Mike Dulak grew up Catholic in Southern California, but by his teen years, he began skipping Mass and driving straight to the shore to play guitar, watch the waves and enjoy the beauty of the morning. “And it felt more spiritual than any time I set foot in a church,” he recalled.
Nothing has changed that view in the ensuing decades.
“Most religions are there to control people and get money from them,” said Dulak, now 76, of Rocheport, Missouri. He also cited sex abuse scandals in Catholic and Southern Baptist churches. “I can’t buy into that,” he said.
As a religious person in one of the top three most hated organized religions in the United States, I’ve found most of the anti-theist commentary about my religion to be highly ignorant. In the Fediverse, it’s cool to hate on religions and religious people (especially members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), but nobody seems to be interested in doing any due diligence before spewing their hate. I couldn’t number how many times I’ve been told what I believe (like, what?), usually something weird and outlandish or a century out of date.
Tl;dr anti-theist rhetoric in the Fediverse tends to be highly ignorant and hateful bigotry, not the enlightened discussion one would expect from people so, well, “enlightened”.