I also wanted to point out and say, Christians aren't the only intolerant ones. Or the ones with the wrong approach. A lot of atheists are filled with hatred. And their approaches are bad too sometimes. I had this teacher a while back. He was my first atheist teacher. And I was curious, and wanted to learn more. Not to become an atheist necessarily. And he told us he wasn't trying convert us to atheism. He only wanted us to become more critical in our thinking, and not just believe what we do blindly. And I told him. Get the debate going, talk to more people. But he was my first experience with one of those hate-filled atheists. And he was a bad one. The very suggestion of religion made him very angry. And he told us, he used to go religious conferences, and religious services too I think, and disrupt them by yelling. Anyways, as I often tell people online now, just because you belong to the right cause, doesn't make you a good person. There are bad apples in every bushel.
Here we go again. God is related to religion. Atheists per se don't believe in God, by definition. But they define themselves in relation to something religious--namely God; i.e., that in which they don't believe. Some go farther and believe in secular humanism, and may or may not express that in meetings and ceremonies recognized by the Supreme Court as religious. I belong to a group of atheists (except for me, of course), who meet regularly to discuss religion. We don't consider that activity religious. Other atheists (as I've explained ad nauseum on another thread), go farther in terms of elaborating on the ultimate nature of reality, common humanist values, ceremonies to mark rites of passage, etc. It's arguable that these are quasi-religious or religious, as recognized by the courts, scholars, and even the dictionary.
Most atheists I've known aren't like that. Sounds like he wasn't just an atheist but was downright anti-religious. Disrupting meetings is obviously out of hand. I can understand, though, why the excesses of some religious folks--e.g, Bible-thumping fundamentalists, televangelists, and Christian nationalists--might lead somebody to feel that way. Some atheists I know were victims of what's been called "toxic faith syndrome"--raised by Christian parents who told them they were going to hell for various infractions. Others were offended by the behavior of Christians. One woman who was grieving over the loss of her daughter was turned off by the well-meaning efforts of Christians who tried to comfort her by telling her it was God's plan. Some so-called "Christians" resemble the Pharisees Jesus opposed more than Jesus Himself. Or your teacher may have been put off by some of the unbelievable beliefs professed in some Christian creeds.
