I don’t get it. All the people I know of all religions are less accepting of atheists than of each other.
Yet, the Hindus will freely state that they think all the Christian, Jewish, and Islamic texts are literary inventions and misunderstandings of nature.
And the others respond in kind.
Seems to me that means that in that respect they have more in common with atheists.
It’s the one thing they can all agree on. “Damn those godless heathens!”
As well as what Quicksilver said, I think it’s because atheism is perceived by many religions as an attack on their very foundations.
I think we need a cite on the original premise. Heresy has a tendency to end in execution, and that constitutes fairly bad treatment in my book.
Also, how does Buddhism fit into this picture?
Think of it like this: heresy is playing a different game. Atheism is smashing the board.
You might (or you might not) get some insight from this fairly recent GD thread: Can America trusts [sic] atheists? (Warning: It’s long and, as many such threads tend to be, it becomes heated at times and goes off on tangents.)
I disagree with the OP. From my experience, the religious are much more hostile towards those they consider to be perverting the faith - they see them as competition. Atheists, OTOH, are less of a problem. At best, they’re potential converts, at worst you just ignore them.
I don’t know that the premise is true. I have yet to see very many religious people be horrified by atheists.
However, many people who take their religion seriously may feel that they have quite a bit in common with other religious people from other sects. While I am LDS, I can agree with devout Jews, Orthodox, Catholics, Hindus, or whathaveyou on many things: that God exists, that he wishes certain things of us, that bringing ourselves into line with his wishes is the best way to find peace, happiness, and reality as it truly is. We may disagree on particulars, but we are each trying to accomplish similar goals a lot of the time, and we can respect each other and work together. Thus I can read a book about Catholicism (Letters to a young Catholic, for example) and find that a large part of it is applicable to me, though I’ve never been Catholic and have no plans to do so. We respect the concept of faith in God, even if we differ in how that faith works. Atheists, however, may not respect it at all, and after years of being browbeaten about our gullibility and stupidity by certain evangelistic atheists, we may be somewhat gun-shy about the topic with them–at least until we get into a good friendship.
Does that help at all?
Yeah, I have to go with “Do they?” as well. Heresy, and the apostasy of conversion to another faith, seem to be a pretty big deal among religious idealogues, and heretics have feared for their very lives throughout history. If unorthodox belief can get you killed, it’s tough to think of a worse treatment.
I’ve encountered a lot of **emotional **prejudice against atheists, rather than more intellectual objections. Many people put a negative connotation on atheism, such as:
We don’t believe in anything.
We’ve lost our faith, hope and optimism.
We have a negative view of reality.
We’re Communists.
We’re materialists.
We only *think *we’re atheists.
We’re mean and angry and selfish.
We’ve denounced our heritage.
We have no capacity to marvel at the beauty of the universe.
We stubbornly ignore life’s important questions, like “How did we get here?” and “What happens after we die?”
Etc., etc., etc.
I’m not sure I accept the premise either. Perhaps it’s become more true in recent years as various religions have tried to focus on their common ground (I know that Muslims, Jews and Christians have nominally regarded each other as ‘people of the book’ for a long time). But generally, I think more hate is directed at people who believe in the same god as you, but do it the wrong way.
I started the “trust” thread and never realized I fucked up the title. Dammit. :smack:
You never saw the two JWs run in horror when I sweetly and politely informed them that mine was a devout atheist household. A very different reaction indeed from the Baptists who I told I was Jewish.
I suspect part of the problem is that many of the religious believe and have been taught that the meaning of the world comes from god. Not having a god yanks the meaning away, and that can be scary. A different god, or a different way of worshipping the same god (which is the party line for most of the West) is much less threatening.
At least publically, Jews are kind of off limits, though, right? I mean, nobody wants to be seen as a Nazi or a Klansman, so it’s just incredibly un-P.C. to harsh on Jews for the whole “Jesus wasn’t G_d incarnate” thing.
What if you told them you were a Wiccan?
Yep. As a lifelong atheist, I find it very frustrating to be expected to explain ‘why I don’t believe xyz’. I just don’t. I’ve never had a reason to. When I’ve been fascinated by the existence of our world, I’ve found as much solace in the inconclusiveness of scientific understanding as I have in the ‘mystery’ of Creation.
This is why I fully agree with Denis, that the particular difficulty that many religious people have with atheism is because:
It is pretty much by definition a denial of everything most religions stand for.
Actually, the next thing that happened was that they started telling me that I should convert to keep from burning, and I went into my patented “you murdered us for 2,000 years and now you want me to be one of you?” rant. Scared the crap out of them. 
Like the Kinkster says, they don’t make Jews like Jesus anymore.
Well, tje Baptists are scared of me, the JWs are scared of me, my house used to be owned by Mormons, so I think we’re off their list, so we don’t get a lot of visitors anymore. I’m from New York, and I learned that being able to play psycho at a moment’s notice was a very useful talent to acquire.
I know that one case does not prove anything, but in my case at least I have to agree with the OP. I have joked with a fellow atheist that we should just come up with a phony religion so that people just get off our backs.
I don’t know, maybe religious people see people of other religions as ‘just a bit confused’ whereas they see us atheists and agnostics as deluded at best, or evil at worst. Jut MHO BTW.
Most people don’t follow or believe in my gods; if I got worked up about that I’d never have time for having a life. That some subset of the people who don’t follow or believe in my gods don’t follow or believe in any gods is an intellectual curiosity, not a matter of any actual importance.
I tend to figure the only people with any sort of obligation to my gods are my co-religionists. People with no belief in gods are not terribly likely to be my co-religionists; they are not interested in these ideas, nor have they subscribed to the newsletter, so they have no obligation to pay for postage.
If it is true (and I don’t know that it is) it may be because atheism, as a widespread “movement” (if it can be called that), is a fairly modern phenomena.
Centuries of witch hunts, religious wars, and anti-semitism have taught the West a harsh lessons about the value of religious tolerance. The sheer multiplicity of Protestant churches makes ecumenicalism often a necessity. Atheists, however, aren’t the same as these other religions. That don’t spring from a common tradition as the theists, they don’t have a tradition at all, really. More to the point, they’re new. They weren’t around for all of the last rounds of persecution, so does the truce also apply to them?
Many, perhaps even most, religions call for believers to turn to the spiritual and traditional over the worldly and modern. What, besides flat-out Satanism (now there’s a heresy respected less than atheism, where atheism isn’t confused with Satanism that is), is more antithetical than atheism?
You’ve lived a sheltered life, then. On of my early memories is reading the religion section of the local newspaper, where some bishop had written an article calling atheism worse than murder, and how it’s better to kill in the name of Kali than to be an atheist. After all, the Thuggee at least affirmed faith.
Not to mention, I recall a 60 minutes episode involving a religious school, where several parents said they’d prefer they’re children to be dead instead of atheists - on national television. Then there’s the common attempt to claim that atheism = Communism = mass murder, therefore all atheists are murderers. It’s also common to claim that Hitler and the Nazis were atheistic.
As far as why; I think it’s because religious people often have a deep seated need to believe religion is necessary; many aren’t even willing to admit than anybody is really an atheist; we’re all faking.
Also, unlike other religions we are free to point out that their religion is stupid and delusional, without being equally vulnerable to the same accusation.
As well, we’re a group of rationalists they can all agree to hate, and the core of religion is irrationality and hatred.
Finally, atheists aren’t organized; easy victims for a bunch of bullies.
Wouldn’t a more apt comparison be: Heresy is playing the game by different rules. Atheism is refusing to play at all.