Why are Christians so full of hate?

[Brian37]

NO, you are similar, as with every religion in the world. Mythology falsely believed to be fact.

EVERY religion in the world amounts to the same thing, artificial clubs humans invented, buy and sell and compete over. 

Not buying any crap about a magic man in the sky knowing how old and big our universe is. I don't need old mythology of any label to accept my finite reality nor to be good. I simply wish more humans could accept this is it.

Asserting this won't make it true, to truly know, you have to study.

Fine dude, debate Christian Road Runner. Then after that debate a Jew, then debate a Hindu. Been at this for 17 years buddy. You and Road Runner whom hold different positions do not impress me. 

I find a 13.8 billion year old universe, which has existed without human mythology for most of it's history far more impressive than the bad guesses humans made in antiquity.

[Reltzik]

Obviously not all of them. Some are just default Xtians who happen to have been raised in a country where Xtianity is the predominant religion. But I mean that ones who take it seriously. So many of them are full of hatred or ascribe this emotion to their god. God hates sin, homosexuals or anything or anyone not like them. Why is this?

We're all familiar with the concept of a hateful Muslim in the same way, and although evangelical Xtians don't threaten to cut heads off unbelievers, it's not much better as a woman when you hear how they want to remove your bodily autonomy. Or the insidious conditioning of children where they instil a fear of hell into them.

Yet each one of these hateful Xtians will claim that their religion and their god is one of love. The double speak is of 1984-esque proportions.

The only thing I can see that is common to many of the hateful Xtians is  lack of empathy.

Well let's see. Going just by the Bible: It's a very explicitly us-vs-them religion, everyone who doesn't share their beliefs is (again explicitly) in league with and/or serving the very embodiment of evil, and it's got a laundry list of stuff that they're supposed to hate (gays, working on sabbath, mixed fabrics, menstruating women, nonmarital sex, family, on and on and on and on).

True, not all Christians (and I'd guess not most Christians) subscribe to these points in every particular. And there's also some stuff about loving neighbors and so on that gets honored in the breach more than in the practice. But hatred is written into the DNA of Christianity. When Christians avoid this doctrinal hate, they do so by ignoring, rather than embracing, the core scriptures and traditions of the faith.

And yes, it is Orwellian. And no surprise. In 1984, Ingsoc is EXPLICITLY modeled after the Inquisition specifically and Christianity more generally. Christianity set the example for double-think. Orwell just copied it.

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*reads up on the rest of the thread*

You know, I'm remembering a Tim Burton movie from about 20 years ago called Mars Attacks. It had an ensemble cast, and was B-quality at best. Most of it's forgettable, but one of the running gags stuck with me. The humans build a translating machine to understand the Martian language and it's a horrific failure. The translator keeps translate what the Martians say as "we come in peace" and the like... and it rapidly becomes clear that they do not come in peace. In the translator's very last scene, the Martians are looting and pillaging and killing (as they do), and one of the things they've stolen is the translator, which continues translating what they're saying as "we come in peace" even as they ray-gun down random civilians in passing. And that's when I had the thought: What if the translator's working perfectly, and the Martians are just brazen liars?

In the end, doesn't matter. The Martians can say "we come in peace", but their actions prove otherwise. Anti-gay Christians can say "we don't hate", but their actions prove otherwise. Whether it's because they hate and know it and are lying, or hate but don't realize it and are telling the truth as best they are capable of recognizing it, the results are identical. We have LGBT+ children far more likely than straight children to be kicked out of their homes and be made homeless. The LGBT+ individual is far, far more likely to suffer religion-inspired violence, including sexual violence, for their orientations and gender identities than straight people are. Statistical analysis shows that the high rate of suicide among gay teens is not innate, but rather the consequence of society's scorn. Remove the scorn and the suicide rate returns to baseline. It's not being gay that's driving them to kill themselves. It's Christian "love". Religion-based marginalization and defamation is the rule of the day, to the point where Christian apologists (successfully!) scapegoat gays in order to escape criticism of their own religion's pedophilia and repaint bathroom use as a slippery slope to unchecked child abuse. On. And on. And on. And on. This is exactly what you would do to people you hate, and not what you would do to people you love.

But hey, there's a chance that this IS love. There is a chance that the religion has so warped and twisted how people express love, that they do so in this horrific manner. It's within the realm of possibility and it's not like I can actually tell what's in someone's heart. (Er, head. They've got blood in their hearts, hopefully.) But even then.... SO WHAT? At this point, love is no longer a virtue. Beating someone halfway to death out of love because you're trying to exorcise an imaginary demon from them is still love, and it's also still fucking wrong. So too here. The BEST argument the anti-gay Christian can make on this point is that while his actions might SEEM hateful, he's actually motivated by love. We can't tell the difference based on how he acts or what he does... we just have to take him at his word when he applies the label of "love" to it.

In other words, his love is completely indistinguishable from hate. ... MEANING THAT'S A PRETTY FUCKING AWFUL SORT OF LOVE.

At which point... why would we care? it's still venomous, even if it's venom delivered in "love". Harmful and dangerous and deadly either way. For all practical, functional purposes, it's exactly the same thing. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...

[I_am_not_mafia]

Excellent post Reltzik!

In other words, his love is completely indistinguishable from hate.  ... MEANING THAT'S A PRETTY FUCKING AWFUL SORT OF LOVE.

The same can be said of the god of the bible. He's not a very good role model.

I've often thought that the hateful Xtians are people who don't actually understand what love is. They experience something that they think is love, such as an attachment similar to how your favourite object might give you pleasure, but it's not actual love. But they don't realise this because they don't experience what the rest of us experience.

It took me 40 years to realise that I was asexual for example because I didn't realise that my need to connect with people at a deep level and to have companionship was different to what other people else were experiencing when they were driven by an urge to copulate.

But for the hateful Xtians, they think they're expressing love because it matches what they see their god do in their holy book when he commits genocide and tells his worshippers to mutilate themselves, own slaves or sacrifice their sons.

[Foxaèr]

The lesson to learn is to place one's self in the other's shoes.

Theists don't view their actions as hate. Why? Because god is love.

Theists cannot reasonably separate obeying god and being human, because god is not human.

[robvalue]

I’ve come to the conclusion that intolerance is mostly taught, and it can get drilled into children along with the religion. Just like in areas with a high density of religious people the ideas get reinforced much more, the same is probably true of intolerance. It’s the same kind of bubble effect.

I suppose religion is a very efficient way to propagate intolerance, as you have this instant "god hates it" explanation, instead of having to actually defend your position. And Christianity has plenty of divisive passages in the bible to refer to.

It simmers up just as far the restraints of secular law will allow.

[RoadRunner79]

The lesson to learn is to place one's self in the other's shoes.

Theists don't view their actions as hate. Why? Because god is love.

Theists cannot reasonably separate obeying god and being human, because god is not human.

I don’t view it as hate or fear, or any other B.S. you people make up, because I don’t see it or feel that way. I think that some may have these feelings towards certain groups; but not all or even most (that I know).

[Amarok]

Road continuing to make excuses for his disgusting bullocks and expecting us to "tolerate " it

[Foxaèr]

I don’t view it as hate or fear, or any other B.S. you people make up, because I don’t see it or feel that way. I think that some may have these feelings towards certain groups; but not all or even most (that I know).

The good thing is that the only thing being made up is that of a religious nature, because goodness knows that reality is absent of such conceptual nonsense.

[RoadRunner79]

I don’t view it as hate or fear, or any other B.S. you people make up, because I don’t see it or feel that way. I think that some may have these feelings towards certain groups; but not all or even most (that I know).

The good thing is that the only thing being made up is that of a religious nature, because goodness knows that reality is absent of such conceptual nonsense.

Perhaps.... can you support that claim?

[Foxaèr]

Perhaps.... can you support that claim?

Indeed. I can.

When was the last time a scientist made a claim that was unsupportable?