What do you *REALLY* think of Atheists?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many of you devoutly religious folks on here would secretly love to implement religious laws. It’s pretty clear. I mean you won’t outright say it, but you frighten me. You see the Pew studies. You see declining attendance at church. So you have all these scary efforts to double down and you’ve got your zealot state government officials pushing increasingly unpopular policy trying to stop things from “changing”. I mean let’s be real, many of you actually like Russian society because of its reliance on a strongman dictator who shields himself with the Russian Orthodox Church and bashes gay people. You love it. So a stupid thread asking the indoctrinated how they feel about atheists is just a weird post seeking validation for unreal beliefs. Grow up.

Okay, another Wow!

OP here. I don't see 99% of what you are describing in your post happening in this conversation, so I assume you are drawing from your own experience and all I can say is that you must hang out with a very different crowd than I do.

I am not seeking validation. I have all the validation I need and am both confident in, and comfortable with, my choice. But I know that my choice is not the same others make so I was genuinely wondering what nice people with a strongly held faith think when someone shares they are an Atheist, but they may not feel they can say. Answers I expected range from "you're going to hell" (as I described my FIL believes) to "I feel sorry for you" to "whatever, I don't really care".

Honestly, I've enjoyed most of the discussion as most has been very constructive.

I don't bash gay people. I think about sexual orientation the same thing I think about most things. As long as you are being true to yourself and not harming others, carry on. It's what we all should be doing. I resent the fact that you threw this in to now make it about gay bashing as a way to distract from the discussion and make Atheists sound like we stand for things that we just don't. There may be Atheists who do gay bash, I don't know. I don't know them all. I have known many religious people who gay bash, often in the name of their religious beliefs.

My beliefs are not "unreal". Again, may not be your choice, but your effort to turn your response toward a personal attack tells me this is striking a nerve you would probably benefit from thinking about. Do you Atheist bash?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of you devoutly religious folks on here would secretly love to implement religious laws. It’s pretty clear. I mean you won’t outright say it, but you frighten me. You see the Pew studies. You see declining attendance at church. So you have all these scary efforts to double down and you’ve got your zealot state government officials pushing increasingly unpopular policy trying to stop things from “changing”. I mean let’s be real, many of you actually like Russian society because of its reliance on a strongman dictator who shields himself with the Russian Orthodox Church and bashes gay people. You love it. So a stupid thread asking the indoctrinated how they feel about atheists is just a weird post seeking validation for unreal beliefs. Grow up.

Okay, another Wow!

OP here. I don't see 99% of what you are describing in your post happening in this conversation, so I assume you are drawing from your own experience and all I can say is that you must hang out with a very different crowd than I do.

I am not seeking validation. I have all the validation I need and am both confident in, and comfortable with, my choice. But I know that my choice is not the same others make so I was genuinely wondering what nice people with a strongly held faith think when someone shares they are an Atheist, but they may not feel they can say. Answers I expected range from "you're going to hell" (as I described my FIL believes) to "I feel sorry for you" to "whatever, I don't really care".

Honestly, I've enjoyed most of the discussion as most has been very constructive.

I don't bash gay people. I think about sexual orientation the same thing I think about most things. As long as you are being true to yourself and not harming others, carry on. It's what we all should be doing. I resent the fact that you threw this in to now make it about gay bashing as a way to distract from the discussion and make Atheists sound like we stand for things that we just don't. There may be Atheists who do gay bash, I don't know. I don't know them all. I have known many religious people who gay bash, often in the name of their religious beliefs.

My beliefs are not "unreal". Again, may not be your choice, but your effort to turn your response toward a personal attack tells me this is striking a nerve you would probably benefit from thinking about. Do you Atheist bash?

Hi OP. I appreciate your measured response to this personal attack. But to me it’s pretty clear that was an atheist launching personal attacks on people of faith, not the other way around.

— person of faith with a bi DC, and I’m totally ok with it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of you devoutly religious folks on here would secretly love to implement religious laws. It’s pretty clear. I mean you won’t outright say it, but you frighten me. You see the Pew studies. You see declining attendance at church. So you have all these scary efforts to double down and you’ve got your zealot state government officials pushing increasingly unpopular policy trying to stop things from “changing”. I mean let’s be real, many of you actually like Russian society because of its reliance on a strongman dictator who shields himself with the Russian Orthodox Church and bashes gay people. You love it. So a stupid thread asking the indoctrinated how they feel about atheists is just a weird post seeking validation for unreal beliefs. Grow up.

Okay, another Wow!

OP here. I don't see 99% of what you are describing in your post happening in this conversation, so I assume you are drawing from your own experience and all I can say is that you must hang out with a very different crowd than I do.

I am not seeking validation. I have all the validation I need and am both confident in, and comfortable with, my choice. But I know that my choice is not the same others make so I was genuinely wondering what nice people with a strongly held faith think when someone shares they are an Atheist, but they may not feel they can say. Answers I expected range from "you're going to hell" (as I described my FIL believes) to "I feel sorry for you" to "whatever, I don't really care".

Honestly, I've enjoyed most of the discussion as most has been very constructive.

I don't bash gay people. I think about sexual orientation the same thing I think about most things. As long as you are being true to yourself and not harming others, carry on. It's what we all should be doing. I resent the fact that you threw this in to now make it about gay bashing as a way to distract from the discussion and make Atheists sound like we stand for things that we just don't. There may be Atheists who do gay bash, I don't know. I don't know them all. I have known many religious people who gay bash, often in the name of their religious beliefs.

My beliefs are not "unreal". Again, may not be your choice, but your effort to turn your response toward a personal attack tells me this is striking a nerve you would probably benefit from thinking about. Do you Atheist bash?

Hi OP. I appreciate your measured response to this personal attack. But to me it’s pretty clear that was an atheist launching personal attacks on people of faith, not the other way around.

— person of faith with a bi DC, and I’m totally ok with it

I thought the post OP was responding to was from an atheist, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do I really think of atheists?

I don't believe in them because I know that they have just not suffered enough.

I am an Atheist. How have I not suffered enough?

I'm not seeing the connection.

+1 it is because of my suffering in childhood that I neither believe in god, nor do I endorse religiosity. It's useless. We're on our own in this life. When we die, our suffering ends.

I've often wondered if. as a child, I had prayed fervently for something that God didn't provide -- e.g., a parent not dying of a dread disease - that I would have left religion much sooner, seeing God as a fraud. But I didn't have anything like that, so it took longer to leave religion behind.

Still, I know that when people pray for something they don't get, they make excuses like "It's God's will." God gets the credit for the good things that happen and gets excused from the bad things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do I really think of atheists?

I don't believe in them because I know that they have just not suffered enough.

I am an Atheist. How have I not suffered enough?

I'm not seeing the connection.

+1 it is because of my suffering in childhood that I neither believe in god, nor do I endorse religiosity. It's useless. We're on our own in this life. When we die, our suffering ends.

I've often wondered if. as a child, I had prayed fervently for something that God didn't provide -- e.g., a parent not dying of a dread disease - that I would have left religion much sooner, seeing God as a fraud. But I didn't have anything like that, so it took longer to leave religion behind.

Still, I know that when people pray for something they don't get, they make excuses like "It's God's will." God gets the credit for the good things that happen and gets excused from the bad things.

Religious people don’t see it as making “excuses.” We all die. Bad things happen to all of us. It’s how you use your faith to deal with it that’s important. And then for Christians there’s heaven, for some others there’s reincarnation, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do I really think of atheists?

I don't believe in them because I know that they have just not suffered enough.

I am an Atheist. How have I not suffered enough?

I'm not seeing the connection.

+1 it is because of my suffering in childhood that I neither believe in god, nor do I endorse religiosity. It's useless. We're on our own in this life. When we die, our suffering ends.

I've often wondered if. as a child, I had prayed fervently for something that God didn't provide -- e.g., a parent not dying of a dread disease - that I would have left religion much sooner, seeing God as a fraud. But I didn't have anything like that, so it took longer to leave religion behind.

Still, I know that when people pray for something they don't get, they make excuses like "It's God's will." God gets the credit for the good things that happen and gets excused from the bad things.

Religious people don’t see it as making “excuses.” We all die. Bad things happen to all of us. It’s how you use your faith to deal with it that’s important. And then for Christians there’s heaven, for some others there’s reincarnation, etc.

Right -- this fits into the idea that "God gets the credit for the good things...." And Heaven is a belief, not a fact. We don't know what happens after we die, except that we don't think that any other animals have an afterlife -- only good humans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly? They set me on edge because of negative experiences I’ve had with, for lack of a better term, “evangelical” atheists.

What negative experiences have you had?

Having their "faith" exposed as wishful thinking, perhaps?

DP

OP is this you or another PP?

I hope it is not OP as she/ he asked for honest replies. It is counter productive for respectful dialogue to trivialize faith as wishful thinking.

I am PP who does not care if people are atheists as long as they are kind and respectful towards others. Same holds for religious people.

Is requesting evidence for a belief inherently disrespectful?

"Evidence for belief in God" is all around you. You choose to ignore it. Thus, this becomes a circular argument where, like clockwork, we can count on you or one of your non-believing friends to make a post on DCUM like this approximately every 2-3 months. The threads die out because they are always the same. You want to pick a fight by announcing your self-proclaimed brilliance by being a non-believer. Christians like me think, "here we go again" and remember that we are cautioned not to throw pearls before swine. But for some reason, we respond anyway and the cycle starts again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly? They set me on edge because of negative experiences I’ve had with, for lack of a better term, “evangelical” atheists.

What negative experiences have you had?

Having their "faith" exposed as wishful thinking, perhaps?

DP

OP is this you or another PP?

I hope it is not OP as she/ he asked for honest replies. It is counter productive for respectful dialogue to trivialize faith as wishful thinking.

I am PP who does not care if people are atheists as long as they are kind and respectful towards others. Same holds for religious people.

Is requesting evidence for a belief inherently disrespectful?

"Evidence for belief in God" is all around you. You choose to ignore it. Thus, this becomes a circular argument where, like clockwork, we can count on you or one of your non-believing friends to make a post on DCUM like this approximately every 2-3 months. The threads die out because they are always the same. You want to pick a fight by announcing your self-proclaimed brilliance by being a non-believer. Christians like me think, "here we go again" and remember that we are cautioned not to throw pearls before swine. But for some reason, we respond anyway and the cycle starts again.

Choose to ignore what specifically?

[Anonymous]

I don't think a person's religious affiliation, or lack of, makes them a good or bad person.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I'd like to see the evidence also.

Nearly every atheist will say they don't believe because there hasn't been sufficient evidence to believe.

Nearly every atheist will say they will change their position when shown evidence.

So why shouldn't discussions of evidence be among the most common religious discussions? It would convert a lot of atheists to believers if it showed some.

[Anonymous]

I think everyone is entitled to their own beliefs so no judgement.

But I will say I do think most atheists' will start praying in a moment of extreme danger. I would too so I don't blame them

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think everyone is entitled to their own beliefs so no judgement.

But I will say I do think most atheists' will start praying in a moment of extreme danger. I would too so I don't blame them

Huh? If someone "starts praying", then they weren't really atheists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, I'd like to see the evidence also.

Nearly every atheist will say they don't believe because there hasn't been sufficient evidence to believe.

Nearly every atheist will say they will change their position when shown evidence.

So why shouldn't discussions of evidence be among the most common religious discussions? It would convert a lot of atheists to believers if it showed some.

Apparently, we have been shown the evidence but we just ignored it.

Maybe the PP can show it again.

[Anonymous]

I don't think anything of them unless they're pushy about it or mocking people of faith, Proselytizing is obnoxious behavior no matter what the person believes or doesn't believe.

My BIL was like this for a while; he'd bait DH and other family members into theological arguments, and DH unfortunately felt the need to respond rather than ignore it or change the subject. He's gotten much better about not bringing up religion or lack thereof at family gatherings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, I'd like to see the evidence also.

Nearly every atheist will say they don't believe because there hasn't been sufficient evidence to believe.

Nearly every atheist will say they will change their position when shown evidence.

So why shouldn't discussions of evidence be among the most common religious discussions? It would convert a lot of atheists to believers if it showed some.

Apparently, we have been shown the evidence but we just ignored it.

Maybe the PP can show it again.

Did you wake up this morning? Did you see the sun rise in an ordered fashion, like it has done every day for a gazillion years?