Fellow Fluther atheists/agnostics: is Fluther the first online community you've participated in that has such a vocal/sizeable contingent as we seem to be?

LOL.

Definitely. Not only on the internet, either, this applies to real life. Of course I accept that I am part of a minority in my atheism, but I really struggle with the negative connotation that comes along with it. My time here on Fluther has made me realise that at least part of it is regional, perhaps being from a smaller town, the general attitude is not quite as progressive as other areas of the country. I often feel like I have to hide my beliefs as people have judged very harshly throughout my life if I am open about my absence of faith. It has been discussed a handful of times, that sometimes we turn the tables here, and really jump down the throats of believers.. which I think is an unfortunate, albeit defensive, thing to do. At the same time I have to be completely honest and say that it feels really good to know that someone has my back for a change. It is nice that I don’t have to feel defensive here. I agree with the word you chose, it is very refreshing.

Some of the science/technical oriented groups are equally open about atheism. However, it is rare that the subject itself is discussed. There is no point. If there is a process or system we don’t understand or the data leaves us clueless we say the effect was caused by FM (as in f*ckin’ magic.) or GDI (as in god did it). Either way, it is a representation/easy out to describe some factor or quantity we have not yet fully characterized.
The medical community has similar jargon only they use the word “idiopathic”.
(Don’t you love it when docs hide behind big words?)

Yes, actually. In my personal life, I tend to hang our with like minded people, but I don’t recall that I’ve ever been involved in a community quite like this.

I guess so.
It doesn’t matter to me if I have the support or not of any group regarding my religious beliefs or any other belief for that matter.It is a hugely private to me anyway and I do think that
one’s convictions should not need the support of a group ,ever.
;)

yay! im a keyword.

Well, I don’t think there really are that many atheists and agnostics on here. At least when you compare it to all the other sites out there. It is said that there are a lot of religious people in the world, a lot more than atheists and agnostics, and that may be so, but i find that online, atheists almost always outnumber theists.

As for the atheists on here being vocal, I can’t agree either. Maybe it is the moderation, or maybe it’s just that people on here are good people. Just when I compare fluther to some other sites, The religious debate seems much more civilized here.

If you take a look at my first ever post regarding religion on here, I actually point out that i never intended to discuss religion on this site, and in a way, i still kind of don’t want to. I do that at sooo many other places already. It is quite rare that I will actually take part in a religion based debate on here.

Actually, I wouldn’t really know if it was the first. I grew up in a predominantly Catholic community and was berated for my identification as an Atheist during my childhood, which resulted in me keeping my mouth shut about my lack of spirituality until high school. As a result, I rarely ventured to share this facet of my identity with other people – even with the anonymity of the Internet – nor did I ask the views of others. Fluther, however, is the first place where I felt immediately welcome to discuss my non-faith.

Off-screen, neither of my brothers believe in a god or subscribe to other spiritual happenings. I never felt entirely alone in my ways as a result.

Well, this is nothing compared to Pharyngula!

I actually wish there were more people on the “other side” who could debate reasonably; it’s more fun that way. But it seems that most theists would rather complain that they are being “picked on” than actually try to defend their beliefs in a logical fashion.

I was a fence sitter …..ouch….. before I happened upon this place. I’ve been & shall remain a fence sitter …..ouch again…... whilst I remain here & I shall be a…...well you get the picture. Point being, I don’t really care about anyones religion or the lack thereof. Certainly don’t feel like a “we” or an “us” vibe is going on, but there you go.

No. wis.dm was the first community that I found people of a like mind. Damn shame it’s gone.

Online? No. I try to avoid the religious or not to be religious debates as they rarely turn out well.

Wis.dm was the first, Fluther was the second. The more I look back at AIROW (the actual first Q&A site I was on), the more I realize it was dominated by conservative Christians.

No. Wis.dm was the first for me and then soulpancake.

Here is another
http://www.atheistnexus.org/

I actually don’t really care about the theism, atheism aspect of a person’s belief. What I care about is whether or not they believe in science. What gets my panties in a bunch isn’t if someone says they believe in God, but that they believe in homeopathy. You can be a theistic skeptic.

I’m a non-practicing agnostic… does that count?... I love the fact that most personal attacks are moderated and you don’t get spammed to much with people trying to control me.

@crisw You said I actually wish there were more people on the “other side” who could debate reasonably; it’s more fun that way. Well first of all I don’t think the majority of theists/religious believers on here are interested in debating atheists about their beliefs since these beliefs are considered personal to them. Just like the parent who lost their child wants to believe their child is in “heaven” because it helps with the grieving process. Whether heaven exists or not shouldn’t matter here. I do see mant atheists go too far with this negative behaviour of attacking every little belief or incident. Now if a theist is specifically challenging your own lack of belief, threatening you with hell/resorting to name calling or challenging a scientific theory (such as evolution for example) than that is the time to give theists strong debate back to them. There is a time and place for respecting others beliefs and debating them. I suspect the majority of believers on here come to Fluther to talk about other topics.

I believe in God myself but I’ve been laying back on here so far because during the week I come home from long hours working and I’m usually just too tired to answer anything other than simple questions. When I do feel up to debating these issues I usually save it for other websites such as the great realization (a hardcore atheist website) so I get pounded on there, I also debate on Sodahead against religious fundamentalists so I get thrashed on there as well (real bigtime), Scepcop, which is supposed to be a proparanormal forum but ironically there are more sceptics on there than psi supporters (alot of JERF people are on that site) but they’re pretty decent people to debate on these topics and they always have treated me with respect when I debate them (even though they disagree with me and let it well known) so I actually prefer to debate many of these issues on there. I’m also a member of a Christian forum and another forum similar to this and I take poundings on them as well.

I’ll try to post when I can but it’s hard to get any balance on here, all you have to do on here is bring up the word “god” or (god forbid) “paranormal” and it’s like “hey he/she’s an idiot, ha ha ha, what do you believe in the tooth fairy as well”? I’ll debate certain aspects of my beliefs on here but for many others I prefer debating the sceptics on the other forums where I can actually get a respectful debate on these topics without the riff raff.

Try believing in both the concepts of God and psi while rejecting religion. We’re the ones who have it the most difficult by far. We don’t have too many supporting websites unlike atheists, agnostics, religionists and even deists.

Excellent points, @Paradox, You said “I’ll try to post when I can but it’s hard to get any balance on here, all you have to do on here is bring up the word “god” or (god forbid) “paranormal” and it’s like “hey he/she’s an idiot, ha ha ha, what do you believe in the tooth fairy as well”? I’ll debate certain aspects of my beliefs on here but for many others I prefer debating the sceptics on the other forums where I can actually get a respectful debate on these topics without the riff raff.”

I think I’ll take a look at some of the websites you mentioned. Thanks.

@snowberry I’m not saying these other websites are better than Fluther but there are certain topics or at least aspects of certain topics I prefer to discuss/debate on other websites. I have nothing against atheists/agnostics who expect a reasonable response and the reasons for the opposing viewpoint such as when topics such as evolution, age of the earth/universe, mind being a mere brain function, the effectiveness/or lack of alternative therapies/medicines or whatever.

My one argument here is the fact that most doctors actually believe there is life after death, there are many other disciplines (though in much less numbers than people in the medical field) such as physicists, cosmologists, chemists, engineers just to name a few who agree that the mind is more than a brain function. I wish there was more of these types of people on here. This is the same with other issues such as alternative therapies. It would be nice to have a balance (to some degree) by having more Chiropractics, homeopaths, accupuncturists, etc on here as well. At least on Scepcop I can get decent intelligent backup support to my arguments. The majority of the opinions on Fluther are not the majority of opinions of people throughout the rest of the world.

@Paradox Yep, agreed. There is a reason that people who practice homeopathy, Chiropractic, accupuncture, etc. are not here. And as mentioned previously, there is a reason Christians are not in abundance as well.