who are worse? atheists or christians?

Question

christians try to enforce their beliefs.
but atheists try to take away your beliefs.

and did I mention they both claim to "know" whether god does or doesnt exist? they claim to "know" but they cant prove it.

so yeah who would you say is worse and why?

Answer 1

I can see your point.

Both seem to feel that the world would be better if everyone believed as they do. Which I think is abit naive since both can have benefits to some people but be too hard for other people to swallow thereby having no benefit at all.

Both can be strongly preached on the basis of faith which amounts to little more than "because I was told so" or "I was raised that way". Im not against faith but it can create some very loud people who will never be able to create faith in someone else.

In both cases, the benefits (not the beliefs, but the benefits) have alot of really good scientific support. But when you get right down to examining an individuals life, very few actually practice it to the fullest on both sides of that coin.

Answer 2

This is (obviously) a difficult question to answer.

*Theoretically* Christianity is great. The basic premise is "be nice to everyone else." Unfortunately, it's the practice that gets more complex. For example, it is a evangelical religion: which is to say, its adherents are encouraged to convert others. This is for the best of reasons (the others are going to hell otherwise), but can lead to "kill them all, God will know his own"-type situations, where those that refuse to convert (or who hold "heretical" beliefs) are slaughtered for the good of others. Not nice.
A similar line of reasoning is what means that some fundamentalist Christians wish to not have evolution taught to their children. From their point of view, because it is incompatible with a literal interpretation of the bible, evolution is a dangerous and seductive lie.

Atheists, OTOH, are not generally prozelytising. They *do* try and convince people that atheism is correct, but that is not from a belief that they are "saving your soul", so much as a belief that you are being *irrational*. Therefore, they are less likely to want to kill you for the good of others. Of course, if you are the sort of person who won't let your child get a blood transfusion, because "God forbids it", they might feel like killing you...

And yes. Neither can prove their point. From a Christian's point of view, it is because their belief is a matter of Faith! No matter how much evidence is piled up to show that (for example) the earth is around 4.6 billion years old, a person of faith will still not believe it. Faith is distinct from rationality. I'm not saying that religious people are irrational, you understand; just that Faith itself (a Christian Virtue) is unconnected with rationality.
And of course atheists cannot prove the non-existance of God. If God exists, he does so outside the relm of nature. He is Supernatural! Therefore, science-based arguments cannot prove his non-existance.
The atheistic counter-argument to this would be to say that it is not for them to prove God's non-existance, it is up to the faithful to prove His existance. As Bertrand Russel put it:

"If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is an intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time."

Another argument in the atheists vs Christians is that the Christians claim that, without God as the foundation of Morals, there would be no way that people would *ever* be nice to each other.
Of course, atheist humanists give the lie to that statement.

All-in-all, I'd say that the "worse" label, so far has to go to the Christians.

Answer 3

Well,

When a Christian says "You're going to hell" they actually wish you would be saved so you wouldn't HAVE to go to hell.

When a Atheist tells you to "Go to hell" they actually wish there was a hell for you to go to.

You are spot on that both are believers. I mean it, both groups KNOW the TRUTH.

Although they can get overzealous, I like Christians better. They are just happier over all. Something about believing 'God has your back' puts people in a better mood than "You are a fluke of the universe"

Christians do get uptight about Evolution, but ya know, I haven't met too many Atheists who actually understand it.

When was the last time you heard an Atheist say: "Christianity persists because it conveys a survival advantage on those who believe"

That's Darwin's theory right?

And then there's that silly @ss assertion that religion is the cause of war, when any Darwinist knows it's natural for animals to form groups to go take what they want.

Christians believe the Devil is required to make man misbehave.
Whereas Atheists believe misbehavior requires religion.

Hey, I've got Christian & Athiest friends, and I love 'em all.

The both BELIEVE the other group is worse. And I DON'T BELIEVE I know whos right. ;-)

Answer 4

When I first saw your question I was like "He is such a trouble maker!" but I see where this is a legit question...

There are less Atheists in the world than Christians (obviously) so Atheists are more efficient at "taking" my beliefs than Christians enforcing them...

As far as proving God...you're ABSOLUTELY RIGHT! *cheers* lol...the thing is, the only place you can prove something is in mathematics...even in science there is no absolute truth, just approximate truth...so...the only thing, physical or supernatural, that can be proven is "Johnny has 1 apple in each hand. Johnny has 2 hands, how many apples does Johnny have?" "2 apples" is the answer and that can be proven...(get what I mean)

Anyway...I would say Christians are worse because they can't prove God....but atheists are just worse for saying they can prove evolution when they can't...

So in their own special ways, they're both worse...

Answer 5

the two could be the two as undesirable.. I even have seen some self righteous solutions from the Christians.. and an identical from Athiests... curiously adequate I even have seen some Athiests supply some considerate perception on some issues.. and an identical from the Christians... i'm additionally thinking what share Christians somewhat and actually have faith they're getting everywhere by using arguing with an Athiest... I even have not at all seen anybody argued into the dominion of God... and easily pounding somone over the pinnacle with an 80 lb scofield bible can no longer do any reliable the two.. i think of a few of them have disregarded the scripture approximately casting pearls.. or basically desperate it now no longer applies...{Le sigh}

Answer 6

No one group is wholly worse than the other. It's all about the individuals. I've met some perfectly tolerant Christians and some evangelical Atheists. I myself am an atheist, but I don't assume all Christians are fundamentalists. I would hope that most Christians would not assume I'm a hateful person for not believing.

Answer 7

Good Question. No one can be 100% sure on anything. The difference is when Christians say they know God exists, they say this without any evidence (and lets be honest, there is no evidence for the existance of the biblical God). On the atheist perspective how do you prove that something doesn't exist if it really doesn't exist-Lack of evidence. It the same argument you can use to "prove" unicorns don't exist-There is no evidence. So I would say the atheist have the better argument here.

Answer 8

It depends on the individual. You cannot just label one group worse than the other. I've seen horrible answers from both sides here. Both sides, in fact, can prove their case. However, the evidence can usually be interpreted in more than one way. The best way to approach this topic is with reason and logic. Keep emotion out of it. Facts are what count. I've never seen anyone win a debate without facts and/or logic.

Answer 9

Who said that God's existence can't be proven empirically?

Of course, the best proof, as they say, is in the pudding.

The fact that so many millions of people have been radically changed for the better by trusting in Jesus should speak volumes.

At the same time, I have not yet been able to locate even a single person whose life has been improved (from such things as drug abuse, child abuse, adultery, even murder, and so many other debilitating habits) - not a single person can say in all honesty that atheism helped them to be free from any of these things.

Don't misunderstand - I'm not saying that people can't get help through counseling or in-house programs, but none of them claim atheism as the source and strength of their success.

Furthermore, if you accept the "secular" (ie non-christian) help as being valid, you are obligated to accept the Biblical help as also being valid.

Go to any Teen Challenge center, for instance, and look at all the testimonials of so many who have been radically changed for the better because of the application of Biblical principals in their lives.

I, myself, was rescued from a lifestyle of drug abuse, alcohol, cigarettes, et cetera by the power of God's intervention in my life.

So, like that old addage goes, "the proof is in the pudding", or "the proof of the pudding is in the eating."

Answer 10

Funny how people say that God exist. There is no proof. And people say there is no proof that he doesn't exist. Why do we need proof of something man made? Watch. Theres such things as a flying bear ok?, theres no proof that it doesn't exist so therefore it exists. If God does exist hes pure evil, letting the horrors of the world happen. I'm not talking about petty things like death, I'm talking about true horrors, natural disasters, serial killers etc etc.