Why are Christians so hostile to Atheists?

I did it because christians like all those who are following dogmas are potentially dangerous

Don't feel bad since you don't have to know Balkan history but the catholic church was behind the murder of over 500.000 Serbs by Croats during WW2 .

 

I am probably an agnostic born and brought up a Catholic. Its the use of God as a means of controlling their 'flocks' and being an Engineer steeped in production technology that taught me probability distributions then being a practical manager of business where calling on God would not achieve a management result. But calling on the goodness and basic instincts of good people and their scientific knowledge or common sense did/does. Rejecting the evil or badness, from my perspective, also achieves better results, as most people in general are more good than bad / evil.

 

As was I....we call it "Episcopalianism".

But I find it to be true even outside the fundamentalsit/evangelical crowd. Difficult questions for people unaccustomed to Christian apologetics, often eventually results in them becoming angry with the typical lash-out of "You atheists just want to doubt God and the Bible so you can keep living your sinful lifestyles!!!!" or some other silliness.

 

I knew a Croat exile under Tito who thought otherwise - he had been reacting to the oppression of Croatia, he said. I am not a bit religious - I just think it is better not to give mistaken explanations for worked-up hate, or it will go on forever.

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Your society is more 'religious' than ours. We have nutters too, but not many people take notice.

 

Christians hate Atheists for the same reason they hate Jews.

Our very existence puts into question the validity of their faith.

 

Sensible people detest Republican politics for the same reason. I think Americans do tend to generalise from very small samples. I have never met any Christians who did either - but the American definition of 'Christian' does seem almost incredibly loose.

 

Thread title is misleading. Christians are NOT generally hostile to atheists, in my experience and opinion. Christians who create threads on this forum constitute a tiny minority of Christians in general, though.

 

Believing in what are clearly fairy tales (talking dead guy, talking snakes, etc.) because they are afraid of death. Insecurity at it's most explicit.

 

That's the type who gets to me most of all, and may be the main type I'm objecting to here. I don't tell religious people "You're all a bunch of wishful thinkers, desperately trying to deny your own mortality," though it's actually more logical

Socrates believed that "The unexamined life is not worth living" but I always thought Socrates was something of an opinionated old fart. My life is its own purpose and I'm here to enjoy myself.

The bolded part are part of what I'm objecting to. There's absolutely no evidence for them and they're just bloody silly besides. The last para might be true, I dunno, but I got to say they (Christians) started it.

Wonderfully Christian attitude

That may be a main reason for it. Atheists are saying they don't believe in what many theists seem to think is the basis of the country. It's sort of like how heretics were seen in the Middle Ages as attacking the Church's authority, which many people equated with Civilization itself. The problem is that's a very dangerous misconception for so many people to have in the United States. Our national sovereignity is democratically derived, not divinely granted.

It started, I believe, with the Byzantines vs the Eastern Romans, and this is why there is an Orthodox vs Roman Catholic split. The muslims moved into the area later with the Turks. The splits are it is true, not really religious, nor even nationalistic. They've been termed ethnic but even that is more for want of a better term than anything else.. The area is the very epitome of what is termed a "shatter zone" where several much larger and rather different multicultural groups come together.

 

Uhhh! Are you sure you're not projecting you're own bullying, because it's not the Christians who are throwing insults and denigrating others as being indoctrinated, unintelligent, believing in zombies, fairy tales, etc.

 

Who here has claimed that Christians are unintelligent? I will stand by the others you listed, though

 

The animosity between people of different faiths comes about because of the differences in personalities formed by those faiths. ..or so I believe. The different methods they use in their approach to God, makes them all different from one another, and therefore distrustful. Historical grievances have a lot to do with it as well.

How different in the U.S. where we all understood one another, and got along just fine, although that might not continue. With Christianity on the decline, hatreds and animosity seems to be rising.

 

True. Most sensible christians don't hardly start threads. There may have been 1 in the last couple weeks.
The flamebaiter chrisitans seem to be lacking in the education dept. Outside their respective religion.

 

http://www.politicalforum.com/showthread.php?t=329493
http://www.politicalforum.com/showthread.php?t=330683
http://www.politicalforum.com/showthread.php?t=328747 And this is not a bad thread, but there is a couple of posters who throw insults and 1 who consistently outright lies and distorts what others post.

And then there was a similarity between islam and christian thread. Talk about christians throwing crap around.
So, there are those things being done on both sides.

 

You haven't read threads like, say, this one (http://www.politicalforum.com/showthread.php?t=329857) where the OP comes right out of the blue and calls us "wretched creatures"?

 

Both sides committed atrocities, although maybe not on the scale of the Croats. Since the Croats were raised as Catholics, the ones who were not devout leaned towards the pagan nationalism of Nazi Germany, and the Serbs who were Orthodox and not devout became atheist communists. Both were horrors.

It seems from what I gather, that a catholic bishop misinformed the Pope in Rome on what was going on at the time Croatia declared their independence from Yugoslavia. Not knowing differently the Pope believed him. Had the Pope been informed correctly, he could have been able to stop what was going on...or so I think.

 

A person cannot be a Christian unless the Holy Spirit dwells within them, which makes them incapable of hatred.

 

Did I mention being a Christian?


What to cry about being offended ? Go whine to Oprah. Maybe she'll put you on the air.

 

I've never met a person incapable of hatred. I suspect such a person simply does not exist.

 

I can't understand this. Christians are not allowed to create threads simply because they are Christians, but atheists can post threads denigrating Christians and Christianity non stop. Seems very one sided to me. Is this an atheist thing?

 

"Proverbs 6:16-19

New International Version (NIV)

16 There are six things the Lord hates,
seven that are detestable to him:
17 haughty eyes,
a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood,
18 a heart that devises wicked schemes,
feet that are quick to rush into evil,
19 a false witness who pours out lies
and a person who stirs up conflict in the community."

Study more.

 

What leads you to the bizarre misconception that anyone is saying Christians are not allowed to create threads?

Just to be clear, I would never say such a thing. And I don't think I've ever read anyone else say it.

 

I could say you never met a true Christian, but I'm sure that's not true. I will give you one example which I have come across many times, and that is the parents if the Amish children who were killed, and the way they didn't have any animosity towards the one who killed their children. As a matter of fact, whenever a person commits a hostile act towards someone a person loves, the non Christian will always say that they will not find peace until that person is caught and suffers. A Christian doesn't have these feelings of hatred and revenge, this is why God's Holy Spirit is known as the 'Comforter'. He Comforts people in their time of need.

Anyway Jesus, as well as our prophets/saints like His disciple Saint Stephen, always said Father forgive them, they know not what they do. If they didn't feel that way they wouldn't be saints.

 

God hates the acts a person commits, not the person committing them. Big difference! God sees them as being weak, and will always try to draw those people to Him.

 

I'm a little confused. I looking at the threads listed... http://www.politicalforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=46 and don't see what there is for you to complain about. It seems to me the Christian threads are the most respectful...the ones started by atheists seem disrespectful and mocking. Hostile actually.