Atheists Debate How Pushy to Be

Sorry. She's got a strict 'no discounts' policy.

You are attacking an extreme point of view that you found on-line. If you dig, you will find lots of odd and strange comments and beliefs, and particularly among celebrities. But it doesn't follow that they are indicative of the views of religious people.

The idea that Hannah Montana's "downfall" is somehow connected to some atheist sponsored highway sign is good for a laugh perhaps, but not worthy of a serious discussion within the context of the topic of atheists being pushy.

The OP was talking about people at an atheist convention who were debating "how publicly scornful of religion should we be". I don't think most religious people -or people in general- would argue that signs indicating that an atheist organization is helping clean the highway fall under the category of "being publicly scornful of religion".

Well yeah, he does deserve to be ridiculed.

Actually, if Billy Ray wants to look for a Satan who "screwed up" his daughter, maybe he should look at Disney, because it seems like all the child actors coming out of Disney end up being screwed up these days. But he was the one who embraced Disney when they were turning his young daughter into a money generating celebrity, so he can hardly call them Satan now.

Actually there's quite good evidence that just saying "I don't believe in god" is upsetting to a lot of religious people. The double standard that Billy Ray Cyrus represents might be extreme in that example but it is out there and it's part of the debate that the very first post brought up. There are people who think the "new" atheists Dawkins, Dennett, Harris and Hitchens are rude and uncivil which is a laughable proposition. So what makes them rude? The fact that they question religion or don't accept religious propositions without evidence is what earns them this label and then people try to defend this idea that you shouldn't be rude, but when "rude" is just saying "I'm an atheist and I don't believe in what you believe" that's a pretty ridiculous notion.

I agree with you that Billy Ray Cyrus is basically an idiot and that adopting a highway isn't scornful. But there are people less idiotic than him (both religious and irreligious too) that think an atheist making their presence known is scornful and that's part of what triggers the debate in the OP - atheists debate how pushy to be isn't really about how pushy to be it's more about whether they're pushy or not in the first place.

Anyways, there's a double standard and this thread is about dealing with that double standard.

I'm sure it does upset some people. But that's their problem, not yours. Obviously, you're not being pushy or scornful for saying that you don't believe in God. The one who tells you that your belief -or lack of belief- gets them upset is the one who is being pushy in this case.

More proof that Disney is indeed the Devil. It's no coincidence that they both start with a "D".