Atheism's Biggest Misconceptions and How to Overcome Them

Atheism has been a huge target of violent hostility for countless centuries by the Catholic and Christian Church. To admit to being an Atheist was and still is considered to be blasphemy and communistic behavior, and was punishable by death. Now those who admit to atheism are just shunned, discarded and pushed aside by the church.

What I would like to know is how can being an atheist be communistic behavior? Communism is to not believe in freedom and democracy.

Well, free Greek Pagans invented democracy and the concept of "Human Rights" was a direct product and result of free Greek thinkers of enlightenment. So with this said, now you know that Atheism is not in any way related to communism. As for blasphemy, the church and its followers will always claim that it is God's will that they believe in his divine presents. Then if you read the bible and listen to any sermon you will hear them tell us that, "God gave man free-will to be able to walk on his own path". All Catholics and Christians alike believe in this to be true. If it is so, and God wills all and God gave us free will then we all go to heaven regardless!

Even up to the nineteenth century in England (Britain), proclaiming to be an Atheist is punishable with prison time and is prosecuted to the full extent of the law. What time are we in, the dark ages? In the United States In the early 1800's Atheism was considered to be witchcraft and punishable by burning the heretic at the stake alive! By the 1900's Atheism was synonymous with communism and was punishable with jail time and excommunication.

So what we know for a fact about Atheism is that all throughout history Atheism has be treated with violent hostility all "In the name of God" or because "God wills it". There are hundreds of misconceptions about Atheism, really to many to list them all. Here are just a few of Atheism misconceptions.

Atheism implies that life itself is meaningless and without purpose.

Atheists are evil and have no motivation to be good people.

Atheists are intolerant people with a severe prejudiced attitude towards religious people.

Atheists lead hedonistic, gluttonous lives and have orgies all the time.

Atheists worship Charles Darwin

Atheists hate God.

Atheists can be transformed into theists.

That all Atheists are middle age white men.

Atheists are cussing, lying, and thieving pedophiles that over indulge in sex.

All Atheists are angry at the world.

It would be great if in some way we as a society could overcome these misconceptions and stop treating Atheists like they have the plague. In my opinion there are a few things as a society that we can do to achieve this. If the Catholic and Christian community gathered with a group of Atheists and just listened to the Atheists explain their views on religion and why they choose to be non-believers. If this could happen the Church community would see that people who call themselves Atheists are just like us, every day people that have families, go to work and have hobbies; the only thing they do not do is attend church or believe in God. If the church and their followers were to have an open mind and invite the Atheists in they will find out that they do not have to be scared and think that Atheists "Hate" God or that Atheists are "gluttons who have sex orgies". So in short, the only way that society as a whole will be able to overcome their misconceptions about Atheism is to evolve. To have a truly effective influence on your opposite, one must first learn about their way of living. Until the Church can so this, Atheists will always be looked down on.

References for this article came form atheist.org and atheism.about.com