Atheists, Why only go after Christianity?

Question

I'm curious because I never see you say anything negative about any other religious beliefs. And not all Christians go after atheists.

Answer 1

They're rebelling from the religion mommy and daddy raised them on.

They also seem to have a problem with generalizing Christians, assuming they're all fundamentalist wackos. Are all Atheists rude and insulting...or just the ones on this site? See, generalizing is not nice.

Answer 2

Simple. It's a matter of location, location, location.

In other words, it's a matter of the culture said atheist was raised in. Me, I was raised in the Midwest and the town I live in, the majority is Catholic or Lutheran. We have other religions around here, but those are the two biggest ones. Hence, I'm quite familiar with them.

I imagine if there were atheists from bigger communities where other religions were prominent, those would be the religions said atheist(s) knew about and would be the most familiar with. If I and others knew more about religions beside Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, we might have more to say.

For the record, I'm not one of the atheists who think all Christians go after us. Most of the people who have come after me have been Christian, but again, it's all the location and culture of the area. Most people here are Catholic or Lutheran, so most of the people who know me and have attacked my beliefs have been one or the other of those religions, both of which are, of course, Christian.

It's all a matter of one's personal experience. My mother is Lutheran, hasn't attacked me, and my uncle is a Lutheran MINISTER who has never attacked me despite some very open fights about religion at family gatherings. Most of the people who have come after me were Christian, but not every person who is Christian that I know has attacked me, so I don't believe the Christians are out to get me.

Answer 3

Although I'm not atheist myself(I'm Christian), I'd like to try to answer this question too.

I think one of the reasons why atheists go after Christianity more than any other religion, is because most other religions, atheists can still practice, inspite of not believing in God/gods.

The only other religions besides Christianity that are not compatible whatsoever with atheism are Islam & most likely Bahai & Shinto(since Shinto means 'Way of the gods').

All the other religions such as Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Judaism, Sikhism, Jainism, Hinduism, Universalism, & Zoroastrianism can still be practiced faithfully by those professing to be atheists.

Answer 4

I was wondering about that myself! On Y!A, it seems that atheists almost exclusively bait Christians, but no other group. One even praised Buddhists for being enlightened.

And why does it bother them if someone believes in a hereafter? Many many cultures that had little or no contact all had some insight about Spirit and what becomes of it once it leaves the body. This belief in no way hurts them, yet most seem to be aggravated by it.

I can sympathize, because some Christians can be dogmatic and hypocritical, but others really accomplish alot of good things. But the same can be said about atheists themselves!

Why can't we all just play nice?

Peace to you all!

Answer 5

There are very few opportunities to go after other religious beliefs, and you probably wouldn't notice if we did. It's not as if there are massive numbers of non-Christian religious people a) in North America or b) frequenting popular English-language Internet forums.

Other explanations:

1. Jews--at least American Jews--are only about one notch above Atheists, religiously. There's no point in arguing with someone who a) doesn't believe in Hell and b) doesn't believe in converting people to his religion.

2. Muslims will kill you.

3. Most other religions are entirely non-objectionable to Atheists because they are commonly understood as metaphor or philosophy and have no negative consequences on their society. The one exception I can think of is the Hindu caste system.

4. Beyond just the sheer mathematical likelihood of finding yourself in an argument with a Christian versus an argument with a radical Far East mystic, there is the immediacy of the threat to consider. We live in a country where over 75% of the people are Christian. Other religious groups comprise only 3.7%. 3.7%! (This is from the 2001 American Religious Identification Survey.) Other studies have shown that about 45% of Americans think Christ is probably going to return within 50 years. A similar percentage believe creationism should be taught in schools.

I don't know if you can understand the magnitude of this situation, but just try to think about what it means to be a Christian. That's someone who believes in God, believes in Jesus, and believes that the Bible is the word of God. 75% of Americans believe that, and there is no scientific reason for any of it. To an Atheist, that's frightening.

Just think about how many nuclear bombs are in the United States' possession, and maybe you can understand how--even more--frightening it is for the Atheists in Europe.

That's why you only see Atheists going after Christianity.

Answer 6

The primary answer is because we feel threatened, (in terms of liberty, not by your imaginary superdaddy).

Don't believe me? I'll back it up with proof.

The Public Expression of Religion Act has already passed the House, and is now in the Senate for a vote (see ref below). If it passes, it changes the law in the following way:

Currently, if you sue the government for a First Amendment violation and you win the case, the government has to pay for your court fees. That means if your freedom of speech, freedom to own a gun, freedom of religion, etc... is violated by the government, you can sue them for free (assuming you win).

If the PERA law passes, the same will hold true for all First Amendment rights EXCEPT religion. The means if a public school decides to make its classes recite parts of the Bible (or Koran, or Sha'dith) every morning, the people who feel their rights are violated have to spend their own money to take the school to court. And even if they are right (and they WIN the case), they STILL don't get reimbursed. However, if the government says you can't own a gun and you sue, you will get reimbursed. Apparently the right to own a gun is more important than the right to freedom of religion.

Does this make any sense? No. It's a way of using the law to stop people from suing for religious reasons -- which means it allows the government to abuse that right.

This is why atheists (and other minority religions) "go after" Christians. It is because Christians are trying to make it illegal to be anything but Christian!

Quick fact: Right now, atheists can't legally hold public office in 7 states.

Want more information? Check out this 5-minute video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=w4fQA9mt-Mg

Answer 7

I dont always go after Christianity,just most of the time. This is just because MOST Christians get annoying after they keep trying to convert you into Christianity.I usually just ask them to stop politely, some of them stop,but most of them just keep on going. Thats the part that gets me annoyed about Christianity, when Christians just cant leave me alone. Then again , it is just MOST of the Christians, not all.I only respect Christians if they respect me. It is really not Christianity that i go after , it is the ignorant,and disrespectful "Christians" that dont listen or disrespect other peoples spirituality.Another minor reason that i go after Christianity is because it it the religion that affects society the most.It is as if religion is mixing with politics. It is unconstitutional when a right of a person is not allowed all because of another persons sprituality and beliefs.

Answer 8

that's not it. it's because whenevr a "non believer" gets preached to, it's by a christian. not because they ar the most intollerant, but because honestly, they make up a large majority of the population of the world. combine all christians together, and that's a lot of people. here's a story:

i'm not christian, or athiest, or muslim. i'm not anything. i'm a theological history student. to me, religion tends to be a lot of stories and fluff behind a very basic concept of a higher being. THO, i do believe in god, if not more than one. so i was at barnes and noble in the new age section, looking at books about different religions. i LOVE to read holy scripts, wether it's the quran, the necronomicon, the bible, or the book of the dead, i love it. they are good reads from a historical and literary standpoint. so i'm lookin at the necronomicon, and lookin at the biography of the author. and a christian lady walks upt o me and says "why would you want to read such a damned script? you WILL go to hell if you dont believe in jesus. why don't you read the bible? it's a much better read because it's true!" She didn't know that she was talking to an AVID blible reader. i've read it 3 or 4 times front to back. so i responded "i've read it, and the only good part is at the end of the world in revalations." she looked offended, and looked at me like i was satan himself.

so here's my point:
did a muslim walk up to me? did a pagan walk up to me? did an athiest walk up to me? no...a christian did. and that's why athiests attack them. it's a war. christians push and push and push, and athiests push back. love thy neighbor as you love yourself, it's the basic law of christianity. but interpret it this way, treat people as you want to be treated. if 10 christians go out and preach to 10 people, one of them will be an athiest just by chance. and that athiest will fight back, and they should. what right does anyone have in telling anyone else that they are wrong and you are right? they have none. so the day that the christians stop pushing, then the athiests will. and dont give any of that crap "we are tryin to save your soul for your own good." well, the athiests are trying to save your time and resources. you have 2 different, but similar goals. so consider the repercussions when you preach, that's my point.

Answer 9

Not ALL Christians go after atheists, but of all the people that do go after atheists, the majority of them call themselves Christian.

Atheists suffer more discrimination from Christians than from people of other religions, so Christians would naturally be the most dominant focus for opposition for atheists.

Answer 10

I believe Atheist only go after Christians because it's the only true belief. Atheist knows without a shadow of a doubt that what is being told by the Christians about God is the truth, and that is what Atheist fear.... truth.

Because they can't defeat truth nor disprove truth and God and his Holy word is the TRUTH reguardless of the denial God Exist and he's real all yall Atheist.

Answer 11

I don't "go after" anyone,and I think it's wrong when anyone is hostile about anyone else's religion.Some Christians and Atheists just seem to like going back and forth with each other.I don't take it too seriously anymore.I've seen some "Christians" that get pretty nasty.Not all,but quite a few do it.Same with Atheists.Let's just all worry about something more productive than what someone else believes.That's what I think.