Fellow atheists how can we stop religious people spreading their stupid ideas?

Question

actually scientific progress is hindered by religion.

If someone had a nuclear weapon would you tell them they are entiteld to their ideas about ethics.
I bet the answer is no you fools.

i don't want to eradicate anyone (n response to answer) you @+++ing idiot i just don't want you to preach your stupid ideas to the next generation.

Answer 1

raise smart kids who question the norm, and are confident enough to decide what they do or do not believe.

Answer 2

A response to you and several of the other responses. What do you mean educate us? Have you ever bothered listening to true Western or Eastern religion's teachings? Or are you the ineducated one who get all your bias from fanatical "religious" people? To the response that says that smart people would learn to question the norm. I am smart and I have questioned Christianity countless times throughout the past ten years. I initially started off as a brainless/non-thinking Christian. I have come to realize that that isn't truly being religious. Later, I also became irritated by fanatical "religious" people and I decided religion was stupid. However through careful reasoning, I concluded that fanatical religious people aren't really religious either. In the end through the use of logical reasoning, I decided that any religion is better than no religion. If you are criticizing organized religion, that is one thing. But you should not be criticizing religion in general for the following reasons: people need guidance and people need hope. Religion serves as a guideline for many people much like the Golden Rule. Are you going to say the Golden Rule is stupid? Some people just need the authority of some higher being to enforce the Golden Rule. Furthermore, I never saw the point in living if there is no afterlife. If there really is no afterlife, two options are just ending life then and there or living life to the fullest through cheating and hurting others. As you can tell, a world like that would fail in half a day or so. (If you want to point at the violence caused by the crusades or jihads, I will once again say that I do not believe that is religious; that is a case of a ruler using religion as the means to convince its people to go to war; the crusades and jihads would have happened anyways without religion, because the leaders would just have manufactured some other excuse and these demagogues can indeed easily come up with some other excuse to go to war.) So religion gives people hope - a reason to live life out knowing that there is something else after life to wait/strive for. I am not criticizing you for being an atheist - if that floats your boat, so be it. But please let us religious people be. Don't criticize us for spreading religion, because that is equivalent of criticizing someone for spreading hope and comfort. I would suggest you look at some religion, but no one can force you, just like you shouldn't force religious people to keep silent (or call us stupid).

Answer 3

Lucky you. I was always anxious and suggestible and yes, I believed. Thought I had relationship with God and felt the holy spirit - the whole works. Always had a questioning brain tho and one day at 14 something went click in my brain during church and I thought - how do we know this? What evidence is there? This sounds crazy. This was the beginning of the end. Got stuck for a decade being an intellectual atheist but retaining psychological theistic fears and beliefs. Finally overcame it by much reading and pulling out all my superstitious fears and applying logic to them. I fully believed. No, I did not talk to walls and hallucinate. I just read too much into stuff and drew nutty conclusions and worried. Yes, I do still overinfer and worry but I am aware of it and as soon as this happens, I brutally give myself a good talking to and do not allow myself to go there. This results in my being the same sort of atheist as those self-righteous ex smokers. I have an attitude of 'I overcame this rubbish with sheer hard work and refusing to allow myself to give in to it - now you do it!' The average theist, no. People have to have intellectual honesty and integrity and really care about the truth. We get those here. Every time I see someone say they are a Christian but they can't stop thinking it all seems illogical, I know someone is going through what I went through. They are usually the same age too. Then I tell them the problems I had getting past superstition and the books which helped but its very hard for people to learn from others' experiences. The cause of my delusion was being told there was a god at school and thinking teachers must be right and then reading the bible and becoming too afraid to doubt.

Answer 4

... And yet you don't mind preaching your own ideals to the next generation?

And I thought I was supposed to be the close-minded one.

What it boils down to is that you are a minority since the vast majority of the world population believes in something. Technically speaking, you also believe in a deity personified by the absence of a deity; ergo, you have fooled yourself into believing something that you don't actually believe, either this stemmed from bitterness due to poor experiences in your past with religious people, or it is your generally abrasive personality. Either way, you fail to realize that:

#1. Religion and faith are not the same thing.
#2. Not everyone who claims to follow a faith is actually following that faith.
#3. Faith in a common belief system has done more good for humankind than any other thing ever invented.
#4. Science as we know it would never have been possible without faith in a higher power (name one discovery by a country which never held a belief in a higher power).
#5. Not everything done in the name of a religion was actually done in the name of a religion.

Answer 5

i am an atheist myself but although i don't agree with religious opinions i feel i must defend their right to have them .
lets face it if we can't stop terrorists or criminals from thinking the way they do when they can see the tangible results of the damage they do then we are never going to change the minds of people who believe in something they can't see touch or hear but that has been indoctrinated into their minds from the cradle.

our only hope is to stick up for each other and make clear that it is okay to be atheist in fact it's' MORE' okay to be atheist - it doesn't make you a serial killer or a person with no principles or morals. there are a lot more of us than you think.

' thank Christ for that' i hear you cry ( sorry can't resist a sarcasm moment.)

Answer 6

I agree man. We need to take religion out of politics because it really doesn't belong. People end up voting for a candidate just because he is a certain religion. It's so stupid. I think that's how George Walker Texas Ranger got elected TWICE.

Answer 7

You can't an nor do you want to. Lots have people have been tortured and killed for no reason but to support such appalling ideas like yours. Everyone should be allowed to think and say what they like what should be controlled is the effect they have on the lives of other people just as your idea has to be controlled for the good or us all

Answer 8

My my! Seems we have an atheist standing on his soapbox rallying the troops to put an end to freedom of religion and expression. Tell me, my friend; how would you react if your expression of non-belief were stopped? I suggest you put away your copy of "Mein Kampf" and let those that believe in deity be on their way. If you don't like what they say then either cease to listen or give an opposing view and if you can't then shut up and be on your way but don't even think of threatening to put an end to their freedom of speech.

Answer 9

Wow you sure are very insecure in your (non)beliefs that so you're threatened by our "stupid" ideas. Well we religious people don't have a problem letting your spread your uninformed, non-believing ideas without trying to censor you. Because we know God will overcome everyone.

(BTW, Hitler tried to silence people too!)

Answer 10

We just stop listening. They can do whatever they want that is with in the law. They do practice whatever religion they like. As an atheist you need to just ignore them but also respect their decision. I am far from an atheist but I also do not have a religion.

Answer 11

i don't want to stop people from spreading ideas. ideas are good. what i want is for people to be tolerant of all ideas and in the market place of ideas and concepts, supply and demand will rule. ideas that have substance will take hold. ideas that don't will fall by the way side. the problem is, when outdated obsolete ideas (like religion, god, faith, christ, judiasm, islam, christianity etc etc) get propped up by subsidies, federal subsidies, tax-payer funded faith-based initiatives.........subsidizing obsolete ideas like religion is the only way these ideas can survive.