Some people just can't handle being released from Plato's cave.

To be honest, I don't think a lot of people are ready. It's a hard thing to deconstruct your faith and if you're not careful it can take you to some really dark places. For a lot of people it's the way they find meaning and solace in a world of pain. Ultimately if you can find that comfort without tying it to religion that's better but not everyone can. That's my take on it post-deconversion

Not every member of a church experiences those things first hand.

Oh boy, I sure love the ol' "atheists are filthy neckbeards" canard. Haven't heard that one before.

Yeah, and he doesn't mind killing other people for that

lucky! they still subsidize the activity if they tithe tho.

Don't be anti-intellectual about this silly comic. People can apply intellectual analysis to stupid things if they want to, and they damn-well may find deeper meaning sometimes.

Let people have their hobbies.

The first experience for many is crushing despair. It can take time to get out of that slump and learn to find meaning in a meaningless world.

I take this comic to be more poking fun at the portion of atheists who make their entire personality around disproving God's existence - people who try to spread atheism the same way christians spread their own gospel. It's largely not applicable to other atheists.

Yeah, there are exceptions in every group

Don't forget the "not believing in god = sadness" one. Realizing it is fake actually brought relief for the ex-religious people that I know (anecdotal, I know. I don't have the actual numbers).

Sure, but that also means that I get to make my own contribution to the discussion.

I mean, you get to make your own contribution because we're on an open platform, not for any other reason. quite often intellectual spaces shut down and deplatform anti-intellectual rhetoric and thought-terminating cliches such as what you've stated. It serves no one discussing the intricacies of any work to have someone yelling "The curtains were fucking blue!", and this comment section literally exists to discuss the above comic and its various aspects.

neither of those definitions are correct...

Example intellectual comments being posted here:

I didn’t realize neckbeard atheists oppressed so many people compared to religion, thanks to the author for opening my eyes

So many militant atheists. Saying so much, all just to prove the comic right.

Having said that, my specific objection is not to all of the discussion taking place here, but to the fact that a lot of the comments seem to be projecting their own personal viewpoints onto the comic.

Also, I was not shouting people down; I was speaking in all caps to be funny. It's fine if you personally did not think I funny, but that was the intent (which in retrospect could probably have been conveyed more clearly if I had also dropped the comma so that it was purely a stream of words), just like it was the intent of the comic author to make a dumb joke rather than to state a strong opinion about atheists. I think that it is useful to separate the intent of what an author was trying to accomplish from your own thoughts on the subject.

The world has plenty of meaning that doesn't involve any kind of faith or religion.

They are sufficient for the topic at hand.

So many people in this thread completely missing the satire. The author is clearly also an atheist poking fun at the highschool reddit atheist stereotype. Taking this way too seriously.

I try not to be too judgemental of people who are religious. We are not evolved enough as a species to be able to comprehend the unknown or unknowable, and everyone to some degree has to cope with this somehow, even if we aren't consciously aware of it. Faith is an easy, convenient and catch-all solution to all of life's unexplained phenomena, so it makes sense that people tend to gravitate towards it naturally, all it takes is a little push during childhood.

I take issue with it when religious folk try to force their views onto other people. Proselytizing is one thing, but converting people by duress or force, or by weaponizing the government apparatus to conform to their views and their views only, is where I stop caring about the feelings of those religious cults and do everything in my power to stop them or undermine their efforts.

Yeah, going from finding fulfillment through religion to finding it through other means isn't something you can do instantly.