Why do atheists and religious people have to hate each other so much when both their ideas are hard to prove?

Question

I have met atheists who have sworn that they'd die before they'd allow God in their schools yet they have a christmas tree in their house right now. I've also met religious people who preached the gospel but cheated on their spouse, swore constantly, and didn't read the Bible. Yet they both hate each other and act like each other. Atheists believe that a whole entire universe sprang up from some gasses (where'd they come from?) that exploded, made planets and such and also made a never-ending universe. Christians believe in a God who always was and always will be (but where'd he come from?. Isn't it possible that parts of evolution and christianity could fit together?

I keep hearing evolution isn't hard to prove but religious ideas are. I'd like someone to explain where those gasses for the big bang came from and where the edge of the universe is, and what's outside of it. Truly evolution and creation cannot be considered a fact until they are created in a lab. We have yet to create a living organism without using another organism to reproduce it and we can't summon God and have him appear so that we can run some tests on him see if he puts off radiation or something. Both ideas seem unprovable to me without a beginning. Atheists always attack the book of Genesis when it talks about the beginning of the earth. Why can't people attack evolution's holes on the beginning events of their idea?

Ok, why do SOME atheists and SOME religious people.....

Good answer illunatic

I've learned a lot from the answers below. I've come to the conclusion that atheists and religious people can both be equally ignorant about their beliefs. Both sides ARE based on faith because no physical science can prove them (no one has made evolution's beginnings a fact yet). Maybe we should stop being so divided and figure out together why we are here and how we got here.

Answer 1

It is shameful the Christians in your life are providing you a poor example. We are people too, incapable of not sinning, which is why we need Jesus' blood to save us from our sins.

Christmas trees have many reasons for existing. It depends on the person putting it up. Some, like your friend, for the purely traditional Santa Claus, good tidings, Christmas. NO religion whatsoever. Some, like most Christians, to celebrate Jesus' birth, even though we don't know the exact day. Some put up a tree for pagan worship. Some people probably don't even know why they put one up, they just do because their parents did, everyone does, and it just seems like the thing to do.

Your last sentence, NO. Evolution and Christianity cannot fit together. One says we mysteriously evolved from a mud puddle and the other says God created us. Can't have it both ways.

Edit: I missed one of your points. Sorry. You are Correct with your observation about Atheists and Christians.

Christians cannot explain how God could have always existed, where He came from in the first place, how he can be omnipresent and omnipotent. We can't prove the validity of Scripture nor the existence of God. That stuff all requires Faith!!!

Atheists cannot explain what happened before the Big Bang, where the mass came for the Big Bang, where/how the single celled life form came from and wound up in the primordial mud puddle and why it decided to start evolving. They cannot Prove evolution, but the have very good theories. They too, require Faith to believe in those things, though they will deny this fact and also vote me thumbs down. That's okay.

Answer 2

1. This is an invalid question because the answer is already presupposed you meed to do a poll about how many christians hate atheists and vice- versa
2. I have been atheist all my life and love a great many christians(of all the various denominations) buddhists hindu's. I dont hate anyone.
3. I don't think I have ever been hated by a christian for being atheist - patronised but not hated

4.Christmas trees are a symbol that anyone is free to make of what they like and trees are pagan symbols too.

5.Not all Atheists believe what you say about science
you are being much too reductionist. It 's much more complicated a matter than this.

6.No I don't think that there can be a marriage of atheism and christianity they are fundamentally opposite. I either believe in a God or I don't.

I think that it if you think all real realtionships between christians and atheists are liek the strange postings on this site you have incomplete information. In my life I rarely share my beliefs and I take people how I find them.

I am a nice person and I neither hate nor am hated.

Answer 3

I understand where you are coming from. I am an atheist and I have no problem with the religious beliefs of others. What I do have a problem with, is when government policy is driven by religious beliefs, or when religious dogma tries to stop scientific research based on the rather erroneous assumption that only religious people are capable of making moral or ethical decisions. I think you find that many atheists have been sitting quietly whilst the more extreme expressions of various religious groups have taken hold. This is the point where they feel it is necessary to speak out. The best example is the intelligent design debacle in the states where religious dogma is disguised as science and tries to be incorporated into the science class room. It has tried, rather successfully to create a controversy where non exists. There is a genuine fear that if they win there, then a science degree in the US will not be able to be recognized outside the States due to the content studied.

Answer 4

Not all do. As an atheist the only thing I want to see is secular institutions remain secular - govt, politics, public schools. Any person can pray by themselves inside a school but group led prayer to one specific deity is wrong when not everyone believes the same - it then becomes discriminatory to those who are not of the majority. Schools in America have a hard enough time teaching the basics and you can see the result - especially in the areas of mathematics & sicence - when you look at the rest of the world.

I'm an atheist married to a christian; I'm the only atheist in my family and the majority of my friends are christian although I do have a very close friend who is a LeVeyan Satanist, a few that are pagan and a few that are muslim. I have no problem getting along with them what-so-ever because I respect them and they respect me. That means we each get our take on religion and the other doesn't try to change minds. That doesn't mean we don't discuss the topic occasionally, it just means we are adult enough to do it in a fashion that doesn't take dignity away from the other.

Answer 5

As with any group of people, there are some really great ones, some really bad ones, and then there's the rest. It seems like the average for many groups is fairly childish when compared to their potential. Why would anyone try so hard to get someone else to agree with them instead of just being accountable for themselves?

Personally, I don't believe in proof. That's not to say you can't show evidence that logically leads to a certain conclusion. What I mean is, as far reality goes, it is what it is and as humans we can either accept it at that or we can try to shape it to our own definitions, despite the fact that everything is more than the definition we assign to it.

There is no proof, just acceptance. Although people who believe in evolution may not rule out the possibility of God's existence, they may NOT accept Christianity because it does not accept science and can be disproved when held up to scientific scrutiny. And Christians may not accept science because it leaves no room for their religion to remain infallible. This may seem wacky and irritate many logical mined individuals who have accepted what seems obvious.

So the conflict stems from neither one being able to accept the other's point of view as a possibility and each one believing that they have a good reason for not doing so.

I personally think that anything that limits you to a narrower scope of thinking, while it may be productive in the short term, is ultimately counter-productive when this narrow scope is held indefinitely. It's like viewing the world through your front window and saying that's the whole world and anything beyond that view doesn't exist because you've never seen it and you're not going outside to look.

Answer 6

I'm not sure we all hate each other. I'm an atheist, and I certainly don't.

I do take exception to part of your question. Saying both sides' ideas are hard to prove is misleading. Atheists are not making any extraordinary, supernatural claims. Religious folks are, so the burden of proof must be on them. Also, proving a negative is usually impossible.

If I come to your house and say that aliens are here and they're taking over, nobody would demand that you prove there are no aliens, right? It's up to the person claiming that things are not as they seem - that there is a hidden element that is invisible until explained, that has to do the proving.

Answer 7

to each his own. everyone has the right to believe what they want to believe, including you (whatever that may be). I am a christian but i know an atheist and i am very friendly with her. I don't hate her b/c she doesnt believe in god. i disagree with her but that doesnt mean we can't talk. we have conversations all the time about religion and morals and we have a lot of the same views!!!!

no ones perfect, everybody makes mistakes, and everybody is out there looking for the truth. so no one should hate anyone b/c of there beliefs

Answer 8

Aren't you pushing your religious views in this very question, ever so subtly? Yes, it's possible, but that doesn't mean I'm taking up your religion, thanks. A Christmas tree is a tree for kids. I don't see what part of that you don't understand. Finally, nothing about atheism is hard to prove. End of story.

Oh, yes, peace and love and the like.

Edit: You forget the simple fact that atheists have nothing to prove to you. It is he who claims the supernatural that has something to prove. Claiming that the burden of proof somehow lies with he who doesn't believe in magical beings in another realm is a logical fallacy.

Answer 9

I don't hate anyone. We are all entitled to our own believes. I know that I can't prove to you there is a God and you can't prove to me theres not. I am a Christian and proud of it. I have never, nor will I ever claim to be perfect. I am however forgiven and that's the difference between me and an atheist.

Answer 10

Err...I don't hate religious people, I hate the ones that try to convert me. Evolution, abiogenesis and the Big Bang are a lot easier to prove than some invisible sky fairy.