Does saying "I hate Christianity" automatically mean "I hate Christians"?

Question

If you hate a deeply held sincere belief, does that mean you must also hate the person who holds that belief?

Can you hate what the Nazi's did but not hate the actual soldiers?

Can you hate a behavior or a belief and separate it from the person who holds it or does it?

If you believe in "X" and someone says: "I want to eradicate "X" from the world," do you feel that is a personal attack on you?
(Substitute X for your belief system: Christianity, Atheism, Islam, Pagan, etc....)

CC - while your answer is your correct, your condescending manner in which you deliver it is not. You don't know me, so please do not assume you know what I will and will not understand.

Answer 1

Their are many different beliefs that I do not like because it makes fun of God or makes him sound harsh or uncaring.
Ones who beat themselves or cut themselves to please God or strap on a bomb or hate others because of their religon.
But when you take the people out of those false religions and teach them the truth and they become loving and caring indivuals then I love them. No matter what country they may be from. No one hates the people for no reason that would be insane to hate someone because they were born Jewish or in USA or in Iraq or Iran. Or during the war some hated Japanese for no reason who were loyal Americans.
That is just plain crazy.
But we can hate terriorists and those who wish to harm others for no reason. Such as the ones who killed all those people on the plane and in the trade towers.
They didn't know those people but they hated them, enough to kill them. That was really sad. Now look at how many of their own people who have died and more Americans.
Should we love people who hate and kill for no reason?
We have people in this country from Iraq who have made this their home. Who don't hate or kill no one hates them.
We don't hate because of where someone came from, that's insane.

Answer 2

Christianity is a religion, a set of beliefs and values written by humans. This does not mean you hate the people who believe this way, although some of their actions may bother you. Certainly you can hate what the Nazis did, but not the individual soldiers. Lots of those soldiers had to do as were told or be killed or they were brainwashed before encountering their horrible deads. some of course loved their task. In that case, look at the individual. You can always hate a behavior and separate it from the person, but the person may feel very hurt or insulted if you ignore their values. If you believe the person is attacking you, you can pick to allow yourself to feel this way or the choose to allow the person to have their own opinion having absolutely nothing to do with you. this latter move, does take some training and a lot of self confidence, but it works like a charm. Very, very few people bother me. I take them for who they are and go on with my life. Interesting questions.

Answer 3

No. You can hate the idea and the religion but still like that person. What a person believes is part of a person but not the whole person. Like how a liberal and a conservative can be friends even though they don't share the same beliefs.

Some nazi soldiers had been trained from birth to think that way and therefore were programmed to know nothing else (I AM NOT DEFENDING THEM AS THEY KILLED MY GREAT-GRANDPARENTS).

I don't take it as a personal attack because I can understand how somebody can despise what my religion stands for and yet still accept me as a person.

Answer 4

No, I dislike the whole notion of christianity, but it does not mean I hate those who follow the faith.

What you say about the Nazi's is like putting them into a group and judging them based on the actions. I dislike their reasoning for those actions, but not the individual people who were forced to go along with the orders.

I don't think much is a personal attack on me - there will always be people who dislike something I like, and vice versa. The world is run that way, and the only thing I can do if someone does not agree is ignore it. I don't worry about things which have little impact on my life and won't go out of my way to impress anyone with my views or change their minds.

Answer 5

I don't think you are hating Christians by hating Christianity.

Take this example: The creation of an Israeli state in Palestine is a political movement called Zionism. Zionists are Jewish. Should we hate the Jewish people? No, of course not. Can we disagree with the Zionist movement without hating the individuals? Of course we can.

So much of Christianity is political, too, so it's pretty easy to become skeptical and to put up a wall that shuts Christianity out. But I'm willing to bet that you have people you call friends who are or will become Christians! (And hey, maybe even Muslims!!!)

Answer 6

Can't we all just get along? Hate of anything only causes undue pain to the person that is doing the act of hating, it has no effect on any other person so in reality you are the only person inflicting unnecessary pain on yourself let these feelings go become one with the universe and feel the joy of oneness - my wife says that sometimes I'm full of it this may be one of those times - whatever do have a fine day!

Answer 7

What do you mean by "hate"? And, how do you define "belief"?

If you mean that you disagree with its teachings, then you may be able to accept the person.

If you mean that you want eradicate its teachings, then I think you do have to hate/eradicate the believers as well. Since you'd have to remove every Bible, commentary and person who might try to keep the religion.

Answer 8

Hi, there, Last Ent Wife (LOVE your nickname, BTW!) --

I think it oughtn't to be taken personally, but it very often is. And there are many people who use those two statements as though they are the same. There are people who mean "I hate X" AND "I hate people who believe in X".

So, I guess the thing to do is to ask what someone means when they say that "they hate X"...

Answer 9

When a person hates Christianity, he hates the idea, doctrine and belief of a Christian, not the individual himself.

Answer 10

No. I use to be Christian, now atheist. But I hate Christianity...in fact all religions. But some Christians are not too bad...In fact not all people are too bad in any religion. It's the bad ones that make the most noise. Hence the bad ones show face for the rest.