Why hate Athiest?

[Angrboda]

How do you know I have looked for an easy way out? I have spent a very painful journey over the last 8 years learning about religion, first as a Jew. I studied philosophy in college. I moved around the country and lived in places where people believed differently from me just to understand God. I spend 6 or 7 or more hours a day thinking about philosophy or religion a day. How do you know that I look for an easy way out?

I don't know. But I strongly suspect, and your reaction to my drawing the parallel between your prior addictive behaviors and your unusual experiences in another thread is all too telling. First, you deleted the bulk of what I had said in quoting my post, for which you received a moderator warning (apparently, the mere sight of it was distressing). And then, instead of addressing my observations, you attacked me and tried to shoot the messenger. And you obsess over your past history of drug addiction and project onto anyone and everyone else who even so much as mentions drug use; it's obviously an issue you have yet to come to terms with and find peace over. This is classic behavior and I don't need a degree in chemical dependency counseling to see it. I don't "know," and yes I made some simplifications and assumptions, but I think the ones I made are quite justifiable.

As to whether I take offense or not, the overwhelming feeling in my heart from watching you on this forum last night was a profound sadness. I don't blame you for being who you are, but I don't want to excuse your faults either. I think, like many people, you simply aren't cognizant of what your actual behavior is. (I study psychology and cognitive bias as a hobby, and most people are blissfully unaware of the powerful ways the mind uses to fool itself.) But I see you viciously attack people like becca, simply because she corrected you over a minor factual error on your part. What the fuck? She did nothing to deserve the bile and hatred you piled upon her. I wanted to tear you a new asshole right then and there, but my religious principles stayed my hand, as it was becca's play, not mine. You have been routinely insulting, accusatory and aggressive towards anyone and everyone on this forum. You routinely stereotype and justify your attacks based on those stereotypes. I see no Christ here. I see only you. And what I see you doing is harmful and unwarranted. So, much as I feel for you, as I think life has dealt you a bad hand, from which you've yet to recover, I can't excuse the real wrong that you do.

As to your investigating philosophy and such. I don't know. Sometimes that can be fruitful, many times not. A local Buddhist I knocked heads with recently told me that he had tried to figure things out intellectually, and he came to the point where he said he had to abandon such intellectual "masturbation" and get on with the business of enlightenment. I for my part found that a telling statement, both that he considered the intellectual approach to be masturbation, and that it was opposed to the process of becoming enlightened. I see room for both, being both a very intellectually oriented person and someone who follows religious traditions firmly rooted in mysticism. When I suggested to him that perhaps it wasn't the intellectual approach which had failed, but perhaps him and his pursuit of it, and that I didn't think he would have the answers I sought (about Buddhism), he kicked me out of the Buddhist reading circle which he ran. (Does that kind of violent, defensive reaction ring any bells with you? It should.)

Atheism is the easy way out. Atheism says make up your own view of ethics without any kind of rules or oversight and if you screw up, don't beat yourself up, no big deal. Some people may work hard at it, but the majority I have encountered don't.

I think you're projecting again. I know a lot of atheists, both on the forums and in my personal life (I'm very active in discussion groups and book clubs organized by atheists and humanists). If anything, I see atheism as one of the hardest paths to follow. Existential despair is, I think, a not uncommon occurrence (though I suspect it's more common among those recently separated from religious belief, and is more a grief reaction as a consequence of the loss of the ideological supports of their former faith). I don't know any atheist who has it easy, least of all because they are one of the most hated minorities. Nobody chooses to be an atheist "because it's easy"; they choose it because to them, it is simply the right thing to do; it is what their truths and searching have led them to. Nobody sets out to become an atheist, but all the same, I think most atheists are profoundly proud of the truth they've come to. They see their atheism as a result of always doing the hard bits, and not taking the many easy outs offered by other paths.

I would be burned alive for what I beleve.

I don't know what you mean by this, so you're going to have to explain it to me. I rather doubt anyone would burn you alive today, and historically, that punishment has been reserved for people with odd, unorthodox beliefs (heresy), or non-belief and/or apostasy and/or paganism. Since it's obviously not the latter, I can only guess that you are suggesting that your religious views are heretical, which makes all your talk about True Christianity rather suspect. (In addition to it appearing to be a hydra headed no true Scotsman argument; were you the one who called that an "atheist" fallacy, made up by atheists to persecute believers? I believe it was you. You and Andrew_2013 need to realize that attacking well settled principles of classical logic and argumentation is not going to do anything for your credibility or help your arguments. Leggo my logic!)

Anyway, do tell me more about why you feel yourself in danger of persecution for what you believe. (You can tell me in PM if you like.)