What I meant earlier is that hard atheism and fundamentalists are two sides of the same coin. Fundies at their core are close minded above all else and its the same with hard atheism. The only tenant of atheism is that you do not accept god and if you ever go against that you are subjected to ridicule because you dissagree. Fundies see atheists as being immoral and bad and atheists see the same thing in the fundies. Both have lots of little tidbits of evidence that mean nothing showing that the other is evil. At their core both need someone to demonize to validate their opinions.
IMHO, religion,(organized religion, at least) causes harm in that it sets people up for failure. I suppose this is the best way to control people. No one can possibly abide by all the rules because once you have even thought about something “bad”, you might as well have just done it. As a misguided youth (with much help from others), I had feelings of guilt, bordering on suicidal, because no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t keep these sinful thoughts out of my head. I didn’t come out of the closet until I was 33 years old because I spent all the previous part of my life convinced that if I prayed hard enough, I would be straight. How much better a life I could have led in my youth if I had been allowed to be myself.
And while people, and not just religion, contributed to these thoughts, I think it was primarily the fault of the religion itself for laying down laws that are damn near impossible to follow. I mean, we are sexual beings yet any thought about sex, especially the "wrong" kind of sex, and off we go to the dude with the horns and pointy tail. Once I stopped buying this fairy tale, my life, my self confidence, my achievments, all improved dramatically. I know that there have been Morman youth that have committed suicide because of their SO. What a tragic waste. That is one example of the harm that religion can cause.
Hopefully not too bad for a first post 
In response to the OP, this is equivalent to asking:
How does Atheism hurt the non-believer? I want a Fundamentalist perspective.
See the potential one-sidedness of the “debate?”
To this end, I just have to interfere with my thoughts. I’m not a Fundie, and I never intend to be one. However, I feel a need to defend my belief system.
-If the world is going to end in 6 years, that doesn’t throw evironmentalism out the window. Christians should have the upmost respect for God’s Creation. The sake of environmentalism for a Christian is not ONLY to serve future generations, but to be good stewards of our Creation. The world was created by God. Why would we want to destroy it?
-Someone who cannot be forgiven is somehow compelled to act indecently? I do not see this. If anything, he should see him/herself as an example to others, and so serve the best he/she can. I would assume that Atheists don’t believe that God can forgive them, either, so why would they act decently? The answer, of course, is that they have a compassion for other people. Why would “unforgiven Christians” cease to have that compassion?
-Hell is not a punishment, per se. Imagine yourself a parent. You tell your son not to drink and drive, as it may be dangerous. He goes ahead and does it anyway. If he dies in a car crash, is it a punishment? No. It is a consequence of a poor decision. This is a metaphor only in the “punishment” aspect, so it’s not perfect, but it works. Consequently, if Hell is not a punishment, than this certainly does not give permission for peope to be cruel.
-From a Christian perspective, the aim of life is not happiness. The aim is to serve others.
-Please cite on how religion is based on fear. Christianity is based on the need to help others and serving God. In response to your exponent, giving hope is NOT cruelty. How does Christianity cause its members to suffer?
-I agree that hatred is bad for humanity. However, one could also state that “My whole family hates fags” and it would be a greater sentiment. This problem is not exclusively religion.
-The tenents of Christian living are, as Jesus said:
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.” I there an inferiority to this? It takes the Golden rule and adds that you should love your God. There is nothing inferior about this idea.
-According to Christianity, we ALL have sinned, and so are unworthy of the kingdom of God. There are not people who are somehow better or worse. Some may be forgiven, and others not. Some may have led better lives. Some may have been of more use to the human race. Nobody is better than anyone else.
-Of course no mechanism can be explained. If it could, it wouldn’t be divine, according to this world. You now have an infallible argument. If something can be explained, it is not divine. If something cannot be explained, it cannot be taken seriously. Please explain why a god cannot work through explainable channels.
-Uh, no. Beliefs should not contridict with a scientific view of the world. Some people may have a skewed view, but this cannot be an indictment of all religion. Some politicians here in America believe that, because we are who we are, we should violate the ABM treaty. This should not form the conclusion that a part of the American psyche is to violate treaties (although it may seem.)
-Debunking an afterlife is impossible. Proving that there is one is also impossible. There should be no debate here. I would REALLY like to hear proof that an afterlife does or does not exist.
-I’m not a religious scholar, but I can speak for some Christians on the next matter. The point of life on Earth is to glorify God through serving men (and women!) Trying to “go to heaven” should not be an end. If it is, that person doesn’t know the whole truth.
-Saying that life is strictly for pleasure doesn’t reflect well on you or your Atheist peers. This ethic gives* carte blanche* to walk over others as long as you are happy. I believe that serving others is a higher purpose than serving yourself.
This, my friend, is a perfect example of the Straw Man fallacy. You attack small outposts and extremists of religion and use it to attack the entire system. I understand that these portions of religion may get the most publicity, but these DO NOT represent the beliefs of the whole.
-I would assume that there are VERY few cases where a “deathbed conversion” is sincere. Besides, IT IS NOT A BLOODY SECRET KNOCK! According to even this weak version of my faith, everyone knows the knock, only a few ever go through the door. Besides, it is not an issue whether or not someone goes to heaven or not. That is God’s concern. My concern is to glorify God through serving men (and women!)
-Religion can act as a shield to ignorance, but so can almost any belief. BTW, I: endorse the teaching of evolution in all schools. It is scientifically sound, moreso than gravity.
Kaje, According to the Bible, the first miracle that Jesus ever performed, (besides the virgin birth, of course,) was the turning of water into wine at a wedding reception. Drinking alcohol in of itself is not a sin. It is the excess that is.
We then digress into a debate over whether or not this passage decrees this, or whether that passage forbids that, and I really have nothing intelligent to say about those other things.
Anyway, that is a Christian perspective. I’m amazed at the lack of knowledge of the people on this board. Y’all are intelligent in the ways of science. But, when it comes to some central tenants of Christianity, y’all aren’t that knowledgable.
-Soup
I just wanted to chime in on a couple of things here that always jump out at me:
Not really. The parents don’t make the child die in the crash - there’s no guarantee the child will die if he drinks and drives - and the parents on their own whim can’t stop him from dying if he drinks and drives. I’ve yet to see any parental analogy with regards to God that is sensible.
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge”
- Proverbs 1:7
“Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name?”
- Revelation 15:4
“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am the Father where is my honor? And if I am a Master, where is my fear? Says the Lord of hosts.”
- Malachi 1:6
“By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deep in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.”
- Psalms 33:6-9
Sounds like fear is a pretty recurrent theme in Christianity, and goes beyond simple respect, but actual trembling. Sort of like the difference between training a dog to respect you using authority, and getting him to fear you using blows.
What about those atheists who when they were doubting their faith knocked repeatedly on the door, only to find that no one ever bothered to open it, let along peek at us through the peephole?
not to mention the having sexual fantasies. Imagining forinification with a woman is the same sin as doing it. It gets even worse if the male decides to invision a married woman as he is, uh… doing the deed. How many males masterbate without invisioning a partner?
I think that Christianity can most definitely hurt a person. Here are a few examples:
-Jack is a very strict Christian. Jane is a Jehovah’s Witness. Jack and Jane like each other a lot, and decide to make out one night. Jack decides that it’s a bad idea for them to have a relationship because Jane is “distracting him from Jesus.” Okay. But then Jack, two weeks later, begins dating Heidi. They make out, and this is okay because Heidi is a Christian, too. I don’t think it’s even necessary to say that Jane was very hurt by this.
-Mary has been raised Christian. She is a good person - doesn’t talk bad about people behind their backs, has never killed anyone, etc. As she gets older, Mary begins to really think about her faith in Jesus. She listens to the pastor’s sermons and reads her Bible every night. Soon, she starts thinking that she is a horrible person because she has a crush on Ben Affleck and she sometimes says, “Oh my God!” Her feelings of guilt crush her until she becomes a depressed, anti-social, very unhappy person. She is thinking that Christianity might not be right for her, so she decides to talk to the youth director at her church. The youth director is thrilled that Mary is actively questioning her faith because this will help her relationship with Jesus grow stronger. Youth director suggests that they talk it over so that she can provide Mary with a lot of pat answers. Mary is upset and confused, and she has nowhere to turn for an unbiased opinion. She doesn’t consider nonbelief as an option because the idea has never been presented to her. She lives the rest of her life feeling guilty for every minor sexual thought she has and is never truly happy. And then she realizes that she is a lesbian.
-I also think it’s sad that some Christians are genuinely concerned about their nonbelieving friends’ eternal damnation. They worry about it and pray about it with their youth groups. I know about this from experience because I used to do it. Sickening. I didn’t really get worked up about it, but some do, and all that worrying is certainly harmful.
-A person has to be very strong-willed to break out of Christianity. I had to have many heated arguments with my mother before she let me stay home on Sunday mornings. Plus, all my Christian friends want me to give them my reasons, but they don’t really want to hear my reasons. Quite frankly, I can’t understand how anyone who has given the ideas of Christianity any serious thought can actually believe it. Christianity is harmful because it slowly, steadily brainwashes kids until they don’t really know what they personally believe. I’m a smart gal, and it took me a decent amount of time to realize that it’s all bogus.
This is definitely long enough, although I have more.