Do you think the following Christians are or were idiots?
William Sloane Coffin
Dag Hammarskjold
Soren Kierkegaard
Martin Luther King, Jr.
C.S. Lewis
J.R.R. Tolkien
Desmond Tutu
I'm an atheist, but I've learned a lot for these people, who have remained Christian.
Should I have ignored them?
2006-12-12 10:07:57 · 19 answers · asked by NHBaritone 7 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
LINDA G:
You just don't know when to keep your opinions to yourself, do you? It seems you're making every effort to DISPROVE my point.
2006-12-12 10:16:47 · update #1
Moot question. I don't consider Christians idiots. The list of brilliant Christians is indeed long. But like any other group, Christians can contain idiots, and one of the things they can be idiotic about is Christianity. It doesn't follow that they will though.
2006-12-12 10:11:47 · answer #1 · answered by Bad Liberal 7 · 4⤊ 2⤋
I'm an atheist as well, I can't say I've learned anything from the persons you mentioned. But that's just a personal thing.
Of course I agree completely with you. There are 6 billion people on this planet, some are brilliant, some are amazing and some are idiots. A group is nothing more than a label we put on people. Whether or not a person is an idiot, has nothing to do with how they are labeled (Unless, of course, their label would be "the idiots").
I've learned a lot from many people on this planet, from most of those people I honestly have no clue what their religious preference is. I wish we didn't look so much at lables, but we should focus more on individuals.
I always try that, but I'm honest enough to admit that it's hard to do that. And many times I also fail in that. For example, I would probably have answered this exact same question a little different if you had stated you were a Christian.
Unfair? Yes, very much so. Human? Yeps, also.
2006-12-12 10:59:53 · answer #2 · answered by Thinx 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
So if I am Christian and I am not considered to be brilliant I guess in your opinion that would make me an idiot. Amazing. Your brain is big enough to imagine that this world could come from some cosmic bang but yet small enough to put a person with a religious belief into a category called idiots.
2006-12-12 10:26:59 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would hope that each of us would be open to learning from all individuals, whatever their religion, race, gender, etc. I can't imagine God reserving intelligence, if you believe in God, to only certain people. Likewise, on a secular level, education and achievement are not reserved for non-Christians. We should respect all beings and be willing to accept truth (non-religious or religious) or value from others. If nothing else, there is no harm in understanding the society we live in, which happens to contain many religious people (e.g., when I worked with many Southeast Asians I studied Buddism in order to learn how to respect and honor their traditions and form quality relationships).
Bottom line: Don't ingnore them, respect them, and use the information in a way that betters your life and the life of others.
2006-12-12 11:23:08 · answer #4 · answered by straightup 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I too am an atheist, and I do not believe all Christians are idiots. I think being an idiot and being a Christian are two independent things, there are Idiots that are Christians, and idiots that are not, just as there are Christians that are brilliantly minded people.
The largest critique I have for Christians in general is that many of them do not seem to preactive tolerance, which is one of Jesus' primary teachings. It would be hypocritical of me to call Christians idiots based soely on their beliefs, you have to consider people on a case by case basis. Even then, who am I to judge?
2006-12-12 10:17:08 · answer #5 · answered by john k 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
you should ignore their preaching that there is a heaven and hell that separates the good and evil after death...and the ones that say Jesus died for our sins...and the ones that said that Noah took 2 of every animal to save the world and that the anti-christ is coming per Revelation...etc, etc. which ones did that?
I consider their belief in Christianity stupid, but that doesn't mean I think they are stupid. Luckily, they used their brains for things other than spewing Bible fairy tales.
2006-12-12 10:16:33 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, these people had some good points iex> equality ext. just because they are christian does not make them bad. These people have things people can learn from.
I am a proud atheist. =)
2006-12-12 10:14:42 · answer #7 · answered by 7abibi♥ 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
"I've learned a lot for these people, who have remained Christian."
Seeing as they're all dead (or at least all the ones that I recognize) I don't think they had a choice but to remain Xian. Also of a different time when freedom of religion wasn't as prevalent. Likely, they didn't have much choice but to publicly pay lip service to Xianity. Let's not forget the witch burnings.
2006-12-12 10:12:28 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 3⤋
well that's your call really i mean if you feel you learned something from them then that's cool everybody can learn from anybody at any particular point in time in this lifetime if they are wiiling to keep an open mind to the possibilties in this lifetime i'm an agnostic and who knows maybe you just learned something from me
2006-12-12 10:39:15 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, Christians are not idiots.I hate generalizations. There are idiots in every culture.
2006-12-12 10:12:51 · answer #10 · answered by seek_fulfill 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋