's PZ - he shows no tolerance or respect for anyone other than himself."

PZ Myers wrote: "But see, this is why the atheist movement can’t have leaders. The ones we’ve got, informally, all seem to think they’re like gods and popes, infallible and unquestionable, and that normal, healthy, productive criticism within the movement is all a conspiracy to dethrone them."

Prosperity leading to arrogance and atheism

Although the United States with its tradition of religious freedom and a strong work ethic has experienced high levels of prosperity and religiosity, often prosperity is inversely proportional to religious belief due to men's arrogance when they become wealthier. Vox Day has pointed out that arrogant and godless nations have often eventually experienced significant hardships (See also: Atheism and lower economic productivity).

Encyclopedia Britanica on atheism, arrogance and pretentiousness

See also: Atheism and pretentiousness

The Encyclopedia Britanica (Edinborough 1771) in its article on atheism declared: "Many people both ancient and modern have pretended to atheism or have been reckoned atheists by the world, but it is justly questioned whether any man seriously adopted such a principle. These pretentions therefore must be founded on pride or affection."

Friedrich Nietzsche

Quotes of the arrogant atheist Friedrich Nietzsche

“Before God! But now God is dead. You superior men, this God was your greatest danger. Only since he is in the grave, have you risen again. Only now comes the great noontide; only now the superior man will be – Lord!" - Friedrich Nietzsche

"Suffering and taking sin upon himself might have been right for that preacher of small people [Jesus Christ]. But I rejoice in great sin as my great solace." - Friedrich Nietzsche

Pride of David Silverman about his substandard book

David Silverman

Despite the many shortcomings of his book Fighting God, David Silverman, the ex-president of the American Atheists, said of his book : "...I am very proud of it as you can tell."

Fellow atheist Vlad Chituc wrote about Silverman's book containing inaccurate claims:

“

This leads Silverman to make some wildly inaccurate claims. He argues that more than half of Jews and three-quarters of the rapidly growing religiously unaffiliated are atheists. But according to Pew, only 17% of Jews and 33% of the “nones” say they don’t believe in God. If you want to count the “don’t knows” or “others,” that gets to about 20% and 40%, respectively, at best. These are not small discrepancies, and based on these falsely inflated statistics, Silverman makes startlingly inaccurate claims, like that there are 80 million atheists in the U.S., a full 26% of the country....To make things frustratingly worse, other atheists have been calling Silverman out for falsely inflating the number of atheists for more than four years. And last year, I specifically asked Silverman if he would stop reporting the stats on “nones” as being representative of atheism, and he told me he would. Yet here we are.

”

Before the book was published, half of the book was about Silverman, but his publisher demanded that the material about Silverman be removed from the book and replaced with material focusing on firebrand atheism.

See also: David Silverman intentionally exaggerating the number of atheists in the USA

Atheist cults and arrogance

See also: Atheist cults

The atheist cult of LaVeyan Satanism asserts that pride is not a vice, but is in fact a virtue. Also, the egotistical New Atheist Richard Dawkins has a cult-like following which he actively cultivates (see: Richard Dawkins' cult of personality and Abrasiveness of Richard Dawkins).

Atheist Pride Day

The Secular Coalition of America has instituted an "Atheist Pride Day".

PZ Myers' arrogance at his blog

PZ Myers

PZ Myers is a liberal, atheist and evolutionist activist in the creation-evolution controversy, contributing to The Panda's Thumb and Pharyngula blogs. Myers is also an associate professor of biology at the University of Minnesota Morris (UMM)

Freethought Blogs is a spinoff of ScienceBlogs launched by PZ Myers and Ed Brayton. The Pharyngula blog resides on the Freethoughts Blogs domain.

In 2012, PZ Myers wrote concerning his Pharyngula blog:

“

I AM THE BOSS, and don’t you forget it. I have sole and absolute power here; I can ban you, I can destroy your comments, I can shut down whole threads. I am a being of caprice; I don’t have to justify anything I do. So when I tell you to stop doing something, stop. Don’t argue with me. You don’t like that I banned your friend? Tough. Don’t complain to me. I will do as I will to make this place the kind of party I want to attend, and that’s all that matters. This law supercedes all other rules.

”

PZ Myers turns off the social aspect of his blog

See also: Atheism and social skills and Atheism and narcissism

The atheist Michael Nugent reported in 2015:

“

PZ Myers has now closed down the social interaction aspect of his blog, after blaming his commenters for attacking an insider in the way that he has always encouraged them to attack outsiders. He also complains that FreeThought Blogs itself is ‘less a unified group than a disparate collection of loosely affiliated blogs that have found a convenient hosting service.’ PZ’s new view on community-building is that ‘we are all objects in space, drifting, occasionally bouncing off each other or tugging gently at each other’s masses. And that’s about it.’ PZ now says that he ‘will be a cold dark ember of a star, following my own whims, drifting alone, not trying to create a hospitable atmosphere.’ This shows that PZ Myers has learned nothing useful from the Little Shop of Hatred that he created and nourished until he lost control of it. Yesterday I wrote that, while I welcomed PZ’s diminishing influence in the international atheist movement, I would also welcome a genuine conversion by him to civility and empathy and fairness and justice. This has not happened. So be it.

”

Easily angered atheists, trolls and atheist trolls

See also: Atheism and anger

Both atheists and Muslims have developed a reputation of being thin-skinned (and for wanting to impose their ideology on others). It has been quipped that "Atheism is the easiest religion to troll". Internet trolls often actively pursue trolling atheists due to their penchant of being so proud and so easily angered.

In 2012, The Guardian published an article entitled Limmy's Show: Confessions of an internet troll which had the subtitle There's a witch-hunt going on against internet trolls right now. But, argues Scots funnyman Limmy, randomly goading atheists, jocks and non-existent techno geeks can be fun. And of course, being thin-skinned is symptomatic of having excessive pride.

Breitbart journalist Milo Yiannopoulos, a self-described provocateur, indicates "the reason I have a go at atheists is that it's fun. They are so thin-skinned. They are like libertarians, or...they are like liberal Democrats in the UK or..feminists in fact. They are so easy to wind up... They are so touchy."

Most people and cultures take a very dim view of proud people and some cultures are known for actively engaging humbling successful people and/or proud people (Several Anglosphere nations are known for having tall poppy syndrome and Filipinos are known for having a "crab culture". Crabs in a bucket of water will pull down crabs trying to escape from the bucket).

Atheist trolls and atheist bullying

At the same time, atheists are known for trolling others and for engaging in internet atheist bullying.

Atheist reports that fellow atheists are smug and the most irritating people on the planet

On August 14th, 2013, the atheist Brendan O'Neill wrote an article in The Telegraph entitled How atheists became the most colossally smug and annoying people on the planet in which he wrote: "These days, barely a week passes without the emergence of yet more evidence that atheists are the most irritating people on Earth.". For more information please see: Atheism and social intelligence and Atheism and emotional intelligence and Atheism and immaturity

Atheist Herb Silverman on atheism and arrogance

• "....atheists are arrogant intellectuals who belittle well-meaning Christians. I acknowledge there might be some truth to this allegation." - Atheist Herb Silverman at the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science website. See also: Atheism and intelligence

Pride, atheism and satanic deception

Satan is most well known for his pride and rebellion. Notable figures have suggested that atheism is the result of Satanic deception.

See:

• Atheism and satanic deception

• LaVeyan Satanism (non-theistic and atheistic form of Satanism).

New Atheist arrogance and drug addiction

See also: Atheism and drug addiction and Atheism and alcoholism and Abrasiveness of Richard Dawkins and Liberal elite

The atheist Chris Arnade wrote The Guardian article The people who challenged my atheism most were drug addicts and prostitutes

“

Soon I saw my atheism for what it is: an intellectual belief most accessible to those who have done well. I look back at my 16-year-old self and see Preacher Man and his listeners differently. I look at the fragile women praying and see a mother working a minimum wage custodial job, trying to raise three children alone. Her children's father off drunk somewhere. I look at the teenager fingering a small cross and see a young woman, abused by a father addicted to whatever, trying to find some moments of peace. I see Preacher Man himself, living in a beat up shack without electricity, desperate to stay clean, desperate to make sense of a world that has given him little. They found hope where they could... I also see Richard Dawkins differently. I see him as a grown up version of that 16-year-old kid, proud of being smart, unable to understand why anyone would believe or think differently from himself. I see a person so removed from humanity and so removed from the ambiguity of life that he finds himself judging those who think differently. I see someone doing what he claims to hate in others. Preaching from a selfish vantage point.

”

St. Paul defends his preaching (Giovanni Ricco)

The Apostle Paul wrote:

“

For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption,so that, just as it is written, "LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD." (1 Corinthians: 26-31 (NASB)

”

Paul wrote concerning drunkards and becoming free of enslavement to a drunken lifestyle:

“

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor [a]effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. - I Corinthians 6:9-11 (NASB)

”

See also

• Atheism and mockery

• Atheists and unreasonableness

• Atheism and gratitude

• Atheism and deception

• Atheism and public relations

• Atheism and the suppression of science

• Atheism and uncharitableness

• Atheism and anger

• Causes of atheism

• Atheism and morality

• Psychology of atheism

• Rebuttals to atheist arguments

• Atheist stereotypes

• Atheism and foolishness

• The fool says in his heart, "There is no God."

Books

See also: Books on the causes of atheism

• Immorality and pride, the great causes of atheism a sermon preach'd at the cathedral-church of St. Paul, January the 8th 1697/8 : the first of the lecture for that year, founded by the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esq. / by John Harris, Publisher: BiblioBazaar, 2011 ISBN 1240832273, 9781240832279 [1]

External links

• Pride and atheism
• How to Respond to a Supercilious Atheist By Alan Roebuck
• The Presumptuousness of Atheism by Dr. Paul Copan, Christian Research Institute
• How anger fuels atheistic arrogance - Christian Post By Dan Delzell, October 17, 2011
• The arrogance of the atheists: They batter believers in religion with smug certainty - New York Daily Times by the atheist S.E. Cupp, December 29, 2010
• Militant atheist arrogance and pride - Militant Atheism Exposed website
• For once, Richard Dawkins is lost for words: Atheists’ arrogance is their Achilles’ heel, as a cringemaking radio performance has proved. The Telegraph By Stephen Pollard, February 14, 2012

Videos:

• The Arrogant Atheist and a Bold Christian