Are All Atheists This Hostile?

Following is more evidence that atheists are an angry bunch. After posting comments from Stuart Blessman, a blogger who’d attended an advanced screening of Expelled, Jeffrey Overstreet’s Looking Closer Journal was inundated with pissed off anti-theists. The documentary explores the Intelligent Design debate, and that particular screening involved a surprise visit from notable atheist Richard Dawkins. Blessman shared some opinions about the film, as well as observations about the party crashers, which Overstreet posted with some appropriate disqualifiers.

Overstreet’s INITIAL POST was visited by over 10,000 new visitors in several hours, mostly angry atheists (who had not seen the film). It has forced Mr. Overstreet to suspend comments on that post. He writes:

I’ve been buried in hate mail from evolutionists and athiests in the last 24 hours, much of it laced with obscenities and spectacular recommendations about sex acts that Christians should go and do with themselves. Ah, what fine representatives for their worldview. Very little of the response has borne any substance. (I’ve posted some of the comments that came in, but only those that were offered with civility and restraint. I eventually gave up on sifting through the pile for looking for more.)

It’s rather surprising to see this kind of thing coming from folks who will, at the same time, write off Christians as judgmental and hateful. It’s rather surprising to see such offense taken, as if there really is an absolute right and wrong written into the universe after all. Interesting, huh?

It reminded me, though on a MUCH smaller scale, of my recent exchange with atheist blogger Austin Cline. My tongue-in-cheek Thanksgiving post, Can Atheists Really Give Thanks, was picked up on Cline’s site and sent my Site Meter spiking. His post, Mike Duran: Can Atheists Really “Give Thanks”?, received 133 comments. In them, I was called “stupid,” “inane,” “delusional,” bigoted” and, my favorite, a foot soldier for the “Christian Right.” I eventually capsulized my Response to Austin Cline’s Agnosticism / Atheism Blog, wherein I laid out a formal rebuttal of Cline’s position and his misrepresentation of myself. (Alas, Mr. Cline never responded.)

As a result of the name-calling and misrepresentation, I concluded in that post,

If anything, my encounter with Austin Cline and his readers reinforces the caricature of the “angry atheist.” Atheism is not a passive unbelief in God, but a brazen assertion in his non-existence. For the most part, atheism is really anti-theism – an aggressive counterattack against religion and the religious. After my encounter with Cline, I’m wondering if this “hostility” against theists is actually what drives many atheists.

Sad to say, but the reaction / over-reaction to Overstreet and Blessman’s posts is not new. Not only does it pique my interest about the film, but it makes me wonder if we aren’t seeing a trend here. I mean, are all atheists this hostile?