your absolutely right. Anyone Christian that plays the "your going to Hell card" has a very skewed view of what being a Christian is about. Fortunately they are quickly becoming the minority of Christians.
It's this sort of condescending **** that makes atheists become assholes. We're supposed to listen to everybody preach and pray about how we are so obviously not seeing the light (and perhaps deserving of burning for eternity because of this). Yeah, that the invisible, undetectable light that even believers can't agree on...
I understand what you're saying...but it's an inherent part of the belief no matter how you slice it*. It does not even have to be said, frankly. *This is, admittedly, subjective but any alternative viewpoint requires a very specific (and not remotely popular) interpretation of Jesus' teaching.
K... sorry about that, but even so... the very same thing is said with a straight face all the time. Within religious circles, atheism is often treated like a sickness. "How are they so blind?" "How can they not see?" "They are so deep in sin that they have lost sight of the Savior." Or "They are just angry at God". It's this sort of behavior that causes atheists to react and seem abrasive.
Yes, one which I find convenient. I'm not exactly swayed or impressed when people use the Bible to substantiate itself. But like I said, if it's a satisfactory explanation to you, so be it. A lot of that is in the eye of the beholder. The nature of the conversation is condescending, as it is from the position of "I am right, ergo you must be wrong" on both sides. I don't get bothered by people or take it personally when I find myself on either side of that coin, otherwise I wouldn't debate/talk about it with people. Some people are condescending even talking about peanut butter or a big ass gordita, nobody has a monopoly on that attitude, especially not atheists. Although the 15-year-old angry at the world atheists on the internet try pretty hard. This article proves my point, albeit it is very misleading. People, as they become educated, shy away from more hardline religions and adopt softer and softer views nearing unitarian, and then on into agnosticism and so forth (the highest percentage of those who identify as nonatheist is represented by those with graduate degrees, regressing backwards as education level declines). If your standard for "religious" is having gone to church and having read the bible, then sure, but that's a ridiculous standard. People that are educated tend to be raised in actual communities, many of which are centered around churches (I was), where attending service is a regular or childhood thing, at least in this country. And most atheists I know have read the Bible, in fact, it's a huge part of the reason why they're atheists... because they read it and found it to be a poor choice for a spiritual guide or life manual. The statistics do bear out an inverse relationship between intelligence and religiosity. Now, as for education, America stands alone as the exception in the modern world of a large percentage of the degreed being religious. This phenomenon is explained quite well here: If we want to get into even more statistics, there's the prison population (vastly religious, almost zero atheist representation), and the income factor (religiosity falls as income rises). All kinds of factors point toward nontheists having a cultural leg up on their theistic counterparts. Once again, I'm not saying these things to be snide or condescending, I'm saying them because they're the truth. If it makes me an *******, then so be it. No, I'm not a theist. You wouldn't call a theist stupid. LOL, 7-8 times? Do you live in Seattle or something? The plain truth is, antitheists wouldn't exist if theists were not a threat to them. So, if people kept their religion to themselves, they wouldn't have to deal with haters. Food for thought.
Although I am an atheist, I have tremendous respect for religion and its true scholars. I think one of the major problems with these Reddit Atheists are a) their immaturity and b) they're fundamental lack of understanding on how to debate religion. Most religious debates eventually repeal back to the differing premises of faith vs. proof. The religious debates I love to engage in require me to move over to a common premise. When my religious friends and I discuss religion, I'll talk about the problem of evil through the lens of their god, or try to appeal to a sense of basic pragmatism. Most atheists come off as dickish and quite frankly, fail at basic argumentation. All that being said, the same is true of religion. I've always found the notion that Christians are persecuted in the present to be ridiculous, especially with the political power they wild. To me, it is the utmost arrogance to claim you know the truth and what is right and wrong. The anti-gay movement, among other things, personifies the most disgusting parts of religion, and you can expect atheists, much like their religious counterparts to have, at times, aggressive responses.
I think the major problem with these Reddit Atheists is they are more interested in affirming their invented identities than debating the subject at hand.
This is definitely an LOL. I see the Jesus fish eating a Darwin fish at least once a day. I see just the Darwin fish/FSM/whatever at most once a week.
Sounds like going to church to me, only they're worshiping at the altar of Narwhal. The stuff on the frontpage of r/atheism is garbage, but the posters/commenters are actually extremely bright and well versed. The bottom feeders who do nothing but spew reactionary bile everywhere will be going back to school soon, so we can all rejoice.
Yeah, they won't be posting on reddit on their free laptops at their daycares. I would venture and say that more people will be posting on reddit during the school year.
ok I get you. Also fromt the article you quoted (and from a Harvard Study) An analysis of World Values Survey data[17] showed that in most countries, there is no significant relationship between education and religious attendance, with some differences between "western" countries and former socialist countries, which they attribute to historical/ political/ economic factors (not intelligence). Other studies have noted a positive relationship. [18][19]. Other studies show that such a difference isn't so noticeable or even turns out to be the opposite. My original statement was that I would never call someone stupid for NOT believing in God. Since you don't believe in God, you would fit my original statement..I would Not call you stupid..yet you called me stupid in your original response Nope, Fort Worth and I stand by my statement that I see at least 7-8 Christian mocking Fish symbols for every 1 truth fish swallowing a Darwin fish symbol. Probably more of the mocking fish than that really. I'm not talking about a plain Christian fish symbol..yes there are lots of those. But those aren't making fun of or mocking anyone else. They are simply symbols making a statement about the driver - Just like putting a rainbow sticker on a car is not pushing a Gay lifestyle on someone else. Its simply stating something about the person in the car. I would never make fun of the symbol of Gay Pride with a sticker on my car.
"Being religious means asking passionately the question of the meaning of our existence and being willing to receive answers, even if the answers hurt." Paul Tillich
Why, the real ones just keep it to themselves. How can one shut up when not even talking? See, you just think you are better, right? Whose arrogance are we talking about?
I believe in the power of faith and spirituality but I do not believe in any of the organized religions. Stephen Hawking put it best when he said that maybe there is a God, however in all of the history of man and the known universe there is not one shred of scientific evidence that this God has played an active roll anywhere since its creation. I do not know if there is a God, and frankly do not see why it matters if there is or isn't. I am 100% certain, however, that if there is a God that this God does not resemble anything even remotely considered by man. That leaves us with a lot of man-made fairy tales. The mind is a powerful thing so these fairy tales can be useful to different people at different points of their life. That does not change what I believe to be fact - that they are inventions of man and not manifestations of God.
