Agh! Remove the Cross, it's burning my eyes! Agh, you said "Christmas" again!! What's up? Why can't they just relax and deal?? I don't fly off the handle every time someone says "Allah". I thought aethiests liked tolerance??
2006-09-07 03:41:04 · 24 answers · asked by Lisa 6 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Atheists have no one to fight for them, so they have to fight for themselves.
2006-09-07 03:43:23 · answer #1 · answered by Uncle Thesis 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Why are Christians offended so easily? You see, I could ask the same question. And, yes, let's talk about Christmas. The fact that retailers don't use the word Christmas and say Happy Holidays or Season's Greetings is simple: They are in business to make money and want to make sure all people will buy their stuff and not just religious Christians. But when my children were in elementary school, they were made to sing Christmas carols of a religious nature (if they didn't sing, they were told to leave the room!) until the few Jewish parents there were (and a few Atheist parents) stopped that practice. And that's what all the fuss was about last year when Bill O'Reilly went nuts because schools don't sing religious Christmas carols. Sure, let's marginalize the Jewish, Muslim, Atheist, etc. children by doing that. I could never understand why the people who are in the greatest majority are always crying about how they are discrimated against. I guess their definition of discrimination is not having their own way all the time.
2006-09-07 05:47:45 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Strawman argument.
Do you really think that atheists "fly off the handle" when someone says "Christmas", or when they see a cross? That's nonsense: it doesn't happen, and you know it. Your first couple of sentences are just plain dishonest.
Christmas Christmas Christmas. Oh, look, here's a cross: t Ho-hum. Doesn't bother me at all.
What people object to is the attempts to turn the United States into a theocracy, to make Christianity the official religion, to violate our freedom of religion. That's an entirely different matter, and a legitimate concern.
So let's make the fair comparison: suppose that there were a large voting bloc of Muslims who had elected a Muslim President and numerous Muslim Senators and Congressmen and Governors and local and state officials. Let's suppose that those politicians were spending our tax dollars to promote Islam, and that they'd rewritten the Pledge of Allegiance to say "One Nation, under Allah" and the money said "In Allah we trust". Getting a little less tolerant yet? Care to tell me that you wouldn't object to this? Don't bother denying it - you know full well that you would. Now you see the real issue.
So drop the silly strawman argument - no-one is taken in by it. Face reality: we have a problem with Christian attacks on American freedom of religion. Atheists objections are not a matter of intolerance: they're a matter of patriotism. Deal with it.
2006-09-07 04:03:24 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
First, let me lead by saying that there would be no reason for you to be "flying off the handle" at the mention of "Allah." Allah is just the word for God in the Arabic language. It'd be just as silly to object to "Dios," "Dieu," or "Gott."
That said, I don't think Atheists are generally offended in the manner you think. It's the natural reaction for a minority in a society that is in many ways hostile to them. Recent polls show that atheists as a group are less trusted and viewed more unfavorably in the US than any other religious or ethnic group.
Also consider that it's the stated goal of a number of Christians, both individually, and in an organized fashion to convert these people and also to impose their religious standards of morality. There's also, in a lot of situations, an assumption of Christianity. Unless an atheist identifies to people specifically as such, they're going to end up in some awkward situations, and as I mentioned above, there's a pretty serious potential social stigma to doing so, not to mention among one's family.
So what you have are a group of people living in a society that is either quietly or overtly hostile to them, and in many cases, attempting to do it quietly, while getting slowly overwhelmed by another religion. I think that, in itself, is enough to make some athiests more likely to object to assumed Christianity, especially around the holidays.
What's more common in practice is the objection of public funds being used to promote religion. The attitude of most non-believers is that you can have all the crosses you want, around your neck, in your house, on your roof, on your church, whatever, as long as you're paying for them, good on you. That's your right.
But when people use public money and/or facilities to promote their religion, it's not only improper and presumptuous, but it's antithetical to both the first ammendment, but also the very foundations of the country.
2006-09-07 04:02:02 · answer #4 · answered by rorgg 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Likewise, why do christians want to flaunt the cross everywhere and put ten commandments on public, non-religious grounds?
Christmas doesn't offend me, to me it's a day off work.
It's a two-way street, too bad most christians don't see it that way and insist on putting their religious symbols and phrases anywhere and everywhere.
2006-09-07 03:44:31 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 5⤊ 1⤋
Yeah but it seems pretty much everyone of every religion is offended way too easily.
2006-09-07 03:44:28 · answer #6 · answered by songbird 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It really is totally the other way around...
Tester :
are christians offended by this ?
Mary was a common who*e who conceived a baby in the normal way by having sex with a male client.
Atheists ?
You are so stupid for not beleiving in god !
who do you think is gonna go crying to their imaginary friend that someone ridiculed their REDICULOUS beliefs ???
CHRISTIANITY SUCKS
2006-09-07 03:47:48 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 2⤋
Have you ever taken a poll to see how many Atheists actually give a damn about any of those issues? No, you haven't. If you had you would know just how freaking stupid your question is.
2006-09-07 04:45:50 · answer #8 · answered by Caillech W 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Equality and fairness.
Those are things atheists and agnostics tend to stand up for, but Christians and Muslims, generally speaking, want to control the personal freedoms of others.
2006-09-07 03:43:42 · answer #9 · answered by Sweetchild Danielle 7 · 4⤊ 2⤋
It's not so much that they are offended as much as it is astounded by your stupidity....the "cross" and "christmas" PRE DATE christianity....personally I just think it's funny how (most-not all) christians blindly follow traditions and don't even do their research before they spew off their churchy q & a's. I'm not athiest, but they make much more sense to me than christians!
2006-09-07 03:52:51 · answer #10 · answered by Joeygirl 4 · 4⤊ 2⤋
Why do you generalise in this way?
And in generalising, why suggest that taking offence is something peculiar to atheists?
Don't any Christians ever take offence?
2006-09-07 03:47:27 · answer #11 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋