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Is 'Athephobia' a real thing

I heard this one recently. By 'Athephobia' I of course mean the phobia of atheism. I immediately thought no chance, however, there are some arguments that have been made which are making me reconsider. Firstly, not all that long a go there was a public survey about who the American people trusted the most, and this was broken down into all sorts of different people, and I do believe the question was to do with how likely would it be that you vote for someone if the were of a certain category. In last place were 'murderers' (they were the least trustworthy), but in second to last place it was a tie between 'rapists' and 'atheists'. Wow. Also you go outside of the US, in some countries, being openly sceptical about the existence god, is in itself a crime, with punishments varying, and sometimes can still today result in the death penalty.

Do you think athephobia is a real thing or not?

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RobH86 7 July 6
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15 comments

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0

My Atheism is no secret to anybody I have never tried to hide it nor wanted to promote it - If anyone is phobic about atheism. I might suggest that they try to see a counsellor ot help them get over it. The telling bit would arise if they didn't want to do anything about it and in that case they would have to just bear it.

jacpod Level 8 July 24, 2018
1

Absolutely. It could be used in the same way as homophobia (not necessarily a clinical phobia but at least aversion or prejudice against).

JD7270 Level 2 July 12, 2018
3

[theconversation.com]

It's the whole realization that their world view is false. Religious people's fear of atheists is fueled by the thought, that if there is no god, then there is so much they might have given up or will give up, to believe in an after life. They fear that death is just the end of life, sure. But, I think that in some instances they have given up some secret desires, because their religion doesn't allow for it.

1

You answered your own question.

I did. Just interested if other people agree or not

0

Besides, if it were real it would be a-theo-phobia to give the correct Greek components!

0

A phobia, I believe not being a clinical psychologist, is an anxiety disorder that seriously affects an individual both physically and mentally, on many occasions to the point where they are unable to function due to fear, frequently accompanied by panic attacks. Phobia is a real and terrifying condition. It is not, as the suffix usually indicates, an aversion to a contradictory philosophy. I would suggest that the term athephobia has been created as a rhetoric device to undermine atheistic thinking. If it exists as a clinical condition, I would like to know the number of diagnosed cases and their demographic distribution.

There are people who get this anxious about clowns and balloons. Being raised in the buckle of the bible belt I have no doubt that some people would go into a fit like that if I began professing my lack of beliefs at them. In general though Id agree that the conditions for a phobia arent met as much as the conditions for discrimination/fear of an outside group. The anxieties fears and prejudices we face are more similar to tribalism and bigotry than an acute phobia by its strict psyhological definition. But by the same token homophobia exists in the same realm. Doesnt mean it doesn’t exist, just the usage of the suffix phobia has evolved in casual usage.

1

People can fear pretty much anything and any ideology. I don't think the word "athephobia" is formally recognized (yet).

Athephobia doesn't make grammatical sense. If they want to come up with a bullshit word for something that doesn't exist at least they could come up with a term that makes sense. Then we can pull that apart too 🙂

2

Many religions openly fear and promote fear of anyone who is "Not of the faith" so yes, the delusional theist (takes things on faith over facts) is taught and some do fear atheists. I am not just asserting this without merrit. One of the Catholics I de-converted (he is now a much happier atheist) told me because his church promoted fearing atheists, he was originally afraid of me. I asked another theist I de-converted and he confirmed the other former theist's point.

@iamjc It feels great when they thank you for helping them see the light of reason and no longer fear superstitions. Usually (not always) takes hundreds of hours debating and many weeks to months for them to process the information. In one case however, (an old HS friend) although I was only partly responsible in her transition from Catholic to rational atheist, she now finds her environment filled with superstitious irrational people who's faith based belief and damaged logical processing (lack of scepticism) skills really annoy her so she (intellectually) feels nearly alone surrounded by theist.

Yeah I absolutely had a degree of fear of atheists to get over as I lost my religion. And another hump of personal fear of using the term (for fear of claiming to be too certain) to get over before I could admit to being one. All a result of indoctrination and misunderstanding the term, and didnt bring on acute anxiety reactions, but fear nonetheless.

3

Athephobia is totally made up. What does Athe mean?

So an irrational fear of god, not the stupid god fearing bollocks of the religious, is Theophobia so does that therefore mean that Atheophobia is a fear of no god?

You can't have an irrational fear of an atheist until they tell that they one, we don't look any different, other than rolling our eyes a bit more often, so what's the fear of? You have a fear of someone, but your not sure who, who doesn't believe in your god but not a fear of someone who doesn't believe in the same gods you don't believe in?

And is it specific to atheists, surely we could contrive something for agnostics although the word soup necessary is not worth the effort.

It's utter tripe and should be given no credence whatsoever.

In absolute agreement

3

I've never heard that term before, but it seems to me that there could be two distinct concepts here. One is the fear of atheists (=people) and the other is the fear of atheism (=a worldview). Certainly there has been and still is a fear of atheists by some; But I think fear of the worldview itself is also real and prevalent. Christian parents fear their children will be seduced by it and as a child I went through a phase in which I feared I might lose the faith (=become an atheist) and go to hell as a result.

0

you can probably make that argument for just about anythng

3

Just another made up thing by theists

1

I think a fear of atheism is also related to just being afraid of just how insignificant any individual really is in the great scheme of things, or a fer of not having any real significance. If there is no god, then there is no plan which measn they feel like they don't really matter.

2

It threatens theists' delusion.

6

Oh, yes. There are plenty of people who are terrified of our existence.

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