- atheists are in the middle, neither good nor evil
- Most religions are “unlike”
- Their “holy” writings are tricks or tests to be rejected
- They practice jihad on us, so no, they don’t respect us
Atheists are just following the teachings of lesser gods which intend to hide the true God and the past of salvation. For the most part Atheism is a religion of worshiping human efforts and death. Unlike a religion, Atheism usually has very little hope involved, since no afterlife unless science can invent it. To me it is depressing.
Yes to me all religions are power structures, a way of keeping people in bondage, which I differentiate from a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus.
Inspired by god(s) including things like the flying spaghetti monster writings.
Many are intrigued about my relationship with Jesus without religion, I don’t know what they think.
#1: I’m not so sure there is a right-minded or a wrong-minded. IMHO, I think most people’s belief systems all have some valid points. In other words, everyone has a piece of the truth. Just exactly how a person would go about defining that truth, I don’t know. I imagine it all boils down to personal experience if nothing else. Atheists are not wrongest, and neither are those who are deists. I guess to me there is something I call
because life in general is not a black or white thing.
#2: I don’t belong to a mainstream religion. I was raised Catholic, but when I became a young teenager I rebelled against it. Remember that recent news story about the little boy that stole the family car because he didn’t want to go to church? When I heard about it, I agreed with him! Not the stealing part, rather, but his opinion of not wanting to go to church.
As a child I detested going to mass, and purposely acted out during the service. I inevitably got punished when I got home. When I married my ex-husband I converted to being a Lutheran. Other than the acting out in church, I found I still hated going. I finally figured out that part of it was I didn’t like the rituals. It was pointed out to me later that religion is all about rituals. Duh! Having said all this, I do believe in God regardless of what religions say. Regarding monotheism, I think they’re all the same God. I don’t know enough about multi-God religions to say much about them. However, I agree with Gandhi when he said he liked Christ, but not his followers.
3#: All of the above.
4#: Since I don’t belong to an organized religion (other than I believe in God), this question doesn’t pertain to me I guess.
I don’t worry about anybody else’s religion except :
1.) When those tenets endanger me or my freedoms.
2.) When the person believes (or unbelieves) so deeply as to become an obnoxious asshole, harassing those who believe differently.
- Where do atheists fit on the spectrum of right minded and wrong minded, compared to other standard religions, splinter sects of your religion, minor traditional religions, modern religions like Moonies and Jonestown, modern revivals like Wicca, zombie cult and satanism, and brand new self-proclaimed prophets. Are atheists the “wrongest” of the spectrum or still this side of the fringe?
All across the spectrum, same as everyone else. I know at least one true Atheist and one true Druid (by “true” I mean “practicing” and more than just self-proclaimed) that I would rather have in the pew beside me than some of the “fine Christian” members of our congregation. Especially if you put it in terms of “right or wrong” minded.
- Back to mainstream religions, are they “essentially the same” as yours, do they all reflect the same god, the same soul, the same afterlife?
Yes – and no. As far as I am concerned they do but they may not see things quite the same. And impressions of what the afterlife will be differ in some more major details. But I personally believe there is just one form of each of those.
- Are those religions’ holy writings inspired by gods or just made up, old wives tales, fiction for moral instruction, wishful thinking, simple speculation?
I think you got it just right by saying “inspired by God”. The light version of what I feel is that everything in the Bible is true and some of it may have actually happened. In serious words, it is the inspired word of God, used by Him, to speak to my life today. To use as a doorway into my heart and life. Literally true and infallible? Naaaah. Even if it was spoken by God, it was written down, translated, and run through several Canons by screwed-up humans just like me. I know how often I get phone messages written down badly to ever believe the scribes and prophets of old did all that without a typo somewhere. If you want to consider it literal or infallible, I’m OK with that until the point where you try to use that belief to harm others. Then I draw the line.
What I feel is true for the Bible, I feel may also be true for the writings of other religions - different ways God has tried to reach our souls. And sometimes different ways for us to justify being @ssholes to each other.
- How do you think the believers of those other religions would answer those questions about yours? Would they think you are closer to them than atheists are, are essentially about the same god, soul, afterlife, and have god-inspired writings?
I’m not sure. Our denomination is in Full Communion (we can Call or hire each others clergy to serve as our own) with several other mainstream denominations and on friendly terms with even more. I know some of them have much stricter ideas about who is and is not “right minded” than I do but I know members of my own church who feel the same way. Personally, if I can work with someone to our mutual benefit, I will ----- and I hope others sometimes say the same about me.
There are good people and bad people in every group. Nonetheless, in addressing this question about atheists there are certain things that can’t be ignored. First, though atheists make up a very small portion of the human race, they are responsible for a huge portion of the world’s worst crimes against humanity. That is the elephant in the room is all religious discussions. If tyrants were simply peppered at random throughout the human race, it’s statistically impossible that so many would land among those who completely reject all religion and mysticism.
Second, anywhere I go, whether in real life or online, I find many atheists aggressively demanding that my rights be taken away because I am a Christian. One thread in GD right now features an atheist arguing that Christian women shouldn’t be allowed to have many children because he thinks their offspring are unworthy of existence. Well, I’ve never heard any Jew say such a thing, nor any Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Mormon, Confucian, Taoist, Scientologist, Zoroastrian, … Nor is that thread an isolated incident. I recall threads by atheists demanding everything from Christians being banned from certain jobs to the whole human race being wiped out. Hence it’s clear that my rights are much more endangered by atheists than by anyone else.
Third, prominent atheists in my experience are much more likely to display nasty attitude than leaders of any religion. Just look at any book written by Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris.
So what’s the explanation behind all that? Simply two facts about atheist thinking. First, as atheists to be rational must explain away the experiences of religious people as hallucinations, mental illness, lies, conspiracies, “epiphenomenon”, and so forth. Such reductionist thinking inevitably leads many to look down on religious people, and creates a gulf between them and the religious much wider than that which separates any two religions. Second, those who deny any spiritual beings above humanity have no reason to develop humility as a virtue, and hence are much more likely to believe that they’re the top of the heap, and hence have the right to use other human beings as they see fit.
With that said, I was an atheist until age 23, and that colors my response. The amount of mindless rage and hatred that I experienced during that time was so huge that sometimes I wonder how I survived.
I haven’t studied other religions enough to answer these questions properly. I hope to study more on the topic in the future. I can only make a few beginning stabs at answers for a few religions. Judaism I believe in fully. Islam I do not see any merit in, since the Prophet Mohammed simply doesn’t seem imbued with the qualities that should results from a genuine religious experience. For some other large religions, the question isn’t an either/or; they could be right without contradicting Christianity.
Well, that’s tough to answer since “believers of those other religions” is a class of billions. Many Muslims overseas seem to be riding a wave of extreme anger, but part of that is surely caused by justifiable anger at the West’s attacks and exploitation of the Arab world for the past few generations. Within the United States, nearly all religious believers seem able to get along, but again I haven’t studied the beliefs of others enough to answer your question better than that.