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Comment by petre | Hacker News Reader

I really don't understand why some people have to turn to atheism when not participating in organised religion is quite easy enough. This is what the article implies, church membership as opposed to faith. Why even bother to deny something that others believe without proof and needlessly argue about it? Maybe it makes them happy, more secure. Vocal atheists usually annoy me more than christian evanghelists, mostly because of the negative message.

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Because the U.S. still has not even come close to mastering the separation of church and state which means depending on where you live it will confront you frequently whether you like or not. Burying your head in the sand does nothing if you believe the premise of that separation is virtuous. I am not atheist myself but I have yet to see anyone I know be vocal about their atheism, yet I know many that are vocal about their religious views. I am curious where you see vocal atheists enough that they annoy you?

Most of the ones I've met acted pretty much like Dawkins and got all worked up by their beliefs, mocked churchgoers and called them names. Maybe it preocupies them a great deal but I did not care to hear any of it, nor asked about it, it was them who sought to share their opinion on the matter.

I also live in a country where the separation between state and church is also not clear enough. The church is quite openly corrupt and gets laughed at by my generation and is becoming less relevant every year.

I don’t know about your country but here in the U.S. vocal religion is used to justify racism, sexism, refusal of medical care, and employers dictating their religious views on marriage, reproduction, etc. on their employees. Richard Dawkins is annoying, to be clear, and I am deeply skeptical of some of the factors in how he singles out Islam but as far as I’m aware he’s never tried to prevent someone from seeing a doctor or said that a stranger shouldn’t be allowed to get married without his approval.

Here too. It's used against the LGBT community and my ultranationalists. At least they don't refuse medical care and made no attempts to ban abortion like in Poland, because the country had an awful abortion ban (unrelated to church) in the past and everyone older than 40 remembers it. But rumours are spread amongst the religious community about vaccines, microchips, 5G etc. We used to joke that when getting vaccinated against covid, the state secretly intriduced 5G microchips under our skin.

> Maybe it preocupies them a great deal but I did not care to hear any of it, nor asked about it, it was them who sought to share their opinion on the matter.

Congratulations, now you know how most American atheists feel about religious people and their beliefs.

The so-called 'separation of church and state' bromide comes from Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptists, not the Constitution.

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