LOL. I just found out Sapient was on ABC....I bet that's a gem....I'm really glad I didn't cut out early.

That's a very large part of it.  You do know that atheists are generally distrusted and disliked more than any other group in the country, right?

From 2006 Minneapolis:

For about fifteen years, I taught private music lessons.  In that time, I lost probably a dozen students because their parents found out that I was an atheist.  In one town, I was blackballed from the local music teacher's union because I'm atheist.  I've had maybe a dozen women tell me they could never date an atheist because they all have no morals.

I've been called a satanist, a druggie, a degenerate, a terrorist, un-American, evil, faggot-lover, witch, and about fifty other mean spirited epithets.

I can't run for political office.  Well, I could, but I'd never be elected.  There's only one openly atheist congressman in the country, and he announced his atheism after being elected.

Yeah, I'm a little bitter about the social inequality, not least because the generalizations made about atheists in America are not only false, the opposite is usually true!  Atheists are the least likely group in America to get divorced.  There are almost no atheists in prison -- far less than a representative sample.  Less than 2% of the prison population is atheist and almost 16% of the general population is. 

Yeah, the fact is, most atheists are good people, but we're seen as the worst possible kind of person because we don't believe a talking snake made a naked woman eat an apple, and that made God so mad that he sent himself to earth to sacrifice himself to himself so that he could forgive us for making us exactly the way he wanted us to be. 

That makes me a little bitter

I'm somewhat bitter because I spent my childhood being lied to.  I'm somewhat bitter because my loving father is a shot-gun toting, fearful old man due in large part to theism.  My young child has already lost a friend because I am an atheist.  In general, I feel like I need to live in "the closet" because I can't afford financially to come out and have it go poorly.  This in one of the most liberal, hippie states in the country. 

That's just the personal stuff.  There are a lot of reasons to feel a bit bitter and somewhat overwhelmed by the effects of religion on my life.

I empathize Ham, Enz, and Ann and I'm sorry to hear that happened to you. I didn't expect to hear such deeply personal stories that reveal the emotional scars one experienced due to their transformations.

Hi Arj.

Firstly, welcome. Good to have you here.

Secondly, I'm not bitter at all. I live in Denmark, and theism is a non-issue here, so it's always been a non-issue for me. I approach the few theists I've dealt with in my life with open-mindedness and genuine curousity. So any bitterness coming from atheists must be contingent on their own personal experiences, not on atheism itself, as I'm sure you can readily acknowledge.

And thirdly:

Well what did you expect?

I can empathize with you on this point: I suspect that you started this thread with a genuine sense of indignation against atheist bitterness, as you perceive it, because you feel it is an unfair attitude towards friendly, loving theists that you know, and perhaps that you, with your own spiritual leanings, count yourself amongst.

Trust me, I can empathize with you on that.

But I have to say, I'm surprised that you are surprised about the personal stories of Hamby, Enz and Ann. I mean, I live halfway around the world, in a society that is, in cultural terms, very alien to the US, and yet, I can easily understand where people like Hamby are coming from.

I don't mean to offend you, but I have to be honest and say that, if you are someone who considers himself a loving, understanding, and open-minded spiritually minded person, I think you didn't think much about the subject before you attacked the people here.

Empathy is by many spiritually minded people considered a spiritual virtue, and yet I have no problem empathizing with American atheists, non-spiritually minded as I am.

Why have you?

Unlike me, these guys live side by side with theists, many of them have theist friends and family. Most are very capable of getting along with theists, and if they are bitter, they are so mostly because many theists around them aren't capable of getting along with them, forcing them to choose between constant confrontation with friends, family and co-workers, or the dishonest, cowardly and painfully lonely life of a closet atheist.

doublepost

....whereas I am indifferent on this issue so this behavior is new to me...so I'm curious, why (if you are) so bitter??? It doesn't make that much sense to me. Plz explain.

It was an observation that sparked my curiosity so I asked the question. End of story. I'm just a genuinely curious person.

Help us out, here, champ. I can't figure out what you're indifferent to anymore. Being ostracized? Because that's an easy one to understand. Being bitter because people are mean to you is a pretty simple connection to make. What question are you asking? What would you actually like to know?

Am I bitter? Ya. Am I angry? Ya.

I lost friends when I became atheist. They didn't walk away from me, rather they slandered me behind my back and forced me to break the ties. I was brainwashed right from the womb, and probably got a sub-par education thanks to the private christian schools I was sent to.

I've had girls say they wouldn't date me becuase I'm atheist. Even though they think I'm a great guy otherwise, and even though I have (IMO) better morals than most christian guys my age, it's simply not done to date an atheist.

I'm tired of being looked down on for not believeing something with no evidence. I'm tired of hearing meaningless words from christians who are stuck in a fantasy, and feel compelled to get me in it with them. I'm severly pissed off with people who have a bad experience and then,out of fear of death, suddenly devote their lives the being that supposedly put them through that suffering in the first place. I'm speechless with the person whose father goes for weeks of chemo, so they can tell everyone god cured his cancer. (And gave it to him in the first place,but they neglected to say that)

Eh.

Ah. The "quotes" at the end indicate you believe we all claim to be Vulcan, and operate purely on logic. That human emotion is verbotten, and people cannot be simultaneously alogical (in our emotions) and rational.

I am mostly bitter at the influence radical Christians have over government. Their insistence on controlling the rights of other people (say, with the issue of same-sex marriage) and the destruction of knowledge for the sake of the preservation of their dearly-held mythology and outdated philosophies (the Discover Institute is fighting evolution not because it believes evolution is incorrect, but because it pushes an agenda of materialism, even though evolution has no agenda).

This anti-intellectualism is likely to destroy American society, which was founded on elitism. Check it out: Franklin, Washington, Jefferson, Adams, and Adams were all elitists. And yet radical Christians push their anti-intellectual agenda, and revel in their own ignorance.

Radical Christians are destroying our society. Why shouldn't I be bitter? That's a natural reaction, one that leads to action against the things that make us bitter.