I have questions for atheists??? And some for christains.?

Question

Please, PLEASE, PLEASE dont go off on me and tell me to grow up, because if you only clicked on this to back me for believing in God then you need to spend your time a little better.

Here are ALL of my questions.
Why is it so wrong to have faith in something?
Why am I such a awesul person because I believe something will actually happen to me when I die?
Why do MOST atheists judge me by their other experiences??
Why have you chosen to believe nothing?
Did you just choose it? Or did something happen to you?

And for christains...I believe in god but I need to know:
Why do most people try and shove religion down peoples throats?
Why do you call atheists stupid? Its not going to make them like us even more!
Why do I feel like the two groups are at war with eachother?
Why cant you just acdept that other people dont believe what you believe?

And advice for BOTH...
Christains and Atheists...Dont try and convice one another that they are wrong, its a waste of time.

Answer 1

This place needs more people like you :D

I honestly can't speak for all Atheists, so if I happen to slip into the whole 'we as Atheists' speil, what I really mean is, 'most of the atheists I've met or know about.'

Why is it so wrong to have faith in something?
Faith is fine, as long as you retain the ability to reason and even doubt. There's nothing 'wrong' with faith in God, the overwhelming majority of the world believes in some sort of deity, and, for the most part, these are good, decent people. Atheism says that faith in something illogical is wrong in the sense that it just doesn't make sense to us. We're not about to force you to change your mind (or at least we shouldn't). In fact, we as Atheists readily admit to making assumptions that some would say are leaps of faith, althoug this this faith is born of reason, reason based on the same basic science that keeps this modern world ticking. All an Atheist can ask you to do is to reason outside of a blind belief and weigh the evidence for both arguements. If theists can do that and still retain their belief in God/s then that's a'ok with me.

Blind faith on the other hand can be a dangerous thing. Think about it. A hardline Christian truly believes in the words of the Bible. These people use the words of an ancient text as a moral guideline... does that sound like a good idea to you. Christians across the board have groundlessly branded Homosexuality as an abbomination, televangilists have millions conned into believing that the donation of money is the only true way to salvation, millions upon millions of children are abused from a young age with threats of an agonising eternity in hell. All because of blind faith. What about Islamic fundamentalists, they have faith too. Faith that says that dying a martyrs death is a glorious thing. The terrorists that belw up the Twin Towers, heroes, probably living it up in paradise right now. And you know, if you read the Koran with knowledge of the Old Testament, it seems tame in comparison.
Throughout history faith has been used as a weapon with which to command the ignorant. It doesn't even have to be religious faith. Think about Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Sadam and all the truly wicked deeds performed in their names by those with a blind faith.

Why am I such an awful person becuase I believe something will actually happen to you when you die?

It's not the afterlife Atheists have a major problem with. I don't think anyone would call you an awful person for believing in an afterlife (and if people have/do, well, they're just jerks). Like I said before, it's dangerous blind faith that we campaign against, for instance, the teaching of creationism in American schools, a topic that's a real bone of contention with U.S. Atheists at the moment.

Why do MOST atheists judge me by their other experiences??
I hope you mean most of the Atheists you've met... otherwise you're being just a tad hypocritical.
Truthful answer, some Atheists see religious faith as a legacy system, an outdated and outmoded system of belief that humanity used and abused in the absence of scientific knowledge, and the quest for proof of origin.
Anyway, YA! is a faceless, largely anonymous web forum, not exactly an accurate model for humanity as a whole. If you've been ridiculed for your beliefs before (and I can relate entirely here), buck up, chances are it'll continue to happen :(

Why have you chosen to believe in nothing?
I don't belive in a God, but that's not to say that I believe in nothing. I believe we live in an amazingly beautiful, wonderfully improbable (depending on how you look at it) little bubble of life, and am happy for every single day I get to live in it (even though it might not seem that way sometimes).
Life to me is a marvellous symphony of scientific processes, from the behaviourisms of humans to the movement of electrons in an Atomic orbital. It fills me with awe and wonder, an insatiable thirst for knowledge and understanding which must be quenched. The answer God did it, just isn't good enough.

Did you just choose Atheism or did something happen to you?
A little backstory is in order here. I live in Ireland, a country where 98-99% of the people are Roman Catholic, the majority of which are somewhat ignorant of their own faith.Most of the people I know (and indeed most of the population) attended a Catholic school, almost all have been Baptised and Confirmed (including myself), most can still recite all the old prayers and Hymns (I still know Catholic mass off by heart).
Despite being known as the isle of Saints and schollars,
church attendance in modern Ireland is way down, and of those that still go, quite a few do it out of obligation rather than out of a real deep faith. A lot of young people have chosen to distance themselves from the church, I can't speculate as to what their reasons may be (perhaps something to do with our church's fire and brimstone reign of terror which lasted up until recently), but my own was simply reasoning. I just came to the conclusion, after about 8 years of (Catholic) school, that Catholosism, and indeed, religion in general doesn't make a lick of sense. I think I was about 11-12 when the last of my belifes eroded away (although I maintain an interest in religion and a rather deep interest in spirituality), it was a gradual process, not a sudden realisation. My father and sister are still quite religious, and I sometimes take my sister to church, but outside of this, and functions such as weddings and funerals, I generally don't go near the place.
Thankfully, my country is wonderfully tollerant of Atheism (and why shouldn't they be), in fact, I'm often amazed at the sort of prejudice that Atheists report encountering in parts of America.

Answer 2

Why do most people try and shove religion down peoples throats?--I don't know if I would say most but I would say that the people that do it think that is the most effective way to save people- which I know to not be true which is why I don't shove it down others throats.

Why do you call atheists stupid? Its not going to make them like us even more! I don't call atheists stupid- I have called some atheists ignorant- which would be when they base God being evil on one verse from the Bible...that to me is ignorant- if people are so bent on proving God is evil, at least base it on more then others opinions and one Bible verse.

Why do I feel like the two groups are at war with eachother?
If you spend too much time in the religion section you will think that because that is what a lot of it is, if you are basing it on your life experience I am not sure I honestly have never had any problem with getting along with anyone with different religious views as me- atheisths, jewish, muslim et cetera.

Why cant you just accept that other people dont believe what you believe? I have a hard time with this because I grew up an atheist and friends of my mom happened to be youth leaders at a church and tried getting me involved numerous times and I wasn't into it and they knew it, but they kept trying and eventually I did start going and I saw more truth in that then in atheism. For me to just say ya know what thats okay that you don't want to believe in God doesn't work for me. I am not pushy about religion and I don't tell people turn or burn or anything like that but I know that God exists and I know what the Bible says and for me to not be concerned for others wouldn't work out for me at all. Its hard to explain I guess- I would never not hang out with someone or be mean to someone because they have different beliefs but I will still offer to pray for them and show them the love of Christ- that is a big part of why I am here.

Answer 3

There is absolutely nothing wrong in "having faith in something". I am a christian and I know what you mean by your question, "why do most people try to shove religion down peoples throats." I have an opinion on that. I think that people "try to shove" their religion down people's throat's, as you say, because they are truly worried about that person's soul, but they never learned how to share the message without making it combative or confrontational. I have learned how to share the message of Jesus myself in these last few months at church in my Sunday morning class. I think we all need to learn to communicate out of love instead of fear, anger, hate, etc. and then more people would receive the message as God intended.
I personally don't hate Atheist or think they are stupid. I pray for God's message to reach them and hate Satan and the Sin he causes in this world. I hope this helped.

Answer 4

I understand where you're coming from. So many Christians forget the basic principle of Jesus, which was to love everyone. He knew that everyone was different and he loved everyone, no matter what they chose to believe.

I wish that we could all get along and not be imprisoned by our intolerance and prejudice.

As for me, I am an atheist believe it or not. But I do acknowledge a higher power. To me, this being is a mystery, not some giant man who dwells in the heavens.