Question for Atheists... but I'm sure everyone will have a go?

Question

why are we made out to be the worst creatures on Earth i mean we are given so much **** for what we stand for. Is there anything documented we have done throughout history to make us such savage beasts as what we are made out to be. If im a non believer am i a true atheist or is there more to it im confused.

Answer 1

This might help:

1) They only see the Old Testament side. The Old Testament is savage and rife with violence and God smiting sinners. It's also the fire-and-brimstone preachers, and others who they believe are shoving their beliefs down their throats.

As you know (begining the New Testament), Jesus preached a God of love and forgiveness and tried to do away with the God of the Old Testament. And also to do away with needless and negative customs that the Pharisees had inflicted on the day (e.g. walking only a certain amount of steps per day, disallowing certain foods, etc). Of course, the Church has some pointless rituals these days, but hey, that's institutional evolution.

2) Then there's the crusades where Christians went to war to reclaim Jerusalem from the Muslims who took control and barred Christian pilgims from holy sites. THAT was caused by POLITICS, not religion.

On a side note, what struck me when I saw a biopic the other week ('Godless In America') on SBS about Madalyn Murray O'Hair (the founder of American Atheists. and the one who got prayer in schools banned) was the behaviour of the organised atheists, during one of their meetings, who sneered at Christians over just about anything. Those atheists made it so personal, it was disgusting. It seemed they wanted to destroy Christianity as much as much as the KKK wants to destroy minorities. If I was an atheist, I'd never allow my difference in opinion (of the spiritual) to drag me into that kind of hatred and contempt, would you?

Live and let live. Peace!

Answer 2

Some of my best friends and the man I love are all atheists, but I'm a Christian. I believe each person has the right to decide and there's no sense in slandering people who don't feel the same as you.

As for atheists being the 'most technologically advanced and most evolved, well, erm, did you know that Einstein believed in God? And quite a few other physicists, apparently.

look at these Einstein quotes:
"I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details."
"I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice."
"God is subtle but he is not malicious."
"God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically."

And this is my favourite:
"Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."

I just always wish that I could share my faith with my atheist friends!

Answer 3

You pose a good question.

...a bit pessimistic, but a good question nonetheless. Why are we the worst creatures on the earth? We're the most technologically advanced, the most populous, and most evolved. (...well, some of us anyway. Not sure about most of the Christians.)

If you think of it, the savage things done throughout history... guess what was the reasoning behind most of them? Religion. One of our most harmful inventions, and still is to this day.

By the way, there's no such thing as a "true atheist", just like there's no such thing as a "true Scotsman". If you don't believe in any gods whatsoever, then you're atheist. That's it.

Answer 4

If we compare a human being with other animals we see that he/she has a great power: reason is potentially good, but on the other hand it can be used in very destructive ways. The more power we have the easiest it is to use it wrongly. I think man can be good but it is a struggle anyone has to undertake with himself / herself, because we have a sort of "dark side" too. I don't think the problem is religion as someone has written here, but greed and ego. We have never stopped wanted to be like God and since God is only one we want to be the only one as well to be the best, leaving no place for our fellow human beings (talking in a generic way, of course).
As for your personal position well it depends on what you mean by non believer: if you don't go to Church, but still think to have a spiritual side of you, then no, for me you are no atheist.

Answer 5

What, you mean us as a species? I'm a christian by the way. And what we as a species (ie, humans as a whole, regardless of beliefs) have done is that we have brought countless animals to extinction and to the brink of extinction, and we are depleting earth of our natural resources. We also seem to be finding more inventive ways of killing each other.

Answer 6

Define "non-believer". An Atheist is one who believes that God doesn't exist. An Agnostic isn't sure if there is a God or not. And a Theist believes in God, but not sure which one.
I am a Christian, and I am wondering some things about Atheists myself. Why do they give us so much crud about our religion? What did we ever do to them? We are people just as they are.

Answer 7

I've learned to not care what others think of me. I just try to be the best person I can while staying true to my convictions. No one can ask more than that of you. I think people find atheism scary in a way. To just abandon all belief isn't easy for some to grasp. Just be true to yourself and don't sweat the rest.

Answer 8

Sure theres documented history; are you Italian? Where and who are your ancestors and what travesties have they committed? French?
Russian? Since all man have skeletons in their family closets, I wouldn't be too quick to say, "hey, i'm an athiest and our people haven't ever done anything wrong". geez, that would be kind of ignorant, don't ya think??
Unless you are mother theresa's father or something? And he isn't even free of atrocidies committed.

Answer 9

In a nutshell, believers don't like atheist because we don't accept their beliefs. Simple. They can't for the life of them understand why we don't believe there is a God and why we don't buy into the whole Bible validity nonsense. Don't take it personally. There is nothing wrong with atheists, unless its a personal issue in which case it has nothing to do with religion or lack of. They need us to accept their "truth", we don't, they don't like us. Who cares?

Answer 10

you have a worse image than JW or Mormons cause of how you all act, or at the least the majority of you.

for one, to come into an area and purposely bash, that alone is reason enough to have a bad rap.

if you don't like it, change it. I have nothing against Atheist for I was one for 30 yrs...but when I see a snot nosed child that can't even count his matchbox tell me I have no clue...HA....thats funny.