Does This Meme Represent the Typical Christian? September 13, 2011

Does This Meme Represent the Typical Christian?

By Hemant Mehta
September 13, 2011

I don’t know who started the “Scumbag Christian” meme but I’m amused. A few of my favorites:



Sound like anyone you know? Or are these unfair strawmen and not-at-all representative of most Christians?

In any case, here’s the template if you’d like to make your own:

(via Reddit)

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  • Andrew Morgan

    god bless you, internet.

  • Anonymous

    …Says his god designed bananas perfectly for consumption by humans…

    …Doesn’t know that modern, edible bananas were cultivated by humans…

  • Melina

    Just looking at him makes me nauseous, especially after the “man card” post. What a waste of air!

  • Isn’t that MOST religions? I mean, even Buddhism is homophobic in practice, if not in declaration. And I’d make a distinction here between fundy xians, who are VERY loud and get WAY more attention than they, statistically (as their numbers drop) deserve, than the more thoughtful, liberal and tolerant majority. Hell, there are some xians who self-describe as “liberal” who believe the wholly babble is merely ancient poetry and that Jesus is a metaphor for how one needs to live (I guess they ignore the part where he beats the snot out of the flea market at the temple).

  • Anonymous

    Constantly whines about atheists “mocking” his religion…

    Throws “The fool has said in his heart, there is no god” in the face of every atheist he meets…

    And for William Lane Craig, Alistair McGrath etc:

    Pours scorn on anyone who expresses an atheist position without being an expert on christian theology…

    Dismisses the theology of every other religion out of hand without knowing anything about it…

  • Ezetsnd

    I got one, “douchebag.”

  • Here’s mine:

    1) Dismiss Atheists for being ‘fundamentalist’
    2) Is a fundamentalist

    http://qkme.me/353fx1

  • Justin Miyundees

    “Is a simpleton.”
    “Doesn’t know it.”

  • 1) Atheists do not understand theology.
    2) Does not understand theology.

  • 1) Cites ontological argument as proof of God.
    2) Does not know what ‘ontological’ means.

    http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/353g3e/

    (I could do this all day)

  • 1) Claims Theromodynamics disproves evolution.
    2) Doesn’t understand what a ‘closed system’ is.

    http://qkme.me/353g3v

  • 1) Claims Dawkins is a Social Darwinist.
    2) Never read any of Dawkins’ books or essays.

    http://qkme.me/353g4a

    (Okay, I’ll stop now)

  • Last one, last one:

    1) Claims to have evidence against evolution.
    2) Does not provide any.

    http://qkme.me/353g55

  • Courtney

    Ugh.  I agree with Melina.  That smug,  pompous,  arrogant look on his face makes me want to vomit.  And that smug,  pompous,  arrogant,  HYPOCRITICAL personality makes me want to vomit on him.  And to think,  back in his “Pre-rebirth Growing Pains” days,  I thought he was super cool and amazing.  Well,  I never said I was a good judge of character…….

  • Anonymous

    I don’t think this is a general attack on Christians. It defines a type of Christian, and calls all of that type “scumbags.” It’s also worth noting that there are “scumbag atheist” pics as well. 

  • Karen

    Thanks for passing this along, Hemant.  VERY funny!

  • Sven

    Asks questions

    Not interested in answers

  • Hello Ray Comfort 😀

  • Lorenzo Benito

     Or are these unfair strawmen and not-at-all representative of most Christians?

    You can get around this problem by using phrases that apply specifically to Kirk Cameron. There is no shortage of material. The viewing audience will then generalize the phrases to other people as they see fit.

  • Anonymous

    More More!

    1. Claims atheists have no morals because they have no religion.
    2. Says atheism is a religion.

  • Tom

    “Knows about an infallible proof that god exists.”
    “Cannot recall gist of proof just right now.”

  • Y U NO Upload to Memebase?

  • Michael Appleman

    I agree with you, but ultimately the moderate majority is supporting the fundie minority.

  • SkydivingSceptic
  • SJH

    Though many of these are funny and have an element of truth in some people that I have known, is making prejudiced statements going to fix any problems? When I read this post and most of the comments, I see judgment and generalization. Why do we feel the need to find the weakest among the other side and bash them and extrapolate their behavior to the rest of them?  I can point out many flaws in many religions and beliefs including my own. None of us are perfect and some are wiser than others but for those that are interested lets try and elevate the conversation so that we can all gain an understanding of truth whether that be Humanism, Christianity or Buddhism. If the atheist is correct, lets resolve these differences so that we can all be witnesses to the truth. I am not interested in converting anyone nor blindly following a religion but I am interested in discerning truth with others through discussion and reasoning as a team and not as adversaries.

    PS. I understand that I can just as easily post this on many Xian blogs and it would be just as true. I am not defending Kirk Cameron or anyone else. Perhaps we all need to spend a bit more time trying to learn more about reality and our existence and less time trying to push our views onto others.

  •  There are things we do as atheists to change minds, but there are things we do as atheists for ourselves to cheer ourselves up, and this is the latter. It’s funny for us to make fun of those who have more power than us. And that really is the difference between us doing this and a Christian doing the same thing back at us. Christians have the power here, immense power. Us laughing at them sometimes cheers us up way more than it will ever bring them down. They have so much more of a support system in place, and we have this meme.

    I don’t think any of us atheists blindly believe that all Christians think this way. We see them for the caricatures that they are, albeit caricatures that are sometimes realistic portraits in *some* cases. We know that these are not all Christians, but we know that they are some, because we have encountered them before, in real life. But in real life, the Christians have the power, and we can’t always laugh in the face of that uneven power. But here, on the internet, we can let it out. We can vent our frustrations and turn the boggarts into something laughable.

  • Additionally: 

    While it is remains true that two wrongs do not make a right, it is also true that turnabout is fair play.

    http://www.quickmeme.com/Scumbag-Atheist/

  • SJH

    Perhaps I am taking this a bit to seriously though I would consider that perhaps this only reinforces negative atheist stereotypes. I think you may be hurting your cause.

  • It’s interesting to see the shift in pronoun from ‘we’ in your first post to ‘you’ in your second post.

    Not inferring anything from that.  Just planting a flag on it so it gets noticed.

  • Anonymous

    I get your point and the irony of the post topic, but at the same time, I really think people like Kirk Cameron just simply care about getting their name mentioned more than what the words are.  With such contradictory statements that he makes for his own cause and purposes, calling him out is just another notch in his “I got mentioned in the media” bedpost.

  • Me

    Wait, what? I consider myself a Christian, and am utterly appalled by fundamentalist Christians. . . as in, I’m pro-choice, anti death penalty, and politically completely liberal. I just happen to believe in the god I believe in. However, I generally cannot stand the fact that evangelical Christians have polluted the political process. Politics should be secular. Period.

  • Me

    ? SJH’s first post is chock full of “I”.

  • Michael Appleman

    Be appalled a more loudly. Encourage your other like minded friends to do the same.

  • OH how I wish it was that simple. Fundamentalist Christians hate our kind. I love Jesus, and I hate the church = I’m not a Christian. You can’t teach them anything. You can’t even discuss anything with them, they will always go back to the same illogical argument.

  • I would say it’s trying to attempt to show these people what they are like, and that they need to change, that’s it.

  • Heikki Mäenpää

    “Claims Dawkins is a Social Darwinist”
    “Is a Social Darwinist”

  • Jacko

    Why is this site called friendly atheists? There is a whole lot of hate going on here.. I really hope you know that there are many many Christians who aren’t like the one’s you are talking about here. You can generalize any demographic. That doesn’t define the group you are generalizing.