Why are atheists so intent on scorning "believers"?

by Chariklo 553 Replies latest jw friends

  • ziddina
    ziddina

    So, are you in any way referencing the "Christian" 'god'???

    Then that 'god' is only as old as the New Testament - but I'm allowing the length of the older, Hebrew scriptures, just for the sake of argument.

    The "civilisations existed long before the Bible....so what?" - The "what", is that said civilizations did NOT worship a monotheistic Hebrew 'god' by the name of "Yahweh".

    When you claim that "god" existed prior to the bible, you fail to understand that it WASN'T "A" 'god', it was GODS and GODDESSES.

    Which - again - completely negates any biblical concept of "god.... Any late-Bronze-Age Middle-Eastern concept of a monotheistic deity, while I'm at it...

    So the question is - are you attempting to claim that a monotheistic MALE 'god' somehow was the divine origins of everything, while claiming at the same time to worship or consider the worship of older civilizations that worshipped a wide spectrum of gods AND GODDESSES???

    It sounds like you don't even understand your own concept of 'god', let alone understand the history of religion... Or you choose to deliberately misunderstand my comments.

    Zid

  • still thinking
    still thinking

    I may have hinted at this earlier, but I think that when people stick to only one possible view of god, ie, the Christian perspective, it's easier to become atheist in the absence of desired proof for a god's existence.

    LOL...of course, Why didn't I think of that? ROFL. Atheist don't EVER look at other beliefs. They try one and give up...silly atheists. You gotta try them all before you give up.

    Hang on...I did look at quite a few beliefs and gods...maybe I need to try them all to see which one is true I must have missed one (or a few hundred). This is gonna be quite a hunt...there are soooo many. LOL

  • Lozhasleft
    Lozhasleft

    i was totally thrown by the initial reaction to this thread, but as it has gone on people have been very supportive. It's not about a proof of God. As Soledad said earlier, you can't prove God is there through science. This thread is about the behaviour, not of all atheists, but of those atheists who choose to attack and mock and scorn those who have a faith. I am very pleased that Soledad widens the discussion beyond just Christianity.

    I can never comprehend why atheists want to attack and mock believers as some do...especially ex JWs, for the life of me I don't see that such disdain for others' experiences of God provides an arena for honest discussion and growth. It smacks of the KH attitudes to me. Our 'god' is truer than yours. It's almost a promotion of atheism being a religion in itself. I totally get the anger at the misinformation of the WTBS and the consequential ruined lives, it's justified. Post that life we all have to find our individual or collective ways to be true to ourselves. I don't see why if that means that a believer maintains their beliefs it is a reason for scorn. Neither do I accept that we have to prove the existence of a creator to pacify others. Faith is what it says on the tin-faith. Many of us have a great deal to base it on. I don't mock atheists for their disbelief, they have the right to choose, it should simply work both ways.

    Loz x

  • ziddina
    ziddina

    When you claim that "god" existed prior to the bible, you fail to understand that it WASN'T "A" 'god', it was GODS and GODDESSES....

    ..........

    So the question is - are you attempting to claim that a monotheistic MALE 'god' somehow was the divine origins of everything, while claiming at the same time to worship or consider the worship of older civilizations that worshipped a wide spectrum of gods AND GODDESSES???

    It sounds like you don't even understand your own concept of 'god', let alone understand the history of religion...

    Or you choose to deliberately misunderstand my comments.

  • rather be in hades
    rather be in hades
    There is, and I believe there's a whole branch of science that looks into this. That you favour math, statistics and physics to bridge the gap is your preference.

    a preference based on reality. i wonder if people made that same argument when trying to justify believing the sun went around the earth

    It's not a poor excuse, it's a question. If the universe is made of laws and facts then what is the universe made of?
    Can statistics answer that for me?

    no, but luckily quantum mechanics can and if you really truly cared to know, you'd study it. otherwise, you may continue to throw up your hands and declare this all unknowable. i'm very thankful though, that scientists didn't do that and let it all be magic from "god"

    And what presented evidence are you referring to?

    oh chemistry, biology, astrophysics, you know...science?

    you need math and physics to validate your observations because...why? they aren't trustworthy? sample size isn't large enough? how large should it be? how diverse?

    for godssake yes! your observations are NOT trustworthy at all. that's the whole point. the larger the sample size and diversity, the better. i assure you, if you were to try to apply statistical methods such as confidence intervals, statistical correlations, etc, to your "data", you'd begin to understand the point.

    you could spend the rest of your life trying to prove something mathematically, arrive at what you are looking for, then have it all crumble in a matter of seconds when someone else jumps in and says "nope! I have a different answer here."
    what then? bash them over the head with "well that's your irrelevant opinion, and everyone has one?"

    no, either i'm right, they're right, or neither of us are right. so we go over the evidence to sort all that out. that's how science and proofs work. otherwise, how is progress made if we just go off of opinions which have a value of...? if no one challenged anything, we'd be way further back than we should be. would women still be burnt at the stake? homosexuals still don't have basic civil rights in the us, if it wasn't for science challenging the ignorant views of bigots with facts, who knows how much further behind their struggle for civil rights would be?

    my point is, again, when asked the question why do atheists scorn believers, the reasons are more subjective than objective. and yes, based on a sample size of zilch.

    once again, have you considered that believers could be a large part of the problem? have you considered the possibility that there are so many believers shoving their stuff (to be read in a joe biden sense) into secular law might be a large part of why atheists ridicule you guys? the very title of this topic was a loaded question and loaded answers came back.

    stop playing the victim card. believers by and large control gov't and laws and oppress the civil rights of those licing a lifestyle they don't agree with

    because what we are really asking is why do people behave the way they do. and that is something that no branch of science can conclusively answer.

    have you heard of psychology, neuroscience, biology and math? they ABSOLUTELY attempt to explain why people do what they do. heck, it explains why organisms do what they do. not just humans.

  • Soledad
    Soledad

    Hang on...I did look at quite a few beliefs and gods...maybe I need to try them all to see which one is true I must have missed one (or a few hundred). This is gonna be quite a hunt...there are soooo many. LOL

    why should any one god be truer than another? it's fine to "try them all" and not care for any. or all.

    issue is, why do atheists feel the need to mock or scorn others who do believe in something (or many things)?

    they turn to science, history, logic....etc. Stuff written by people who eat sleep and poop just like they do.

    Culturally biased research.

    Hogwash. Living a godly life (or whatever you wanna call it) requires some degree of sacrifice, no matter the path chosen, and few are willing to do that.

    Others are hurt (understandably so) and reject god from a place of anger and pain, not from a place of rationality.

    And again, I'm not saying this is true in ALL cases.

  • NewChapter
    NewChapter

    your problem, Zid, is that you are stuck in the JW system of thinking.

    I am curious---how would Char have judged me if I said the exact same thing to her? Disrepectful?

    (edit to say----your problem, Char) Char, is that the reason you believe in a god is because you are still stuck in the JW system of thinking--and before you were exposed to that---you were incredibly vulnerable to the JW way of thinking.

    Zid was NEVER a true believer and left the religion as soon as she was old enough to follow through on her own decisions. She was NEVER trapped in the JW system of thinking. In fact, she debunked it as a very young child.

    Ohhhhh whoooooaaaaa-----why are non-atheists so scornful?

  • rather be in hades
    rather be in hades
    why should any one god be truer than another?

    well i think it's rather cool that we don't still go witht he ones asking for human sacrifices...

    issue is, why do atheists feel the need to mock or scorn others who do believe in something (or many things)?

    why do so many believers feel the need to legislate their beliefs into secular law?

    why do so many believers feel the need to look down upon nonbelievers' morals?

    they turn to science, history, logic....etc. Stuff written by people who eat sleep and poop just like they do.

    yup, except we get to take that science and examine the evidence for ourselves and call the other person out if they were wrong. there's a reason why we don't teach aristotle's model of the universe anymore...

    Hogwash. Living a godly life (or whatever you wanna call it) requires some degree of sacrifice, no matter the path chosen, and few are willing to do that.

    how is a "godly life" any different than not being an ass to other people while still being an atheist?

    Others are hurt (understandably so) and reject god from a place of anger and pain, not from a place of rationality.

    and some people turn to god because they are angry, upset, hurt, whatever, not from a place of rationality.

    And again, I'm not saying this is true in ALL cases.

    step in the right direction

  • still thinking
    still thinking

    they turn to science, history, logic....etc. Stuff written by people who eat sleep and poop just like they do.

    logic! silly atheists...LOL

  • Soledad
    Soledad

    a preference based on reality. i wonder if people made that same argument when trying to justify believing the sun went around the earth
    Oh I get it. your reality is better than everyone else's.
    no, but luckily quantum mechanics can and if you really truly cared to know, you'd study it. otherwise, you may continue to throw up your hands and declare this all unknowable. i'm very thankful though, that scientists didn't do that and let it all be magic from "god"
    You're making assumptions about me that aren't true. I never declared anything unknowable or magical.
    oh chemistry, biology, astrophysics, you know...science?
    let me rephrase: what presented evidence here in this thread? I wasn't referring to outside resources.

    for godssake yes! your observations are NOT trustworthy at all. that's the whole point. the larger the sample size and diversity, the better. i assure you, if you were to try to apply statistical methods such as confidence intervals, statistical correlations, etc, to your "data", you'd begin to understand the point.

    I didn't arrive at a conclusion about atheists from a clinical or mathematical perspective. I say it again: based on what I observed in people I personally know (not acquaintences, not research subjects, not survey takers) and based on what many have told me. That's it. In that sense, my oberservations ARE very trustworthy. Did I apply it to everyone? NO. The issue to me is YOU probably don't trust YOUR OWN perspective on this matter which is why you need some scientific discipline to help you out.

    no, either i'm right, they're right, or neither of us are right. so we go over the evidence to sort all that out. that's how science and proofs work. otherwise, how is progress made if we just go off of opinions which have a value of...? if no one challenged anything, we'd be way further back than we should be. would women still be burnt at the stake? homosexuals still don't have basic civil rights in the us, if it wasn't for science challenging the ignorant views of bigots with facts, who knows how much further behind their struggle for civil rights would be?

    These are moral challenges, not scientific ones. Science can prove that homosexuals, women, people of color aren't in any way inferior or whatnot, but things only change when the status quo feels threatened enough to change, and usually that involves economics. Alabama bus boycott? Those bus companies felt the pinch of so many folks not riding the bus in those days. Enough people become outraged at injustice to stand up and do something about it. Noone needs a science to do that (but interestingly religion can and has played a strong role in promoting social justice).

    once again, have you considered that believers could be a large part of the problem? have you considered the possibility that there are so many believers shoving their stuff (to be read in a joe biden sense) into secular law might be a large part of why atheists ridicule you guys? the very title of this topic was a loaded question and loaded answers came back.

    Yes, believers are part of the problem. Big time. Religion is a made made egoic structure. A structure of the mind which is limited.

    I agree the topic title is loaded, but some of the replies are also ridiculous and unnecessairily nasty. One of those replies came from Qcmbr which you felt a need to defend, and then you claimed that I'm upset, a mind reader, whatever. Not that I care.

    stop playing the victim card. believers by and large control gov't and laws and oppress the civil rights of those licing a lifestyle they don't agree with

    Where am I playing victim? Show me. If believers control government and oppress civil rights, do something about it then. I don't believe that they should.

    have you heard of psychology, neuroscience, biology and math? they ABSOLUTELY attempt to explain why people do what they do. heck, it explains why organisms do what they do. not just humans.

    yes I have (why would you suggest otherwise?). What I said was that no science can conclusively explain a lot of people's behavior. Pick an explanation, stick with it, fine. But something else could be a factor too.

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