re: #92 iceweasel

What is it to be an ‘anti-theist’, though? — does this mean believing in a god but hating it? —- i think it’s like calling someone an anti-santaist, or anti-tooth fairyist.
don’t get me wrong; i’m an atheist! but it seems to me that if you have the experience of being brought up in a certain religion, —and then disavowing it— gives one a different perspective than if they were raised atheist. A formerly religious person has an insider’s perspective on that religion.

and i would beg to differ with some of this— it seems to me that Christians in the US are VERY concerned about evil spirits, possession, their harry potter books corrupting them— etc. It’s pointless to note that they don’t worry about specific cultural anxieties, like the belief that their penis has been stolen by a witch— common in some cultures at some times, but not in every one.

An anti-theist is a person who is opposed to religion (organised or not) because that person believes religion is a pernicious, dangerous, or destructive influence on society. Most anti-theists are not public figures, nor do they speak out (as they don’t want their house burned down or be fired from their jobs).

The term is dated by the Oxford English Dictionary as coming into use in 1833.

“Evangelical atheism” is also substituted with fundamentalist atheism or militant atheism, that is, having the same right to say your beliefs as everyone else, and are pejoratives only used by apologists.