Serious question about thoughts on theists

[Neo-Scholastic]

Do you find yourself blanket/generalizing all "theists" in the same vein?  All who believe a God exists is silly, moronic? 

Why don't you ask yourself that? Is every Muslim or Scientologists or Hare Krishna stupid?

I don't think that all religious people are stupid.

I guess I could divide religious types into three groups:

1. Misinformed

Some people have just been fed wrong info about the world and once they learn/ read that stories from their religious book did not and could not happen and that their reasoning is wrong they abandon religion.


2. People who have some materialistic gain from religion

They don't really care what's true or isn't true, they just follow the money. That can be anyone: a politician who claims that god chose him; a religious leader who collects money; some guy who has a harem because he convinced women that he is chosen by god; a theist lecturer who talks and writes about religion to make a lot of money, etc.

3. Dumb people

Some people are just that: stupid. To them, basic stuff is simply too complicated to understand and they resort to simple explanations (the world is flat, the world is 6000 years old and created by a wizard using magic, etc).

It must feel pretty good to believe you are better informed, more pure, and smarter than the people you disagree with.

[arewethereyet]

Why don't you ask yourself that? Is every Muslim or Scientologists or Hare Krishna stupid?

I don't think that all religious people are stupid.

I guess I could divide religious types into three groups:

1. Misinformed

Some people have just been fed wrong info about the world and once they learn/ read that stories from their religious book did not and could not happen and that their reasoning is wrong they abandon religion.


2. People who have some materialistic gain from religion

They don't really care what's true or isn't true, they just follow the money. That can be anyone: a politician who claims that god chose him; a religious leader who collects money; some guy who has a harem because he convinced women that he is chosen by god; a theist lecturer who talks and writes about religion to make a lot of money, etc.

3. Dumb people

Some people are just that: stupid. To them, basic stuff is simply too complicated to understand and they resort to simple explanations (the world is flat, the world is 6000 years old and created by a wizard using magic, etc).

It must feel pretty good to believe you are better informed, more pure, and smarter than the people you disagree with.

Pot meet kettle.

[Fake Messiah]

Pot meet kettle.

Exactly. Every Christian thinks he is better informed and smarter than Scientologist, Hare Krishna, and a Muslim, but when it comes to their religion they avoid thinking about it and talk about atheists how they look at religious people.

[Kingpin]

Pot meet kettle.

Exactly. Every Christian thinks he is better informed and smarter than Scientologist, Hare Krishna, and a Muslim, but when it comes to their religion they avoid thinking about it and talk about atheists how they look at religious people.

That generalization is categorically untrue.

[brewer]

Like AWTY I live in a 90%+ christian community and am always assumed to be christian. Until people know I'm atheist I get the pleasure of hearing their anti atheist/other religion diatribe, when they have one.

And yeah, I know I'm more anti-theist on the forum than in reality, but this is the place where I can discuss/vent and not be in the minority. IRL I let most christian atheist comments slide. I firgure that if they were actually what they claim to be they should know better and so what they say does not amount to a hill of beans, not worth a public discussion. 

In the end I usually take theists on an individual case by case basis, their religion/sect is usually a different story. Kingpin, I'm confident that I receive more personal attacks in public regarding religion that you. (oh shit, was that a personal attack?)

[Gawdzilla Sama]

  I believe most of you are former believers or grew up in forced religion, etc. 

You said friends but I'll reply anyway. Never religious, never programmed, never that lamb to slaughter.

[Anomalocaris]

For all my non-believing friends.  I believe most of you are former believers or grew up in forced religion, etc.  Do you find yourself blanket/generalizing all "theists" in the same vein?  All who believe a God exists is silly, moronic?  Or do you take each theist is their own person and assess your thoughts towards them on how they respond/treat you?  Maybe it's a mix?

I only ask because I see a lot of ad hominem attacks in responses when responding to theists on here.  Personally, I don't care if someone calls me silly, moronic, etc. I'm geniunely curious if that's how you view all theists in general, if so why?

“Theism is wrong because theists are stupid” is ad hominem.    “Theism is wrong, therefore theists are stupid” is a deduction, perhaps unflattering, may even be wrong, but it is not an ad hominem.

[KerimF]

Please see next post.

[KerimF]

Pot meet kettle.

Exactly. Every Christian thinks he is better informed and smarter than Scientologist, Hare Krishna, and a Muslim, but when it comes to their religion they avoid thinking about it and talk about atheists how they look at religious people.

You surely got this impression (or belief) from the Christians whom you had the chance to meet and talk.

On my side, the situation is reversed. I used hearing Christians (usually formal ones, belonging to a certain Church or Denomination) that a human has to accept/believe, based on faith, many heavenly secrets which are beyond human's reasoning. In other words, they are supposed to believe that Jesus came to add secrets (as in Pagan's religions), not to add (while having the Heavenly knowledge) useful information about how the world is designed to run (by revealing the crucial natural truths about Life's Reality).
So, it was normal for the moderators of Christian forums to ban me (usually by using a clever hidden way provided by new internet functions) when I start showing how Jesus, the all-knowledge teacher, saved my ignorance. Yes, ignorance is the greatest weakness which a human can have, and every human baby (including I) is born with. Naturally, I didn't blame any of those Christian moderators because saying that Jesus is an all-knowledge teacher instead of THE PROMISED SAVIOR (like in magic) sounds to them a serious blasphemy (after all, they are right because this is against the interests of the powerful rich people running their Churches in the name of Jesus).

Now you know why I enjoy being among atheists.

[HappySkeptic]

You surely got this impression (or belief) from the Christians whom you had the chance to meet and talk.

On my side, the situation is reversed. I used hearing Christians (usually formal ones, belonging to a certain Church or Denomination) that a human has to accept/believe, based on faith, many heavenly secrets which are beyond human's reasoning. In other words, they are supposed to believe that Jesus came to add secrets (as in Pagan's religions), not to add (while having the Heavenly knowledge) useful information about how the world is designed to run (by revealing the crucial natural truths about Life's Reality).
So, it was normal for the moderators of Christian forums to ban me (usually by using a clever hidden way provided by new internet functions) when I start showing how Jesus, the all-knowledge teacher, saved my ignorance. Yes, ignorance is the greatest weakness which a human can have, and every human baby (including I) is born with. Naturally, I didn't blame any of those Christian moderators because saying that Jesus is an all-knowledge teacher instead of THE PROMISED SAVIOR (like in magic) sounds to them a serious blasphemy (after all, they are right because this is against the interests of the powerful rich people running their Churches in the name of Jesus).

Now you know why I enjoy being among atheists.

There is small enough evidence that Jesus even existed, but there is no evidence that he was an all-knowing teacher (nor that he as God and Savior).

I don't agree with your conspiracy theories of elites, but I do think that the fundamental purpose of any hierarchical religion is growth and control.  It certainly isn't truth.