Fear causes hate. Who's the most fearful? Christians, or Atheist?

Question

Plenty Christians have told me they're scared for me because they think im going to hell. They must be terrified of nt believing.

Answer 1

The Bible says in 1 John that perfect love cast out all fear. I am not afraid of dieing or living. I am not afraid you'll go to hell either. I love you as a person who God has created and it would sadden my heart to know you have rejected Him and the gift of Salvation in Jesus but I am not scared. You have to face God on judgment day, not me.

Answer 2

It's clear by some of the Christian rhetoric these days that fear is a huge motivator. For example, there is a billboard advertising a church just off the freeway near my house... the slogan simply reads "What if it's all true?" This church is clearly trying to scare people into believing, JUST IN CASE God exists.

What a terrible example to set for people! People should believe because they want to, not because they are scared NOT to.

So, clearly the atheist is less fearful. I say it's an act of bravery to declare that the best one can hope for after death is nothingness.

Personally, I am agnostic. While I respect the views of both atheists and religious people, I personally feel that only the agnostic is being honest in his position, which is saying "I am not sure if there is a God."

There is no concrete proof that God exists, nor is there concrete proof that God does not exist... so both the religious and atheist people are assuming, hoping, or relying on faith that they have chosen the correct position. Doing so HAS TO come with at least a little fear (the fear of being wrong), if one is very honest with oneself.

Answer 3

This doesn't directly answer your question, but I had to comment on some of the answers.

It amazes me the answer that lots of people give, that whole "four options" thing, believe or don't, Jesus exists or doesn't (four permutations of those two binaries).

It completely ignores the fact that there aren't just four possibilities.

If you actually look at just a partial list:

Jesus / Christian God exists or doesn't.
Allah exists or doesn't.
Vishnu and the rest of the India Gods exist or don't.
Zeus and the rest of the Greek Gods exist or don't.
Odin and the rest of the Norse Gods exist or don't.

(And this is just a small portion of the number of possibilities).

Now, throw the "Accept Jesus or not" at each of those possibilities.

If Allah exists, according to my understanding of the Koran, you're condemned because you are an Infidel. If Vishnu and that crowd exist, belief in Jesus probably just pisses them off. Ditto Zeus and his group or Odin and his.

Heck, what if the Jews are right, and Jesus was just a guy, not anybody particularly holy. Would the Jewish God (God of the old testament) take kindly to Jesus who, in this context, would be a false God?

And most of these religions do not combine well. You can't be both Christian and Jewish, for example (messianic Jews aside), because you can't both believe Jesus was the son of God and also believe he wasn't. Or if you can, you certainly can't expect that duality of belief to save you.

So that argument for believing in Christianity is spurious. Because it's not "50% chance you're screwed anyway, why not make the best of the other 50% chance", it's actually "50% chance you're screwed, the other 50% you're just as likely screwed unless you pick exactly the right major deity to worship."

Plus, why the assumption that if Jesus doesn't exist, then at death we'll all be rotting in the ground? What if the many worldwide religions that believe in reincarnation have it right? Then Jesus wouldn't exist AND we wouldn't be screwed, we'd just move on to our next life. What if there's a higher plane of existance, and death in this life is just the process of birth into the next one?

Not believing in Jesus (or believing that humanity can't ultimately know the nature of "higher reality") doesn't preclude any number of wonderful outcomes. The possibilities are myriad.

So, if your simplistic little four-possibility example gives you comfort, great. That's what religion is ultimately for, to give us the comfort of a watchful parental figure after our own parents are no longer "god like" in our minds.

But don't try to convince me that it's a logically valid and complete set of options, because it's simply not.

(If anyone would care to debate this with me, I'm more than happy to have you contact me. I'm pretty sure my profile is set up to allow you to write to me.)

Answer 4

Atheists have nothing to fear. They are free from religious guilt and the original sin hoo-ey. Christians on the other hand worship a deity that they are terrified of falling out of favour with, hence the heaven and hell concepts.

Answer 5

Fear doesn't cause hate. It's different in every aspect.
Hey, that's only my opinion. Nobody is fearful. Don't fear anybody.
Christians or Muslims alike. Don't fear bad people because the bad people have fears too.
Only fear God because He is the Ultimate.
God is the creator of heaven and earth.

Answer 6

Christians are the most fearful and tend to have the most hate in their hearts for groups that refuse to fit in/believe in that particular christians version of the truth.

Of course this directly stems from the old testament in which god would routinely direct believers to commit genocide in his name to remove the stain of nonbelief from the earth.

Answer 7

People fear what they don't understand; therefore i would say both. However, atheists seem to be more open to other things, so maybe Christians. I don't know. If only everyone could be more open to other people's beliefs,or lack thereof. Then,maybe there wouldn't be so much hatred in the world.

Answer 8

I'm a Christian and I respect Atheists. They have the courage
of their convictions. Courage is good, very good. But rejecting
the love and the grace of God in salvation through Jesus is
just plain dumb. You lose nothing by accepting Jesus. On the
other hand you are in deep trouble.
I Corinthians 13;8a, Love never fails!!!!!

Answer 9

Yeah, I've run into that, I firmly believe that as long as you are a good person, you have lived your life true to who you are, you won't have a problem....Then again, I'm just a heathen who believes religion is a way to control the masses through fear...

Answer 10

Fear does not cause hate.

I fear the Lord. Fear meaning respect. This is the beginning of wisdom.