Atheism

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I also don't understand why the atheist who speaks out is an obnoxious preacher, but the believers should go on all day without getting blame.

It depends.

Religion preaches love of others,

the eternal life,

the ways of virtue,

having a place in the scheme of things.

If atheism just preaches the denial of the sacred, the denial of meaning and the sole reality of material existence, then what's good about it?

We have a place in the scheme of things. We have no choice. We are a part of nature.

folks will do what that jelly in their heads moves them to do,

What is an Atheist preaching?

It seems that the only way some will find tolerance of Atheists is if they remain silent.

I suppose if atheists are upset about their civil rights and what the religious do, then their real concern should be that they don't sound preachy, and understand their place.

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We have a place in the scheme of things. We have no choice. We are a part of nature.

But many atheist philosophies deny that and will insist that the universe is devoid of any meaning, save that which we impose upon it, and that our existence here is the outcome of chance and necessity.

Or we do not have any autonomy as persons, we are only the expression of the 'selfish genes' which are executing their own 'master plan' within which our only role is to carry them.

In all of these scenarios, our separation from nature - dumb and blind - is absolute. As per A Free Man's Worship, by Russell, or Chance and Necessity, by Jacques Monod.

I don't see atheism as an organised movement. I think it's a point of view arrived at by an individual and there is no shared path. To think of atheism as an organised religion is bizarre (even though apparently some atheists do). We are not united by our disbelief.

I wouldn't say that any of the meanings that an atheist finds in life are ever "imposed." We can't really say the same for the religious narratives that have been presented.

If you think any of that separates us from nature, you're projecting.

Chance alone is at the source of every innovaton, of all creation in the biosphere. Pure chance, only chance, absolute but blind liberty is at the root of the prodigious edifice that is evolution... It today is the sole conceivable hypothesis, the only one that squares with observed and tested fact.

.. the scientific attitude implies what I call the postulate of objectivity—that is to say, the fundamental postulate that there is no plan, that there is no intention in the universe. Now, this is basically incompatible with virtually all the religious or metaphysical systems whatever, all of which try to show that there is some sort of harmony between man and the universe and that man is a product—predictable if not indispensable—of the evolution of the universe.

The questions which this cause me to ponder are that, if there is no intention in the universe, then humans are the only beings that we know of which are capable of intention (and reason, for that matter). So again there seems a radical disconect between man and nature in this scenario. First, it seems perversely anthropocentric - human intentions are the only real ones. Second, it seems nihilistic - there is no way that intention (or reason) reflects anything in the universe, outside our own perception.

Nihilism (from the Latin nihil, nothing) is the philosophical doctrine suggesting the negation of one or more meaningful aspects of life. Most commonly, nihilism is presented in the form of existential nihilism which argues that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value, and that any established moral values are abstractly contrived.