Is R&S being slowly dominated by atheists?

Question

It is quite obvious that R&S is a debate between religious groups and atheists as to who is correct in their beliefs. I am noticing that more and more, religious people are retorting with answers like "It's apparent that you've already made up your mind on this subject so there is no point in answering you" when faced with an argument against their beliefs. Some are even avoiding the question by quoting irrelevant extracts from the Bible. Some more are even retorting with ineffective threats such as "You'll go to Hell if you continue to question God's will". With more and more religious people being able to give less and less answers to arguments against their beliefs, could it be said that atheists are "winning the battle of R&S"?

Um, thanks Pangel, I guess. Happiness is always good. And I wish you the very best as well.

And please feel free to NOT pray for me please, even if you WERE correct in your beliefs you'd still be wasting your time.

And never give up cychuck1213!

Oh, sorry, Lets not forget about the lovely pagans, who, although they Do possess relgious beliefs, they're actually just as intellignet and charming as the rest of us atheists/agnostics and pantheists.

Answer 1

I think there is a equal amount of athiest.

But we shouldn't be taking fueling the battle of Athiesm vs Religion, both sides are equal an no matter who you are (Muslim, Christian etc) as long as you don't take your beliefs to the point of extremity then I'm happy for you.

Instead we should be fighting the battle against intolerance, elitism and extremism. We should be taking a stand against the idiots on both sides who can't tolerate people for their beliefs.

I say the Religious people who mistrust Athiest due to their lack of belief in a God or the Athiest who labels a Christian stupid for believing in one should be blacklisted and quoted. Let them know that Yahoo Answers is not the place for intolerance and instead should be a place of respect.

Answer 2

Could you prove your point? How many answers and questions did you check. How did you classify and assess them?
If you feel atheists are on the winning hand, that might have to do with your own personal perception of the world. Maybe some paranoia?
I think the point could be made that religious people enjoy to be insulted. They do not realise how much their domination of the public life is hurting the rights of other people. If being insulted would be an Olympic discipline, Muslims would carry the gold. They even make up stories to be more insulted. Now I come to think of it, Catholics play the same tricks.
Of course it is true that the Church has to withdraw more and more. One can consider it as proven that man has no soul defined as a spiritual entity that is the seat of feelings, conscience etc. The Church is in full swing trying to find new definitions that are science-proof. Of course by doing this they will attract hordes of curious scientists who want to test their definitions. That is what scientists are for.
Should it be true that atheists are "winning" ( and I want to see facts, not paranoia) I will be defending the rights of all people to believe whatever they want, as long as they do not bother other people with their beliefs. Furthermore I think that after centuries of atheist bashing, a little balance will not harm anybody.
Go and read the holy books and the history books. In the old testament god is a jerk who would be in a mental institute today and not only because of his sexual obsession. From the moment a god or gods (for the hindus) got the upper hand, people have been killed in the most sadistic ways, e.g. burned inside their church just because they made the cross with their hands open or closed, depending in what province they lived (Russia, 13th century).
In the islamic republic of Iran dozens of kids (kids) are waiting on death row. People are hanged in public (yes like in western movies: a tree, a little stool under them and a litle kick, they do not break the neck) for a simple reason as: trouble maker. Under the Taliban people, man and women were stoned to death.
Before the second world war the future pope Pius XII derailed the strong christian trade unions in their resistance against Hitler, he thought the Jews deserved some punishment. The communists and social-democrats were at that time already knocked out by Hitler.
In a few countries in Africa and in the Phillippines christians are fighting against the use of condoms.
The catholic church has known since celibacy became mandatory for priests, that some of their finest messed around with kids. Check your books about Pius IX, who held a little jewish boy captive in the Vatican and under his cassocks.
I guess you are getting what I mean. You want to believe in the red or green spaghetti monster, in the virgin Mary or a sex club with virgins in heaven, please do so and enjoy. But stay out of the lives of other people.
It is pretty obvious that the cocktail of worldly power and religion leads to irrationality, abuse of power, domination and cruelty. So maybe it is not so bad if atheists "win".

Answer 3

The battle is between ignorance and knowledge, and this is a wonderful site to do that. Questioning beliefs is a good and health thing. And it's interesting to hear different points of view.

My faith in God has not been shaken. Actually a I few questions have really made me think, and actually made me realise how beautiful Christianity is.

But I must say I have heard as much rubbish from both sides. To me those that believe fanatically in science are just as bad as all the other religious nuts. Science is a useful tool but it is very strange to put faith in something that changes so frequently.

Answer 4

Interesting discussion. I think you nailed it when you said "With more and more religious people being able to give less and less answers to arguments against their beliefs, could it be said that atheists are "winning the battle of R&S"?

In a way it's not a very fair battle. In ridiculing logic and the scientific method, they have already handicapped themselves before the competition has even begun.

"If you don't think that logic is a good method for determining what to believe, make an attempt to convince me of that without using logic. No one has even bothered to try yet."
— Brett Lemoine

Another reason theists are losing the R&S battle is that they limit their factual evidence to ONE book, an antiquated 2,000 year book filled with contradictions and violence. Whereas freethinkers have the minds and writings of thousands of Earth's brightest freethinkers to draw upon for inspiration: Socrates, Einstein, Edison, Freud, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, and Nietzsche, to name a few.

In terms of the 'battle', there are 1.1 billion non-religious* people like ourselves in the world so while the sheep (I mean meek) may inherit the earth, we're catching up. While the outlook may look bleak in the US where 14% of Americans describe themselves as "without religion", but only 0.4% (902,000) claim to be atheist, and another 0.5% (991,000) profess agnosticism, there are bright spots elsewhere in the world. 85% of Swedes do not believe in God, and the UK also has a high number of non-believers.

"One and all, religions have their original prophets, their sacred books, their traditions of ages gone. One and all require us to accept without question what other people long dead have said or written; to obey without question the commands of those behind us.... No matter what the belief, if it had modestly said, 'This is our best thought, go on, think farther!' then we could have smoothly outgrown our early errors and long since have developed a religion such as would have kept pace with an advancing world. But we were made to believe and not allowed to think. We were told to obey, rather than to experiment and investigate."
— Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Whatever conclusions we reach about the reality of God, the history of this idea must tell us something important about the human mind and the nature of our aspiration.
— Karen Armstrong

Any attempt at understanding humanity must include an explanation of the hold that supernatural belief continues to have on most of the human race.
— Vic Stenger, Particle physicist

What I conclude is that religion has nothing to do with experience or reason but with deep and irrational needs.
— Richard Taylor

Answer 5

Atheism by and large is a closet system. R&S is one of the few places where Atheists can connect with other Atheists. Atheism will never be a threat to faith and Christianity.Thousands of Atheists and agnostics commit their lives to Christ every single weekend in this nation. The world wide Christian community is healthy and vibrant. Many atheists come here to evaluate their personal beliefs against faith. R&S is actually their first step toward faith in God. This I strongly believe. The seed of faith that Christians plant today may very well bear fruit in the coming years for God's church. Some who are Atheists today will be our Pastors and Bible teachers in our future. Have faith dear friend in God. John 3:16.

Answer 6

I would say "who is in battle?" except it is rather obvious that loads of people are.
Not all are though. I am really rather contented to be a Christian and to let others believe what they want to in the hope that they will extend the same courtesy to me. I like a good religious debate because you can learn a lot about what you believe, about what others believe, about how strong your faith is, and about how competent you are at debating! But I'm not on a conversion trip! IF I were busting a gut to convert all and sundry I'd start with the people I care about, not strangers on the internet.

Answer 7

Young and earnest Insomniac, as a lifelong atheist I do not see the exchanges here to be a battle...except, perhaps, among the personally embattled. An atheist who has given an intensive study to the matter of religion simply believes that there have never been any gods. An atheist does not 'hate' what does not exist, an atheist who is living life with a measure of self-respect and dignity does not attack any man's beliefs or religion. Those amongst us who harbor a touch of wit see fervent, intense belief of the invisible Christian god to even be humorous...kind of like watching your child of four discovering, say, a fairy tale that you remember from your own childhood. We also see the fundies to be dangerous to the health of our Republic and to democracy, but that's another story, and a sad one.

Answer 8

Of course the Atheists are winning. The reason being that most Christians know very little about their own Holy Book and then they are foolish enough to try to use the thing as a factual reference. Unfortunately, it is an empty victory for the Atheists, because very rarely will a Christian admit defeat. After all, what does logic have to do with faith.

Answer 9

As a Druid that for the most part is passing by I can't realy say that eather one is makeing there cases 100% clear. I do have a good and for the most part a clearer idea of what Atheists are realy about. Now with that being said I not one to say that it's a bad thing, it's just not for me. But to the Atheists on R&S I thank you for helping me have a better understanding of just what your (for lack of a better word) Religion is about.

Answer 10

I don't think it is just atheists, more like people looking for answers themselves which draws them to this section. Everybody finds that which we call god in their own way. It may even be that many have been hurt or slighted by God and so see R&S as their opportunity to hit back at Him through attacking those who clearly express a religious belief.

Don't sweat it. Everyone works out their own truth eventually, but at least R&S is an honest forum for their views, so long as all are treated with due respect.