Believers: do you feel more threatened by atheists or religious fanatics?

Question

Saying "neither" is a cop out!

Kare Bear: i mean the people who kill in the name of God

thanks Nabil, i should have cited that report - it was the reason i asked the ?

Answer 1

You can't put words in my mouth!

WHY should I feel threatened by either one?

People can believe what they want. Personally, I don't spend a whole lot of time worrying about either of the above groups you mention.

I♥♫→mia☼☺†

Answer 2

definately not... having been an atheist for 15 years GOT I know that a coverted atheist makes a super friend of God. Some are sociopaths but they are so obviously different from those who have been victimized that steering clear of them is pretty easy. One has to admit it is highly unlikely a sociopath will be a true friend of God, and thus most are atheists. Some of the more intelligent ones will fake being religious and those are the ones I dislike the most. They are the ones who make true friends look bad. Bush would be a good example of those. Sociopaths who are good actors use christianity as a beard.

Answer 3

I don't feel threatened at all. This is not a cop-out. I have the love of Christ to get me through anything and the knowledge of the Word to debate any question. Honestly I have never been threatened, I have been challenged by non-believers. Some I have gotten through to, some not, but they are thinking about it when I'm through with them.

Answer 4

neither - not a cop out, i am saddened by anyone who does not live according to the Bible. This includes fanatics because they oftentimes take on their own way of interpreting the Bible, being stumbling blocks to others. And non believers just plain dont believe.

Answer 5

Why should i be threatened? Saying neither isnt a 'cop out' because i am really not scared or threatened by anyone! I have the maker of the Universe on my side, whom shall i fear? definitely not them, sorry to burst your bubble

Answer 6

I am sorry - I am not copping out - but "neither" is my answer. Athiests cannot "shake" my faith, and fanatics? well, do you mean people whose faith is different from mine, or stronger? DIfferent doesn't bother me, and stronger is even better!

What exactly do you mean by a religious "fanatic?" I am a Christian, and killing someone is an offense against God. He would never ask someone to kill in His name.

Answer 7

Fanatics religious. They twist God's message into something it is not.

Atheists do not care.

Answer 8

Religious fanatics are obviously easy to avoid.
Atheists are not.

Answer 9

I can understand the atheists completely. They just haven't found their truth yet.

It the religious nuts that think they are right and everyone else is wrong that bug me the most.

How arrogant can you get? Or how stupid?

Love and blessings Don

Answer 10

Atheists identified as America’s most distrusted minority, according to new U of M study
What: U of M study reveals America’s distrust of atheism
Who: Penny Edgell, associate professor of sociology
Contact: Nina Shepherd, sociology media relations, [phone]
Mark Cassutt University News Service, [phone]

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (3/28/2006) -- American’s increasing acceptance of religious diversity doesn’t extend to those who don’t believe in a god, according to a national survey by researchers in the University of Minnesota’s department of sociology.

From a telephone sampling of more than 2,000 households, university researchers found that Americans rate atheists below Muslims, recent immigrants, gays and lesbians and other minority groups in “sharing their vision of American society.” Atheists are also the minority group most Americans are least willing to allow their children to marry.

Even though atheists are few in number, not formally organized and relatively hard to publicly identify, they are seen as a threat to the American way of life by a large portion of the American public. “Atheists, who account for about 3 percent of the U.S. population, offer a glaring exception to the rule of increasing social tolerance over the last 30 years,” says Penny Edgell, associate sociology professor and the study’s lead researcher.

Edgell also argues that today’s atheists play the role that Catholics, Jews and communists have played in the past—they offer a symbolic moral boundary to membership in American society. “It seems most Americans believe that diversity is fine, as long as every one shares a common ‘core’ of values that make them trustworthy—and in America, that ‘core’ has historically been religious,” says Edgell. Many of the study’s respondents associated atheism with an array of moral indiscretions ranging from criminal behavior to rampant materialism and cultural elitism.

Edgell believes a fear of moral decline and resulting social disorder is behind the findings. “Americans believe they share more than rules and procedures with their fellow citizens—they share an understanding of right and wrong,” she said. “Our findings seem to rest on a view of atheists as self-interested individuals who are not concerned with the common good.”

The researchers also found acceptance or rejection of atheists is related not only to personal religiosity, but also to one’s exposure to diversity, education and political orientation—with more educated, East and West Coast Americans more accepting of atheists than their Midwestern counterparts.

The study is co-authored by assistant professor Joseph Gerteis and associate professor Doug Hartmann. It’s the first in a series of national studies conducted the American Mosaic Project, a three-year project funded by the Minneapolis-based David Edelstein Family Foundation that looks at race, religion and cultural diversity in the contemporary United States. The study will appear in the April issue of the American Sociological Review.

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