this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2026
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An atheist could be the most altruistic, outgoing, charitable person you've ever met, or the most evil person on this planet, or somewhere in between. The good, the bad or the ugly. We cannot say anything about them other than they don't use religion to justify how they live.
That said I've run into atheist forums that became borderline cults. And I say that as an atheist and a skeptic. I remember reading a site by PZ Myers called Pharyngula which was ostensibly about evolution but turned into a cult called Atheism+ which tacked its own beliefs onto a lack of belief. It became so obnoxious it reminded me of Globo Gym in Dodgeball "we're better than you and we know it!" . Fortunately they're nothing these days but it shows cults don't need the supernatural, they just need groupthink.
I think that's a mischaracterization.
Atheism+ was (is) more about bringing social issues into the discussion, rather than focusing solely on godlessness. It was trying to be more intersectional to bring in women, trans people, gay people, groups that historically were not welcome in predominantly white and male atheist spaces.
Atheism becomes more powerful when it can make allies. Together, we stand.
Unfortunately the dudebro contingent was ... unhappy with that.
I am not talking about supporting women, trans / gay rights etc. That is perfectly fine, and it was not that. Like I said I was an avid follower of that site and I saw the toxicity take hold. Myers increasingly used unhinged, defamatory hate speech and followers would dogpile anyone who defied the group think or cast doubt on his utterances. It was genuinely authoritarian and cult-like, that they were the superior ones, they were Atheism+ or sometimes "New Atheism", that anyone else was fair game for the worst smears. Luckily his obnoxiousness became so hard to ignore that he basically ostracized himself into irrelevance.
I was also on Pharyngula back then and had an entirely different experience. Did you find yourself among the dogpiled?
PZ mostly does spider posts these days.
No I wasn't but I witnessed it. I saw people banned for arbitrary and unfair reasons. I saw Myers declare that anyone who didn't believe exactly what he did was a troll. I saw the vile accusations and slurs and supporters shit on people who cast doubt on these accusations and slurs. Difference of opinion was not a thing to be countenanced. Atheist groups got fed up with it and some even released statements to that effect. So his marginalization and atheism+ was self inflicted and well deserved.
A slymepitter, you have discovered.