Why does the argument of discounting God usually come up as discounting Jesus and Christianity?
2007-05-14 15:15:54 · 32 answers · asked by cmwhansen 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Because most of the time we're responding to Christians.
Most of the atheists here live in nations in which the majority religious stance is Christianity.
Most of the atheists here were raised as Christians.
Don't worry - Islam is just as false, and none of the gods are real - not the Christian one, the Jewish one, the Muslim one, any of Hindu ones, the ancient Greek ones, the ancient Roman ones, or any of the thousands of others.
2007-05-14 15:17:31 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 13⤊ 1⤋
I would have to say - and as an honest answer - most Christians I know equate god and Jesus, or say that Jesus is god. So when speaking to them, when you discount one, you automatically discount the other.
Which leads directly to the religion - if God does not exist, and jesus and god are the same, jesus doesn't exist. And if jesus doesn't exist, neither should Christianity, since it's based on the teachings of someone that doesn't exist.
It would be like taking the teachings of Lazarus Long as a set religion - and he is clearly proveable as a fictional character.
To Atheists, Jesus is as fictional as Lazarus Long.
(To those who don't know, Lazarus Long is the main character in a series of books by Heinlein - a rather popular series, and rather advanced in thinking for it's time.)
2007-05-14 15:22:33 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Some of you seemed to miss the point. There can be a God even if Christianity is false. Why don't atheists spend as much time attacking judaism, or deism? I think the reason is that Christians are most involved in preaching there beliefs to atheists. Deists don't care if atheists disagree, infact deists like Thomas Paine often attack Christianity as well, and sometimes atheists even promote such people as heros, rather than deity believing enemies. So basically atheists attack Christianity because Christianity is the most active in attacking atheism. Agnostics, or deists never attack atheist, and even though other religions sometimes do, Christianity is the biggest, especially in the wester world
2007-05-14 15:45:34 · answer #3 · answered by -ZAF- 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because that's the dominant religion atheists have to deal with. If we were in Turkey, we'd be discounting Islam. If we were in India, we'd be discounting Hinduism. It's all a matter of context.
Now, if you want to get into a more metaphysical discussion of the properties of a god, things such as omnipotence, omniscience, etc., (think of deism) without getting into specifics such as salvation, we can do that too.
2007-05-14 15:21:26 · answer #4 · answered by abulafia24 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
it would discount christianity and the christians view of jesus because the belief is founded on that jesus is the literal son of god. if there is no god then jesus was just a man.
2007-05-14 15:18:58 · answer #5 · answered by god_of_the_accursed 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
The point is well taken, Atheists have few problems with Buddhists because they have no God.
If you take God out of the equation and are just left with Jesus and Christiainity does that not come close to Buddah and Buddism!
2007-05-14 15:21:15 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Because, most of the time, it is christians that are firing off at atheists. Besides, the majority kinda rules. Jesus is the most recognized as god, from my observations. It would really take more time than reasonable to name all other recognized deities.
2007-05-14 15:20:10 · answer #7 · answered by rhainnedroppe 3 · 3⤊ 0⤋
I'm not an atheist, but I think it comes up as atheism vs Christianity because of the Christian belief, stronger in some denominations than others, that Christians are supposed to go out and convert others to their faith. That's where the debate begins.
2007-05-14 15:21:53 · answer #8 · answered by TaDa 4 · 4⤊ 0⤋
'cause the US is 80% Christian and this is where there is a lot of pressure on the government to make a theocracy. So the atheists that are here are forced to defend it.
I really would love to be able to ignore Christians, but living in the US makes that dangerous.
2007-05-14 15:23:33 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
For a few reasons.
First, not believing in God automatically discounts Jesus and Christianity.
Second, it's usually Christians we're responding to. (Other religions don't curse and insult us and tell us we deserve to be tortured for all of eternity for not believing in their God-- and smile while doing so.)
2007-05-14 15:21:01 · answer #10 · answered by Jess H 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋