Atheist thumper
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Atheist thumper or strident atheist is a usually pejorative term used to describe so called "fundamentalist atheists",[note 1] or anyone perceived as aggressively pushing their disbelief in fairy tales upon the faithful. It is a play on the phrase "Bible thumper", which is a reference to the tendency of holy rollers to thump their Bible while preaching to the faithful and heathens alike. What exactly the atheist thumper is supposed to be thumping remains undefined - a stereotype may suggest The Origin of Species, but as evolution has no inherent connection to atheism, perhaps something by Jean Meslier or Friedrich Nietzsche would be appropriate. In more recent years, the book in question might be something like Richard Dawkins's divisive tome The God Delusion.
As an insult, its target domain is broad, and can extend to anyone engaged in a public show of secular humanism or anyone in the insulter's eye seen to be wielding science as a weapon against their religion, though given the wild overuse of the term Bible thumper, this might well be merely analogous.
Thumpin' atheists everyone knows
Notable individuals that have been or could be accused of being atheist thumpers include:
- Richard Dawkins, who wrote The God Delusion.
- AC Grayling[1], who wrote Against all Gods.
- Sam Harris, atheist author (Letter to a Christian Nation, and others).
- Christopher Hitchens, who wrote God is Not Great.
- Baron d'Holbach, wrote some things blasphemous enough to be accidentally attributed to Jean Meslier.
- John "we're bigger than Jesus" Lennon, a musician who tried to debauch the world's youth by exhorting them to "imagine no religion."
- Robert Ingersoll wrote The Gods; was a New Atheist before it was cool.
- Penn Jillette, along with his silent partner, Teller.
- Karl Marx, a dirty commie, said "Religion is the opiate of the masses" (or something similar); tried to take away their drugs.
- H.L. Mencken, nemesis of William Jennings Bryan and early defender of evolution, who mocked religion before all the cool kids were doing it.
- Madalyn Murray O'Hair, founder of American Atheists.
- Paul Zachary "PZ" Myers, famous cracker collector, appreciator of left-handed fruitbats, world's greatest lover.[citation NOT needed]
- Friedrich Nietzsche, who famously declared "God is dead". Now he is, too.
- Ayn Rand, creator of Objectivism and a bizarre cult of personality around her among people refusing to grow up like Mark Cuban.
- James Randi, was an all-round troublemaking skeptic.
- Bertrand Russell, a person who wrote such blasphemous tracts as Why I Am Not a Christian.
- Mao Zedong, who destroyed a billion people's "immortal" souls and created a bizarre cult of personality that splintered into three hundred sects in Europe. Bastard!
Far more obscure atheist thumperers
- Matt Dillahunty - Host of the Austin TV show "The Atheist Experience."
Hives of thumpery
Places they tend to congregate to organize their thumping include:
- Freedom From Religion Foundation - members brainwash their children to believe what they don't.
- (UK) National Secular Society - yup! we're over here too.
A joke one person likes
Perhaps "atheist Thumper" describes a famous bunny rabbit after his friend Bambi was shot. Seeing all the pain and suffering in the world, highlighted by the deer's demise, said rabbit went on to ponder at great length the problem of evil. However, this statement is unfortunately unsupported by any real "facts".
See also
Notes
- ↑ It is often argued that there can be no such thing as a "fundamentalist atheist" anymore than there can be a fundamentalist "Anti-Flying Spaghetti Monsterist".