Always Atheism vs Christianity?

dGirl1986 said:

I posted this recently on my wordpress blog and thought I would pose the question here as well.

"I notice that most (but not all) atheist podcasts, blogs, etc address christianity specifically. It has been a pretty rare occasion for me to hear them address budhhism, hinduism, paganism, etc.

It makes me wonder if atheists are obsessed with the christians and their bibles. Why is this?

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My teacher (rav) says that atheism appeared in Europe as a necessary tool for cleaning (tikkun) of existing world religions from all extra things ("shells" in terms of rav Cook), which prevent from the true faith in God. So, it is understandable that the critic is directed mainly against the Bible: the Divine sense of the atheism is cleaning of understanding of the God's Teaching (Torah).

dGirl1986 said:

I posted this recently on my wordpress blog and thought I would pose the question here as well.

"I notice that most (but not all) atheist podcasts, blogs, etc address christianity specifically. It has been a pretty rare occasion for me to hear them address budhhism, hinduism, paganism, etc.

It makes me wonder if atheists are obsessed with the christians and their bibles. Why is this? Is it because christianity is considered a mainstream religion or is it based on the fact that atheists in question are ex christians (or have had bad experiences with christianity).

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It's pretty much exactly the same as politics. There are two types of political party that get attention - the big parties in power and the smaller parties that are extreme enough to command attention. For those who are invested in politics, they're either defending or opposing another group - there is no reason for their attention to be focused on other opposition parties that have no influence, because beating them achieves nothing. For those who have no real investment, but instead look to learn about politics, the obvious start is to learn about the parties they know. Some people just like to talk about politics, and again, it's the same thing.

Same for religion.

No prizes for guessing about the dominant religion in countries where the atheists are executed.

dGirl1986 said:

I was listening to an atheist podcast the other day and they reported that atheist podcasters, bloggers etc in countries other than the US, Aus etc were being either jailed or executed :/

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Yay!?

dGirl1986 said:

I believe some were christian and some were muslim.

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Curious to know the source of that belief .

There is such a thing as "convert's zeal":
After undergoing a major paradigm shift WRT their world view, many people feel the need to dissociate themselves from their former convictions - similar to the way some people need to malign former partners after a break-up, basically insisting that their emotions were never genuine and/or misguided to begin with.

However, I do not think this explains all or even most of these posts.
People in the "West" live in cultures that either have been or still are predominantly Christian for more than a millennium. There are places where the term "atheist" is used synonymously with "immoral sociopath", where the term "pagan" evokes images of human sacrifice or barbarism, and where "Christian" is regarded as synonymous with everything that's good and right.

Combating such blatant misconceptions is a worthy endeavour, especially when it is aimed at fostering understanding for one's own, divergent position.

Its because Atheists rely on Christians to make them atheists. If there wasn't a group of people who claimed a supernatural Being called God exists there would be nothing for them to oppose, parody and ridicule.

Atheists need religious people to be atheists or they would just be normal people if nobody believed in God.

Serendipity.. said:

Atheists need religious people to be atheists or they would just be normal people if nobody believed in God.

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We'd still be atheists without religious people. We simply wouldn't talk about religion or atheism much. Atheism =/= talking about atheism.

Being "normal people" would be great!


eudaimonia,

Mark

Eudaimonist said:

We'd still be atheists without religious people. We simply wouldn't talk about religion or atheism much. Atheism =/= talking about atheism.

Being "normal people" would be great!


eudaimonia,

Mark

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You would but you would get bored with it quickly.

can you imagine we all agree nothing exists forum?

Yep nothing exists! Cool we all agree on that!

Serendipity.. said:

You would but you would get bored with it quickly.

can you imagine we all agree nothing exists forum?

Yep nothing exists! Cool we all agree on that!

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Well, given the wide range of world views that happen to not include belief in a deity or deities, I'm sure there'd still be room for plenty of stuff to disagree on.

Remember:
Communists and Objectivists are just as far removed from each other as Christians and theistic Satanists.

Serendipity.. said:

You would but you would get bored with it quickly.

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Absolutely not! We'd talk about other philosophical issues, and there would be plenty of disagreement.


eudaimonia,

Mark

Jane_the_Bane said:

Well, given the wide range of world views that happen to not include belief in a deity or deities, I'm sure there'd still be room for plenty of stuff to disagree on.

Remember:
Communists and Objectivists are just as far removed from each other as Christians and theistic Satanists.

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Yep you would, nothing exists and theres nothing to talk about.

I could just imagine it.


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I wish christians existed because this is all boring we have discussed it before and nobody here disagrees that there is nothing except we can't agree how much nothing there is...
The other thing is without christians to remind them they are incorrect, atheists would occasionally think they are right about stuff.

Serendipity.. said:

Yep you would, nothing exists and theres nothing to talk about.

I could just imagine it.

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Atheism is just a footnote to my worldview. Atheism is just a stance on one issue. Please let that point sink in.

There is plenty about our amazing godless universe to talk about. I already talk about plenty of these issues in the Ethics, Science, and Philosophy boards here at CF, and elsewhere. If religion were to vanish from the Earth, that only means that one out of thousands of interesting topics for discussion would disappear. How could I be bored?

Being an atheist doesn't mean talking about atheism. It means having no belief in gods.


eudaimonia,

Mark

Eudaimonist said:

Atheism is just a footnote to my worldview. Atheism is just a stance on one issue. Please let that point sink in.

There is plenty about our amazing godless universe to talk about. I already talk about plenty of these issues in the Ethics, Science, and Philosophy boards here at CF, and elsewhere. If religion were to vanish from the Earth, that only means that one out of thousands of interesting topics for discussion would disappear. How could I be bored?

Being an atheist doesn't mean talking about atheism. It means having no belief in gods.


eudaimonia,

Mark

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I will believe the universe is Godless when someone proves it and since there is no hope of that I will retain my hope in God.

Serendipity.. said:

I will believe the universe is Godless when someone proves it and since there is no hope of that I will retain my hope in God.

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I wasn't trying to dissuade you of your belief in God. I'm just explaining to you what atheism is and is not.


eudaimonia,

Mark

I think atheists are against Christians because Christians love to share their faiths.
Atheists, who have no desire to believe God, may find Christians an annoyance due to Christians' eagerness to share their faiths.

Hishandmaiden said:

I think atheists are against Christians because Christians love to share their faiths.
Atheists, who have no desire to believe God, may find Christians an annoyance due to Christians' eagerness to share their faiths.

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Well, it pretty much depends on HOW they share their faith.
I have no beef whatsoever with people who express their religious affiliation openly.
I do, however, object to people who "share their faith" the way door-to-door salesmen sell life insurances. When religion becomes a commodity to be essentially sold and bought like everything else within our consumerist culture, what does that tell us about the product?
If I show an interest in conversion and/or approach you because of some other reason as to why I want to learn more about your beliefs, it's perfectly fine to proselytize.
If I do not, however, it's just EXTREMELY obnoxious and impolite. Especially since you'll walk away thinking me an evil person heading straight to eternal damnation if I do not swallow your sales pitch.