From a practical standpoint I can relate most comfortably with the position of the militant atheist being more about political and social disagreement than about God or the Bible. For me, as a former atheist (or non-religious if you like) that was the reason I had for a deep hatred for Xianity.
I grew up in a small town in the Bible belt and was surrounded by hypocritical narrow minded Xians who looked down on everyone who wasn't like them. Specifically those who were not Xians. Since even before my Jehovah's Witness influenced Bible study I have been apolitical. I saw politics as even more of a powerful force which brought primarily destruction, division and hypocrisy, but the social aspect of being the minority in a sea of hypocrisy founded upon myth and fables can be an unbearable thing to endure.
The political aspect is equally important to the majority of militant atheists, because they tend to be, political in nature. Politics has been a strange bedfellow with loathsome religion to all too obvious harmful effect for far too long, but this is, unfortunately in my opinion, not likely to change for the better any time soon.
The reason for this is that the majority of people, though almost completely ignorant of the Bible, feel some sort of moral, cultural and traditional connection with Xianity. Simply put atheists are outnumbered. The fact that that is the nature of the political game itself and the history of politic forces throughout history giving organized religion their destructive abilities leaves me wondering why atheist don’t find it in their power to more effectively organize and counter this force, but it is an apparent reality that though truthfully most people don’t believe in God, there is that traditional / cultural connection.
To me it is obvious that a huge help for the atheists to educate themselves on the truths compared to the myths of modern day Xianity, if not to have a more informed contradictory position but also in order to provide as much protection in the future against the same destructive power of the past, but unfortunately I have found that there is one more aspect of Atheism that is even more important than the political / social one. I will address this in my next and final post in this series.
I grew up in a small town in the Bible belt and was surrounded by hypocritical narrow minded Xians who looked down on everyone who wasn't like them. Specifically those who were not Xians. Since even before my Jehovah's Witness influenced Bible study I have been apolitical. I saw politics as even more of a powerful force which brought primarily destruction, division and hypocrisy, but the social aspect of being the minority in a sea of hypocrisy founded upon myth and fables can be an unbearable thing to endure.
The political aspect is equally important to the majority of militant atheists, because they tend to be, political in nature. Politics has been a strange bedfellow with loathsome religion to all too obvious harmful effect for far too long, but this is, unfortunately in my opinion, not likely to change for the better any time soon.
The reason for this is that the majority of people, though almost completely ignorant of the Bible, feel some sort of moral, cultural and traditional connection with Xianity. Simply put atheists are outnumbered. The fact that that is the nature of the political game itself and the history of politic forces throughout history giving organized religion their destructive abilities leaves me wondering why atheist don’t find it in their power to more effectively organize and counter this force, but it is an apparent reality that though truthfully most people don’t believe in God, there is that traditional / cultural connection.
To me it is obvious that a huge help for the atheists to educate themselves on the truths compared to the myths of modern day Xianity, if not to have a more informed contradictory position but also in order to provide as much protection in the future against the same destructive power of the past, but unfortunately I have found that there is one more aspect of Atheism that is even more important than the political / social one. I will address this in my next and final post in this series.