Why so many attacks on Christianity?

[butterbut]

Why is like every other thread attacking Christianity? Why do you care so much about what other people believe? Just worry about yourself. Stop wasting your time.

[WWFStern]

Religious ideas are just like economic ideas, or political views, or scientific hypotheses, or any other notion. When somebody steps out and says, "This is the case," a dissenter has every right to say, "I don't think that's the case, and I demand that you prove your statement."

Attacking Christianity is analogous to attacking supply-side economics or military isolationism or immigration reform. It's an exchange of ideas and a debate of positions.

Religion ought not be granted privileged treatment, in my view.

[Jack]

Questioning, challenging, examining, poking at and being skeptical about Christianity is not an attack.

Why do you care so much about what other people believe? Just worry about yourself. Stop wasting your time.

Wouldn't this also apply to Christians who get bothered about atheist threads?

[rez]

Quote by: butterbut Why is like every other thread attacking Christianity? Why do you care so much about what other people believe? Just worry about yourself. Stop wasting your time.

No no no. Don't worry, the only reason why Christianity is used the most is because the theists on this board are Christian. Also most of the members on volconvo are American and America is a Christian nation.

And just because we say Christian, does not mean we are just attacking that religion and no other.

A Christian is a magical thinker and a holder of a double standard like all the other religious followers in the world. All religions require their followers to be superstitious, not just Christianity.

The argument is based on irrational thinking and how religion causes one to stop thinking....

[Thanatos]

Quote by: butterbut Why is like every other thread attacking Christianity? Why do you care so much about what other people believe? Just worry about yourself. Stop wasting your time.

Its a debate site. If we all agreed with eachother and shut up then it wouldn't be a debate site. The Christians do it too, but here they're actually a minority. Also, if you guys would stop bashing gays and Muslims it would be kind of nice. And can you stay away from the first amendment?

Oh, and maybe there's this vague urge to get you to learn that being good because you fear pain and seek pleasure is not very meaningful. And this whole concept of eternal punishment? Heck, if you really believe in eye for an eye justice instead of justice motivated for crime prevention and rehabilitation then I suppose Adolf Hitler should do a few million years but not eternal punishment.

In short, we're attacking you for the reasons stated in the attacks...

[ZNFYRH]

butterbut

Because some people can't understand why other people have a belief they don't.

They don't accept that they may have either imagined, or really witnessed, something that made them believe in something beyond our currently observable reality.

Of those people who believe, there are two types. Those who say they believe but don't force it on others and those who do.

Of those people who attack, there are two types. Those who only have a problem with the ones who try to force it and those who think all believers are delusional.

I don't have a problem with the people who believe but don't force.

And I don't have a problem with the people who clearly state they are only attacking those who try to force their belief.

The other two... the ones who attack without discretion... and the ones who try to force their belief... are the reason there is conflict.

[HelioPrime]

I'm never bothered by atheist threads. I get bothered when people set rules for what the unknown and supernatural must be, then claim its bogus according to their own rules.

I think everyone attacks christianity of course because its the base relgion for the west, and most importantly is has the largest collection of books and websites offering up contrasts.

[freefallife]

Quote by: butterbut Why is like every other thread attacking Christianity? Why do you care so much about what other people believe? Just worry about yourself. Stop wasting your time.

Lets see...we're on a DEBATE forum....in the RELIGION threads....hmmmm

[Maryjane]

Why do you care so much about what other people believe? Just worry about yourself. Stop wasting your time.

I say the same thing to the religious folk (Christians all of them) that come to my house, unsolicited, and tell me why their beliefs are better than my non belief. When was the last time a non believer came to your door trying to convert you?

I say the same thing to those that offer me platitudes that my husband is in a better place and it was all part of god's plan. They pray for me. Why? If prayers worked my husband would be alive and to tell you the truth, my life is less fucked up than theirs. Why don't they pray for themselves and leave me alone?

I say the same thing to those that tell my husband is burning in hell and they pity me. Some of them will even whip out a bible and quote scripture as proof. Why do they care about someone elses soul?

I wish my 10 year old son didn't come home from school with a stomach ache because another child found out he doesn't go to church and they found that reason enough to tease him. If I went to school and caused a stink about it, do you honestly think the teasing would stop or would it escalate? Being different is not accepted. As someone else pointed out, if you happen to be a homosexual, it's even worse. Why are we a threat to Christians? Why can't Christians accept that homosexuals are capeable of loving a person of the same sex the same way heteros do?

Finally, I get tired of the religious right and their involvement in politics. They think they need to legislate morality for everyone based on their beliefs yet they have proved over and over that their morality isn't anything I would want to emulate. I find the majority of them to be hypocrites. Why do they look at me as if I was the spawn of satan? I never cheated on my husband nor do I lie, cheat, or steal to get ahead in this world. Wish I could say the same for a lot of Christians I know. I could write a book on the people that tried to swindle me when my husband died, all considered themselves to be "good" Christians.


I belong to another message board for widows/ers with the majority of their membership being Christian. A few times when I expressed a different viewpoint I was attacked. Why should I hide who I am on a board mean to support those with grief issues? I paid my "dues" like everyone else. So, I come to Volconvo to share my opinions, vent my frustrations, and learn more about religion so I can defend myself against those that won't leave me the hell alone in my real life. I really don't care if people are religious, if it helps them cope that's fine. It's when they shove it down my throat or try to convence me that the KNOW something, I get defensive.

[freefallife]

Couldn't have said it any better myself

[juanhar1]

Quote by: butterbut Why is like every other thread attacking Christianity? Why do you care so much about what other people believe? Just worry about yourself. Stop wasting your time.

What the World is starting to discover about Christianity, is how Jesus felt about it, being that it was created by a Pharisee and not Christ. See Matt.23:15

[HelioPrime]

I hate to attack you Maryjane, but because of the few groups that travel and try and convert we should openly attack and hate all chrisitans?

You make it sounds as if the source of alll family grief starts from the bible

[Zhavric]

Quote by: butterbut Why is like every other thread attacking Christianity?

Because...

A) This is a debate site where we have reasonable freedom of speech. No topic is off-limits.

B) Because Christianity makes truth claims which are demonstrably false.

Why do you care so much about what other people believe?

There's only so many times you can hear the intellectual equivalent of "1+1=3" before you have to correct the person who stated it.

Just worry about yourself. Stop wasting your time.

If I were worried about wasting time, would I be on an internet forum?

[Athena]

Quote by: butterbut Why is like every other thread attacking Christianity? Why do you care so much about what other people believe? Just worry about yourself. Stop wasting your time.

How about the Christian Right backing Bush even after he took us into a war that should not have been started.

How about the Christian superstition which stands in the place of understanding science is to democracy, what holy books are to religions.
And them hijacking the Statue of Liberty and claiming Christians are to be credited for democracy. Really distorting our understanding of democracy.

How about Christians "protecting their schools and neighborhoods" from non Christians, and preaching non Christians are godless and don't know morals. That is really offensive!.

How about the Christian involvement with KKK an organization that persecuted Blacks, and the religious attack on homosexuals, and some might say, an attack on females when it supported discrimination based on sex.

[Jack]

I hate to attack you Maryjane, but because of the few groups that travel and try and convert we should openly attack and hate all chrisitans?

She mentioned more than that one cause.

And as has been pointed out repeatedly, we aren't "attacking" or hating. The Christian's notorious persecution complex causes them to perceive any disagreement or challenge to their beliefs as an attack. We're pointing out the flaws that we see in their religion and encouraging people to think for themselves.

You make it sounds as if the source of alll family grief starts from the bible

I believe she substantiated situations in which those who follow the Bible have caused "family grief" for her family.

[Zhavric]

Quote by: Isherwood The Christian's notorious persecution complex causes them to perceive any disagreement or challenge to their beliefs as an attack.

Which is exactly how the clergy / Christian right wants people to react. "It couldn't posibly be that decent human beings are trying to show you that you're endorsing a 1600 year old scam. They're attacking you! They don't want to show you the light. They're just trolls looking to troll!"

There isn't a used car dealer on the planet who wouldn't give his left arm for that sort of reaction.

Person looking to buy a car - "The dealer told me this one without an engine is good. He says if I believe really hard, it'll run even though it obviously doesn't have an engine and he told me there were other people who bought similar cars who swore on their very lives that these are good cars."

Person's friend who sees what's going on - "Look, it's obvious this car isn't going to run. Why don't you look at the evidence and see what's really going on here? It's got no engine. No amount of wishful thinking is going to change that and the people the dealer is talking about probably don't even exist."

Person looking to buy a car - "Hey, man, quit hating? You don't have to talk so mean about my choice of automobile. Why do you care? Why can't you just let me buy my engineless car? Don't you have better things to do? Why are you attacking my decision?"

[phoenix_fire]

Before I go into some of the worst offenders, I'm going to make it clear that typical atheists simply put in their two cents on subjects of interest to them. They aren't particularly antagonistic, but they do have an opinion on the matter. But they're probably not the ones you're thinking about.

On the other hand, there are some atheists that, plain and simple, hate Christianity deeply. Whether it is because they had a traumatic experience with it in the past or because it is simply where the potential for cruelty inherent in all men finds its expression in them, they absolutely and unobjectively hate it.

Contrary to what one would think and to the supposedly enlightened nature of atheism, these anti-theists are some of the most hateful and bigoted people you will ever meet in cyberspace. You got it: I said bigoted. It doesn't just mean uneducated southern rednecks. The second they find out you're a Christian, they assume that you're a white male living somewhere in the South who votes Republican, watches football, eats tons of red meat, has no idea what's going on in the world around them, hates gays, loves war...well, you get the picture. I've even had one person tell me that if someone is a theist, their reason and rationality are automatically suspect. As if a theist couldn't be relied upon to tie their shoes in the morning. There is automatically a bigoted response that Christians must be ignorant, unintelligent, uneducated illiterates in order to believe what they believe. As if no intelligent and rational man would. And that's just the highbrow stuff.

Some anti-theists are far more direct in their hatred. Some believe Christianity to be so logically untenable that even the weakest, stupidest, most pointless and off-topic argument from their fingertips can damage, overload, or tear-in-half anything that a Christian might say. Therefore, they don't even look to see what the argument was before declaring themselves victor. And there are those that, apart from wanting to win the argument, want to humiliate, abuse, and beat to submission the theists that disagree with them. Those who claim to run you over with a truck on the boards and who really might if they met you in person.

I've had a member tell me that he would beat the Christianity out of me (figuratively speaking). Implying not only that he hates Christianity, but that he relishes the idea of psychologically crushing Christians. This takes a special kind of hatred and fear. There are those here that would take the side of a religion that they would hate even more if it were dominant where they lived in order to take another shot at Christianity. I've even seen a member salivating at the idea of Muslim conquest of the West. (If you're wondering why he would enjoy his own imperilment, he has the oddly ignorant idea that the Muslim overlords would play nice with him since he's an atheist...ya know...since they have bombs that know not to hit atheists...yeah...). It's a single-minded blind hatred that is not open for debate or able to see consequences.

Then there are the clinical haters that say that Christianity is a disease of the mind or an instrument of child abuse. They try to find every chance to outlaw its expression. They take every chance to talk about the Inquisition, and they'll blame anything even remotely related to Christians entirely on Christian thought and belief. As if every single Christian living now liked to torture innocents in a past life or something. As if Christians still to this day think that kind of behavior is acceptable and/or scriptural. But we still feel bad about it. Even though we know that our faith never called for something like that. Even though neither we nor anyone we know had any part in it. They enjoy relating Christians to the KKK, Hitler, Torquemada. They conveniently ignore those who suffer, sacrifice, and make the world a better place in the name of Christ. Because hatred is myopic.

[butterbut]

I know its a debate forum but like, Pheonix, I get the feeling that many people here simply hate Christianity. It bothers me that they attack religion becuase religion generally helps society.

[Zhavric]

Quote by: PF I've had a member tell me that he would beat the Christianity out of me (figuratively speaking).

LOL

Figuratively speaking, huh? This from a person who follows a religion that was in the habit of torturing people who had the audacity to suggest different interpretations of the original myth the religion is based on... to say nothing of a long history of associating non-believers with Satanists and burning both to death.

You'll excuse me if I find your outrage less than appropriate.

[phoenix_fire]

They take every chance to talk about the Inquisition, and they'll blame anything even remotely related to Christians entirely on Christian thought and belief. As if every single Christian living now liked to torture innocents in a past life or something. As if Christians still to this day think that kind of behavior is acceptable and/or scriptural. But we still feel bad about it. Even though we know that our faith never called for something like that. Even though neither we nor anyone we know had any part in it. They enjoy relating Christians to the KKK, Hitler, Torquemada. They conveniently ignore those who suffer, sacrifice, and make the world a better place in the name of Christ. Because hatred is myopic.

Myopic, Zhavric.