What is your emotional response when you hear the word?

Question

Atheist.

serious, truthful answers please.

WHY do you feel that emotion? really! have to thought about why?

justmyopinion

honestly..it reminds me of my mother, the woman who believes so very much in him. i love her and respect her..i just don't believe in her religion.
*peace*

Lexicon
but Atheist do not believe in a hell. that is a christian concept. that is YOUR religions punishment, not mine.
*peace*

ziz
trust me when i say...there are bad apples in ALL walks of life.
i have been physically attacked by "believers" the sword cuts both ways.
i do not by any means think that most believers act that way...

Pastors Wife
i can understand that..(my grand-daddy was a Baptist Rev.) but that is mostly due to misunderstanding us.
i think im a bit more "understanding" when it comes to ppls fear because of my roots with my family. but i have my own life, my own mind, my own process of belief (or lack thereof)..and im not a horrible person, or a scary person. i love my family, i LOVE my husband more than anything, my children..i volunteer w/ my SPCA in town, i work with my hubby's squadron and im there as a "buddy" of sorts for other wives who's husbands are in Iraq and other places overseas.
we aren't that different. and we aren't that scary! do you know to fear something...is to ignorant of it? same goes for a non-believer that is scared of religion...its ignorance. *peace*

gorgeoustxwoman
honestly, no. even in my earliest memories, i never felt that this "mystical eye in the sky, ie. god" was real. i always question it. always thought..wow, what a cool fairy tale! but it was nothing more to me than that. its so odd, because i never knew what an atheist was..i didn't know they had a name for what i always believed.

Answer 1

It's more like a big shrug, rather than an emotional reaction. Some people believe, and others don't. It's nothing to get freaked out about. But mostly, it makes me think of two of my friends who are diehard atheists and often speak publicly on the topic. And I like them. I disagree with them, but I like them.

Answer 2

At first a bit of sadness.

I fear that some atheists have had a bad experience with "religion" that turned them hard against it. Perhaps the illness or death of a loved one.

Most of the ones I have communicated with have a lot of sarcasm and anger about religion that belies the possibility of a great disappointment. It might even be as simple as blaming God for all the evils in the world. They might think that since God is supposedly all powerful He should be stopping all the bad things that happen.

They don't equate the evil as a consequence of free will. God cannot intervene until such time as evil has run its course. If God ends this mess too soon, heaven will be a rather empty place.

Answer 3

I have no emotional response at all. I have a deep and abiding understanding of the nature and existence of a Creator which exists in all things at all times. This means that it is in every atom of existence, be it mineral, animal, gas or energy of any kind. That being the case, I see all of us as part of the Creator and the Creator as part of all of us as well as part of everything we see and can't see, what we sense and can't sense and what we define and can't define. All an atheist to me is a prodigal son who has yet to realize that the parent is awaiting his/her return to the Source to claim his/her inheritance as the offspring of the Creator. I love atheists as much as I love non-atheists. I also love spiders, snakes, mosquitoes, flies and everything else in Creation. This is one of the reasons we are here. Atheism is the lack of seeing the Creator in existence, nothing more or less.

Pretty good question, though written from a Christian perspective, I think.

Answer 4

Puzzlement. I don't like the thought of just dieing and that's all. I wonder, is it difficult to say there is no God? Don't you have any soul memory of being on the other side before you decided to come here again? Especially as a child when the memories are more fresh. For the record, there is no hell.

Answer 5

is this question for atheist? well i'm not but i can tell you how i feel when i hear the word....i get scared cause i think wait i didnt do that, i'm trying but i'm not succeding, but at the same time i feel comfort, comfort in knowing that i have a protector and if i'm with him and beleive in him no harm will come to me...i dont feel stupid, i feel as if i should more to help others come into God, or help in the church...

Answer 6

My heart usually feels sad for them. I also fear for them. You ask why? Sad, because an atheist can't know the love of God since they do not believe in God. Fear? Because if they do not reconsider...they will go to hell when they die.

Answer 7

To be like 100% honest I cringe, because all the Atheist I have ever met deny Jesus. And that to me is horrible.

Answer 8

Maya, the illusiory potency of the Lord is very powerful.
What to do? It takes time.....lifetimes.
Good luck to them they are servants of God too but indirectlyonly. when they have suffered enough they will come...for sure.

Answer 9

None. A person can be one if they want to. That's what having liberty and freedom is all about.

Answer 10

My response is usually to roll my eyes, because *in my own experience*, people usually only expresses their atheism during religious discussions, after which they proceed to insult, patronize or otherwise belittle "believers."