Even assuming that to be an accurate assessment, according to the polls they are the exception. Most American believers do despise atheists regardless of what you and your acquaintances are like..
Are these very insulting Atheist billboards attacking Christianity & Mormonism really the way to go?
Incredibly hard to swallow. If you mean that most of the christians you know were previously not practicing christians, then fine. I’m not going to call this statement a fabrication, but it’s highly unlikely.
OTOH, I think a large percentage of atheists actually were involved with religion at some point.
You may know some very interesting people, but they are by no means a representative sample of Christians.
Yes, I did, as a matter of fact. And the first cite said -
Regards,
Shodan
Ah, my bad. Misspeak there. I should have said atheist/agnostic. Not just atheist. What I meant to say is that most of the Christians I know(as in have a intimate knowledge of how they reached their point in faith) were not born, raised or reared in a Christian atmosphere, nor did they practice Christianity in their youth. They all came to Christianity in their own way, but a lot of them leaned towards atheism, and certainly were applicable agnostics, for most of thier ‘pre-Christianity’.
Still, it has been my experiance, with both the Christians and the atheists that I know, that they have a very clear respect for the people who hold different views. They simply dissagree. And I’ve never encountered any maliciousness personally, as an atheist or as a Christian. So my experiences have led me to beleive that most people are not as hateful or extreme as some in this thread were saying. That was my point. I also accept that my experience is certainly limited, however. Simply trying to provide it.
Nevertheless, sorry for clear and complete misspeak on the ‘most the the Christians I know were once atheists’ part. That was a mistake. My bad, mea culpa.
Still a great aberration from the norm. Do you belong to a particular church that is made up of former atheists/agnostics?
Born again Christians who were raised Christian but screwed up their lives anyway will sometimes say they were some other awful thing before getting born again and finally becoming real Christians. Maybe it’s like that. “I was atheist before, but now I’ve found the light!”
Like all those former “Satanists”?
I have a lot of old friends from high school who I keep in touch with. They are the ones I talk to most regularily about faith outside of my immediate family. A great deal of them where shocked when I became a Christian, as it just wasn’t expected, given our social circle was one of pretty solid agnostiscism. Several of them has since converted, for their own reasons and in different circumstances than my own.
As far as church goes, I have one I attend semi-regularily. I would have said a while ago that a great deal of them were probably raised on faith, as the church is the oldest in the area, and is greatly tied to the community. But whenever I’m at testimonials where people actually talk about their own journey towards reaching faith, I’m always amazed about how that isn’t necesarily the case. People who I thought simply had faith from the getgo, and are some of the most ardent Christians I know, did in fact have long periods in their lives where they had no faith in God. Are were raised in housholds where God was mostly a non-subject that didn’t come up much.
So most of the experiences I’ve had with other Christians involve how difficult coming to faith was, and how it compares to the times in which they lacked any faith at all. This isn’t to say that there isn’t a solid portion of the Christians I know who have simply taken up faith because it was how they were raised and it’s what they are comfortable with. But most of the stories I know are from people who, like me, had long periods of their lives where faith either never factored into their lives, or they openly rejected it.
I don’t deny that my experience may be unusual. And it’s possible that I’m simply more sensitive to those kinds of stories becasue they resonate with my own, as they are the ones I just remember the most. But given all the times I’ve interected with both atheists and Christians, as an atheist or Christian, the deep divide in how each side treats one another is not as terrible as some make it out to be. In some places it is, but I wouldn’t say in most. Just my two cents.
I’m not sure how you can keep using the word “may” here. Consider how many atheists and agnostics there are and how many Christians there are. No, most of those Christians were never atheists or agnostics.
Did you just imply that the U.S. is worse than Saudi Arabia? I swear, you sound like exactly like a Freeper’s idea of what liberals are like. The world is not as black and white as you paint it to be. I think you LIKE the idea of being hated. You WANT to believe you’re hated, because you like being a martyr. Most people I know don’t give a shit one way or another.
(I kinda liked the one with the crucified hand that said “Jesus loves you so much it hurts.” For some reason, I just find that funny.)
Everyone starts out as an atheist. Nobody comes out of the womb as a Muslim or Christian or what have you. Religion is taught. It’s just that a great many people have religion drilled into them from an early age, when they’re still, as Doug Stanhope would say, Santa Claus eligible(NSFW language).
Incidentally, I wonder how many people would dismiss that Stanhope bit as assholish to the point of being counterproductive.
No; I was making the point that America is better than Saudi Arabia in part because religion is more divided here and therefore less able to impose itself. If America was overwhelmingly of one religious sect (Catholicism or a particular brand of Protestantism, say) then I think that it would closely resemble Saudi Arabia or Iran. The believers would be able to write their dogma into the law without significant opposition from other believers, and spend their time hunting down and persecuting or killing the few who dared dissent.
So anyway, despite their fragmented, unorganized coalition on this country, the xtians win again:
So the exercise of a little free speech instantly results in “vitriol, threats and hate speech,” from Christians. How very Christian!
According to Amanda Knief, managing director of American Atheists.
Are you trying to imply that her word isn’t to be trusted?
I think he’s trying to imply the atheists received some some prank phone calls, got scared and took down the billboards.
You know how intimidating those pious religious practitioners can be.
I would say that being the spokesperson for an organization that engages in behavior meant to be insulting and provocative does cause one to face a bit of a credibility gap, yes. Especially when the allegation to be credited is a “just-so” account, short on details, of facing precisely the kind of unlikely response that they hoped to provoke.
This is quite apart from the beliefs espoused by the organization. (I would greet similar allegations from WBC or Anonymous with equal skepticism.)
Not without credible confirmation. I would trust Knief to give accurate information about Christians about as much as I trust Jack Chick to give accurate information about atheists.