STEEM EXCLUSIVE - Why Are Atheists So Hateful?

@arminnavabi announces his plan to use the Steem blockchain for @atheistrepublic and explains more of the work that he does while encouraging the Steem community to express freely, even if they disagree with him or @atheistrepublic.

Everything that he said in this video has been transcribed and posted to the Steem blockchain as seen below:

INTRODUCTION:

Hi everyone,

So I'm making a Steem exclusive video and I'm going to be making more of these. I really like this platform. I was looking for a place, an environment or a community of people where freedom of expression was valued.

I'm getting more familiar with Steem and all of the different platforms that are using Steem and I like how freedom of expression is valued here. Before this I was looking for a home for @atheistrepublic where censorship is not a thing and out of all the places I was looking, Steem seems to be the most ideal place given that it's not just that people don't believe in censorship, it's that it's impossible to apply censorship.

Even if one of the Steem-based platforms of #steem decides to censor you the content will always be there and nobody can remove it. I'm also here because a lot of the people on Steem value freedom of expression, that's another reason why I like it, and.. as @atheistrepublic, we deal with a lot of censorship because we don't hold back, we don't hold back against ideas that we don't like. And we invite other people to express why they don't like our ideas, no problem.

For this first #SteemExclusive video that I'm putting out there, and I'm going to be making more #steem exclusive videos, especially if I think that it's too spicy for Facebook, YouTube or Twitter, or just that they are not going to allow it, that is some of the content that I am going to put on #steem but there is also some other content that I'm going to be posting just because I feel like this is the best place for it.. a place for @atheistrepublic to post content that we aren't going to put anywhere else just because I think that the Steem community would appreciate it more. Also because I want to support #steem and let other people know that there are other platforms, other than Facebook or YouTube where their ideas are not going to get censored in any way and by making Steem exclusive content I am hoping that I can get some people to check Steem out.

THE MAIN POINT:

The main thing that I wanted to talk about on this first #steem exclusive video is something that is going to come up if it hasn't already come up, but I think it must have already come up and this is response to people who say that "Oh atheists, oh atheism, why do those people have to be so hateful, why do they have to be so anti-other people's views, why can't they let other people believe what they want.. I just want to get that out of the way because it's so frustrating how many times people say that, and even after I put this video out, I am sure some people are going to say it again and I just want to address that.

It is not hateful to disagree with other people's beliefs, and it is not hateful to disagree with other people's opinions, and you don't have to sugarcoat it. You don't have to sugar coat your disagreements, right? and we don't want other people to sugarcoat their disagreements with us.

If you hate a certain idea that doesn't me you hate the people that believe those ideas, you just hate those ideas. The example that I give to people is that you can hate atheism without hating atheists. In the same way we can hate Islam and hate Christianity without hating Muslims, and without hating Christians, okay?

It's not hateful to be completely and fundamentally against certain ideas. And you know, people will be like "You could be respectful to people's beliefs" but that's absolute horeshit.. that's absolute horseshit.

• Ideas don't deserve respect, people deserve respect.

Again, we are consistent here, we are not hypocrites. You don't have to show any respect towards atheism, okay? Respect is meant for people, not ideas. There are no ideas that deserve respect, even good ideas don't deserve respect.

If I have an idea that I think is a good idea and you don't think it's a good idea, go at it, go at it as aggressively as you want. It's not a personal attack on me just because you attack ideas.

Ideas are either right either right or wrong, they are not people, they don't have feelings okay? Go at my ideas as aggressively as you want. In fact, if you are my friend, then I don't think it's a sign of friendship for you to hold back.

I am sure I am wrong about many things and if you hold back against my ideas then how can I evaluate my ideas? I rely on my friends to attack my ideas as much as possible so that I can evaluate them (my ideas) so that I can figure out which ones are right and which ones are wrong, okay.

The examples I give Muslims, because they are some of the most sensitive ones out there, it's true.. btw Hindus are actually extremely sensitive about attacking Hinduism, it's insane. Christians are also sensitive so let's not leave them out but they don't get angry to the point of wanting to kill you or something like that, okay? But they are sensitive as well.

Interestingly enough, the most sensitive ones are Hindus. I used to think it was Muslims but Hindus turn out to be the most sensitive ones when it comes to attacking their religion, but hey.. attack atheism.. I don't care.. I do care but I'm not going to get triggered by it, right?

Here is the example I give to Muslims because I talk to Muslims more than I talk to other religious people. I tell them:

Imagine this Muslim first.. she is very, very against atheism.. she hates, hates atheism and she wants to destroy atheism. She spends all her time attacking atheism okay? and she thinks atheism is cancer but the reason why she hates atheism so much is because she loves atheists and she's worried for them. And she thinks atheists are going to burn in hell and she doesn't want that, she loves them. She hates atheism, not because she hates atheists, she hates atheism because she cares for atheists, and she doesn't want them to suffer eternity in hell. She doesn't want them to be tortured forever".

So when I give this scenario I ask them:

Do you see how someone could be against atheism, and even hate atheism but not atheists at the same time time?

That's an example where they could see how we could separate ideas from people, and if you could see that then we should also be able to see why someone could be able to hate Islam, but not hate Muslims. This is why hating Islam is not hateful to any group of people.

In fact for many of us, it could be the other way around. Many of us hate Islam because of what it does to Muslims. We think the number 1 victims of Islam are Muslims. We think Islam does more harm to Muslims more than any other group of people.

A lot of people hate Islam because of what Islam does to non-Muslims. We're against Islam mostly because of what it does to Muslims. Now as a Muslim, you could say "Well your wrong, Islam is great, Islam doesn't victimize Muslims at all.. Islam is the best thing ever", but even if we disagree on that, even if you say "Wow, Islam is the best thing ever" and I say "Islam is absolutely horrible", even though we disagree on that can you see things from my perspective. I can put myself in your shoes but can you see that even if I am wrong, can you put yourself in my shoes and see that even though I think Islam is horrible and the fact that I hate Islam does not necessarily mean that I hate Muslims, even if I am wrong for hating Islam.

Even if you think that I'm right and that your wrong, that doesn't necessarily mean that I hate Muslims. You could be like "Well I don't care that you don't hate Muslims, you hate Islam and that's bad already" but if you and me want to have a discussion, and if we want to see how we can understand each other and influence each other, it's important for you to understand that even if I'm wrong, that my hate for Islam does not come from a hate for Muslims because that would make our discussion a lot more fruitful.

So it is important for you to understand that my hate for Islam does not come from a hate for Muslims, right? That might make us to be able to get along, even if we disagree with one another. Even if I passionately hate Islam and you passionately hate Atheism or maybe you don't.. I think that we can still be friends, I think that we can get along, even though we hate each others ideas.

I use the word hate because I don't want to hold back and people say "But why do you want to use the word hate?" well I do hate Islam okay? But that's not that big of a deal. Being against a certain idea is just because I disagree with it so fundamentally but agreement of ideas, shouldn't be a condition for friendship. I think we should be able to get along, even if we hate each others ideas.. because those are just ideas and as people, we shouldn't make ideas as a condition for friendship okay?

If we say like "Oh, we agree on this so let's be friends" or "Our disagreements are not that big of a deal". The reason why I want to use the word "Hate" and "Fight" is because I want to say no our disagreements are huge, a big deal, I want to emphasize that are disagreements are a big deal because if you want to de-emphasize how big our disagreements are you are selling the idea that we need some form of agreement for friendship and to me that's dangerous.

I want to sell the idea that we can have passionate, fundamental disagreements and still be friends. And that's why I don't want to say "Yeah, well we agree on this so let's be friends". I want to focus on it the other way around. I want to say that agreements should not be a condition of friendship. I be like:

Look, we actually have very fundamental disagreements and we could still be friends.

We can go and have a debate. I can shit on your ideas, you can shit on my ideas and then we can go and have non-alcoholic drinks with each other right after. How about that? Can we do that? I think we can do that. Do you know why it's important that we do that? Because many of us, we are not going to change each other's opinions and if we wait for each other to change their opinion for us to get along, then the whole world is not going to get along.

• We can still try to convince each other that I'm right and your wrong, and visa versa but more important than that, because that's not going to happen tomorrow, that's not going to happen 10 years from now, that's no going to happen 100 years from now but we can maybe try to learn to live each other, even if we hate each other's opinions. I think we can do that, I think we need to do that and I think we have to do that.

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