Is this forum about religion or about bashing religion? (hell, atheist, agnostic)

[d-iron]

All the non believers why so much hostility/anger? If you don't believe don't participate.

[Le Lune]

Originally Posted by d-iron

All the non believers why so much hostility/anger? If you don't believe don't participate.

Because believers get defensive and arrogant, while making fools of themselves at the same time?

Also, if you do believe, you'll burn in Hell Just kidding

[deepcynic]

When you stay out of dictating what the laws of this land are, I will leave you alone.

You have freedom of religion, I should have freedom from it. But, increasingly the righteous religious right is forcing religious beliefs into the laws of this land!

[Gplex]

Originally Posted by d-iron

All the non believers why so much hostility/anger? If you don't believe don't participate.

Criticism of someone belief isn't being hostile or angry. Sorry I can't stand it when people try to push Moderator cut: inappropriate

[agnostic soldier]

This isn't the christianity forum. People from all faiths(or lack thereof) are allowed to participate. Why do fundamentalists go onto the atheist/agnostic forum? Are they closet atheists? There are also many ignorant fundamentalists both on this board and in real life who feel compelled to incessently try and 'spread the word.' Most nonbelievers don't care what you believe, it's the fact that fundies want to be the arbiter of morality. Criticism of ones beliefs doesn't equal anger/hostility.

[Fred314X]

As Agnostic Soldier pointed out, this isn't the Christianity forum. Nobody here has to be a "believer" of that or any other religion to participate.

As far as people acting defensively, that goes both ways.

[Thomas R.]

Originally Posted by d-iron

All the non believers why so much hostility/anger? If you don't believe don't participate.

People who don't believe have a right to participate.

Still I would say many non-religious here participate in a way that is so useless they would be better leaving it in Atheism/Agnosticism. If you want to engage a subject, engange it. Simply calling it "nonsense", "cults", "crap", "lies", etc is not discussion it's mere insult. It's also childish and intellectually lazy.

I got in a conversation about Marxism once and realized I was out of my depth. This does not mean I now think Marxism is okay, but I really should have made a better effort to know what I was arguing about or why. And so basically I say don't make that mistake.

Also recognize that sometimes people are going to want to just talk about religion. If you think it's fiction then I'd ask would you disrespect a literature discussion in the same way? If people at the Books section were discussing the newest Karen Joy Fowler novel or something would you break in to just say "She's a freak", "She's a liar", "Her books suck" etc?

[MysticPhD]

Religious beliefs . . . like anything else . . . tend to be judged by their most vocal, public and aggressive proponents. Thus Islam is judged by the fanatic terrorists who use it for political ends. Christianity is judged by the pushy evangelicals and fundamentalist literalists who openly reject modern scientific knowledge in favor of superstition. The attacks are abreactions to the frustration caused by these extremes. The fact that the vast majority in the middle are not represented by these extremes is lost, especially on the unbelievers who are probably not all that familiar with religious beliefs in general.

[Gplex]

Originally Posted by MysticPhD

Religious beliefs . . . like anything else . . . tend to be judged by their most vocal, public and aggressive proponents. Thus Islam is judged by the fanatic terrorists who use it for political ends. Christianity is judged by the pushy evangelicals and fundamentalist literalists who openly reject modern scientific knowledge in favor of superstition. The attacks are abreactions to the frustration caused by these extremes. The fact that the vast majority in the middle are not represented by these extremes is lost, especially on the unbelievers who are probably not all that familiar with religious beliefs in general.

Most non believers are exbelievers.
When the majority of religious people refuse to denounced these actions you have called extreme, it makes non believer like myself come to the conclusion that they must also support these extremes, but just don't have the "balls" to follow through.

[Huckleberry3911948]

not too much about religion mostly christian and mostly about bashing it.
a whole lota people dont like christians, probably me too and i am one of them.
the christian religion is good like many other religions but its the people that claim it and dont practice it that causes problems. of course those that have rejected it are not smelling much like a rose either.