Atheists and attacking/vehemently questioning others' faith

[Commodore]

As an atheist, I do not feel people should change their beliefs, I just try to get the believers to question their clergymen. When people blindly follow their religious leaders, they are then exploited and robbed by those leaders.

Basically, my problem is not with the believers, but with the religious leadership that exploits them.

 

[Pyrite]

Kind of redundant since I have my idenity on my signature. But if you must, here you go .

I am a Roman Catholic with Shinto spirituality and philosophy. Quite ovious that I am not an Atheist, but speeking with a pair of sociology glasses .

I thought you weren't a catholic?

 

[GenMarshall]

I thought you weren't a catholic?

I am still a Roman Catholic. I just cooled off last night and just said "enoughs enough! I am no longer going to get upset if someone vehemently questioning my faith".

 

[Pyrite]

That reminded of me trying to put a bunch of legos together when I was little and then smashing on the floor and quitting legos forever.

The next day my sister built it for me.

 

[GenMarshall]

That reminded of me trying to put a bunch of legos together when I was little and then smashing on the floor and quitting legos forever.

The next day my sister built it for me.

Actualy, what I said that I am not going to get angry if someone criticizes or attacks Roman Catholicism

 

[Winner]

So the question is: Why do Atheists feel the need to attack, or less polarising, vehemently question the faith of the religious?

Imagine that you'd meet a man, who would believe that pigs can fly. Would you just leave him in his crazy belief, or would you try to explain to him, that he is wrong?

Atheists don't believe in fairytales, they want hard evidence. They don't attack the faith, they just want the believers to show them some evidence, which is of course what they can't do.

A personal opinion is that Atheists feel they need to justify their position. Thus, as humans, they take the easiest way to do so: attack and attempt to disprove the faith of others.

That's wrong, we're pretty confident in our position, only the believers react agressively, because their faith isn't based on facts. In other words, believers don't like when someone is trying to disprove things they irrationaly believe in.

A second opinion is that the sheer volume of atheists and agnostics in this forum results in a mob mentality. This is a common phenomenon where the majority subconciously feels the need to attain conformoty etc. etc., which results in the attempt to change those who are at opposition to there view. A third is that the very nature of Atheism encourages vehement questioning of others. Atheism is based on the scientific method, and thus questioning any and all. This results in the constant questioning of everything, and in the face of faith, escalation to attacking.

Atheism is very, very individual. There is no Atheist Church. Atheists often disagree with each other, the only thing they have in common is that they don't accept that ridiculous idea of God.

Now, please note that I have nothing against Atheists or Atheism. I merely wish to understand what causes this phenomenon on the forum (and outside the forum). I want to encourage polite discussion and debate, so please, no rude/flamming/incendiary/insulting remarks or responses.

 

[Adamb0mb]

^^ Harsher than I would have put it, but also better.

 

[Technocactus]

I don't question your faith. If you want to follow some god(s), go ahead. Not my life.

Athiests can have a different point of view. Some may question peoples' faith, whilst some may accept it, or not care, or whatever. We don't all do the same thing.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

A theist person stating god exists is not deemed offensive. After all he is just stating his believes. He can state a positive. An atheist stating god does not exist, is (sometimes, by some people etc etc) deemed offensive since he is stating a negative. While both are just voicing their opinions.

To the OP-er, don't you think that a theist stating god exist is as offensive? Since both statements are 'attacking' the other persons believes.

A second opinion is that the sheer volume of atheists and agnostics in this forum results in a mob mentality. This is a common phenomenon where the majority subconciously feels the need to attain conformoty etc. etc.,

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=188762

Not that big a majority.

 

[Mark1031]

1) while athiests are more numerous here than in the general pop in the US I do not see most people attacking theists unless saying your view is incorrect is an attack. If that is an attack then there is really no possibility of any discussion of anything but the weather.

2) the public causes of athiests are silly and give them a bad name. Trying to remove symbols of religion in a religious nation is not good politics and does not focus on the important issue which is convincing religious folks to accept modern scientific facts or at least not impede their teaching and further study.

3) Why do theists often state that there can be no moral framework w/o religion. That is basically saying athiests are immoral. Much more of an attack than saying you are simply wrong about the existence of a diety.

 

[carlosMM]

Similar to the thread posted by Civ-General based on a question by Ironduck, I pose another question. Many Atheists in this forum (and in the real world) seem to feel that they must attack and attempt to disprove faith at every possible junction. So the question is: Why do Atheists feel the need to attack, or less polarising, vehemently question the faith of the religious?

I can't speak for other, only for me and the impression that I get of others.

To make it very short: atheists normally don't say anything, unless religious people become adamant about how correct they are, and that everyone should follow their rules.

 

[Yoda Power]

I am one of those attacking atheists, and I am aware of it too. My reasons are as follows:

1) Even though I am an atheist I still have moral beliefs (since morals have nothing to do with religion anyway). One of them is that it is my duty to help other people understand the world they live in. I feel that theists do not understand the world they live. They choose to believe in a fairytale that promises some sort of eternal life, instead of confronting reality.

2) Secondly I feel it's ironic that theists feel they are being attacked by atheists. The fact is that christianity is a missionaring (spell?) religion. How many times have an atheist nocked on your door to tell you about evolution or the like?

3) I do not understand theists. I really cannot imagine how it is possible to believe in a god or diety. When I "attack" theists it is also a way to make them explain why they believe, so I better can understand them. I will never succede though. I can always find a sociological explanation, but I will never truly be able to understand why people can have faith in something, a word I think per definition means it is questionable.

 

[Norseman2]

Why do Atheists feel the need to attack, or less polarising, vehemently question the faith of the religious?

A fair question, albeit not so fairly worded. I think you'll find the majority of atheists are quite comfortable not discussing the issue, and keeping their atheism to themselves. But you are correct in that some atheists attack, polarize, whatever you want to call it. Some atheists will be very loud, others will be very quiet. You generally only hear the loud ones, so it's easy to have a skewed view of what an average atheist is like. I'll finish quoting you and then continue this below:

A personal opinion is that Atheists feel they need to justify their position. Thus, as humans, they take the easiest way to do so: attack and attempt to disprove the faith of others. A second opinion is that the sheer volume of atheists and agnostics in this forum results in a mob mentality. This is a common phenomenon where the majority subconciously feels the need to attain conformoty etc. etc., which results in the attempt to change those who are at opposition to there view. A third is that the very nature of Atheism encourages vehement questioning of others. Atheism is based on the scientific method, and thus questioning any and all. This results in the constant questioning of everything, and in the face of faith, escalation to attacking.

I can identify with the first one, I did that shortly after I deconverted and started solidifying into atheism. You never know you're wrong unless you give someone else a chance to poke holes.

As for mob mentality, probably not. Do you post just because another Christian has posted? I know I don't, and I don't imagine anyone else does. There's something off about going to a place where everyone agrees on something and arguing in support of it. All you get is agreement, the discussion can't go anywhere. A good debate needs lots of different viewpoints to keep it alive.

The third one I can almost support empirically. I made a poll on an atheist forum asking if people were raised atheists, or deconverted, and if so, what religion they were before. Surprisingly (or not?) some 50% said they had deconverted from Christianity. Keep in mind, this is half of the atheists on that particular forum (or at least, out of 200 people who responded).

You're almost spot-on. It's not that atheism is based on the scientific method. I didn't just get up one day and think to myself "Hmm, I wonder what religion I should convert to today? Hey, there's atheism, the scientific method based alternative to religion! I'll give that a shot!" Atheism is atheism. It's not based on anything, except contextually when you're providing an argument in support of it. By itself, it's just a lack of belief in deities. It's atheists who are based on the scientific method, not atheism (note the correspondence between science, education and atheism; the more you think scientifically, the prone you are to becoming an atheist). That's the nugget you were searching for, I think. You see, there's no dogma in atheism that says you must think scientifically. Rather, a lot of atheists think scientifically because the scientific thinking lead them to atheism. The result is as you put it: they question everything, faith included (and perhaps, especially).

As for myself, I question now because anything less would leave ignorance, either my own, or someone else's. It's good when people debate. At least you find out what's wrong, and that helps you get a better opinion of what's right. If you're starting from scratch, you could be dead wrong and not even know it. If you know the problem of evil and you start from there, you're a step ahead in getting to the right answer, and your answer is definitely better. The more that you refine an answer, the better it becomes, and there you have agreement both philosophically and scientifically.

 

[Homie]

Imagine that you'd meet a man, who would believe that pigs can fly. Would you just leave him in his crazy belief, or would you try to explain to him, that he is wrong?

Not with a passion I would. I'd be like:"You're wrong, they don't fly."
John Doe "Yeah they do."
Me "Whatever, I don't really care if people believe in flying pigs or not"

 

[Homie]

I'm an atheist and I agree 100% with the OP. I now feel ashamed in a way to even bring up that I am an atheist, because of the poisonous reputation atheists have built. Any time you see an atheist on TV he's probably doing some ridiculous thing like petitioning to remove "God" from money or remove a cross from a cemetary, and every time you see an atheist online he makes some thread or has a cheeky quote in his sig about how he's "right" and theists are wrong.

I believe it was Ansheem that has said that these people are no longer atheists but anti-theists.

I am not detecting sarcasm here. Needless to say I am pretty surprised to see an atheist say this, especially an Off-Topic internet debater atheist.

 

[Norseman2]

I am not detecting sarcasm here. Needless to say I am pretty surprised to see an atheist say this, especially an Off-Topic internet debater atheist.

He's a republican. He's not exactly your average atheist.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

There's just simply no difference in attitude of atheists or theists in this respect.

 

[Homie]

He's a republican. He's not exactly your average atheist.

Hmmm. Considering that the US population divides roughly into democrates and republicans, I doubt that an atheist republican is a-typical.

 

[Sephiroth]

I belive that atheists should leave others alone....
if they do not belive in God, that is fine, but do not chastize others for beliving in Him

 

[GenMarshall]

I belive that atheists should leave others alone....
if they do not belive in God, that is fine, but do not chastize others for beliving in Him

Kudos on that. Though it is a two way street that both Atheists and Theists should leave each other alone and not chastize each other for believing in or not believing in God.