Athiest answer. No Christians please.?

Question

I am a Chrisitan. i have agnostic friends and respect their point of view. but i don't honestly know an athiest. at least not one that can express anything intelligent about your beliefs. i've always had some questions, and if you answer, please don't be mean or ignorant. i am sincerly curious.
-Is the idea of God offensive? I read what people say about him on here, and it's not even close to what the bible portrays. is the problem with God, or Christians? i can understand it being with Christian. i don't like most of them either.
-What is it about spiritual things that makes you so mad or uncomfortable.
-Christianity teaches: complete exceptance and forgiveness. grace. love from a community. a guide that, if you are honest, is benificial for society in general.
i don't know what people talk about when they say Christianity is built on hate in so forth. that is about as far from the truth as it could be.
any help would be cool. remember, no meanies or dummies.thanks!

Answer 1

a. God simply does not exist to us. No, the idea is not offensive. Is Santa offensive to you? (I hope you dont beleive in him still as well...if so, sorry for ruining it for ya.) Its nothing to do with God or his followers. It has to do with lack of evidence.

b. Nothing makes me mad about spiritual or religious things. Only when a religious person feels the need to tell me and everyone else how to live their lives. That pisses me off to no end.

c. Christianity may TEACH that, but its practioners certainly do not practice what the are preached. Sure, it is beneficial to society - but so are the lessons learned from Judaism, Buhhdism and just about every other religion. But, Christians call them ALL wrong, false or evil. Is that being tolerant towards others? Is it truly loving and compassionate to heap hate onto homosexuals, who do nothing to affect you in the privacy of their own homes???

I hope I have answered your question satifactorily and without insults or offense. And, I thank you for your non-offensive question.

Answer 2

The Bible and all other spiritual writings are Myths, do not use this word to mean 'lies or deceptions'; but rather as ...

"A traditional, typically ancient story dealing with supernatural beings, ancestors, or heroes that serves as a fundamental type in the worldview of a people, as by explaining aspects of the natural world or delineating the psychology, customs, or ideals of society: the myth of Eros and Psyche; a creation myth."
http://www.answers.com/topic/myth

Therefore, in the minds of many are seen as illogically untrue. Especially when there are people who say that certain events or stories are absolutely true and take everything written in the Bible as the Literal Truth. When we look at the Bible, it is a collection of books from a group of people known as the Hebrews or Jews.

Therefore, if a person is to truly understand what they believe in the first place, that individual has to be open-minded enough; to accept that since it (the Bible) is a series of books written by people years after the events took place; there is a scientifically logical understanding that errors will occur. We and they are only human and can make mistakes.

Also, as a Christian, you have to be open to the knowledge that is around you. Dates do not add up when you actually look at the events talked about in the Bible (as well as other scriptures). It can be frustrating to people who accept that certain events, which the Bible speaks of, are not an 'actual' Historical account. They are in fact, a way for tribal people to pass onto their children their heritage.

Besides, if you were to take the time to read other stories; from other regions of the world. You will be suprised to discover that many of these exact things took place in a culture many centuries older than the Hebrews / Jews / Israelites.

Here is an example "In the Yoruba myth, Obatala creates man with great joy, molding and shaping the clay of the earth into perfect human forms, reflections of the forms of the gods."
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/289456/the_yoruban_creation_myth.html?page=2

So, because of this, many people do not place their trust in an "invisible god". Then the question would be 'Which one is true?" And after that you'd have to say "How do you know?"

Considering Christianity is one of the youngest of our world's religions, How can you be 100% sure it is the 'truth'?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_religions_by_age

Answer 3

-Is the idea of God offensive?
-- No, god does not exist. Are goblins offensive to you?

-What is it about spiritual things that makes you so mad or uncomfortable?
-- There is no madness or discomfort. We just don't think there is any such thing. People banging on about them, and telling us that we'll burn because we don't agree with them - now that makes us mad (it's back to people again, see?)

-Christianity teaches: complete exceptance and forgiveness. grace. love from a community. a guide that, if you are honest, is benificial for society in general. i don't know what people talk about when they say Christianity is built on hate in so forth. that is about as far from the truth as it could be.

--Well, Christ himself was all right. But he's gathered some pretty hateful followers who have picked an awful lot from both testaments that suit them and left out an awful lot that don't. I think you misrepresent us anyway - we don't say it's built ON hate. But it's certainly built an edifice of hate upon the foundation.

Answer 4

1) The word is "atheist", not "athiest". Make use of the instant "Check Spelling" link you see on the upper right when you construct a post. I also take it you meant "acceptance" and not "exceptance", which to me sounds like the exact opposite.

2) Chances are you may very well know an atheist, who just hasn't felt the need to explicitly tell you so

3) "Atheism" means nothing more than "no belief in deity". That's ALL the word means. You can't jump to too many conclusions based on that one aspect.

4) You claim that Christianity teaches acceptance and forgiveness, love from a community and moral guideline that "benefits society". I could claim the same thing about the Boy Scouts. Or even better: Buddhism. This still begs the question as to why I should accept the notion of deity. Never mind the fact that your Bible constantly contradicts these principles you listed. (And yes, I've read it)

Answer 5

No, the idea of god is not offensive, it is actually a nice idea. I would like it to be true but that does not make it so.

The problem with god is that there is no evidence for a god. I am trying to live a life that is a honest as I can make it & that is as based in realtiy as is possible. The lack of evidence makes the idea of god seem like another trick people play on themselves to make them feel better about things. I would rather learn to face those things.

That said I do not have a problem really with people believing in a god as such. I do have a problem with religions that try to impact basic human rights - for example anti abortionists, anti gay people etc.

I have a problem with people trying to make me or others live their lives in a certain way because of a 'god' they believe in for whom they cannot even give me a small amount of proof. I just have to believe that they say he exists.

Spiritual things do not make me mad or uncomfortable - to be honest they just do not exist. It only makes me mad when someone uses them as a reason to try to make me do or not do something.

I understand that there are Christians who are taught love and acceptance, however there are also christians who are so convinced that abortion is a sin that they will throw a girl in prison becuase she had an abortion after she was raped and they think abortion is wrong.

I know you might say these people are not true Christians but they claim and believe to be acting both in the girl's best interests and on behalf of god. Makes it hard to like them & their beliefs.

If you read the Bible it is full of unpleasant things - murder rape etc. Many of these seem to be condoned by god.
Also any religion that teaches that something such as homosexuality is wrong is bound to instill hate (I am straight this is just an example.....)

Anyway, I could go on at length but this is enough for now.

I hope it helped answer your questions a little.

Answer 6

- The idea of god/s is not at all offensive. The actions some theists (not just Christians, but people of lots of religions) take in the name of their god/s is sometimes offensive.

- Spiritual things do not make me mad or uncomfortable. I just don't believe that the supernatural part of spirituality (like gods or demons, separate souls, ghosts, etc.) are real.

- Very often, Christians do not behave in a manner in keeping with the virtues of the faith that you've listed here. Unfortunately for everyone, those Christians tend to be the loudest. Even if most Christians don't agree with the Westboro Baptist-type, they are disturbingly silent in denouncing their actions. It is probably unfair for non-Christians to judge the whole pot by the actions of a few... but the inaction of the many leaves us no choice.

Answer 7

Nothing makes me mad about it- I believe most religions are based on doing good to others and the golden rule (which is what I live by).

The main quibble most atheists have about it is we feel it is so much devotion to something that doesn't exist. We can't stand people we love so sure of things that we know to not be true. I just wish everyone could see the things we've seen, experienced, learned, and actually question it. Myself, I used to be Christian, so I know what it is like.. I just want to help people come to the same understanding I and others have discovered, that being that the Bible is a mythological book written by many different men hundreds of years ago. We only wish so many people would stop letting it control their lives and be so certain of supposed truth, and stop letting it control how they live in this world.

Answer 8

"is the problem with God, or Christians?"

With Christians, obviously. I think that if Christians acted more honestly, I'd probably not give Christianity a second thought. But the persistent lying and arrogant disregard for the truth really bothers me a lot.

I don't believe that Christianity is built on hate, though of course many people use Christianity as an excuse for their particular hatreds. But Christianity is built on dishonesty, and I just don't see how a society can thrive if it's going to just throw away the notion of "truth".

Answer 9

As an atheist, I can tell you it has absolutely nothing to do with "God" or the concept of God or Gods. I was raised a Christian and turned atheist at 18. To me it is the vile attitude of SOME Christians that sometimes (but not always) gets my goat.
Even in my neighborhood, some of my Christian neighbors would actually proceed to tell me that I'm going to hell because I'm not a Christian. It is their judgemental attitude and the need to push their beliefs on me "or else" and at the same time refuse to listen to what I have to say is what offends me. It's double standards.

Btw, I said "Christians" because I have never met anyone from any other religion who had this attitude towards me.

Answer 10

The idea of god is ridiculous, not offensive. What's offensive is being told that you can't be a good person because you don't believe in god. And the old testament doesn't pain a very flattering picture.

Spiritual things do not make me angry or uncomfortable.

Christianity teaches one thing but practices another, like all religions.

As a free thinker, I accept that compassion is a good guide for my life, the rest is just opinion.