What are your answers?

[The Grand Nudger]

The sky is blue regardless of what one perceives it to be. This is because the color blue is just a human word for a wavelength of light that exists independent of the human eye. I'm not close, I'm dead on.

Yet another reason for separating what we believe from what we know. One can imagine two groups of people stabbing each other over such a disagreement.

[searchingforanswers]

When the world seems to be ruled by stupidity i can always count on rhythm to make sense.

[Anymouse]

---

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?

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

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

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

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?

Thank you, in advance, for your responses! It would be great if you could respond to all the questions. I'm speaking to real athiests who respect my desire to understand the feelings behind athiesm. I do not intend to be disrespectful, if I am, please let me know what should be rephrased. Thanks again.

Salty

---

Well, coming to a place called atheistforums.org and asking mocking questions is disrespectful too, but I'll let that go. I am assuming you did not run "prayer and spirituality" through Google and come up with this site.

I am not an atheist, so I presume these questions do not apply to me. Christians just want to burn us, not convert us. But these questions come up all the time, especially from Christians, mostly it seems to bait atheists.

So I'll give you the Wiccan answers, since you didn't ask them to anyone but atheists.

[1] Are Christians just wounded people, angry that all other religions have had divinity revealed to them in a different way?

[2] Presumably, anyone of rational mind when presented with irrefutable evidence must accept the veracity of that evidence. If Lord and Lady were to appear corporeally to you and perform some act in support of Wiccan's idea of magic (instead of the Christian idea of magic), would you accept the validity of Wicca?

[3] Wiccans (and atheists) do not hate the idea of Jesus. They do not believe in the idea of Jesus. Non-belief is not hatred. On the other hand, Christians kill every day even now in the name of God and Jesus. They claim plausible deniability when one of their own does something in the name of their religion, saying "he is not a real Christian."

The Inquisition and Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka are not perversions of Christianity, they are expressions of Christianity.

[4] Atheists do not convert to another religion, as they do not have a religion. They can convert to a religion, including Christianity, but are unlikely to do so as they employ logic and rational thinking, not found in Christian faith in general. I do not know of any. I do know a number of Christians who have converted to Wicca over the innumerable inconsistencies of Christianity and the people who practice it.

[5] An atheist would ask the same of you. They might also ask if you are a Christian because you were raised that way. Did you study innumerable religions: animism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Janism, Shinto, Hinduism, Scientology, Santeria, Vooduin, Wicca, &c. ad nauseum? Did you study the multitude of Christian sects before selecting one, or did you just decide you are a Christian without the benefit of a church? That you are qualified to interpret writings over two thousand years old and multiply translated questionably from original documents which are not now known? Or do you simply accept the words of a KJV that one cannot hope to understand unless a student of ancient Modern English, meaning you really don't know what it says? Martin Luther made note of that about the Latin Bibles in use in his day. Yours is like the Latin Bible if you use the KJV.

[6] Why do Christians force their religion onto our money, on Ten Commandment monuments in our nation's courthouses and government buildings, and pseudoscience into our nation's education system?

I have seen far more mockery and verbal assault against atheists than from them. This is atheistforums.org, not christianelightenment.$$$. Do you honestly believe a Christian would treat an atheist well who comes into their forums and simply propounds the Gospel of Nothing?

I have seen Christian love in the picketing and death threats against my family from Pat Robertson's students at CBN when I ran a Wiccan bulletin board service in Virginia Beach. Irene's coming to get him. Goddess shall not be denied her due. One ignores Nature at one's peril.

Wicca is a nature and fertility religion, and Irene is one of the most powerful examples of nature in weather. It will kill and destroy indiscriminately, Christian and all others alike. If your God is so protective, why would he visit destruction and death on his own flock? If you so believe in the power of prayer to Jesus, why aren't you in North Carolina on the beach praying for God's deliverance? You don't have sufficient faith, perhaps?

Wiccans (and atheists) can show you Irene. They can point to its power and destructive force. Where is Jesus? Can you show him to me (not alleged writings by alleged prophets and apostles that claim they saw him)? Will you convert to a nature religion such as Wicca, which can provide evidence and proof of Nature every day? Or to atheism because weather forecasters can provide scientific explanations for weather phenomena such as hurricanes, and can make far more accurate predictions about them than prophets in the Bible ever did?

[salty]

I see no problem with loving something "imaginary" especially if the pretend force is molding me into a more patient person, a person who seeks to know more about others, help them if possible and seeks to dedicate time and energy to building others up. What's wrong with that kind of lifestyle? Why are you showing so much anger for my "ignorant" thoughts? Have I ever been angry at your opposing ways?

That's all well and good. The very same also molds folks into the kind of people that fly planes into buildings. Or burn people alive. Or exterminate entire races of "savages". The problem with imaginary underpinnings of reality is that they are so malleable as to lead to just about anything. While you may feel compelled to do good by your faith, many do not, or redefine what is good. Your god and my atheism may both lead to wonderful things, the caveat is that atheism can never command me to genocide.

I see what you're saying. Just keep in mind, people choose for themselves how and in what ways they react to a message. Any message.

I command you to tie my shoes!

Are you going to do it Rhythm? I don't see why you would, you know I'm capable of doing it myself. You don't know where I am, if I'm even in the States or overseas. I'm not your parent, I'm not in need...you make your own choices and so did they.

[thesummerqueen]

wow. The forums have been difficult all day on this computer, so I've only seen bits and pieces of this thread and now I'm afraid to go back and read it all.

[Anymouse]

wow. The forums have been difficult all day on this computer, so I've only seen bits and pieces of this thread and now I'm afraid to go back and read it all.

Just read my answer right above yours and Salty's answer to Rhythm's then. It's the best one.

[The Grand Nudger]

I see what you're saying. Just keep in mind, people choose for themselves how and in what ways they react to a message. Any message.

Perhaps gods should be more explicit in their commands. Perhaps they should flesh out their authority with actual knowledge instead of superstition.

[thesummerqueen]

wow. The forums have been difficult all day on this computer, so I've only seen bits and pieces of this thread and now I'm afraid to go back and read it all.

Just read my answer right above yours then. It's the best one.

My oft-proclaimed good opinion of certain people of a pagan bent notwithstanding, excuse me if I remain skeptical as to whose answers are "best".

[The Grand Nudger]

Whodat, whodere?

[thesummerqueen]

howzit?