Anti-Theism has always perplexed me.

[JohnB445]

An Anti-Theist is not only a atheist. A Anti-Theist firmly believes in no God, and is against theism.

I was always afraid of hearing objections towards theism, but until I watched a few debates it surprised me that these people who didn't believe in God spent a considerable amount of time trying to disprove God in their debates with theists. I was not convinced at all of his answers, because there is absolutely no rational answer he had about the universe, we were all just a product by chance, a cosmic accident was his stance with the vastness of the universe being the basis.

Did these people just take a trip down a very dark hole, and deluded themselves along with their pride of thinking they are intellectually smarter than 80% of the population because he doesn't believe in a God? I notice this a lot with anti-theists, that they tend to look at theists as unintelligent and illogical. I cannot grasp why believing in a creator of the universe is illogical or irrational compared to everything happening by chance.

And not to be confused by this I am not talking about atheists or agnostics. I'm talking about people who are fully against Theism as a whole.

 

[Zoii]

An Anti-Theist is not only a atheist. A Anti-Theist firmly believes in no God, and is against theism.

I was always afraid of hearing objections towards theism, but until I watched a few debates it surprised me that these people who didn't believe in God spent a considerable amount of time trying to disprove God in their debates with theists. I was not convinced at all of his answers, because there is absolutely no rational answer he had about the universe, we were all just a product by chance, a cosmic accident was his stance with the vastness of the universe being the basis.

Did these people just take a trip down a very dark hole, and deluded themselves along with their pride of thinking they are intellectually smarter than 80% of the population because he doesn't believe in a God? I notice this a lot with anti-theists, that they tend to look at theists as unintelligent and illogical. I cannot grasp why believing in a creator of the universe is illogical or irrational compared to everything happening by chance.

And not to be confused by this I am not talking about atheists or agnostics. I'm talking about people who are fully against Theism as a whole.

I think - and this is coming from my student friends - that the 'Anti' comes about because various religions then proceed to attach all sorts of socially negative things they wish to impose on everyone else.

• We tell everyone how terrible they are for having sexual relations
• We tell them how to dress,
• who they can and cant marry
• and then you get all sorts of variances...some common such as Women may not lead
• OR science is all wrong
• and some not so common - God heals all - its a sin to see a Dr

So - Anti = anti-religion and God gets thrown into the mix

 

[JohnB445]

Those type of things don't really come from mainstream Christianity though.

We mostly see those type of things in small denominations or cults like JW that abuse people.

But I am understanding why someone may be anti-religion now. Some people are raised in crazy families.

 

[Tom 1]

An Anti-Theist is not only a atheist. A Anti-Theist firmly believes in no God, and is against theism.

I was always afraid of hearing objections towards theism, but until I watched a few debates it surprised me that these people who didn't believe in God spent a considerable amount of time trying to disprove God in their debates with theists. I was not convinced at all of his answers, because there is absolutely no rational answer he had about the universe, we were all just a product by chance, a cosmic accident was his stance with the vastness of the universe being the basis.

Did these people just take a trip down a very dark hole, and deluded themselves along with their pride of thinking they are intellectually smarter than 80% of the population because he doesn't believe in a God? I notice this a lot with anti-theists, that they tend to look at theists as unintelligent and illogical. I cannot grasp why believing in a creator of the universe is illogical or irrational compared to everything happening by chance.

And not to be confused by this I am not talking about atheists or agnostics. I'm talking about people who are fully against Theism as a whole.

To me it looks something like this, in Europe anyway -

• Belief in God was central to society and pretty much everything in it. There was a general belief even among some educated people that the bible contains everything, all necessary knowledge, in one form or another, apart from essentially unimportant details.
• The problems with this idea became apparent as more was discovered about the natural world. This clashed with official interpretations, e.g. of the genesis narrative.
• The church in Europe reacted so badly to challenges of this sort to their interpretations that people seeking to increase knowledge in many areas of study got thoroughly sick of it, and, taking the church's interpretations of the bible to be accurate, many concluded that the whole thing is nonsense.
• Following much social upheaval, along comes Nietszche and the idea that 'god is dead' - i.e. that God, as the idea that explains how everything works, and as a source of moral guidance, is no longer necessary. This makes the general rejection of the church's rigid notions about biblical interpretation into something concrete that seeps into all areas of social discourse.
• 2 world wars and a lot of settled dust later people are variously trying to cling to older interpretations, reinterpret the bible from a modern mindset - i.e. insisting that it is 'scientific' - or trying to rediscover what people actually thought about it when it was written (etc). However the idea that there is no God is thoroughly linked to the study of the natural world, and entwined in many areas other areas of study and research. Old or unexamined ideas about the bible no longer stand up to any kind of scrutiny.
• Believers persist and find better ways of understanding the scriptures. Unbelievers appear to throw out the baby with the bathwater, or show no interest at all, as there are many more things to study that seem more relevant to their lives.

Plus, as Zoii said, without some sort of context ideas about sin can seem offensive and even pointless. The overview of human behaviour that the bible can give, if understood properly, is missing in how many people learn to think about the world, in any coherent or developed sense.

 

[ColoRaydo]

I believe there is an unseen war going on for the eternal possession of one’s soul and I believe anti-theists have been called to the front line of that battle but they don’t know it.

I believe that anti-theists are being drawn to God but are being held back by the enemy. To go out of one’s way in an attempt to refute something unprovable, something that requires faith, could be summed up in a line from Hamlet: “Thou doth protest too much, me thinks.”

Every popular protest of religion can be debunked: religion is the cause of most of the wars (it’s really about 5%) religion is anti-science (most Nobel prize winners have been religious) religious people try to force their beliefs on everyone else (Christians believe one cannot be forced or tricked into salvation), etc. Whiie there have always been cases of people misusing religion for the sake of personal gain, these claims are simply excuses NOT to believe.

If someone truly does not believe in something, God for example, one needs no excuse. One does not need to make up claims of inconsistencies or contradictions in the Bible in order to strengthen disbelief. Disbelief should be effortless.

Anti-theists are probably much closer to conversion than your run of the mill agnostic. If they had zero belief in God they would probably show complete indifference rather than trying to prevent anyone from having faith.

I don’t believe in Bigfoot. If someone else does, I truly don’t care. People who believe in Bigfoot don’t threaten my disbelief in it and other than being a waste of time I don’t think it hurts them and I make no attempt to recruit them to my side. On the other hand, I want people to come to Christ for their benefit, not to strengthen my belief.

 

[SkyWriting]

An Anti-Theist is not only a atheist. A Anti-Theist firmly believes in no God, and is against theism.

I was always afraid of hearing objections towards theism, but until I watched a few debates it surprised me that these people who didn't believe in God spent a considerable amount of time trying to disprove God in their debates with theists. I was not convinced at all of his answers, because there is absolutely no rational answer he had about the universe, we were all just a product by chance, a cosmic accident was his stance with the vastness of the universe being the basis.

Did these people just take a trip down a very dark hole, and deluded themselves along with their pride of thinking they are intellectually smarter than 80% of the population because he doesn't believe in a God? I notice this a lot with anti-theists, that they tend to look at theists as unintelligent and illogical. I cannot grasp why believing in a creator of the universe is illogical or irrational compared to everything happening by chance.

And not to be confused by this I am not talking about atheists or agnostics. I'm talking about people who are fully against Theism as a whole.

God sends them a strong delusion. I dunno exactly why.

 

[JohnB445]

I've read a few testimonies from Anti-Theists. Some of them have grown up in religious households and were under strict legalistic rules, and fear i.e (If you don't act this way your going to hell) Kind of thing.

If they were ex-Christan they never talked about the gospel or about Jesus, they talk about religion (Doing x,y, and z). "Yea I went to Church, it didn't work for me" or the " I don't need God to be a good guy".

From this given information they never knew the Gospel. This seems like a problem in today's time, with Christians not knowing the Gospel.