Is /r/atheism a good thing?

I'm just wondering this. Before I got on Reddit, and before I heard anything about atheism (about 6 months ago) I was just fine with religion. I mean, I didn't believe in God since I was a young kid and thought it was all rather silly already, but it didn't bother me in the slightest. I'm not raised in a very strict biblical family or anything and my parents aren't religious either.

In short, it never bothered me. Yet now, i've been visiting r/atheism more, as it also hits the front page, it's kinda hard to dodge. I find myself becoming against religion. Simply because of the posts I see on here and how ridiculous some beliefs sound, but also the mocking undertone it has towards religion in general.

The thing is...it makes sense. Of course. Religion is a silly thing and we'd be better off without. My point is just that seeing so much of this, within a couple months I've began to get annoyed at anything religious I see. Before I simply accepted it, now because of the frontpage showing a lot of /atheism posts, I reject religion and it leaves a scary after taste. I'm lucky to be raised in a rather atheist enviorment, but everytime I hear or see someone who believes in God or anything related (who is not elderly and grew up with it for their entire old life) I see them as a bit crazy.

My point is that I don't like it. Honestly. I think it's a bad character trait. Yeah, of course I can choose not to read it, but I did read it because it was on the frontpage and had no idea how to unsubscribe from subreddits. What I don't like is that before I couldn't care less, but now because of so many (rightfully just) opinions, I feel irritated and against religion.

I can logically imagine more people get like this seeing r/atheism posts. I personally don't like this change in me, everytime I see or hear about religion. I can imagine it might be like this for other people as well. What is your opinion on this?

TL;DR I feel a little 'indoctrinated' by atheism, which is rather ironic. I agree with most of the things posted here, i'm just trying to get an objective viewpoint on this all.

edit: I want to make clear that i'm not speaking for or against atheism and being bitter about it. I'm asking for objective thoughts that put into perspective on how r/atheism (and the bitterness of atheism in general) affects people. I just noticed this change in me. It should be about if we want to become just like religions who suppress people who do not believe and judge them.

Posted Jul 10, 2012, 6:25 AM UTC · edited

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