Who is more narrow minded an atheist who can't conceive of anything beyond a material world....?

Question

or a person who can't go beyond the teachings of religious texts.?

To girl wonder, the many victims of communism in the form of stalin and chair man mow would beg to differ. Aethists have brutalised their populations.

Answer 1

The reasonable mind of the atheist is filled with immense wonder and awe at our vast phenomenal universe. Not only that, but his vision is unsullied by hatred, prejudice or lies. We recognize the value of this single incredibly lucky life and so, embrace living with courage, ethics and vitality. We are not encumbered by dogma, false fears and hypocrisy.

For an atheist there are only two things that are slightly less fun than for Christians:
1) we know that we are not forgiven by some invisible man in the sky, so we are not free to sin. We have to take responsibility for our own actions and cannot justify violence, stealing, lying or other sins that Christians commit daily.
2) we see the root causes of many world problems and we see the solution. Though we do not want to, we are constantly engaged in battle with the forces of ignorance and socio-political bigotry.

Beyond those two reconcilable problems, the atheist's life is vastly more fulfilling and poignant than that of any superstitious person's. We must live life to the fullest and behave in accordance with logical moral codes. We do this easily and without exterior guidance. We do this without asking for infinite reward. We act justly because it is right. We live with clear consciences. Our souls are clean, untainted by eons of religious atrocities. No atheist ever tortured another human to get him to change his views.

The world of the theist is restricted. He looks for divine intervention to solve simple problems instead of using the intellect that his god supposedly gave him. He walks in fear and to the extent that he sins, he lives in fear of the consequences of his sins. The taste of forbidden fruit always tempts him and he uses temptation to test and manipulate others. He needs supernatural intervention to reconcile his guilt instead of learning from his guilt and modifying his behavior. And he believes others must change their natural sexual tendencies or religious beliefs. Theists are all atheists, except for their preferred pet god. When confronted with irrefutable logic, they run to their ancient plagiarized text and call it truth. They are incapable of accepting the obvious lies of their religion or the governments that promote it. They hide their heads in the sand like ostriches, the primitive proof of evolutionary facts they deny.

The world of the theist is an insecure poverty of existence. He only acts moral when others are watching. His moral compass only works when the light is on. In the darkness of his twisted tortured soul, he mistakenly hopes that his wrathful, capricious deity will somehow mistake him for a loyal kisser of omnipresent anus.

The atheist has the self confidence and internal psychological freedom to act using all the gifts a complete actualized human can have. The atheist can actively engage his body, mind and soul for congruent positive purpose. He needs no imaginary eternal recompense for his good acts. For the Atheist, goodness is its own reward.

The narrow mind of the theist is rendered useless by internal conflict and bogus rationalization. To the extent that he performs good acts, he must pay his deity a psychological tax in humiliating subservient worship. He can only wait until the fictional afterlife for his reward.

Who do think has a better chance at a fulfilling life?

Answer 2

Now how many people do you honestly think are going to step up and publicly define themselves as 'narrow-minded'? It's a public forum. Very few people are going to play by your rules. Most people here read and write in generalities and as the topic applies to themselves and their experiences. Respondents tend to see 'atheists' or 'Christians' and the allegation, judge its applicability to themselves and write to that. Doesn't matter if you were talking about something else. Limiting a question to certain respondents is the surest way of getting others to write. Haven't you noticed that?

Answer 3

I probably am a bit narrow-minded compared to how I see myself BUT I'm broadminded when I compare myself to the FoolishFundies we often get here.

Like most Atheists I KNOW a lot about the XianCult and lotsa other stuff.
I hope that word KNOW wasn't mixed up with BELIEVE or SUCKED-IN BY.
Hey, I even understand WHY Xians are they way they are; the main reason is that they're easily scammed.
If they applied the same reasoning as to why they don't believe in Thor, Allah or Vishnu they may get to the truth of the matter but most are programmed from birth to absolutely believe in the current geographical version of their InvisibleSkyGuy.

[edit]
Listen, girly, NO Atheist ever murdered IN THE NAME OF ATHEISM - they just murdered cos they were psychopathic bastards.
ON THE OTHER HAND millions have died in the name of one god or another.
XIANS have carried out millions of murders in the name of their InvisibleSkyPixie AND their Pixie murdered THOUSANDS according to the Goat Herders' Guide to the Galaxy.

Answer 4

Mao and Stalin were communists first, Atheist second. The main reason that communism is so seemingly anti religion is the same reason fascism is. It is proclaiming an allegiance to something other than the party.

Atheists are individuals with very different political, and social views. We tend to be humanistic in our views, but that is generalizing.

Answer 5

Look I might be interested in following a religion. Here's the deal, all you religious nuts get together and agree which one of the thousands of the religions out there is the true one, no cheating now you all have to agree which one it is then come and see me and i will happily follow the god you all agree on. I don't think I am going to be troubled by one of you lot turning up anytime soon with the above resolved.

Answer 6

A person who can't go beyond the teachings of religious texts. They just read and believe. We think about whether there's a material world or not, and that's why we're atheists.

Answer 7

The person who denies what they see with their eyes are narrow minded. We can provide clear evidence, and they still deny it's true. That's narrow minded. If you can show me evidence for God, I am open to accept. As it is, you cannot provide any form of evidence, other than a book that says "This is the word of God". Never knew those simple words can make something true.

Tell me, is a schizophrenic more open minded than you because they live in a world that is completely outside of reality?

Answer 8

Many religious people come across as being narrow minded,
which can be quite annoying.
But then materialists can also be quite perplexing.
How can you not believe in a greater power?
I think materialists are not quite as profound as religionists.
Having a faith is much much more than believing religious texts, it also involves great challenges to yourself as a person.
Much easier to be a materialist.

Answer 9

I would say both are victims of their own blind faith. I firmly believe that there is no such thing as a wrong system of belief, however in my opinion, as soon as a person stops questioning the nature of the world in which they live, and they're place and purpose in it, that person has lost sight of what it is that makes belief so important.

Answer 10

The person who is stuck on the texts. Us "material world" folks can at least expand our views of that world. The text person, the text is the exact same as it was thousands of years ago and will be the same until someone new comes along to reinterpret or re-translate it.