Why do atheists think Christians are so brainwashed?

Question

I find it hugely ironic that its always we Christians that are the brainwashed, the hypocrites, the hateful, and the reason why the world is terrible, so I ask why do you say so? Is it because you are able to point out a few Christians that are brainwashed, hypocrites, and hateful?

Name me any organization, any race, any country, etc. and I will find you brainwashed, hypocrites, and hateful people in everyone of those groups. So again, why do you love to generalize us so much? And please dont cop out and say, why do you love to generalize atheists so much? It goes both ways.

The Bible doesnt preach hatred and to prove it, name one evil thing Jesus did? Thats who we are suppose to emulate, I cant help it if there are bad seeds amongst us, there are always bad seeds in any group.

Answer 1

As an atheist, I find either side's "ad hominem" attacks useless and inflammatory.

If an idea has merit, it matters not whether it was gained through reason, "brainwashing" or blind acceptance by any of those who accept it. The idea may, however, be worthy of a number of challenges, and these may make some of its adherents defensive, but it is only through reasoned thought that the idea can survive.

That said, there are those whose reason seems to have evaporated and who are expounding "fighting words" on behalf of their religion. Fred Phelps and Pat Robertson are among the worst Christian offenders, and they fall only slightly short of calling for mass murder. Their wide appeal and mass audience make it incumbent on Christians who disagree with them to repeatedly and vociferously counter their message.

As a gay man, I am genuinely frightened of any advances made by those who promote theocracy over our constitutionally protected rights that ensure ongoing diversity of opinion and limit restrictions on human freedoms.

^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^

Answer 2

You're exactly right, with a few small exceptions. First ALL atheists don't think that ALL Christians are brainwashed. Some atheists think that all Christians are brainwashed, some think that SOME Christians are brainwashed, and most don't think about it at all as long as they're not treated disrespectfully by Christians. Like you said, there are bad seeds in every group. Some Christians are bad seeds, some atheists are. The people that can just respect each others beliefs are the ones we don't need to worry about.

Answer 3

As a skeptic and non believer I find many good hearted Christians, Jews, Hindus, and Muslims that I respect. They never try and convince me that the way I think is wrong or that some terrible punishment will befall anyone that doesn't believe the way they do. However I find many fundamentalist, born-again, right wing Christians that are bigoted, narrow minded, egocentric, and selfish. These people annoy and bother me with their constant superior airs and lack of any insight to the fact they have become "brainwashed" by some self serving, money grubbing, evangelical, lying SOB that preaches hate from his pulpit while raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars every week. It is the hypocrites that get noticed. I might not know the name of your minister, but I do know who Ted Haggard and Jim Baker are. Get the idea?

Answer 4

You should consider it as a blessing that you were counted worthy to suffer ridicule in the name of God instead of complaining about it on here. As to why they think that way, though, there is a plethora of sites out there that take a bunch of actions in the Bible way out of context (I was looking through the skeptic's annotated Bible that someone posted). Misinformation like that has led to the decline of God's credibility.

God doesn't condone every last action in the Bible. Of the many things on the site I mentioned, here are a few things:

1. Lamech kills a man and says that anyone who murders him will be punished 77-fold. They list this as an example of why the Bible is evil, but the Bible was portraying Lamech as evil. It doesn't make what Lamech said right by any means.
2. Moses kills a man. Does that make it right because it's in the Bible? No, not at all, but they would have you believe so.

That list is extensive, and there's no way I could cover every last thing on that list and still have a life. Every last one that I have looked at so far, though, has been taken completely out of context. If you're going to oppose the Bible, please do so legitimately, because there are some actually decent arguments (not going to tell you what they are! =P), though any of those that I have looked at have also turned out well in the end.

By the way, I gave the guy above me a thumbs up, because he's right.

Answer 5

A large part of my degree deals with the psychology and techniques of perception, persuasion and propaganda. Drawing from this experience I can readily recognize the BS and brainwashing methods often employed by pastors and especially by fundamentalists, speakers, and apologists.

The main thing these above people do is spread misinformation - and they are exceedingly good at it. Of all the civilized countries US citizens are by far the least knowledgeable about evolution, a good 90% of people have a very limited and distorted grasp, and the churches perpetuate this. The christian leaders attack evolution on false premises (Evolution has NEVER claimed humans came from apes, we instead share a common ancestor, but the christians spread that anyway to make it easier to attack. They also accuse evolution of being random chance, which anybody with a mediocre understanding of the concept knows is the opposite of how it works, and so on) and the christians (who typically look to religious sources to assuage feelings of cognitive dissonance) swallow it up without investigating or reading into it for themselves. It's not just evolution either, they perpetuate false myths about geology, biology, physics, and other things as well. Anything they can do to "prove" the bible - they even make up historical accounts and the good christians absorb it without a second thought. It's hard to fault them for this, the pastors are extremely persuasive - but then most fallacies are.

One of the core differences between the faithful and the atheists is that the atheists don't take things on blind faith and they're not willing to make daft leaps in logic to try to support some invisible guy in the sky. Also atheists tend to know more about the bible than anyone gives them credit for (the most strident atheists are often former christians) and they've seen the irreconcilable contradictions, historical errors, and so on. They don't typically go by what they're told, but they actively investigate. They also tend to be higher educated on average...

And you want me to name one evil thing Jesus did? I could name many. But here's one of the most obnoxious... check out Luke 19:27 where Jesus tells his followers to round up those who won't accept him as lord and to kill them in front of him.

Answer 6

What would you think if a vaccuum cleaner salesman came to your door and told you this.

"if you blindly believe this you will live for eternity in paradise"
"if you don't blindly believe this you will be tortured for all time"
"if you blindly believe this we will all think you are wonderful"
"if you don't blindly believe this you are to be ridiculed"
"Don't question anything, you can't understand why it is like this"

Now what would you think if you saw your neighbor pushing around that dilapidated out-dated vaccuum the cleaner salesman had with him the day before, beaming with pride....

Now on the hypocrites and hate thing. Sure, there are many wonderful Christians. However, it is a fact that, for whatever reason, there is a "Christian-right" and not a significant "Christian-left" in most countries. In my view, the 'right' means, in large part, people with less than average empathy for fellow human beings, and a more than average giving in to unthinking emotional, animal instincts (evil).

Maybe it is simply because Christianity serves the function of roping in the semi-sociopaths and forcing them to behave. Maybe it is completely unfair to blame the whole religion for the actions of the people it saves us from. Maybe, maybe not.

But when that group of people then starts attacking the science that is so important to humanity, or attacking people in the society or another country for some fantasy unreal reason, like the alignment of buttons on their vaccum cleaners actually tells them that their hate / what they want to believe is justified, people are going to concentrate on that problem.

You asked what I think. That, vastly simplified, is what I think.

Answer 7

The only quantitive answer I can think of about the difference between atheists and christians is that dogmatic beliefs and behaviors by definition put you in a superior moral position. They are therefore asking to held to higher standards, their own and have more to lose when they fail those standards.
There are rotten apples in every basket but that's the only bit I can agree with.

Answer 8

Jesus was a spoiled brat.
one evil thing that Jesus did hmm that is a hard one oh yeah no it isn't,

12 The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. 13 Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. 14 Then he said to the tree, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And his disciples heard him say it.

Answer 9

Christians have deliberately chosen to accept, as fact, and preach, as "truth", a whole lot of things that could not possibly be true. Either they are delusional or they are lying. There is no other way to look at it. If you want to tell me that God created the world, then as far as I'm concerned you are either completely detached from reality or deliberately misleading yourself and others. Why would I not find that offensive?

The Bible does, indeed, preach hatred. God is depicted as hateful, as are most of the people in it. Jesus was no prize, either.

Every statement that Jesus made about "loving your neighbor" referred only to other Jews, not to out-groups.
Jesus referred to another race of people as "swine" when they asked him to teach them.
Jesus said that to get into heaven, you have to sell everything, drink blood and eat flesh, keep then ten commandments, and follow him while leaving behind your mother and father and all your other relatives. If you haven't done all that, you're not getting in. Jesus was confusing and contradicted himself constantly.
Jesus never proved that he was the son of God. When asked, on the cross, to prove it by saving the other men condemned, he told the man who asked him to prove it that he'd see him in heaven, basically. The time to pull off a "miracle" would have been right about then.

Jesus was not the son of God. He was a cult leader, and that is why he was crucified. He knew he'd be a martyr, and that his followers would make sure that his story was blown completely out of proportion after he died. He went willingly to his death to prove his point about "everlasting life", and in doing so, he set a horrifying precedent. Next time a suicide bomber kills himself so he can go straight to heaven, ask yourself, "Who was the first person to do that"?

Answer 10

I don't use the word "brainwashed" myself, and think it's inappropriate for this kind of argument.

However, if you really want to know why atheists think this of Christians, you need look no further than the behavior of Christians here on this board. The vast majority are poorly behaved spoiled children who seem to have no reason for coming here other than to insult others and post arrogant nonsense. If you want Christians to be treated better here, you need to address your complaints to them. Atheists are not the cause of your problem.

Atheists, on the other hand, generally post reasonable - and correct - replies. Sure, there's irrational and childish comments from some of them, but atheists typically simply post the truth. Christians here do not. You're certainly right that there are bad seeds in any group. The problem is that the Christians here seem to lack any good seeds.


When you say that the problem is "a few" Christians, you're simply lying. It's the majority of the Christians here, and you know it.