I think this is one of the strangest answers I've ever heard. As a native Houstonian, I can think of very few groups of folks that bring it up much at all. I have dozens of atheist friends. In fact some of my best friends have these beliefs. I disagree with them. But it hardly ever comes up.
I see that Fatty is practicing for the battle vs Batman on New Year's Eve at the Toyota Center!!!! Also, where are the bukket photos?
The bandwagon called "agnosticism" is still available on the fence, and still comfy. We ignorantly declare that we don't know there is a God, but we also don't know there isn't!
As a Christian, I've been in many, many groups where Christians were verbally attacked by Athiests, but I've never been in a group where several Christians attack an Athiests over their beliefs. But, most of the time, like you say...it doesn't come up
At the risk of being an attention-w**** talking about myself and derailing a thread about a medieval artifact, I have to say my experience is nothing like you've described. I grew up in Houston, and felt hostile to religion in high school. But, I had a good friend become born again and also befriended a fundamentalist Muslim, which made me reconsider my attitude. I later married a fundie Christian and regularly attend a very conservative church, even occassionally attending bible studies and the like. So, I'm not insulated from the bible-thumping culture; I'm swimming in it. People mostly are very respectful about my positions that are based in atheism. I am at the receiving end of a lot of conversion effort, but that doesn't bother me. It's just debate to me. Oftentimes, I think there is some inconsiderate assumptions in group settings about Us and Them, but I find that more funny than offensive. And, I've had to remind some moralizing churchgoers that the rules of christianity don't apply the same way outside the church. It doesn't bother me, perhaps because they are friends. If you have an atheist friend reproach you for something that makes no sense, you might ignore the reproach, but you don't ditch your friend over it. It's not necessary to be confrontational about it. Understand why the Christian believes what he does and help him understand why you believe what you believe. No one needs to convince the other of their position. If you can convince them, it will be from arguing inside the other person's framework anyway, not your own. So, I haven't had any such trouble. I do have more trouble with avowed atheists though. Atheists who so identify with their atheism that they would form organizations around it tend to be confrontational and disrespectful, imo. The Christian apologist mindful of the Great Commission, I think, argues to win a convert; the atheist apologist argues to win an argument. Certainly, there are Christians looking to score debate points at the expense of alienating the target, but those aren't the folks I associate with.
I'm not sure how to respond to that. I've met only a handful of atheists in Houston and I have lived here for 20 years. Among my friends, religion is not a big issue (that's why they are my friends). Outside of my group of peers it has been a big enough deal in the past that I don't mention very often anymore.
Conservative, theist, delusional, anachronistic, luddite, self-righteous Liberal, progressive, pragmatic, skeptic, free thinker, agnostic, humanist, tolerant pick your grouping
While I think you are partially correct, there is also no chance that your post (if you had had the first reply) would have said: "People who spend their lives setting out to prove religion as false are just as bat **** crazy as the other side of the coin. How long did it take you to search for this nugget, robbie?" Would you agree that FFB (intentionally or not) uses inflammatory language in his reply?
I appreciate that. Actually, I've read many of your posts on the subjects of faith and religion and if more people were like you we would have no need for labels like "atheist" or "theist." My atheism is only a big deal to me when it's a big deal to someone else first. I'd prefer for conversations about god to go like this: person: "you believe in god?" me: "nope. you?" person: "yeah" me: "cool. you want to go drink some beer and watch the Rockets game?" person: "for sure"
I have no idea who you hung out with but I've only met one person in my whole life that actually cared one way or another about someone's religious beliefs enough to hassle them. That conversation is pretty much what you would get if you asked almost anyone I've ever met about their beliefs. Maybe you just had bad luck.
I guess that is why I ask if you are from Houston. I know not all communities are as religiously aggressive as Houston and the south in general. Or as Vatican City, or Qom, or Nashville
Well, I only think people here know my beliefs so much because stuff gets posted here that would rarely be talked about in open conversation. I'm by no means going to any events trying to convert people, although I have gotten into deep, respectful conversations with my friends about the subject. That said, if someone walked up to me today and brought up that article, I would have responded to it in the exact same way, and I guarantee people, atheist or not, would expect that reaction. What they would not do is respond in the way this board did.
I'm still not able to understand how this guy's audacious claim means or implies anything about a) the validity of organized religion X or b) the goals of the funding atheist organization Y But whatever. I'm sure the vast liberal science conspiracy is at work here.
