I’ve gotten this response from Christians regarding my spirituality, too. “If you’re not afraid of going to hell, then what’s stopping you from killing people or stealing or other things?”
Um…the fact that I have a personal morality? Although I’m reconsidering the part about not punching people.
As a believer, I can give you some sense of why this is. I don’t usually get into religious debates on the SDMB, because I can’t defend my belief in God in a debate. I’m well aware that I don’t have any cites or evidence. I believe in God because I just know that she exists;, it is something that is deeply ingrained in me. I am, however, able to understand that it is not ingrained in everyone, and that just because I know and believe, doesn’t mean that everyone else does. But not everyone is able to take that leap. I think that the people you’re talking about have such a strong inner core of belief, that they think that everyone else must feel the same way. Since they just “know” that God exists, everyone else must just “know” it too, therefore no one can really be an atheist.
It’s a little similar to discussions we’ve had about homophobes who think that anyone could easily be turned gay – because they are attracted to the same sex (although they try very hard to repress it), everyone else must feel the same attraction.
Oh, and for the record, while I believe in God, I don’t believe in Satan or hell at all.
Quite some time ago, I lost count of the number of times some “nice Christian person” has told me that as a Mormon I worship Satan.
This book is a very good example of how it’s not possible to actually take the Bible literally.
I’ve personally seen satin in the Salt Lake City Visitor’s Center, so you’re only one vowel away. And Hebrew… no vowels, so you’re already there.
I usually get the horror look from my own family about being an agnostic (which they, like many on this board take to mean atheist). Heck, I can remember making one of my aunts cry just by talking about Evolution as if it were real or something. :eek:
I’m with an early poster in asking the OP why pretend…why not just tell the person directly (if not harshly) that being an atheist (or agnostic) is not likely to lead to Satan worship…quite the opposite. A theists is more likely to become a Satan worshiper than an atheist is, since by definition an atheist doesn’t believe in ANY gods, demons or other supernatural type divine stuff.
Ah…and I don’t generally associate ‘nice’ with being a good Christian, but that’s just my personal prejudice. Of course, I don’t generally associate ‘nice’ with atheists either, considering the make up of this board for one thing. 
Still, if I were to rate theists vs atheists on some sort of niceness scale, I’d have to say that atheists are higher on the scale than most theists I know. Agnostics, on the other hand…
-XT
On the other hand, Satanism is supposedly an atheist philosophy, so maybe that is part of where the confusion comes from. Although in this case it is more likely “you are deluded by Satan into being an atheist”.
Regards,
Shodan
That sounds like something that would very plausibly happen—in the Chickverse.
Yeah, I guess worshiping yourself would be narcissistic. 
Many religious people seem to equate atheism with being against god. In the Christian world view, who is more anti-God than Satan?
Most religious people I know can’t differentiate between being against God and believing there is no god at all.
Next time just laugh knowingly and walk away.
Really well said, Dio.
Reminds me: once my husband and I went down to the local pub for some eats. Turns out they were holding “Theology Thursday” or something that night, and the local Catholic priest had brought some former atheist/now current religious expert to witness to the believers and tell them how to discuss such matters with atheists. Everything this guy said (along with all the questions and comments from said believers) bespoke a fundamental misunderstanding of the atheist position. He gave “reasons” why people became atheists, and each one was fundamentally flawed, for exactly the reasons **Diogenes **stated. It was infuriating. My husband couldn’t help but try to point out where this guy was going wrong, but it didn’t turn out well.
Don’t take this for more than it is, but to be fair, I believe I have met some atheists who do fall appear to fall into that category who are mad at God. With these sorts of people, whenever the subject of God comes up, their demeanor will tend to get very aggressive and the discussion isn’t about evidence or purpose or whatever, but quickly grow angry and their reasonings will often boil down to how they see that God wronged them. And, even if they do genuinely believe, the shear amount of vitriol and anger with which they discuss the topic makes it difficult to distinguish between genuine atheistic belief, or forced belief out of anger at God. The problem is, much like how many of the obnoxious religious folk are a small minority who sour the image for the rest, its the same for these types. That is, most of the exposure strongly religious people have to atheists is of this aggressive type, because most atheists will just not bring it up, either because they don’t care or know it’ll be futile.
That all said, the vast majority of my experience with atheists has been precisely the type who one wouldn’t know, because they just aren’t religious, and they’re generally pretty relaxed and straight forward when the topic finally does come up. And another large group in my experience has been atheists who are forthcoming with that fact, but are still very relaxed and reasoned with it, because they’re interested in the topic. In fact, I think I’ve only met maybe 2 or 3 of the really aggressive type ever, not counting random internet assholes.
Personally, I don’t care to try to make that distinction, because it isn’t worth it to me. I can enjoy a good religious discussion with someone who is open and honest about it, and in turn, they also impress upon me that they genuinely believe that. For the rest, I have no interest in discussing it with someone that is openly hostile toward me. But, I can certainly understand why they give that impression.
Regardless, I’m kind of surprised that it seems surprising to you that anyone would think it’s impossible. They’re the same sort of people who strongly associate with a particular political party and truly believe that the other party is actively trying to destroy or take over the country. These people live in black and white worlds. They live in a world where God’s existence isn’t just extremely likely, but an absolute certainly, and it’s blatantly obvious. To someone like this, it’s like someone claiming the sky is green, when it’s a blatantly obvious fact that it isn’t, even if that is truly their perception. Obviously, they’re either flat out lying, denying, or have been thoroughly deceived into believing something else.
Even as a Christian myself, I find this sort of black and white view and flat out denial of other people’s perceptions to be obnoxious, but it’s not really all that difficult to understand why they might think that. Truly, living in a black and white world, where it’s easy to tell who the good guys and bad guys are, is far easier to deal with than one that has some indefinite number of shades of gray.
The funny thing is that that applies to Satanists, too.
Or, what Shodan said.
I sincerely doubt the little old lady in question was referring to the Church of Satan[sup]®[/sup], or even knows what it is. She was much more likely talking about the Satan *she *believes in - The Adversary, Lucifer, Abaddon, Belail, The Antichrist, Beezlebub, Dragon, The Lord of This World, The Prince of Tyrus, Old Scratch, The Lord of the Flies, etc. (Of course, these may not all be the same entity, but I don’t think she’s letting facts get in the way of her hunch.)
How the hell does something like this even come up at work? Religious beliefs really aren’t a work issue. I just don’t get why you would be volunteering that information knowing it will only bring headaches.
If someone truly believes that God wronged them, they are not atheists by definition. They can be anti-God, or anti-religion, but not atheist. I have come across people who left religion because religious people (often parents) wronged them. These people can be atheists.
I was out trick or treating once with my daughter and a friend of hers from a fairly religious family. Someone in a devil costume passed by, and she said something about being scared of the devil. “There is no such thing as the devil” I blurted out. She bought this, and then asked, “but there is a god?” I quickly changed the subject. My daughter rolled her eyes where her friend couldn’t see.
I think rejecting the existence of Satan is a lot more acceptable than rejecting the existence of God, except to fundamentalists, I suppose.
Occasionally I’ll have to toss this gem into a “spirited” religious discussion.
“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” -Gandhi-
No one’s head has exploded yet, more’s the pity.
Y’all are giving me a strong hankering to re-watch The Man from Earth.
Nobody worships Satan, except rowdy teenagers who want to piss off their parents.
Oh, and Christians worship Satan, too. But they don’t know that Satan’s actually God in disguise, so that doesn’t count.