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Phill is right. Because you know why we are laughing, and you are just embarrassed that you once or still believe it..
Wow! Well, you can't get much more egotistical than that, can you?
If someone laughs at my religious beliefs, I don't ask why. I already know why. It's because he finds my beliefs laughable. I don't have to ask him why when he has already told me a million times. I'm just wondering how the fact that someone find my beliefs laughable automatically implies that I'm embarrassed by them. The one thing simply does not follow the other.
I don't get angry either. I don't happen to expect everybody to believe the same things I do. I simply don't talk about my beliefs with people who find them amusing. It has nothing to do with my being ashamed of my beliefs, because I'm not. It's just that worthwhile dialogue has to go two ways. One person talking and another person laughing just doesn't strike me as being a very good use of time for either party.
So, that said... I guess I won't be participating on this thread, will I?
Okay, I'm sorry, but the premise (between your subject header, and the subject of the vid) is pretty flawed. Laughing in someone's face doesn't equal criticism. Yes, people think being made fun of and laughed at is hateful. It's mean. (Didn't your teacher tell you this in kindergarten?) No, people don't general consider calm and reasonable criticism to be hateful. Laughing directly in someone's face isn't just standard and thoughtful criticism. It's almost impossible that anyone with enough brain cells to turn on a computer, much less post on a thread, could possibly not see that distinction (and no, I'm not pointing out any one person specifically).
Now, as far as religious people knowing why their beliefs are being laughed at, well, even the religions themselves often state that something isn't the norm at all. Typically, such things are called miracles...or works of demons...words and phrases that make it obvious that they're not logically and immediately believable.
So of course religious people know "why" certain beliefs are, well, disbelieved, at least (frankly, you'd have to be eight years old to openly laugh, or have some weird lack of self-control or extreme immaturity, but I'll leave that alone for now). I don't see how something potentially being unbelievable to another person either a) makes it legitimate and acceptable to burst out laughing in the person's face, thereby humiliating and hurting him or her deeply or b) is any "proof" that the religion can't be legitimate.
By the way, my husband, too, has a deep-thinking video he made while smoking a doob in college which he kept for YEARS since he recalled that he had made incredible and irrefutable revelations on it, just like the dude shown here. But he never actually plays the tape. Why? Because years after he'd made it, he found it in a box of old stuff and played it for me and then turned red as a beet. It was the slowest, weirdest bit of ramble you ever heard, about how some teachers say "um" quite a bit. It wasn't even...funny. So I commend Mr. Doob here for his efforts but I can't believe once the nachos-fest was over and he'd come down a little, he posted this somewhere for others to see. It's silly enough to be pretty embarrassing, even given the artsy black-and-white thing.
Wow! Well, you can't get much more egotistical than that, can you?
Agreed. Non-theists need to get a clue that being a jerk who uses bad analogies on Youtube is not really different than being a jerk who uses bad analogies anywhere else. It doesn't give you more authority or anything.
You can't compare a banal statement like "hi" or "Can I have a lift" with a religious statement anymore than you can compare a mundane sentiment like "pass the milk" to a more extraordinary statement concerning science or politics or one's emotional state.
If I tell someone that time slows as you approach the speed of light, and they laugh, I might be annoyed or just assume the idea is too strange to them. If I tell someone I favor lowering the corporate tax on small business, and they laugh, I assume they are mocking my idea. If I told someone in real life that I've been attracted to both men and women, and they laugh, I will likely feel I should have said nothing.
This does not mean relativistic physics, tax policy, or bisexuality are inherently ridiculous or absurd.
Quiz time, folks! Put on your thinking caps. Which of the following is criticism and which is hateful and moronic?
A) You say to your friend, "Jesus was born of a virgin." Your friend answers, "I just can't believe that since it goes so completely against any science we've ever known or know now at least as far as mammals go. I'm sorry. It takes a sperm and an egg. Period."
B) You say to your friend, "Jesus was born of a virgin." Your friend says, "HA HA HA, you moron, OMG, only a total tool could believe something so hysterical! Oh, I'm sorry, did I get spittle on your face? Oh, hey, by the way...next time you see Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny OR your phony idiotic bearded man in the sky...tell them I said hello."
I don't think it's funny at all. He speaks about how Christians laugh at atheist like we are so sure our beliefs are the right way. That's not true at all. I have never laughed at any religion period no matter what it was. It's disrespectful no matter which way it goes. It seems to me both sides of the party see other in a negative light. I admit that sometimes I am paranoid all Atheist are the same and they have groups where they join together and laugh and criticize Christianity. But that is of my own ignorance. I know it's not true and I know there are plenty of good and mindful Atheist out there.
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It bears asking...
