Why are people afraid of atheism?

[Wheetsin 714]

BJean, don't forget about the more day to day. Politics are notorious for person X imposing their religion on person Y, and if that isn't the epitome of shoving in the general throat direction, then nothing is.

We get it weekly, weekends at a minimum, to our door, on my property, DESPITE a "no soliciting" sign that churches apparently believe doesn't apply to their proselytizing. (We're repainting our front door and trading out storm doors so my No Bible Thumpers plaque is down temporarily. The plaque has helped, but we have people who opt to ignore it. To me the act of opening the mouth and spewing the spiel on our doorstep is no different from the neighbor who allows her dog to open his rear and deposit dump on our lawn (despite "no doggie poo" signs... and general courtesy). Making it clear we do not want these people at our door, and having them come anyway, and even acknowledge the sign and their choice to disregard it, classifies as some pretty serious shoving in my book.

[ELENATION 0]

Hey there, not being able to come here lately due to being so busy at work and I'm never in the computer at home... but I have a few minutes now..interesting discussion!

I personally have never and will never go door to door preaching my feelings or ideas to others, just not my thing, I'm not thrilled if anybody wakes me up on on a weekend at 8:00am, just because I'm sleepy and tired, but it has nothing to do with the reason why they came to my door though... the way I see it is that some people perceive the religious message as shoving it down their throats, the ones preaching see it as sharing their faith instead, and I can see both sides... you have a sign saying no soliciting, yet they knock on your door, that feels intrusive and rude, I get it...the preacher feels like if they don't share their happiness that they have found through their faith they are preventing you from that same happiness so they feel sort of obligated to share it.... I get it too.... I'm sure that some preachers may have a hidden agenda, sure it's possible, but I don't think they all do, and I think that some just do it out of the goodness of their heart... I mean, a lot of people slam their doors in their faces, that cannot feel good... so I give them a little credit for that, and I'm not talking abouth just atheists, but if a jehova witness comes to preach a catholic, they may get the same treatment sometimes, or vice versa, I personally don't get offended if someone comes to my door and preaches or shares their faith with me... I don't care if they are catholic, evangelicals, muslims, it really doesn't bother me, maybe I'm a little too tolerant?:tongue2: well, unless they wake me up too early, then I may not be so welcoming.... and it doesn't have to be religion related, like this saturday at 7:00am they knocked on our door, it was the condo association asking for volunteers to plant flowers and clean around .... they said that they have put notes on our doors previously advising that they were all doing this saturday, blah, blah... well, I never saw any note, so I didn't appreciate their freaking enthusiasm....:smile:

The way I see it, the preachers/ faith sharing people or whatever we want to call them, have the right to preach, and the ones that don't want to be preached have the right to slam their doors and not listen...

Edited June 9, 2008 by ELENATION

[MrsFlipFlops 2]

It is being shoved down our throats by our politicians in Washington. It is being shoved down our throats by our "christian" president when he takes us into a horrible, agressive war and by his decision not to help our military when they come home even after they give up security, life and limb to fight in this unholy war he waged.

So the fact that he's a Christian means he's shoving it down your throat? I don't understand your logic here. Obama is a Christian too, if he advocates something you don't like, is that shoving it down your throat by nature of him being a Christian?

There are plenty of Christians who don't agree with the war as well, and there are plenty of democrats who are Christian. Perhaps we should get our a venn diagram.

I'm not even going to respond to the Obama intelligent, good man line except to say I literally laughed and spit Water onto the monitor when I read it. It takes more than ambition and ideals to run a country. He may have passion, but he lacks experience and pertinent knowledge. However, this isn't a political debate.

I don't understand why people think Christians can't think for themselves. All I'm asking is instead of having this be a Christian bashing thread, let it be a discussion. I'm not bashing atheists, it's not fair for anyone to turn around and bash Christianity.

[MrsFlipFlops 2]

The way I see it, the preachers/ faith sharing people or whatever we want to call them, have the right to preach, and the ones that don't want to be preached have the right to slam their doors and not listen...

I agree, slam away.

[MrsFlipFlops 2]

I think by definition, someone angry at God wouldn't be an Atheist, he would be a person who believes in God and for whatever reason is angry at him.

Maybe you mean that you know Atheists who are angered by people's belief in deities, which there certainly are some. I don't see a reason to be angered by what someone else believes. You could, though, be angered by what that belief drives them to do (such as, for example, wage war against those who don't share their beliefs, or discriminate against others based on those beliefs, etc). That does make more sense.

No, what I mean is the majority of atheists I know had some life altering event which caused them to be angry at God, the higher being, or whatever and that defining moment has caused them to not believe. I'm sure there are people who never believed, I'm just sharing in my experience. I haven't done a formal study, so I guess we don't have actual statistics.

[ELENATION 0]

Mrs. Flip Flops that was one good point that I actually wanted to mention earlier, I agree that because a politician is Christian, or belongs to any other religion and speaks about it, I don't think that counts as shoving it down our throats either... he/she just has the right to say what he wants and we can either listen to it or not... I mean, we are not going to agree with all of them all the time... I think that goes with religious issues and others as well, you hear politicians talking about different issues over and over and we don't all necessarily agree with them, but that's how they feel, that's what they want to stand for and obviously they are in the public eye and we are going to listen over and over about their views, in my case, if it's something that I totally disagree or find silly or not accurate or whatever the case may be, I just change the channel, just stop listening... sure it may irritate me, I'm human, but at the same time, I recognize their freedom of speech and whether we like it or not, that freedom of speech includes expressing their religious beliefs if they want to, even advocating for them if they want to...

[brandyII 9]

BJean, don't forget about the more day to day. Politics are notorious for person X imposing their religion on person Y, and if that isn't the epitome of shoving in the general throat direction, then nothing is.

We get it weekly, weekends at a minimum, to our door, on my property, DESPITE a "no soliciting" sign that churches apparently believe doesn't apply to their proselytizing. (We're repainting our front door and trading out storm doors so my No Bible Thumpers plaque is down temporarily. The plaque has helped, but we have people who opt to ignore it. To me the act of opening the mouth and spewing the spiel on our doorstep is no different from the neighbor who allows her dog to open his rear and deposit dump on our lawn (despite "no doggie poo" signs... and general courtesy). Making it clear we do not want these people at our door, and having them come anyway, and even acknowledge the sign and their choice to disregard it, classifies as some pretty serious shoving in my book.

I love that sign, where do you get them? brandyII.

Also, I still say if men come to your door in suits it's never a good idea to answer it!

Edited June 9, 2008 by brandyII

[brandyII 9]

No, what I mean is the majority of atheists I know had some life altering event which caused them to be angry at God, the higher being, or whatever and that defining moment has caused them to not believe. I'm sure there are people who never believed, I'm just sharing in my experience. I haven't done a formal study, so I guess we don't have actual statistics.

If you were raised by atheists isn't it possible that you never believed there was a god? So in that sense aren't turning away from "god" because you never believed in the first place.

[MrsFlipFlops 2]

Sure, Brandy, that's of course something that can and does happen. I'm talking about my experience. People who once were believers, but a bad situation changed their minds.

[brandyII 9]

Mrs. Flipflops,

I don't know that many people who are atheists and can only speak for myself.

I really couldn't teach my children about god and the whole Christian thing because I really didn't fully believe it myself. It had nothing to do with losing my faith, I guess because even though it was kind of forced on me ever since I was a child I never felt it to be something I could accept logically and whole heartedly.

Historically I could accept certain things but totally let it engulf me in a spiritual sense is another thing. And I am the type of person that if I don't really fully believe in something I'm not going to pretend I do and put those beliefs on my children.

[Wheetsin 714]

brandyII, it's from evolvefish.com I believe. Don't remember off-hand.

You don't "know" me but I'm an atheist raised by a Catholic and a Methodist. There are "traumatic" (not really, but ok) things that have happened, but they were not defining moments. The lack of belief is there as far back as I can remember, despite having gone to a private, religious-based daycare (which was also my preschool and kindergarten). And despite having tried to believe, so that my friends there would not make fun of me.

[brandyII 9]

Wheetsin,

Just went to site, still:lol::biggrin::wink_smile::thumbdown::lol:thanks, brandyII.

[BJean 16]

MrsFlipFlops: To answer your question: No, just because Bush is a born again Christian is not the reason I feel that he is shoving it in my face or down my throat. It is being shoved down my throat and is in my face because of the way he has gone about running this country, with his Christian Coalition having a presence at his side in the White House. I even went so far as to enumerate some of the things I am uncomfortable with that he's done which have made it feel like his religious beliefs are in my face.

There is supposed to be separation of Church and State, but with him that has absolutely not been the case. Furthermore, I was raised in the Methodist Chruch, was a born again Southern Baptist and raised my children in the Catholic Church. I have had best friends who were B'Hai (sp) and close family who are Presbyterian and Mormon.

I certainly have nothing against Christians or most other religions. But I do believe that it is extremely inappropriate for our president to make decisions based not upon the common good, but based on his own personal religious beliefs.

As a Christian you can see nothing wrong with him having a Christian Coalition sitting at his side, advising him. I understand that. And I also understand that we are taught to "witness" for God and Jesus and for some of us that means going from door to door.

But trust me, if we had a president who was a practicing Jew, for instance, and he assembled a group of very outspoken Jewish Rabbis who helped him make decisions, including decisions regarding our Middle East policies and our relationship with Israel, you might find it a bit uncomfortable.

When John F. Kennedy ran for office, there was a large faction of Christian Americans who were actually worried about the Catholic Church working through him to dominate the world. (At one point the Pope actually said that it was the goal of the Catholic Church - to be the only religion in the world.)

We really need to get smarter in this country about why the separation of church and state is so vitally important. If it takes an atheist explaining it to us so that we can understand why, then I'll vote for an atheist.

[luluc 6]

Fanny, I enjoy your posts - but surely in your everyday life your able to encounter those who have much to offer on various subjects - that are a member of a religious organization.?. Some don't wear their Christianity or other Faith on their sleeve, nor feel comfortable talking to others about their value system, so you wouldn't know if their irrational/weak persona comes from their faith or lack of faith w/in oneself.

I am no expert in Atheism, I only know 2 closely - and they both profess a hate of God - constantly; that is severely bothersome to a social setting crowd of predominantly Christians. What makes is more so, is the lack of an ability to articulate their position. I've learned more about Atheism here on this thread, than either of my friends can possibly think to muster up. They were born to Atheists; have not known anything else.

I have been respectful enough to allow them an oportunity to speak their mind at many dinner parties in our home - but not while insulting others in the process. I've always hoped they would be able to speak to others with enlightenment - but when you start off saying "well I hate god", you can hear the crickets in the background, and I'm ususally looking to pour more wine or turn up the music...Says the Catholic girl:)

[brandyII 9]

luluc,

How can they hate god if they don't believe in a god?