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Well, I'm not gay. Now, that said, gays do not effect me nor do they concern me in any way. I am only responsible for myself and what anyone else believes or thinks is of no concern or responsibility of mine. I preach nor attempt to convert no one at all. I was only curious as to why atheists seem to be so concerned about how what Christians believe effects them? Why is it really any of their business at all?
Religious beliefs affect everyone especially with regards to law. Some states even make it illegal (albeit against the constitution) for an Atheist to hold a position of power.
Atheists are considered one of the most distrusted and disliked groups and in some studies are even at the very bottom behind Muslims.
Actually, I would claim they are simply those who must dictate to others how they should live and what they should believe. They are meddlers in other people's affairs.
You mean like calling out homosexuals, calling folk sinners and telling them they need to repent or face the wrath of God(yes i know you believe in UR) ?. It seems to me that you want(and you have) the liberty to say what you want and not to expect a response unless it is agreeable to you. Jesus had to put up with folk resisting his message where ever he went(no prizes for guessing where it was coming from), then these same folk calling him Beelzebub, water off a ducks back to Jesus...
Offended because what you are saying is rejected? and your responses smack of it, you should study how Jesus handled it.
Spelling of proper nouns is not my area of expertise.
Whatever. You can actually learn how to spell the name of the man who is responsible for the success of our space program ....or you can guess. Your choice.
It's pretty obvious the OP and many respondents are misinformed about atheism and fear and loathe atheists. But it's also understandable.
It's mostly the fundamentalists who resent the incursions of the godless. Fundamentalists prefer a black and white worldview. It keeps things simple, which is important to them.
Atheists introduce doubt where there was certainty. They introduce objective, scientific truths which contradict biblical stories and are difficult to deny.
In short, atheists make fundamentalists' brains hurt. And, since they don't believe in God, they most certainly must be minions of Satan.
Sir, your "nutshells" are always enjoyable to read.
It takes a lot of faith to be an atheist, so I think the obsession is about looking for re-assurance from the like-minded.
The other reason is that they are simply offended by the cross
It takes no faith to be an atheist. If I was relgious I would not be a believer in the cross anyways, at least if I stayed with the religion of my forefathers.
My memory of the Catholic Church for example was the preist was my Little League baseball and Tiny Mites and Pee Wees hockey coach and an all round great guy and not interested in little boys in the negative meaning. No reason to be offended by your symbols. Nor I am here looking for reasurances. In some of the atheist forums the Christains come there to attack and make so many false claims and the regulars on those forums strick back hard. So I came here where there are civil and sensible discussions on my quest to find out what makes a certain portion of any the dominate religious belief to believe and think how they do.
And to the OP trying to learn what others think or what makes them think the way they do is called curiosity not a mental disorder, nor is not believing in your God an act of cowardness. I did look up the titles on the first page of thread under Christainity and there were two I would consider as maybe anti-Christian threads, in the Atheist forum here a similar number but less threads on the page. If my memory is correct the last time I looked on the Islam page there was a higher percentage of anti-Islam threads than there are on this forum.
Most of the Christians I have have converstation with on this forum have been polite and seem to enjoy the exchange of views and that has included fundamentalists who although I cannot agree with much of their positions I do not hate them nor would I resort to name calling or insulting their mental state nor their intelligence. Perhaps their lack of knowledge or proper education on some subjects but the same could be said for everyone else too if you broaded the subject matters.
I spent about 30 years of my life either as a cultural Christian or as a dedicated Christian. I met some rather good friends and had some good times here and there, but for the most part, after escaping from the grip of Christianity, I realize how traumatized I really was/am. I literally HATE church. While there are some Christians songs I still love, when I hear some of them, they take my mind back to a mixture of good emotions (hanging out with friends and taking trips) and bad emotions (being bored out of my mind at times, being horrified at times among other things). I literally try to distance myself from ANYTHING to do with my Christian past and try to deal with the regret of practically wasting much of my life chasing a pipe dream.
All of that being said, just yesterday, I was speaking to an old friend from my Christian days and from a past conversation, he was made aware that I am no longer a Christian and have no reason for Church nor do I go. So I was telling him about my new path in life and how happy I am with it. He was able to ascertain that I am the SAME person (without the religion) and yet, as the call was ending, he pleaded with me to start going back to church and to reconsider "God." Ugh!
I am a black man and like folks in the U.S South, there is just this assumption that I MUST be a person who believes in God. Other black folks talk to me in Gospel speak because it is just assumed that I pray, that I believe in God, that I believe in heaven and hell and that I believe "God is gonna work it out." When I start to hear the "Gospelese," it makes me cringe and I am left with this weird situation of not knowing how to answer or react. The assumption is forced on me and if I speak up and saying anything remotely close to not believing in the hocus pocus, it steers the conversation in an entirely different direction and the analyzing starts.
A family I know from my Christian days is about to lose their eldest sibling to cancer and so I called to offer support. In the course of the conversation I heard:
"We are praying for the best."
"God is good and he knows best."
"Just keep us in your prayers."
"God is a god of miracles."
Then the conversation went off to asking me about what church I attend and blah blah blah. This conversation came after a conversation the week before with another former church friend who started talking about church life, changes in his theology and the death of his father and then telling me all about heaven.
For those moments when I have had an opportunity to say something dissenting, I have been talked down, not given a chance to get a word in edge wise and essentially threatened. My own mom got wind of the fact that I use Facebook as a platform to gently tell my sphere of friends I no longer believe. As a result, I got a call, that was actually a scolding, in which she told me I was embarrassing her and that I should stop telling people I don't believe in God. For an entire hour, my mother went in on me to the point where she told her I stressed her out with the thought that I might go to the "other place."
When I come to these type forums, I get a chance to learn a few things and also to hone my ability to speak my position and not be afraid or feel that I am alone. Also, as with Alt Thinker, I actually appreciate the bible because I am a history buff and find it fascinating to see how religious beliefs shaped the course of history or how history shaped religion. I don't HATE "God" or the Bible, but I do believe there is some real flawed thinking out there, ESPECIALLY among my own black folks who, in there disenfranchised state, still look for a sweet chariot to swing low and carry them home.
Sounds to me like personal problems most adults would readily handle themselves in privacy.
It takes a lot of faith to be an atheist, so I think the obsession is about looking for re-assurance from the like-minded.
The other reason is that they are simply offended by the cross
I don't have enough faith to be an atheist. Even with all the other here to reassure me.
Nail on the head! It's the cross that offends so many just as foretold.
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