# "There is a mean streak in anyone who will destroy another's faith." **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 18, 2010, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-is-a-mean-streak-in-anyone-who-will-destroy-anothers-faith/561104 "2010-11-18T16:04:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2010, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-is-a-mean-streak-in-anyone-who-will-destroy-anothers-faith/561104/181 "2010-11-22T17:56:04Z")
> [@psikeyhackr](#): > > Talk about deja vu. > > [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=555707&postcount=7](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=555707&postcount=7) > > I had to give up the dal\_timgar handle since people began talking about the book I got it from. Ahem: > [@SDMB registration agreement as of 12/29/2008](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-registration-agreement-as-of-12-29-2008/406370/1): > > **Straight Dope Message Board Registration Agreement** > > […] > > Only one screen name is permitted per user. If you wish to change screen names please email an administrator. Use of multiple screen names is grounds for revocation of your right to post under ANY screen name. You first registered in 2000, so you’ve been around here long enough to know this. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2010, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-is-a-mean-streak-in-anyone-who-will-destroy-anothers-faith/561104/182 "2010-11-22T18:58:59Z")
You can not destroy another’s faith. In order for them to even acknowledge your arguments, their minds would have to be open. That would probably mean their faith had already been self questioned.The it is fertile ground for atheistic arguments. But if faith closes your mind, the only results are fighting and resentment. ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2010, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-is-a-mean-streak-in-anyone-who-will-destroy-anothers-faith/561104/183 "2010-11-22T20:20:32Z")
Isn’t the whole point of Christian evangelism to convert people from other faiths to Christianity? Wouldn’t that suggest that the believers are the ones with the mean streak? I certainly think so. In college, back when I was just finding my way out from under the weight of religion, I liked to mildly debate religion with a good friend who was in seminary school. We got along great and neither took offense - we were exploring ideas. One day her roommate, also in seminary, finally got fed up with our debate and yelled at me, “If you really believed what you say you wouldn’t feel the need to try to convince other people. Atheist just try to convert others so they can feel better about their false beliefs!” This from someone who planned to spend her life telling others about her religion. She had a valid point though. I think a lot of religious debate is an effort to look for popular support for ideas with no facts. I thank her for pointing that out to me, even though she didn’t know that was what she was doing. ---
**Author:** ![shy\_guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a6a055/32.png) [@shy\_guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shy_guy)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2010, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-is-a-mean-streak-in-anyone-who-will-destroy-anothers-faith/561104/184 "2010-11-23T01:12:55Z")
> [@shiftless](#): > > Isn’t the whole point of Christian evangelism to convert people from other faiths to Christianity? Wouldn’t that suggest that the believers are the ones with the mean streak? I certainly think so. I guess I can see the logical distinction. In the mind of the Evangelical, conversion brings escape from eternal damnation and access to eternal paradise. They’re _wrong_ about that, but they think it. “Conversion” to atheism doesn’t carry with it any rewards that shiny. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2010, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-is-a-mean-streak-in-anyone-who-will-destroy-anothers-faith/561104/185 "2010-11-23T01:37:23Z")
> [@shy\_guy](#): > > “Conversion” to atheism doesn’t carry with it any rewards that shiny. Oh, I dunno… being able to replace the time-wasting religious rituals with activities the individual finds more pleasant is quite the bonus. Of course, this benefit probably only works on a “convert” who is already feeling boredom or dissatisfaction with said rituals. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2010, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-is-a-mean-streak-in-anyone-who-will-destroy-anothers-faith/561104/186 "2010-11-23T02:08:27Z")
> [@shy\_guy](#): > > I guess I can see the logical distinction. In the mind of the Evangelical, conversion brings escape from eternal damnation and access to eternal paradise. They’re _wrong_ about that, but they think it. “Conversion” to atheism doesn’t carry with it any rewards that shiny. I don’t know. I find a certain intellectual satisfaction, the same kind of thing I get from coming up with an elegant answer to a previously unknown and controversial engineering problem. There is indeed an elegance to the atheist solution to the problem. No problem of evil, natural or human, no need to explain the divergence between the holy book and reality, and no need to justify moral stances one knows are right with clear rules from millenia ago. No need to appeal to faith in a way one would reject talking politics or nearly any other subject. But some of us get our jollies in odd ways. ---
**Author:** ![Raiko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3da27b/32.png) [@Raiko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raiko)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2010, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-is-a-mean-streak-in-anyone-who-will-destroy-anothers-faith/561104/187 "2010-11-23T03:05:46Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > My wife is a believer. Her faith gives her personal strength, the knowledge that a greater force is watching over her and protecting her, and the assurance of eternal life in paradise. In exchange, I can offer her an inconsequential role in an uncaring universe, soon to be followed by an eternity of oblivion. > > Frankly, in her place I’d think it was a shit deal too. The beleif that your place in the universe has significance is not exclusive to religions. What you’re describing isn’t Atheism it’s Nihilism. You can still logically arrive at the conclusion that there is no god and still also logically conclude that your place in the universe is significant. The beleif in the afterlife isn’t restricted to religions either. Thoughts travel in wavelengths which it is not rediculous to beleive persist after death. Beleive what you want but at least know what to call it so you don’t misrepresent other people’s beleifs. ---
**Author:** ![Raiko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3da27b/32.png) [@Raiko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raiko)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2010, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-is-a-mean-streak-in-anyone-who-will-destroy-anothers-faith/561104/188 "2010-11-23T03:41:36Z")
> [@psikeyhackr](#): > > Hear, hear! > > I decided I was an agnostic at 12 but that atheism was about as absurd as any religion. > > Where that intelligent life in another galaxy analogy fails however is that we know there is such a thing as intelligent life, assuming that we are of course. But there is no evidence for a God whatsoever. > > The funny thing is that atheists use the ideas about God that they get from theists, mostly Christian, to argue against the existence of God. What if there is a God but He/She/It thinks that all of the religions are stupid trash? What if God thinks the Christian ideas about God are dumb? Even before I decided I was an agnostic I thought Hell was STUPID. > > We are supposed to believe that an ALL INTELLIGENT, ALL KNOWING God can’t come up with a system more intelligent than this? It really sounds like nothing but psychological terrorism of little kids. Religious leaders are nothing but sadistic assholes. But that does not mean it has anything to do with any God. Just that maybe God knows they are sadistic assholes. > > That’s it! Atheists expect too much from God and are pissed off because He doesn’t deliver therefore He must not be there. LOL > > But trying to deal with a believer everyday would drive me nuts. People that LOVE CARS get on my nerves too. I had a conversation with a man that said he loved cars and he had an Automobile magazine. I asked him what a cam shaft was and he didn’t know. I pointed at a part in an ad in the magazine and asked him what it was. He said cam shaft. I was pointing at a crank shaft. I could not stand to look through a magazine like that and not understand what I was seeing. So people that are fixated on the Bible or some other Holy Book are just like that to me. But I am not trying to change their minds about something I can’t supply evidence is incorrect. I presume evangelical atheists just piss people off. > > psik Quantum physics rules out the need for any god. If you want to beleive that there is a Universal Force, that may be both correct and succint explaination but don’t just assume I don’t have a good reason for disagreeing with you. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-is-a-mean-streak-in-anyone-who-will-destroy-anothers-faith/561104.md?page=9)