You know, Ive been thinking...

[Mollocephalus]

Re: You know, Ive been thinking...

Though religion has many positives as well— if you look at many of the popular faiths today, you will realize that the purpose of the religion was to not only explain the unknown but also keep society in check. Religious people are encouraged to perform good deeds because of their faith and are asked to be tolerant of those who do not share the same beliefs. Also, many religions challenge their members to become knowledgeable, so religion has played a role in advancing human kind on a scientific level as well.

I have a friend in saudi arabia and while she is atheist, she has to undergo all the religious traditions and shit. She spoke to me about them, and some of them were actual excercises to promote thinking, cultural involvement, charity and other supposedly positive things.

However, when you look closely at the set of values and activities a religion requires you to do, it becomes very clear that we're no longer in a historical period where that's our only alternative. On the contrary, our alternatives are nowadays much, much better, making the entire religious institution very outdated as a tool of social advancement. It is only marginally useful for people who live in very specific conditions, and is bound to naturally disappear over time. At the end of the day, its contribution to human society, progress and improvement definitely goes into negative.

[benguino]

Re: You know, Ive been thinking...

I'm going to try to focus back on the OP's original intent for this thread.

So, one may argue that many religions, as a whole, keep society from progressing. I would even say myself that that is probably true, but I digress.

The point of the matter however, was that the OP was asking about the ethics/morality of an atheist ridiculing a theist in a way that the OP described. Now this is highly dependent on the situation, but in general, I would find that behavior non-respectable (however, in certain circumstances I would go as far to say that the theist "had it coming"). However, if the situation is as follows:
Atheist: "So what's your religion."
Theist: "Oh, I'm _____. Why did you ask?"
Atheist: "LOL, YOU'RE ****ING RETARDED!!!!1"
then clearly the atheist is the one preventing society to progress by acting immaturely and lowering the theist's self esteem (making them less likely to accomplish something that could be worth while to society).

Although religion, overall as a whole, may be keeping society from progressing, you can't assume that that is the true of each and every single individual.

[rushyrulz]

Re: You know, Ive been thinking...

You can't really cite one hypothetical example and then go on to say that the dickhead atheist is inhibiting an entire society from progressing, especially when you see real-life examples every day of how religion is actually holding us back. I don't even need to provide an example, just listen to the news.

EDIT: Ok, if you insist.
Galileo
Stem cell research
ECC 1:18 For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. (need I say more?)
The Dark Ages (guess so)
And uh.. gay marriage, anyone?

[Izzy]

Re: You know, Ive been thinking...

There is always going to be circumstantial evidence supporting either side.

If I had to guess though there are probably a lot more cases where an outdated or religious based decision negatively influenced progress.

Despite there being some annoying non-religious people they are probably more likely to make decisions based on actual reasons and maybe even logic/testing.