Why are SOME atheists...?

Question

so violently oppossed to faith?

Why are SOME Christians so vioently oppossed to people challenging their faith?

If being unburdened by religion is working for you, why do you seem so uptight?

If Christianity gives you so much peace, why are you so easily angry and judgemental?

I am a progressive Christian with many athiest friends. Peace.

Answer 1

Many people know the Psalm 23"The Lord is My Shepherd" but they do not know the Shephed. Many people have their religious faith from their family but have never made it personal. Many folks have never allowed their faith to mature to adult strength so the childish ideas which made sense at age seven dont fit the adult world, To be challenged often requires moving beyond the comfort zone which religious faith has established in one's life. Jesus himself told his disciples to put out into the deep water and not to hug the shore where they could manage themselves. Only when they obeyed did they get a significant catch. I believe that the storms and risks of living on Christ's terms are more healthy and invigorating for adults than the safe and controlable coastlines of early life. People who have developed a settler mentality do not really follow the pioneer values of Jesus. He is too much of a risk. Simon Peter had to jump out of his boat and follow Jesus onto the waves to learn real trust. Even then he faltered until Jesus caught his hand and rescued him. If Christians cannot give an explanation for the hope they have in Jesus theirs is an immature relationship probably bordering more on magic than faith. We all want to control Jesus and control God. Peter did. James and John. All of them. The real Jesus cannot be managed. Atheists often have rejected the God they have observed in the lives of childish Christians. To live without a god in such a world as our is a trial. Certainly atheists I have met often do not believe because they do not want to have a god to whom they might be accountable. That is true in some cases. Until Christians have demonstrated the power and compassion of the genuine Jesus the atheists will multiply. Until we have personalized the relationship with Jesus on God's terms then we will use Jesus for our own political or social agendas. Until Faith is more than a nationality like accessory to our personality it is best ignored and rejected. Christianity has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and not really tried.

Answer 2

I'm a conservative Christian with many Atheist friends.

I think some Christians get hostile because they lack faith in their beliefs. So when challenged they lash out. Like cornered dogs.

Questions are good.

I think some Atheists get hostile because they focus on the bad parts of religion, rather than the good. This ideology is faulty because the same people wreak the same havoc in any group they join. Fanatical sports enthusiasts. Fanatical animal rights activists. blah blah blah.

Answer 3

I'm not violently opposed to faith. I think it goes against reason and I don't believe in it. I believe in things that have evidence for them and make sense. Not blindly believing in the supernatural. That's not a violent opposition.

atheist (THINK)

Answer 4

First of all, I object to your use of the word 'violently'. You'll need to justify that; I don't think you can.

I am annoyed by stupidity, willful ignorance, gullibility and self-delusion. Since religious belief incorporates ALL of those, that makes it profoundly annoying. Now, ordinarily, I wouldn't mind, though... I think that all people, in the privacy of their own mind, has the right to delude themselves in whatever fashion they deem fit. However... when people enter into a public sphere and begin to thrust those delusions onto other people, uninvited... well, that just has to be confronted.

I have no interest in converting the deluded to sanity... but I regard it as my moral and etical duty as a rational human being to expose the defects in such delusions, in order to protect innocent, vulnerable minds that might otherwise be influenced by them.

Answer 5

Smirk has it entirely right.

I also dislike people trying to control me in the name of faith.

But I'm happy if they have found their own story, but don't ram it into me.

Answer 6

I'm not "violently opposed to faith"--I'm opposed to people trying to control me in the name of faith.

Answer 7

I always had to think anyone who gets as upset as some people do over mere questions, they are pretty damn afraid f something.

Answer 8

Maybe they are sick of Christians ramming their nonsense on them when they tell them they're not interested!

Answer 9

true dat