Quote:
Originally Posted by REFORMED
My question is for Athiests, and to invite the Christians to read/respond with the purpose of understanding eachother a bit more.
It appears that we Christians have a "reputation" of being pretty disliked by Athiests. While I don't wonder why that is, I must admit I am just assuming that there have been encounters that you (Athiests) have had with Christians in which you felt that the Christians thought they were "better than" you or "speaking down" to you, or possibly other circumstances. But that is really just an assumption. I realize there have been very heated debates over the "PROOF OF GOD", as nebulous1 started in his/her thread. I see several instances where Athiests ask Christians to prove it, and then when Christians enter conversation, it is as if Athiests are ready for battle, and quite sarcastic when a Christian speaks how they feel. Most anything a Christian says about their proof of God's existence, or even to offer some type of reason to an Athiest is already rejected by Athiests before it even gets off the ground. And it also seems as though we as Christians, step into the Athiest zone as if we must be prepared for your 'hatred', for lack of a better word, and therefore immediately display a hard edge to our tone, as if to get ready to be mocked or downgraded.
To the Athiests, would you offer an example as to why you do not wish to entertain a conversation with a Christian? Do you feel we are belittling? An insult to your intellegence? Why do you seem to feel we are all "whackos" and some sort of back-patting "Dont worry, God loves you", or "You're all gonna burn" mentalities? Were you subjected to the perverbial 'holy rollers' throughout your life or have bad experiences? Perhaps we can listen to you for once, and learn from your experiences to gain a better perspective? I, for one, am very interested in your thoughts.
I ask that none of you please not be mean or accusatory, but perhaps if we (as Christians) can understand more of where you are coming from, and you can understand more of where we're coming from, some different views can be uncovered, if anything for the purpose of enlightenment & growth.
Thanks in advance to all who contribute. Here's your chance to get it out.
-REFORMED
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1st...this is NOT INTENDED for the OP....just my thought in general.
Personally I do not care about proof or not, because that is a endless debate that will never resolve anything.
The reason I hate 90% of the religions is because of what it has done to humanity throughout the ages.
My opinion is that these religious texts did have a purpose at one time when humans did not live in large societies and whenever they would converge or establish villages they needed social guidelines....not to steal, kill, do others harm etc....after x generations these social patterns were established and there was no need for these texts....of course the people in power (spiritual leaders) saw this and had to establish organisations (call it churches or whatever) to force people in or to be excluded and suffer the consequences.
Of course they would use fear as their primary tool to make people join and they would maintain their control over the people.
Then these so called peacful people traveled the world and forced people to convert or be killed....vikings, aztec, inca....and I have no idea how many more.
Preaching peace and love on 1 side and killing people of a different faith if they do not denounce it and convert.
Today's Christians (not all, just the fundamentalist bible thumpers) are not much different. They will force their beliefs upon you and if you do not believe your are less worth.
These social guidelines that once were necessary have played their part and now it is basically a matter of us against them and this a 90% cause of most conflicts.
Just a short version of my dislike for any fundamentalist religious person.
And any religion that requires you to pray, go to church etc is BS....if there is any kind of God then that entity will be happy as long as you are a kind person, do what you think is right and I doubt that God approves of killing in his name and forcing other to live according to your personal right or wrong scale.
Do not tell other non believers what to believe and what is right and wrong, you have no idea what "Gods" intentions were and you are not supposed to judge....but that happens on a daily basis.
Interpretations of the bible changes constantly to fit the current accepted behaviors and to maintain power. The original texts have been tweak so many times, I really doubt anyone has any idea what the original intentions were.
My $0.02