RE: Hate the belief, not the believer
February 19, 2015 at 7:18 am
(This post was last modified: February 19, 2015 at 7:20 am by Homeless Nutter.)
Most people internalize their beliefs, so any expression of hatred toward those beliefs is perceived as personal attack. It is understandable - to an extent. I feel personally offended, when someone I know calmly imagines me, or people close to me tortured for eternity. It's hard to "like", or feel comfortable with someone, who's brain at times seems to work like that of a sociopath, or even straight-up passive-aggressive psycho. We may not hate mentally ill people - but we still don't particularly want to be around them, because it's not safe.
Believers seem to see atheism as a "cult of death", because we can accept non-existence after death, while they can't even imagine it, without pissing their pants. They probably see any attempt at undermining their complete denial of death, as a personal attack, because it appears to them that atheists wish them to be annihilated. And - I imagine - that's a worse prospect, than heaven/hell gamble, they've adopted from an early age to deal with the finite nature of human existence.
Consequently, they may also assume that we'd rather vanish, than take our chances with god, because we've committed, or want to commit evil deeds and we're trying to avoid punishment, while giving up on the one thing the faithful hold dearest - promised reward of ideal existence.
So, my point is - it can be difficult to separate believers and their beliefs - on both sides of the fence. After all, as non-believers, the only way we get "inconvenienced" by religion is through the medium of annoying and pompous primates, who expose us to it and its effects (like lack of education, xenophobia, bigotry). Fairy tales and horror stories are fine in a book. It's trying to bring them to life in a literal manner, that is harmful. Even if believers "mean well" when they unleash their fears on other people - it's still often best to just avoid them. And I find it difficult to not hate people I need to avoid, for my own safety and comfort - especially when there are so many of them around.
Believers seem to see atheism as a "cult of death", because we can accept non-existence after death, while they can't even imagine it, without pissing their pants. They probably see any attempt at undermining their complete denial of death, as a personal attack, because it appears to them that atheists wish them to be annihilated. And - I imagine - that's a worse prospect, than heaven/hell gamble, they've adopted from an early age to deal with the finite nature of human existence.
Consequently, they may also assume that we'd rather vanish, than take our chances with god, because we've committed, or want to commit evil deeds and we're trying to avoid punishment, while giving up on the one thing the faithful hold dearest - promised reward of ideal existence.
So, my point is - it can be difficult to separate believers and their beliefs - on both sides of the fence. After all, as non-believers, the only way we get "inconvenienced" by religion is through the medium of annoying and pompous primates, who expose us to it and its effects (like lack of education, xenophobia, bigotry). Fairy tales and horror stories are fine in a book. It's trying to bring them to life in a literal manner, that is harmful. Even if believers "mean well" when they unleash their fears on other people - it's still often best to just avoid them. And I find it difficult to not hate people I need to avoid, for my own safety and comfort - especially when there are so many of them around.
"The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one." - George Bernard Shaw
