I've have yet to meet or see on here, an athiest who seemed really happy and at peace. Sure, YOU may be, but it seems the overwhelming majority isnt. Is it because you are denying the innate human desire to seek out a diety figure? And yeah, I know christians and people of other faiths can get rude too, we ALL can. but honestly, i find it funny that people who dont believe in religion spend so much time in the religion and spirituality secion defending their beliefs or pushing them on other people. Cant you just accpet us all? Im a christian, and if you dont want to believe in God, I dont mind. I think you have just as much to offer as anyone else. But if an athiest asks if im a christian and i say yes, im instantly persecuted. whats up with that? its happend a dozen times at least.
2006-09-25 19:27:50 · 34 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
To ThePeter-
That statement he made is an abomination and a disgrace. He seems to have ignored the values of acceptance and love that Christianity is based on. Thats what people tend to do in "religions". pick and choose the parts that work for them. i hope you dont find us all to be so ignorant and judgemental.
2006-09-25 20:23:33 · update #1
Spooky is an Atheist and she is a very kind and peaceable person. She contributes many thought provoking things to this forum that are not offensive to anyone. You cannot blame an entire group for the actions of a few.
Blessings )O(
2006-09-25 19:30:50 · answer #1 · answered by Epona Willow 7 · 11⤊ 2⤋
Why are you baiting atheists if you think that we should all just get along?
IT IS NOT true that human beings have an 'inate desire to seek out a diety figure!' We atheists don't.....so there goes that rule! Unless you are implying that we are less than human....not that I think you were. Either way, you must admit that that is at least slightly disparaging.
Why do you 'honestly find it funny' that we rail against irrationality in a question and answer site? There are minds to be saved here, from proselytising christians. I resent your disingenuousness (disingenuity maybe) here, taking pot-shots at the atheist worldview pretending that it is
just those 'bad' ones that you're talking to.
Finally, are you really 'instantly persecuted' by atheists who ask you if you're christian? What would your definition of persecution be, I wonder? They don't threaten you will some kind of hell...like HELL do they? Perhaps if you toned that 'instantly persecuted' down to just plain disparaged then I might believe you.
Nevertheless, I can't believe that you don't give as good as you get in your own passive-agressive way! Your vitriol was well disguised, you'd make a good politician!
2006-09-26 00:53:23 · answer #2 · answered by eantaelor 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I don't believe in religion, yet I am a very spiritual person.
Spirituality has nothing to do with religion. Religion is another insurance scam for the ignorant and the gullible. People for the most part are born into a religion and never get beyond it. Their parents,meaning well but not really very knowledgeable either sent their kids to the local church and sunday school because it was the thing to do. As the kid grows up he or she becomes very resistant to outside criticism of their faith because we don't want to think our parents and teachers might be wrong. That then becomes the first hurdle to becoming an adult,you've got to start thinking for yourself. Meaning just because you were born there does not mean you have to stay there. However, we become so busy with family and career and bringing home the bacon we're usually just to tired to think much beyond it. Indeed 95% of people never get beyond this point. They spend their entire lives ignorant and gullible and seldom even dreaming there might be something better. That is just exactly where religion seeks to keep them,they want to keep you deaf dumb blind and stupid where you are so they can continue to fleece you. And you,too busy or too tired let them do it because it's easier to give someone some money and ask to be told what to do than to figure it out for ourselves. It's easier to fork over some dough than read a book or do anything that might threaten our time. We think we have bought some insurance with the man upstairs if we give some money,even though we never took it very seriously.
Spirituality, on the other hand will try to enlighten you and show you how to think for yourself. Exactly what the religious people will not do because then you might get away,then they couldn't control you.
Then when they preach hate and violence and promise you 70 virgins in heaven if you only kill some people you won't believe it. Then you have learned to think for yourself.
Now you have graduated to the top 5% of humanity who are at least open to the possibility that there might be something better. If you are smart enough to realize you need to read up on these things and study with an open mind,then everything you encounter becomes an avenue to it,to further your understanding. By now you have discovered Hinduism and Buddism and maybe you have read Plotinus and Plato and Alice Bailey and Jane Roberts and A Course In Miracles and a thousand and one other worthy authors each with their own variation on things,and you begin to discover these people are really all saying the same thing,each in their own way. They are all talking about truth,the same truth. Indeed there are as many paths as there are people but they all lead to the same place. They all lead home. No matter how diverse you were when you started out you begin to suspect we might really be all the same. Not only the same point of view but the same person. Beginning to suspect we might be playing all the parts all the time and only pretending to be different we arrive at some clarity as to what the "son" really is. He is us and when we begin to accept that is the "second coming". The Holy Spirit,long a trusted companion and guide and infallible advisor begins to be seen in a new light as our higher self. And with further clarity we realize no difference between us and we are one. And this is the Grail Quest, and we realize we have been on it all our lives,and we are the "Grail" and we have discovered ourselves and all the time we thought we knew ourselves and didn't even know who or what we were looking for. We look back and marvel at how far we've come and we see it's but a single step and all the others are still there,still blind in their cocoons of unknown search and to some of these we reach out a hand and they bite and kick and we endure and try again and seldom do they listen or even seem to care and we see ourselves in them and we know it's as it should be and we smile and go among them as the road unfolds before us.
http://360.yahoo. com/dvdewalt
2006-09-26 14:57:13 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I've never met a non-religious person who went around asking people what religion they belonged to, so I don't even believe that part of your question. On the other hand, religious people constantly go around asking strangers and people they hardly know if they believe in "god", and forget about it if you say no because- talk about persecution. I have actually known people to stop talking to other people just because they choose not to swallow the bull.
Some people who posted answers seem to think that Atheists are deranged in some way for being Atheist, for thinking instead of just believing what our parents taught us.
My parents never told me that santa claus wasn't real, but I figured it out anyway, they never told me about the tooth fairy either, but I also figured that out. When I started asking questions about "god" and nobody could answer them I didn't feel that this was something that I should put my life into and waste my time and money on.
I accept any and everyone just as long as they accept me, I don't go around trying to convert people to atheism (especially since it ISN'T A RELIGION) or trying to convince people that the way they are living there life is wrong.
2006-09-26 07:48:07 · answer #4 · answered by evillyn 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, sometimes Atheists can come across as uptight, or worse. I suppose some Atheists are immature jerks, certainly on a public forum like this where immaturity is the norm.
But before you cry foul and speak of persecution, consider what president George Bush sr. said:
"No, I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God."
Can you imagine a U.S. politician even remotely hinting Christianity is a bad idea? He'd be maimed before he finished the sentence. This one, noone cared about.
---
Edit: I seem to have skipped parts of your post, sorry about that. I think we're mostly in agreement. I wish everyone on Answers would take a huge cup of Humble Tea once in a while...
2006-09-25 20:13:21 · answer #5 · answered by ThePeter 4 · 4⤊ 0⤋
I'm not an atheist, but I am agnostic. I don't mind that you are Christian, and I don't care what you do with your life it's your choice. I'm completely happy in my life and I just believe what I want to believe. I have a beautiful 3 year old daughter and another child on the way. I've got a decent job and a great fiance. We own our own home and have both of our cars paid for. I don't feel like I have a desire to search for a deity figure. The one thing that does bother me about some, not all, Christians, is that they try to push their beliefs on me and my family and they try to persecute me. I don't want to hear it. I grew up in a Christian environment and chose not to be a Christian on my own. I don't care if you are purple, green, polka-doted, one-eyed, homosexual, etc. It's your choice not mine and I'm friends with many Christians, Atheists, Homosexuals, etc. So personally I don't care what you are unless you try to push your beliefs on me. I guess you have the same problems with Atheists pushing their beliefs on you as I do with Christians pushing their beliefs upon me.I usually never will involve religion in any conversation that I'm having for the exact reason of persecution. I get tired of the who's right who's wrong argument and just want to leave it alone. Why can't we all just get along?
2006-09-25 19:46:15 · answer #6 · answered by a1dermommy 3 · 3⤊ 0⤋
In a forum I am sure to be attacked of course I am going to be uptight. On Honda-tech I like playing and joking with my friends.
"if you dont want to believe in God, I dont mind."
Well then you are probly not the type of christian I dislike.
I do belive in alot of things. My religion is Secular Humanism. Why do you think I can't come to the religion section?
"But if an athiest asks if im a christian and i say yes, im instantly persecuted. whats up with that? its happend a dozen times at least."
Try telling people you are an Atheist in the bible belt. You will be glad to tell them you were just kidding. By the way you need to look up the word persecution. Telling you you are wrong is not persicution!
2006-09-25 19:30:11 · answer #7 · answered by upallnite 5 · 8⤊ 2⤋
you haven't let me persecute u yet Hey what's with that ....just kidding ... your condescending snobbery is really uncalled for and presumptuous beyond reality I've never lied about the things you conjure up . I couldn't be happier in knowing i have the courage of my convictions without the childlike gullibility of others the blunt truth just seems offensive to unyielding ears should i lie about it for your sensitivity .... maybe if your God made sense I would convert but so far I've never seen that to me you worship an idol in vain which is even against the ten commandments
tell the truth u lying pseudo believers u are unbelievable just extremely ignorant any way a thousand years failed to stop the crime rapacity killing and sin produced by these false followers of Jesus at least i give him some honest intelligence in lieu of bubble headed blind faith in a senseless dis interpretation
2006-09-25 19:51:45 · answer #8 · answered by dogpatch USA 7 · 3⤊ 1⤋
Most of us really really dont like Christianity. so if you met an atheist that knew you were a christian. that probably had alot to do with how you perceive them and how they communicate with you. I know its not great that you get lumped into the same group quite often, but hey, lots of people from lots of different religions do the same, its human nature, not sin.
Christians usually dont have a firm grasp on reality, not just on the subject of God, but in many other areas of life. It makes it quite frustrating when speaking to a christian. Many Christians are even aware about this problem with christians also
2006-09-25 19:42:09 · answer #9 · answered by CJunk 4 · 4⤊ 1⤋
I am really happy and at peace I have a wonderful family and home and great friends becuase I worked hard to make a life for myself and maintain positive relationships with people not because I think a higher power gave them to me
I don't know about anyone else on here so I won't speak for them...but in the same respect don't speak for me either...I'm sorry people are mean to you on here but don't judge everyone based on the un-educated responses from a few people on Yahoo answers.
2006-09-25 19:36:29 · answer #10 · answered by NiK* 2 · 6⤊ 0⤋
Because neither side truly understands the other you have a god and they do not.
No common ground each side thinks they are the right side.
I'm not an atheist and I worship no deities. But Christians always assume that because I speak for no god or gods that I don't know any. Then they label me an atheist and begin to preach to me. Until I tell them I can never worship something that would take people and burn them for all eternity.
Then its all about we don't discuss religion.
2006-09-25 19:40:17 · answer #11 · answered by Anonymous · 5⤊ 1⤋