Why do atheists believe that Christians or religious are delusional?

[mathinspiration]

What are the reasons?

 

[salt-n-light]

What are the reasons?

Why is this being asked under "Psychosis and Schizophrenia" ?

 

[thesunisout]

What are the reasons?

The reason is because they don't believe in the supernatural. To them, everything supernatural is delusional. They only believe in a material reality, and don't believe that they even have a soul. They are also taught the bible is outdated and contradicts itself, although not many of them have studied it. Like me they probably believed that their 3 or 4 cherry picked verses disproved the bible. They have little thought of God and live as though He doesn't exist. I know all of this because I was raised secular and didn't meet the Lord until 7 years ago.

 

[Dave G.]

They believe that we speak to an imaginary friend. And if it weren't for the manifestations of God in it's various forms in our lives and how he works in our lives as does the bible , one would have to almost agree with them, since there would be no evidence. But they don't require themselves to dig any deeper or accept that a God could exist, any god for that matter, never mind God and the Jesus story etc. Being in the natural this is all beyond their capability to comprehend it. And to them if grown people have an imaginary friend that they speak to, well that's rather nuts.

 

[Silmarien]

Not all atheists believe that. Some recognize that there are legitimate reasons for being a theist, but that the reasons are just not good enough for them personally.

Those who actually think religious people are delusional often seem to have been indoctrinated into a very narrow, Enlightenment-era view on rationality and scientific knowledge. If they were to step outside of that particular box and recognize how tricky the issue really is, they could no longer congratulate themselves on their own perceived superior intelligence, so ridiculing people who believe differently may well just be a defense mechanism.

 

[Par5]

What are the reasons?

I have just finished reading through the posts in a thread entitled, Spiritual warfare verses demonology. The contents of those posts, in my opinion, are delusory. Going through life worrying about bogeymen cannot be considered rational.

 

[Denadii]

What are the reasons?

Stop and think about it...Here's Jesus claiming to be God...John 10:36 do you think the folks around him simply said "Oh That's right! He's the son of God." Or the others screaming "Blasphemer! Kill the rotten creature!" Even his own disciples must have jumped back, horrified.."What?! Is He crazy? Delusional?" The shock of such a radical statement would have been mind numbing....But they caught on...He proved who He was over and over....Until then only a tiny handful knew who He was...His mother and Anna the prophetess, if she was still alive. and maybe another.

 

[thesunisout]

I have just finished reading through the posts in a thread entitled, Spiritual warfare verses demonology. The contents of those posts, in my opinion, are delusory. Going through life worrying about bogeymen cannot be considered rational.

We don't worry about bogeymen because we know what they are, and we know what authority we have over them in Jesus Christ.

 

[Par5]

We don't worry about bogeymen because we know what they are, and we know what authority we have over them in Jesus Christ.

We don't worry about bogeymen because we know what they are, and we know what authority we have over them in Jesus Christ.

Ok, what are they, these bogeymen? What do they look like? What do they do? How do they manifest themselves?

 

[grasping the after wind]

Ok, what are they, these bogeymen? What do they look like? What do they do? How do they manifest themselves?

They look like Global Warming disaster , Peak Oil disaster , Population Bomb disaster , etc, etc,. etc. anthropogenic caused disaster . They manifest themselves in the imagination of people that need to feel that they are somehow important as opposed to their deep seeded doubts on that matter. To reassure themselves of their self worth they will pretend that they have enough power to save the world from these computer model prophesies by driving a coal guzzling electric vehicle or eating only vegetables . People have an innate need to believe in something. If it is not one thing based on faith alone it will be another thing just as void of objective verifiability like UFOs or political philosophies promising utopia. Soothsayers abound and some, like a broken clock, will be right every so often but they will be wrong so much more of the time.

 

[Par5]

They look like Global Warming disaster , Peak Oil disaster , Population Bomb disaster , etc, etc,. etc. anthropogenic caused disaster . They manifest themselves in the imagination of people that need to feel that they are somehow important as opposed to their deep seeded doubts on that matter. To reassure themselves of their self worth they will pretend that they have enough power to save the world from these computer model prophesies by driving a coal guzzling electric vehicle or eating only vegetables . People have an innate need to believe in something. If it is not one thing based on faith alone it will be another thing just as void of objective verifiability like UFOs or political philosophies promising utopia. Soothsayers abound and some, like a broken clock, will be right every so often but they will be wrong so much more of the time.

There is nothing anthropogenic about demons, unless you are saying that when Jesus was supposedly casting out demons he was in fact casting out greenhouse gases.

 

[grasping the after wind]

There is nothing anthropogenic about demons, unless you are saying that when Jesus was supposedly casting out demons he was in fact casting out greenhouse gases.

Are you saying demons are real? Either they are real of they are imagined. If imagined their source is anthropogenic is it not?

 

[JackRT]

I have met a number of atheists and only a tiny minority are militant about it and regard believers as being delusional. Most simply go about living their lives and trying to relate to their fellow men in a positive way. On the other hand, I have met a huge number of Christians and a sizable minority are militant about it and regard atheists as delusional. Some even regard them as satanic or demonic and can get quite nasty about it. Most simply go about living their lives and trying to relate to their fellow men in a positive way.

 

[Par5]

Are you saying demons are real? Either they are real of they are imagined. If imagined their source is anthropogenic is it not?

I am not saying demons are real. Things anthropogenic belong to the physical world, demons belong to the world of make-believe and superstition.

 

[grasping the after wind]

I am not saying demons are real. Things anthropogenic belong to the physical world, demons belong to the world of make-believe and superstition.

Like global warming disasters etc. I do not agree with your characterization of anthropogenic. I would define it as an adjective that applies to anything caused by humans not everything that originates form human beings belongs to the physical world. Like hobbits or dragons, Demons, if they are make believe, are a make believe creation of humans, therefore they are anthropogenic, mythical creatures. I know of no non human source for the creation of a make believe demon or any thing else that is the product of imagination. If you know of a such physical entity other than a human being that has the power to imagine something that does not exist in the physical world please point it out to me . If such an I entity exists then you could say that a make believe demon coming from that source was not anthropogenic.

 

[Par5]

Like global warming disasters etc. I do not agree with your characterization of anthropogenic. I would define it as an adjective that applies to anything caused by humans not everything that originates form human beings belongs to the physical world. Like hobbits or dragons, Demons, if they are make believe, are a make believe creation of humans, therefore they are anthropogenic, mythical creatures. I know of no non human source for the creation of a make believe demon or any thing else that is the product of imagination. If you know of a such physical entity other than a human being that has the power to imagine something that does not exist in the physical world please point it out to me . If such an I entity exists then you could say that a make believe demon coming from that source was not anthropogenic.

I disagree. You can imagine demons all you like, but all the imagination in the world will not produce a demon for the very simple fact that demons don't exist. If you were to ask me to watch you imagine a demon and one appeared as a result, then I would have to agree I had witnessed something anthropogenic.
For something to be called anthropogenic, there has to be an end product. Something that doesn't exist is not an end product.

 

[JackRT]

I am strongly reminded of:

The Dragon In My Garage

by Carl Sagan

"A fire-breathing dragon lives in my garage"

Suppose (I'm following a group therapy approach by the psychologist Richard Franklin) I seriously make such an assertion to you. Surely you'd want to check it out, see for yourself. There have been innumerable stories of dragons over the centuries, but no real evidence. What an opportunity!

"Show me," you say. I lead you to my garage. You look inside and see a ladder, empty paint cans, an old tricycle -- but no dragon.

"Where's the dragon?" you ask.

"Oh, she's right here," I reply, waving vaguely. "I neglected to mention that she's an invisible dragon."

You propose spreading flour on the floor of the garage to capture the dragon's footprints.

"Good idea," I say, "but this dragon floats in the air."

Then you'll use an infrared sensor to detect the invisible fire.

"Good idea, but the invisible fire is also heatless."

You'll spray-paint the dragon and make her visible.

"Good idea, but she's an incorporeal dragon and the paint won't stick." And so on. I counter every physical test you propose with a special explanation of why it won't work.

Now, what's the difference between an invisible, incorporeal, floating dragon who spits heatless fire and no dragon at all? If there's no way to disprove my contention, no conceivable experiment that would count against it, what does it mean to say that my dragon exists? Your inability to invalidate my hypothesis is not at all the same thing as proving it true. Claims that cannot be tested, assertions immune to disproof are veridically worthless, whatever value they may have in inspiring us or in exciting our sense of wonder. What I'm asking you to do comes down to believing, in the absence of evidence, on my say-so. The only thing you've really learned from my insistence that there's a dragon in my garage is that something funny is going on inside my head. You'd wonder, if no physical tests apply, what convinced me. The possibility that it was a dream or a hallucination would certainly enter your mind. But then, why am I taking it so seriously? Maybe I need help. At the least, maybe I've seriously underestimated human fallibility. Imagine that, despite none of the tests being successful, you wish to be scrupulously open-minded. So you don't outright reject the notion that there's a fire-breathing dragon in my garage. You merely put it on hold. Present evidence is strongly against it, but if a new body of data emerge you're prepared to examine it and see if it convinces you. Surely it's unfair of me to be offended at not being believed; or to criticize you for being stodgy and unimaginative -- merely because you rendered the Scottish verdict of "not proved."

Imagine that things had gone otherwise. The dragon is invisible, all right, but footprints are being made in the flour as you watch. Your infrared detector reads off-scale. The spray paint reveals a jagged crest bobbing in the air before you. No matter how skeptical you might have been about the existence of dragons -- to say nothing about invisible ones -- you must now acknowledge that there's something here, and that in a preliminary way it's consistent with an invisible, fire-breathing dragon.

Now another scenario: Suppose it's not just me. Suppose that several people of your acquaintance, including people who you're pretty sure don't know each other, all tell you that they have dragons in their garages -- but in every case the evidence is maddeningly elusive. All of us admit we're disturbed at being gripped by so odd a conviction so ill-supported by the physical evidence. None of us is a lunatic. We speculate about what it would mean if invisible dragons were really hiding out in garages all over the world, with us humans just catching on. I'd rather it not be true, I tell you. But maybe all those ancient European and Chinese myths about dragons weren't myths at all.

Gratifyingly, some dragon-size footprints in the flour are now reported. But they're never made when a skeptic is looking. An alternative explanation presents itself. On close examination it seems clear that the footprints could have been faked. Another dragon enthusiast shows up with a burnt finger and attributes it to a rare physical manifestation of the dragon's fiery breath. But again, other possibilities exist. We understand that there are other ways to burn fingers besides the breath of invisible dragons. Such "evidence" -- no matter how important the dragon advocates consider it -- is far from compelling. Once again, the only sensible approach is tentatively to reject the dragon hypothesis, to be open to future physical data, and to wonder what the cause might be that so many apparently sane and sober people share the same strange delusion.

 

[Babe Ruth]

Pure speculation on my part.. I believe some of it is innate hard-wiring. Some folks are more naturally sensitive to the mystical. For people who are not innately sensitive to mystical, religious experience.. religion/spirituality understandably may seem goofy or delusional.
I think God created a wide range of human palates for a reason. But understanding God's reasoning is above my pay grade..

 

[thesunisout]

Ok, what are they, these bogeymen? What do they look like? What do they do? How do they manifest themselves?

To explain that I will explain who Satan is first.

Satan is not a horned beast with a pitchfork, he is a fallen angel. The scripture tells us that he appears as an angel of light, and his ministers, ministers of righteousness.

Satan means enemy, and he is the enemy of both God and man. He has many names: the devil, red dragon, beelzebub, father of lies, prince of the power of the air, the god of this world, the accuser, the adversary, the tempter, the serpent, belial

In Heaven, he was called the "annointed Cherub who covers", as in the Cherubs that covered the mercy seat on the Ark of the Covenant. He was perfect in all of his ways until iniquity was found in him, and he was cast out. He was lifted up because of his own beauty and desired to replace God and be worshiped. Jesus said that He saw Satan fall from Heaven like lightning.

He deceived 1/3 of the angelic host to follow him into perdition. This is what demons are; fallen angels. With them he wars against God and man, and has deceived the whole world. The scripture tells us that the whole world lies in the lap of the wicked one.

Jesus Christ defeated Him on the cross, 2000 years ago. He took from Satan the keys of death and hell. The demons believe in Him, and tremble.

Every person who comes to faith in Jesus Christ, as having died on the cross for their sins and being resurrected on the third day, will be forgiven for their sins and receive eternal life. The devil will lose his power over them and they will be set free.

 

[seattleartcolony]

Atheists are not the brightest creatures on the planet perhaps
in that they deny us a 7 dimensional world which even science suggests exists and they are trying to map it somewhat with a antimatter element chart. if a whole other 3D world exists other than ours and we are taught 7000 years ago that it does. then what of a spiritual realm sure it exists yet the likes of Freud (whom isn't all bad) suggests its a super ego the subconscious or a mix of problems such as that this is what modern science says also yet is Freud wrong in this area alone and not in others? I do believe in a spiritual world i know it like the back of my hand.

after all psychology is more a fuzzy science really more so that physics for example the understanding of the brain? a very difficult science with lots of theory little proof up till we have CAT scans of the brain did we are barely beginning to understand the brain as a real electrical device.. i saw brainwaves are added to the electromagnet spectrum very interesting