If you hang out in the atheist part of the Internet, then you’ve probably come across at least a handful of some of our cringey memes. They’re some of the more shameful creations that you’ll see from our community. You get everything from ugly fonts, low image quality, and multiple layers of filters on screenshots, to fallacies, oversimplification of philosophical questions, and things that are really just mean. Below are a few popular memes that I’ve seen since I started my Twitter, and why I think they should probably just not exist. Enjoy!
This is… not how this works. I saw a lot of memes that claimed that a work of fiction is proof that its story is true. But Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings were purposely written as fiction. The bible is a complex collection of books. I don’t know (yet) what the writers’ intentions were with most of it, but it doesn’t seem like it was just for entertainment. Not to mention that there is a lot of historical and contextual criticism that went into the majority of secular scholars accepting the existence of the historical Jesus, not just the fact that he showed up in a book.
Another recurring theme. Now, just because something is in a cringey meme doesn’t mean that there isn’t some basis behind it. The problem of evil is something that people have been debating about for millennia. Maybe that’s enough of a reason that it doesn’t fit into a cringey meme.
Wow. You showed them, laptop camera basement beanie superior atheist guy!
Again, maybe it’s not entirely wrong. But there is some context as to why the Bible is read to children on Sunday, which parts are read, and why it portrays a lot of those things in the first place. Also, it’s not a novel, and I think the word you were looking for instead of “object” is “noun”.
I am so tired of seeing this meme. I mean, there is a basis for why one may argue this (or something loosely like it), and I don’t know of any really good responses to it, but it’s all null anyways because it’s in Comic Sans.
I just don’t know why the atheist in this scenario doesn’t give them the book, chapter, and number of this verse. Without sources, we’re all just saying whatever we please. Sure, Jesus did say this in Matthew 10:34 about extending his Kingdom and why it would involve pitting family members against each other. But just before this, in verse 5:9, he said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.” So maybe it’s just another biblical contradiction. Or maybe we should take the entire book of Matthew into context and actually study what it means?
I get what they’re trying to say here, but it’s oversimplified. I don’t know if they’re saying that if you don’t leave your religion, you’re consenting to forcing baptism on an unwilling child like in the last image. But I think that most of the time, keeping your childhood religion into adulthood is just something that happens. Most likely, you believe the same thing that all your family and friends believe, and it makes sense in your eyes. Often, it’s not even a choice, such as Jehovah’s Witnesses who are threatened with utterly horrible ideas of what will happen if they leave “The Truth”. Either way, do the atheists in this case think that their cringey memes are more likely to make people join in our view?
Foolproof argument. Checkmate, theists! If only the billions of believers in the world could see this meme.
I saw this on a couple of atheist pages even though it could work for literally any idea you have. Obviously, it could be turned around to have the Christians being the right ones and the atheists being the wrong ones. Couldn’t you see an apologist arguing that the idea of the trinity and the theology of atonement is more complex than the Big Bang (or what he would probably describe as “everything poofing into existence) using this exact meme?
Ha. Good one David McAfee. You got me.
I really hate this picture of this baby. But besides that, I don’t even recall any time that the bible says that the bible is true or that God exists. It just says a lot of times that you will perish if you don’t believe in God or if you commit idolatry. Also, why is the word “The” the only one that’s not capitalized?
First of all, God would be very mad that you didn’t mention him leading the Israelites out of their Egyptian slavery. It’s all he talks about, and it didn’t even make the list! Other than that, I think this one may be the least cringey content-wise. (That font is a sin though.) It was funny enough for me to blow a little bit of air out of my nose as I read it. That being said, it’s still oversimplifying a miserably long story.
Do scientists even know how to build air conditioners? Wouldn’t that be engineers? And what if the engineers were religious? It’s a classic atheist meme, but it doesn’t hold up.
Get it? See, it’s funny because we’re supposed to think that the parents are just as dumb as their kid is because God is imaginary. Classy.
There are a plethora of Instagram accounts dedicated only to the atheist meme cause, and a lot of them actually bothered me a lot. On many accounts, I saw in their bios that “no religious people allowed” or something along those lines. However, I suppose it makes sense because so many memes have no point other than just saying disgusting things like “religion is a mental illness” or “religion is what you get when you don’t use your brain!” I guess that fellow atheists are supposed to get their confidence boosted from this, but it just adds to the way that people perceive atheists as cruel, condescending know-it-alls.