Atheists.........I need your honesty ....... ?

Question

Be honest with me here. I simply do not understand your hostility and anger towards those who do not believe as you do. What is it that makes you so angry? Don't you realize you can 'draw more folks with honey than with vinegar'? There are folks who honestly want to know why you believe as you do, but you often tend to get defensive and angry, and you lose credibility this way. Don't be angry and defensive........be honest and sincere......and tell us WHY you believe as you do ????

Answer 1

I do not require "beliefs". Your god is an illusion, a myth, and you are blind to it. I think that's sad, and I would leave it at that but for one thing: I cannot escape the yoke of christian influence in any aspect of public life.

Christians dominate our politics (stem cell research), therefore also our laws (legalization of cannibas), and therefore our lives (gay marriage). Christians dominate our places of work (no short skirts), our places of recreation (no topless sunbathing), and they even reach into our very homes ("G*D damnit!" being heard on television, with only the word "god" edited out). They spend the state's money on wasteful things because their scruples prevent rational problem solving almost entirely (the death penalty), and they RUIN sunday morning TV, which ought to have more cartoons, but doesn't.

Christianity has been, since its inception, the single greatest cause of war, cruelty, persecution, hatred, violence, ignorance, and willful destruction of cultural wealth.

Christianity is still worse when viewed as part of the larger construct of the Abrahamic faiths (which also includes Judaism and Islam). When combined, the spiritual heirs of Abraham, Jesus, and Mohammed have caused more death, destruction, and backwardness on this earth than any thinking person could ever ignore or deny. And it's still going on, RIGHT NOW.

I truly believe Christianity to be a disease of the mind more dangerous than ebola, more virulent than chicken pox, and more insidious than HIV.

That is as honest and sincere as I get. I hope this helps you to understand why I occasionally sound _hostile_ toward Christianity. It is only beause I AM.

Answer 2

Have a leaf through my replies, and see if there's any outstanding hostility or anger...

I don't think so, and I'll apologise for any I've missed.
Frustration there is, which I try to keep capped. (There are some awful and stupid questions that appear repeatedly.)
I've had to use that very "honey and vinegar" illustration with certain Christian questioners here.

As to why I'm an atheist: bible study principally, as an ex-Christian. I could no longer square what I found there with what the Christian message was held out to be.
That and input from other sources such as cosmology, geology and history. A whole raft of things, not one proof-text that I might have been reading wrongly.

Answer 3

Every time I've seen a question about why atheists believe as they do (and I must have seen that question at least fifty times) the overwhelming majority of answers are along the lines of "There's no evidence". There is nothing angry or defensive about that answer.
I think you should either provide some justification for your generalisation of atheists as angry, or apologise. Incidentally, have you read the Bible? Because there's some great stuff in there about not judging people. Seriously, if you're going to lecture people like this you should at least practice what you preach.

Answer 4

I'll not be angry but I will certainly be defensive. I do not deserve to be lumped into your over generalizations. I'm not angry nor do I much care what anybody feels about the way I believe. I need only to be proud of myself If you honestly do want to know why I believe as I do then read about humanism. I prefer it to atheism but you folks continue to call me an atheist anyway. After you read it, if you do, tell me, are you proud of the anger content of your christian brothers and sisters here?

Humanism is a philosophy of life inspired by humanity and guided by reason. It provides the basis for a fulfilling and ethical life without religion.

Humanists make sense of the world using reason, experience and shared human values.
Humanists see no convincing evidence for gods, the supernatural, or life after death.
Humanists believe that moral values are properly founded on human empathy and scientific understanding.
Humanists believe we must live this life on the basis that it is the only life we'll have -- that, therefore, we must make the most of it for ourselves, each other, and our world.
Humanist philosophies have arisen separately in many different cultures over many thousands of years. Whether or not they use the term humanism, tens of millions of Americans and hundreds of millions of people around the world agree with the humanist philosophy of living a happy and productive life based on reason and compassion.

Answer 5

We aren't angry. We do mock at times, but think about how you would react if you came across an adult that honestly believed in Santa because that is exactly what we are up against. When you come up against an absurd position there is no way to reason with it. And if you think that mocking doesn't make people think, you are wrong.

We believe there is no god because in thousands of years that humans have looked for evidence of a god, they haven't found any at all. But at the same time they have managed to invent hundreds of thousands of them. They all have exactly the same evidence: none. I would be no more surprised if someone produced evidence that Zeus or Anubis were real than I would be if they did it for your's

Answer 6

Not all atheists are hostile, and not all those who are hostile are atheist. At times some atheists get frustrated at questions asked time and time again, when they've been refuted countless times over (and about which I'm getting convinced that some christians are spreading them, knowing them to be untrue)

Pascal's wager
Evolution being ONLY a theory
Darwin converting to christianity on his deathbed
The recent find totally debunking evolution (yes, the theory has had to be adjusted, no it hasn't been proven totally false)
Atheists deny God so they can justify sinning to themselves
Atheists have an alternative God, such as money

Add to that the countless ad hominem attacks by (mainly) christians in public and by email, sometimes you get a sarcastic response from a frustrated atheist.
----------------------
Why am I an atheist?

I am an atheist for one main reason - the total lack of evidence supporting the existence of God.

Answer 7

because some people simply can't believe bed time stories anymore. things like heaven and hell, turning water into wine and making food out of nothing simply dosent make sense. It is not our fault that they added a lot of things we can't accept as being true. we all know that the bible and other religious books have suffered modifications in time, some parts have been removed (there is nothing in the bible about jesus since 6 years old, untill 30) so how else could we believe?

Answer 8

I answer sincere, thoughtful and unpatronizing questions with as much care and clarity as I can muster. I reserve the right to express myself with weapons-grade sarcasm or criticism if someone can't respect my position or freedom to believe what I want to believe.

Your question is, in the first place, patronizing; and in the second it implies that the sorts of questions that provoke atheists into the kind of "angry" responses you refer to are, as far as you're concerned, acceptable. People above me have listed numerous examples.

But they are not acceptable. People who want respect, give respect. If you think from that that it follows that I don't care whether I have your respect or not, Bingo. And my credibility is in good standing with those whose opinions I respect.

Answer 9

in case you do in comparison to or have faith your substantial different adequate to be user-friendly approximately your previous, your targets for the destiny or what you assume out of your present day life, then the dating is a lie. have you ever considered a t.v. practice the place the guy has lost a job, and gets up , gets dressed and looks to bypass to paintings. what's that?? i might wish my different a million/2 might permit me understand that he lost a job so as that i might desire to be there for ethical help. mendacity approximately substantial issues that would desire to alter your life is an insult to the different individual in touch. i'm not one to assert I even have not instructed the occasional white lie, like how lots I lost at Bingo or how lots I paid for that handbag I purely had to have, yet while it fairly did not harm the different emotionally or financially, the occasional little bending of the fact can actually be forgiven in my e book. and girls, do not tell me you have not performed that lol. i understand my hubby fibs while he tells me how huge the fish grew to become into that he caught, humorous those huge ones under no circumstances make it abode!

Answer 10

It's largely because of the bad behavior of Christians as they lie about atheism so much here.

Er, kid, we just explained this to you in our responses to your last question. Now it's your turn to be honest: you've noticed that many and probably most of the Christians here attack atheists, routinely lying about us. When you say "I simply do not understand your hostility", you're being dishonest. You know as well as I do that when people are attacked, they respond.

It seems to me that you want to pretend that the problem here is irrationally angry and defensive atheists. That's simply false, and you know it. There is nothing remotely irrational about responding as we do to the Christians' childish, rude, and ignorant attacks on us. The fact that you have to lie so much to defend your beliefs should tell you something about the quality of those beliefs.

Confess. It's the honest thing to do.
Or abandon your own credibility.
---------------------
As for why I believe as I do, well, as should be utterly obvious, I don't believe in gods for exactly the same reason you don't believe there's a polka-dotted chimpanzee dancing on your head: there's zero evidence for it.