Kristine
Posts: 3061 Joined: Sep. 2006
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Quote (fnxtr @ Dec. 01 2011,17:45) | Quote (Ftk @ Dec. 01 2011,11:56) | Quote (fnxtr @ Dec. 01 2011,13:45) | Quote (Ftk @ Dec. 01 2011,10:18) | (snip) Sometimes it's even deep regret I feel for what religious people may have done to them that caused them to reject God.(snip) |
*sigh*.
No religious person did anything to me to cause me to reject God.
No Irish person did anything to me to cause me to reject leprechauns, either. |
I knew there would be this objection. But, let me tell you, I've heard a LOT of atheists directly and vehemently blame religious people for their atheism.
There are many reasons for how we arrive at our overall worldview, and they are all different. But, don't disregard what I said just because you've never had any negative experiences with people of religion. It happens all the time. I've run across plenty of religious people myself who have made me rethink all my beliefs because of their hatefulness and/or hypocrisy. |
I'm not disregarding what you said. I believe you've met said people. I simply wished to counter what I perceived as a gross generalization. |
Well, I don't count those people as atheists, really. "Angry at God" people are not atheists, either. Knee-jerk anything is shallow. I try to live by rationality and that is my true guiding star. It's nobody's "fault."
I have encountered many more believers who hate religion for it being a grist mill of mediocrity, conformity, and hypocrisy - take a look at the "Jesus would never allow this" comments on any message board discussing that church in Kentucky that just banned interracial couples. At least that church is begin roundly condemned.
Many of those people who blame believers for their "atheism" will be right back at the altar, or will join another religion, in time. That's the stereotype of the atheist, isn't it, that "if you would just let yourself go," we would believe? That, deep down, "you do believe"? Well, I'm sorry, but that is not true of me, and if it's true of others then they are not "atheist" in the sense that I am.
ETA - There is no one to blame. I think that is what is so scary for people about atheism - no simple black and white. Blaming "believers" is just replacing God with people and giving people too much power. No one is omniscient in the true atheist universe. It is not a cosmos of simple cause and effect, but one in which a simple cause can have many complex effects, and one simple effect can have many causes. Experience is shades of gray. I don't really have beliefs, because what is there for me to really believe? I accept things (including evolution) as highly probable. I live by "If...then" statements.
Convert me? Can't be done.
Edited by Kristine on Dec. 02 2011,09:32
-------------- Which came first: the shimmy, or the hip?
AtBC Poet Laureate
"I happen to think that this prerequisite criterion of empirical evidence is itself not empirical." - Clive
"Damn you. This means a trip to the library. Again." -- fnxtr
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