# Are You An Atheist or Do You Just Hate Christians? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 13, 2003, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-atheist-or-do-you-just-hate-christians/154789 "2003-02-13T09:23:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BadDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BadDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BadDog)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2003, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-atheist-or-do-you-just-hate-christians/154789/1 "2003-02-13T09:23:17Z")
I was just kind of curious. I have only seen a couple of people here that say they are Atheists but don’t seem to espouse an antagonistic attitude toward others that have a religious faith. I’m not here to convert anyone to anything and I sorta don’t care what your beliefs are, why do you care what those beliefs are in others? I was just whizzing through the Christian bumper sticker thread. Do some of you people realize how silly you sound to others that DON’T share your belief system? Why does the sight of a Christian bumper sticker, a nativity scene or a someone mentioning God just twist your panties up in a bunch? And the insistence of replacing the word “christ” with an X is just plain silly. So why the hate? ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Nader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Darth\_Nader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Nader)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2003, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-atheist-or-do-you-just-hate-christians/154789/2 "2003-02-13T10:26:26Z")
There are many athiests who are assholes. Posting things online that they would never say in person. There are also many Christians. Some of whom are assholes As an athiest speaking up-- I really just wish that when I’m trapped at a busy intersection and some zealot is yelling into his megaphone to let me know that I’m doomed to suffer in his own personal version of God’s hell… Well, I just wish I was driving car with a poorly tuned diesel. under the hood. VROOOM! “Inhale the holy smoke, you fool!” Live and let live, the Golden Rule, “do unto others…” Can’t we all just get along? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2003, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-atheist-or-do-you-just-hate-christians/154789/3 "2003-02-13T10:30:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by BadDog \* > **I was just whizzing through the Christian bumper sticker thread. Do some of you people realize how silly you sound to others that DON’T share your belief system?** Which posts in particular, c’mon, name names… ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2003, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-atheist-or-do-you-just-hate-christians/154789/4 "2003-02-13T11:55:19Z")
> [@](#): > > I have only seen a couple of people here that say they are Atheists but don’t seem to espouse an antagonistic attitude toward others that have a religious faith. > … > I was just whizzing through the Christian bumper sticker thread. Do some of you people realize how silly you sound to others that DON’T share your belief system? > . . . > And the insistence of replacing the word “christ” with an X is just plain silly. I think you should look around a bit more. There are numerous posters who identify themselves as atheist who respect the beliefs of religious people. Turn your next quoted statement around. Do you realize how silly some religious types sound to others (sometimes other religious people) who don’t share their belief system? Using X for Christ is an ancient _Christian_ practice, the Roman X looking, as it does, very much like the Greek _Chi_, [symbol]C[/symbol], the first letter of the Greek word [symbol]Cristos[/symbol] (_Christos_). ---
**Author:** ![Mac\_Guffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2bfe46/32.png) [@Mac\_Guffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mac_Guffin)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2003, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-atheist-or-do-you-just-hate-christians/154789/5 "2003-02-13T11:57:59Z")
As I mentioned in another thread, God is an Athiest. I mean, it’s not like He worships anyone, is it? I just follow his example. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2003, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-atheist-or-do-you-just-hate-christians/154789/6 "2003-02-13T11:59:48Z")
I agree with Tom. At Straight Dope, there are one or two hand-stabbers on the atheist side and one or two hell-fire-and-brimstoners on the Christian side. Other than that, most people are fairly respectful of one another. When Diogenes, for example, pokes fun at Jack Chick, he is most certainly not poking fun at Jesus’ message of love, but at the clown who has mangled it. And when I poke fun of the American Atheist organization, I mean no disrespect to those who uphold man’s natural nobility. I’m just knocking what amounts to politicians from the Church of Atheism. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2003, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-atheist-or-do-you-just-hate-christians/154789/7 "2003-02-13T12:01:43Z")
Particlewill wrote: > [@](#): > > I mean, it’s not like He worships anyone, is it? In a sense, He worships goodness. It is the aesthetic that He values above all others. As C. S. Lewis observed, if God knew of a being more good than He, He would worship it. ---
**Author:** ![Consuela\_Bobuela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ee7513/32.png) [@Consuela\_Bobuela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Consuela_Bobuela)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2003, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-atheist-or-do-you-just-hate-christians/154789/8 "2003-02-13T12:02:23Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by BadDog \* > \*\* > Why does the sight of a Christian bumper sticker, a nativity scene or a someone mentioning God just twist your panties up in a bunch?_\* I care not if you have a bumper sticker on your car, a nativity on your lawn or if you pray to god as you walk down the street. I do not want to see proclamations of christianity or any other religion on state or government facilities. This includes public schools, as it is not their job to indoctrinate children into a particular religious tenet. > [@](#): > > **And the insistence of replacing the word “christ” with an X is just plain silly.** It’s an abbreviation. > [@](#): > > \*\*So why the hate? \*\* I don’t hate anyone for being religious, I only hate some people’s actions and thoughts. [Fixed quote tags. – MEB] ---
**Author:** ![Consuela\_Bobuela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ee7513/32.png) [@Consuela\_Bobuela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Consuela_Bobuela)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2003, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-atheist-or-do-you-just-hate-christians/154789/9 "2003-02-13T12:05:02Z")
For some reason my previous post didn’t turn out the way I planned. This paragraph: I care not if you have a bumper sticker on your car, a nativity on your lawn or if you pray to god as you walk down the street. I do not want to see proclamations of christianity or any other religion on state or government facilities. This includes public schools, as it is not their job to indoctrinate children into a particular religious tenet. was mine, and not meant to be in bold letters. ---
**Author:** ![Mac\_Guffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2bfe46/32.png) [@Mac\_Guffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mac_Guffin)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2003, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-atheist-or-do-you-just-hate-christians/154789/10 "2003-02-13T12:15:56Z")
Didn’t see your post, **Lib** , before I posted in the other thread. I don’t buy it though. For God to worship anything means that there is a higher power than himself. That doesn’t wash with what we are told about Him. The bible makes that case that there are NO other Gods before him, therefore what He _might_ do if confronted with a deity more good (better?) than himself is moot. There is no God before him, therefore He is an athiest. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2003, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-atheist-or-do-you-just-hate-christians/154789/11 "2003-02-13T12:18:17Z")
He doesn’t eat meat either, I guess that makes him a vegetarian. ---
**Author:** ![Mac\_Guffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2bfe46/32.png) [@Mac\_Guffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mac_Guffin)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2003, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-atheist-or-do-you-just-hate-christians/154789/12 "2003-02-13T12:20:46Z")
Does he eat Vegies? Does he eat at all? Seems to me he would be a non-avore. ---
**Author:** ![Drastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Drastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drastic)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2003, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-atheist-or-do-you-just-hate-christians/154789/13 "2003-02-13T12:29:06Z")
Meat does have a sweet savoury smell when burned, though, moreso than grain most of the time. ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2003, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-atheist-or-do-you-just-hate-christians/154789/14 "2003-02-13T12:32:37Z")
An atheist makes a positive assertion that God does not exist. Note, it’s not a failure to worship God, but an assertion that God does not exist. “God is an atheist” may make an amusing bumper-sticker, but a serious contention that “God asserts that God does not exist” is stretching things. ---
**Author:** ![Mothchunks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a587f6/32.png) [@Mothchunks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mothchunks)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2003, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-atheist-or-do-you-just-hate-christians/154789/15 "2003-02-13T12:39:59Z")
isn’t that the old messianic martyr cult that enganges in ritual symbolic flesh eating and blood drinking?:eek: It’s just repackaged Mithraism, right down to the “virgin birth.” I hear that they believe that if you don’t believe like they do, THEIR god will make you suffer forever, regardless of which god you actually worship. When individuals spout this crap they call it psychosis. When a group does, they call it a religion. ---
**Author:** ![Mac\_Guffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2bfe46/32.png) [@Mac\_Guffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mac_Guffin)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2003, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-atheist-or-do-you-just-hate-christians/154789/16 "2003-02-13T12:49:31Z")
God asserts that there is no higher power than Himself. Unless you are saying that God actualy worships Himself. Must make for an interesting church service… ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2003, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-atheist-or-do-you-just-hate-christians/154789/17 "2003-02-13T12:55:24Z")
This is a ridiculous hijack, **particlewill**. God might assert that there is no higher power than himself. He may well know that for a fact. Why would that conceivably require him to worship himself? ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2003, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-atheist-or-do-you-just-hate-christians/154789/18 "2003-02-13T14:41:41Z")
Atheists would naturally tend to focus their opposition to all religion on the one dominant religion, which in the WEstern world is Christianity. In Israel I imagine that atheists appear to resent mostly Judaism, and in the Islamic world, Islam. ---
**Author:** ![UnwrittenNocturne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/6de8d8/32.png) [@UnwrittenNocturne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UnwrittenNocturne)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2003, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-atheist-or-do-you-just-hate-christians/154789/19 "2003-02-13T14:58:09Z")
I sure do not **hate** most Christians, Muslims, worshippers of the Great Gadzook. I simply think they are severely deluded and misguided. We ought to treat them kindly and gently - like small children who will one day wake up frm a nightmare. The proselytizing variety of religious folk I can say I actively dislike, along with the same variety of environmentalists, political types and, dare I say it, fellow atheists. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2003, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-atheist-or-do-you-just-hate-christians/154789/20 "2003-02-13T15:07:35Z")
Okay, maybe more than one or two. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-an-atheist-or-do-you-just-hate-christians/154789.md?page=2)