is there a difference between an evangelical christian and militant atheists?

Question

is either one 'right'?

are we just the yin to their yang?

how can we neutralize the differences and focus on other things other than just angry and trying to win or fight?

? is a militant atheist?

http://www.militantatheist.net/index.html

I suppose I'm not the only one out there

I suppose they are ones who stategize and go on offensive vs always be on defensive and preempt religious zealots with facts vs beliefs and claims

Answer 1

Neither are right, both groups try to force their beliefs on others, and none of them are right. I hope Christians and atheists will read something other than the bible for a change. There's more spirituality books out there guys. Let's stop being so ignorant.

Answer 2

What the hell is a militant atheist. Name one. There is no such thing. Militancy is the province of the True Believers.
Atheists may dislike the fact that you can't run for president
in the US unless you pretend to be a Christian... oh yeah, we see the obvious, that we have an undeclared Christian Theocracy here and have had it for years... but militant?

Like I said, give one example of that... Use your add details to do so. Otherwise this is an insulting question based on a completely false premise.

________

assuming you will read this. You seem pretty glib and probably have forgotten this question.

I went to your posted website, and apart from the name, there wasn't much militancy in evidence. There was a really nice video of some older people singing the who's "my generation"... there were a few political items of a medium light scariness. But no partucular militancy.

So the question remains, show me anywhere in the world the work of a 'militant atheist'

I can provide you with plenty of militant religious folks, from the crusades to the Klan... but not much to be found for the militancy of atheists.

Could it be that religion and war go hand in hand?

Answer 3

Of course there is. For one it's the phrasing of your question.

By definition a militant anybody has the desire to enforce his beliefs on someone else even through the use of force.

An evangelical anybody has the desire to transfer his beliefs through verbal persuasion and good works.

Now given that, an evil Evangelical Christian is just as bad as an evil militant whether atheist or not.

All atheists are not militant or evil just as all evang. christians are not militant or evil.

One thing I always think of is this. If you were walking down a dark alley at night in a strange city and heard footsteps behind you, who would you rather have following you--an evangelical christian or someone else you knew nothing about ?
I

Answer 4

Evangelical Christians love others as Jesus Christ loves them.

Note: there is a difference between "evangelical" Christian and the church leadership of the middle ages that is responsible for the crusades. There is also a difference between evangelical Christians and casual Christians.

Atheists have no ultimate point of reference outside themselves, so they think humanity gets to make its own set of rules.

As you can see by the answers posted here, there is a lot of anger, resentment and hatred from the few atheists here. That says a lot about them.

To univee, Christopher Hitchens is a militant atheist. You can hear the hatred in his voice and see the emptiness in his eyes. I feel sorry for the poor bloke.

Answer 5

I think that generally they are on opposite ends of the spectrum, although in fervor they may reach equality. If either side is angry, the other should certainly step back. Nothing is solved in anger.

I'd be interested in knowing what your definitions are. For instance, I consider myself an Evangelical and Orthodox, but my definition is likely much closer to the dictionary than the behavior of those in the media who use the words and get the attention!

Answer 6

A militant religionist and a militant irreligionist can share the same attitudes of intolerance and lack of willingness to dialogue. Many Evangelical Christians are not militant mockers of atheists' dilemmas and neither are tolerant atheists of Christian quests and struggles.

Answer 7

Depends upon what you mean by a militant atheist. I consider those few atheists who want to destroy all religion to be no better than the "everyone should be like me" evangelical Christians.

But it's my experience that most atheists want to protect the right of each person to be religious or nonreligious and practice their beliefs without interference (within the law, of course), while extremist Christians want to take that right away and force everyone to believe and worship as they think everyone should. That's a pretty big difference.

Answer 8

Well, you could just ignore them and get on with life.

There's really no more point to "fighting" them than there is their trying to "save" us, is there?

Why be militant?

On this site, I like to encourage them to pray. I tell them to shut down their computer and start praying; don't stop until everyone has seen the light, or is that The Light?

But really, if we could get them to talk to their sky bully instead of us, I would consider that a big win.

But win? That will only come with time -- as in generations of time.

The only legitimate fighting is political, that is, keeping their sky bully out of our laws and classrooms.

Other than that, let them sit around waiting to be floated naked into heaven. (Ugh! Sorry for any inadvertent visual images there.)

Answer 9

The difference is evangelical Christians are trying to force their beliefs and religious dogma on everyone else. "Militant" atheists are simply very vocal about everyone else's rights NOT to have someone beliefs and religious dogma forced on them.
Though I agree that both would be better served if they were willing to open up a little and show more tolerance.

Answer 10

I don't identify myself as one who's willing to fight. I just use the militant so that theists will get off my back. It's an easy way to shut them up. I use militant to explain that I am utterly convinced that there is nothing supernatural; for example, god(s).