Extremism is the enemy, not theism or atheism.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this topic, and I want to share my thoughts here and see what the general consensus is here. Most atheists and theists/religious people are peaceful people who want to live their lives and have the freedom to express their thoughts, opinions, and beliefs without interference from anyone. It’s only when these people try to take their autonomy away from them and try to impose what their actions should be , that it starts venturing into the territory of extremism.

In the case of religion, extremism has lead to terrorism, crusades, wars and a lot of suffering. However, the same can easily be said of atheism as well, where extremism has lead to antireligion. In either case, extremism is a response to the desire of gaining moral superiority, or an excuse to gain political authority over others. Since there are atheists on this sub, I want to focus more on their point of view. When a person has a lack of belief in God, there is no problem in that itself, since they may be peaceful and indifferent to what others belief. But there may come a point where that atheist comes to believe that their point of view is the only right one, and that it is their moral duty to eradicate the opposite point of view, by force if necessary. That’s how antireligion comes to be. For example, Stalin called for an "atheist five year plan" from 1932 to 1937, led by the LMG, in order to eliminate all religious expression in the USSR. The government destroyed church buildings or put them into secular use (as museums of religion and atheism, clubs or storage facilities), executed clergy, prohibited the publication of most religious material and persecuted some members of religious groups. Many clergy and theists were also tried, tortured and executed by Albania after its 1976 constitution which stated, "The state recognizes no religion of any kind and supports and develops the atheist view so as to ingrain in to the people the scientific and materialistic worldview.” Its antireligion, not atheism, that causes Sam Harris to say, “If I could wave a magic wand and get rid of either rape or religion, I would not hesitate to get rid of religion.” To that, I would say that if I could wave a magic wand and get rid of either extremism or religion, I would not hesitate to get rid of extremism.

Every person, whether theist or atheist, must divert their focus away from each other, and onto the real enemy, extremism. Let us promote what we believe to be the correct point of view, through debate using good faith and an open mind, rather than hate, insults and dismissals.