What are your answers?

[LastPoet]

LastPoet, will you be my friend? You remind me of another great friend I know. I really enjoyed the truth and ease of your responses.

::holding back the urge to hug people::

That is my default position towards people that I know, but beware, frienships are like boobs: There are small ones, big ones and fake ones. Witch will your be?

As to the hugs, we have a thread for that, created by our Queen.

Even though I may seem beyond nerdy, I'm a pretty serious friend. I enjoy realistic friendships with people that know that I am flawed and that I do not have all the answers. I enjoy friendships where we can go into the deepest areas of our fears, desires, pains and theories on life in the middle of a super market. I don't really like small talk, but I'll engage in it if that's all the other person can muster. I love people and have a deep desire to surround myself with understanding, friendly, respectful and reasonable people of any faith. I felt you were one of those people, am I wrong? Perhaps you cannot be like that with me, because you don't know me, but I invite you LastPoet and anyone else to drop me a note if they want to talk about anything.

Let time be the judge of that, like I said, all the people that I know start as friends. You don't need to prove, you just need to remain. I do a bit of burden of proof reversal here, I know, but it has proven itself a good method.

[The Grand Nudger]

As far as dropping a note, I'll pass. You have some claim to make? Make it in public.

[thesummerqueen]

He was being friendly, dear, not saying he was going to preach to you in private. Some of them do have conversations about OTHER things, you know.

[The Grand Nudger]

Benefit of the doubt, further proof that you're a softer person than I.

[thesummerqueen]

This forum isn't about jumping all over people and after the last couple atheists we've had come through I'm finding a little politeness to be refreshing.

Second, it takes a stronger person to risk letting someone in and getting hurt later than to keep them shut out from the outset. So kiss my ass, "softie".

---

Must be that "vulnerability" you spoke of.

[Simon Moon]

I'm a little late the party, but I'll respond anyway.

The more I read the posts on this website, the more I wonder about the real reason for the hatred a lot of Athiests have for Jesus, the Bible, God and religion.

These are my questions:

1. Are athiests just wounded people, upset that God hasn't shown himself to them in a way they deem acceptable? Meaning, if he suddenly appeared you would believe?

Not wounded at all. I'm not upset that the Biblical 'God' character hasn't shown himself to me, because I disbelieve he exists. Are you upset that Shiva hasn't shown himself to you, or do you simply disbelieve Shiva exists?

2. Do athiests hate God or do they hate organized religion in general?

I don't hate the nonexistent. I do hate organized religion.

3. Why does it seem like athiests hate Jesus more than anyone, what do you think of Jesus?

Why would I hate someone that, even if he did exist, was nothing more than a rabble rousing Messianic rabbi from the 1st century CE? There were enough of them around at the time, and Jeshua was a very common name.

4. Do any of you know athiests that have converted to another religion, did you feel swayed by their conversion?

Atheism is NOT a religion, it is the lack of theistic beliefs. I do not personally know an atheist that has become religious. I do know a Christian that converted to Hinduism after visiting a Hindu temple in LA, where he claims to have had some sort of personal revelation. Would you be swayed if a friend of yours had a similar conversion?

5. Are you an athiest based on your research of many of the top religions, or does your athiesm come from a personal experience where you feel that God didn't show up like he should have?

None of the above. My atheism is purely based on the lack of demonstrable evidence or reasoned argument to support the existence of ANY god. In this way, my atheism is provisional.

6. Since athiests don't believe in God and dislike when people force God on them, why do they force their negative and hateful opinions on Christians (and other religions) through mockery and verbal assault?

Atheism is in no way hateful or negative. Sometimes mockery is the best way to get people to examine their unsupported or ridiculous beliefs. When I was a kid I had a friend that continued to believe in Santa Claus long after I knew it was a childhood fantasy. I used to mock him until he questioned his beliefs.

[Anomalocaris]

1. Are athiests just wounded people, upset that God hasn't shown himself to them in a way they deem acceptable? Meaning, if he suddenly appeared you would believe?

Speaking for myself, I may be wounded by something else, but not by that fact that some entity whose existence is supremely questionable hasn't given me something which humans have good cause to believe to attainable through their own independent studious and relentless endeavors. I am upset, however, by those who would misdirect human effort from the demonstratively productive, if slow acting and laborous, endeavor into the seedy deadend of hoping for grants from fictional on-highs.

2. Do athiests hate God or do they hate organized religion in general?

I hate theists who forget their places.

3. Why does it seem like athiests hate Jesus more than anyone, what do you think of Jesus?

It only seems like that because you have a particular soft spot for that fictional character whose worship has been so destructive to humanity. If you were to worship Zeus with the same evangelical, hell fire and brimstone ferver that does a comparable amount of damage as had done the cult of Jesus, you would feel that I hate your precious zeus more than anyone.

4. Do any of you know athiests that have converted to another religion, did you feel swayed by their conversion?

Yes, and no.

5. Are you an athiest based on your research of many of the top religions, or does your athiesm come from a personal experience where you feel that God didn't show up like he should have?

Whether I might "feel" god showed up like he should have has nothing to do with why I would not descend so far as to let my brain be led by how I "feel".

6. Since athiests don't believe in God and dislike when people force God on them, why do they force their negative and hateful opinions on Christians (and other religions) through mockery and verbal assault?

Do you see us threaten you with fictional hell fire for not embracing atheism? Do you see us tempt you with fictional and rather seedy kinds of fulfillment in return for embracing atheism?

[DeistPaladin]

DISCLAIMER: I have not yet read the other responses. Apologies in advance if I repeat what others have said.

The more I read the posts on this website, the more I wonder about the real reason for the hatred a lot of Athiests have for Jesus, the Bible, God and religion.

If you wish to understand how we feel about your religion, try to imagine how you would feel in the following situations:

1. A Wiccan school teacher has your children in a public school praying to "the goddess".

2. Muslims become the majority in your community and pass Sharia laws that apply both to believers and non believers alike.

3. Hindus in your community use your tax dollars to build great monuments to Shiva in your local public park.

4. You pull out a dollar bill and read an inscription "In Zeus We Trust".

5. Jews knock on your door one Saturday morning and as "have you found Moses?"

6. Former President H W Bush says, "I don't think Christians should be considered patriots nor can they be considered citizens of America. This is one nation under Thor."

7. You want to marry this great woman (if you're a man or man if you're a woman) you really love but gays prevent you legally saying "marriage is a union between two people of the same gender".

Jesus is said to have laid down the Golden Rule, as you would have others do unto you, do ye likewise unto them. When you understand how upset you would be under any of the above circumstances, you understand how atheists feel in America.

These are my questions:

1. Are athiests just wounded people, upset that God hasn't shown himself to them in a way they deem acceptable? Meaning, if he suddenly appeared you would believe?

These are two separate questions. My answer to the first is no. My answer to the second is yes.

2. Do athiests hate God or do they hate organized religion in general?

I don't think your god exists. There's nothing to hate.

3. Why does it seem like athiests hate Jesus more than anyone, what do you think of Jesus?

I assume you must be American to ask this question. Here, Christianity is the dominant religion and so gets the most attention.

4. Do any of you know athiests that have converted to another religion, did you feel swayed by their conversion?

Most atheists I know are ex-Christians. A few have experimented with alternate religions before giving up on superstition entirely.

5. Are you an athiest based on your research of many of the top religions, or does your athiesm come from a personal experience where you feel that God didn't show up like he should have?

I don't believe your religion because you haven't met the burden of proof. It's the same reason you don't believe in Allah, Zeus, Shiva, Odin, Thor, or a variety of other gods. Actually, Thor is real. He's a poster here but he's not a god. At least, I don't think he is.

6. Since athiests don't believe in God and dislike when people force God on them, why do they force their negative and hateful opinions on Christians (and other religions) through mockery and verbal assault?

If all Christians would try keeping their religion to themselves and not intrude on atheists in any of the ways outline in my seven scenarios above, you would be surprised how quiet we would suddenly become.

[Kayenneh]

I'll answer these without reading anyone else's first, so that I actually give my own opinion

1. Are athiests just wounded people, upset that God hasn't shown himself to them in a way they deem acceptable? Meaning, if he suddenly appeared you would believe?

Wounded? No. I was a believer a long time and thought that God showed himself to me in many ways. When I started to doubt and went down the path of atheism, nothing changed per se. Life is still wonderful, I just better understand the world around me nowadays.
If there actually was a god, I'm wondering why he in that case hasn't showed himself before. Nope, I need massive and undoubtable proof of his existence. To answer the question I think you're asking: yes, I could admit if I was wrong.

2. Do athiests hate God or do they hate organized religion in general?

A) I don't hate. It's a vile feeling that rarely brings anything good.
B) How can I hate something that don't exist? I feel as much dislike for the fictional character "God" as I would for say, Voldemort or Sauron.
C) Organized religion takes so much good out of life. There are of course some good sides to it, at least to it's followers, but I can't stand ignorance, and religion equals self-imposed ignorance to me.

3. Why does it seem like athiests hate Jesus more than anyone, what do you think of Jesus?

Again, to me he's a character in a book. Cannot hate something that didn't exist. My opinion is that his writers gave him some good quotes, like the golden rule, but he supposedly said a lot of bullshit too. There are so many better written male leads in other books, though.. :p

4. Do any of you know athiests that have converted to another religion, did you feel swayed by their conversion?

Not personally. To me it would be like breaking my own neck and live like a cripple for the rest of my life.

5. Are you an athiest based on your research of many of the top religions, or does your athiesm come from a personal experience where you feel that God didn't show up like he should have?

I like to think and question. It doesn't suit well with religion. I prayed daily and thought that my prayers were answered, thus thought there was a god that cared. When I stopped praying and my stroke of amazingly good luck continued, I knew that I had been a fool.

6. Since athiests don't believe in God and dislike when people force God on them, why do they force their negative and hateful opinions on Christians (and other religions) through mockery and verbal assault?

Now I have to ask you what you mean by negative and hateful opinions? I cannot deny that there's fundamentalist atheists, who's opinions I could never agree with and I can consider those hateful. As I earlier mentioned, I cannot agree with the degree of stupidity that religion holds and what their make believe gods demand of their followers. Of course there are wonderful, kind and decent people of faith, but they still support a system that advocates idiocy.

My only opinion concerning life without religion is this:

You are alone and insignificant, but to yourself and a few selected people around you, you are truly important. You make your own fortune, if you're content with your decisions, you won't regret your life. Life is short and unlikely, so be grateful that you were sentient enough to perceive this marvellous world. Death comes to all, and it is final, so make the most of the time you have at hand. Be kind to yourself and those around you, and strive to make this world a little bit better before you leave it.

Now, is this hateful, I ask you? I do not force my opinions on anyone, hey, I'm not supposed to "go out and baptise them in his name", but if asked I will give my sincere opinion.

As for the mockery and verbal assault, sometimes it's hard to keep one's cool, and both sides in this debate have spoken unfair and mean words. And unfortunately, being really clever makes it boring to converse with stupid people, so sometimes the frustration might get the better of someone..

[salty]

How is the Christian God better than the other religons? He condemns people for lack of faith.

According to the Bible, Jesus was among us, living and teaching, even healing people at one time, and still many did not believe he was the Messiah.

I believe that Christ is better than the god or gods of other religions (including some Christian cults) and extremist views because:
1. God promises to show himself to people who are really seeking him.
2. God promises to never abandon us and he shows his love by the sacrifice that he made to redeem us from sin.
3. God tells us that we have a purpose, that we were created for Jesus and by Jesus, and each person is given gifts and talents to use to bring others to know him so that everyone can be welcomed into paradise.
4. God does not want to see any perish, but people who reject him are essentially accepting his enemy, Lucifer, as their master, he makes it very clear there are only two sides and he created Hell for Lucifer, therefore anyone who serves Lucifer will have a share in his punishment.
5. Salvation is a free gift, given to us by the sacrifice of Jesus, we do not need to log any service hours, we do not need to say a certain number of hail Mary's, we don't need to go to church every day and speak only certain words or wear certain things, or pray in certain positions, all we need to do is believe that Jesus rose from the dead, that his sacrifice was real and that he is God.
6. Heaven is a place where the Lord promises to wipe away all sorrow and suffering. Heaven is also a place where I will see all my family members that have chosen Christ.
7. God promises that when he appears, anyone who calls on his name will be saved, prolonged mercy.
8. Finally, God promises that when we become eternal we will never be tempted again because he will extinguish all sin and evil, and he will judge everyone fairly, according to the things they have done in their lifetime.