PLEASE MAKE
SURE TO
FOLLOW THE
RULES!
RULES
This is the
Kill Em
With
Kindness
Forum!
PLEASE MAKE
SURE TO
FOLLOW THE
RULES!
RULES
This is the
Kill Em
With
Kindness
Forum!
PLEASE MAKE
SURE TO
FOLLOW THE
RULES!
This is the
Kill Em
With
Kindness
Forum!
RULES
PLEASE MAKE
SURE TO
FOLLOW THE
RULES!
This is the
Kill Em
With
Kindness
Forum!
PLEASE MAKE
SURE TO
FOLLOW THE
RULES!
RULES
This is the
Kill Em
With
Kindness
Forum!
PLEASE MAKE
SURE TO
FOLLOW THE
RULES!
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Generally, questions like: "If you are an atheist then don't you think it's okay to steal/kill people/rape children et.c.?"
Especially if it's a loaded question, implying that I am expected to be immoral by the person asking.
Equally, if not more offensive, is questions implying that I am cold, calculating, incapable of love and affection, because I am an atheist, and therefore, I must be a nihilist and a materialist.
I think I might be a nihilist actually, but I'm a very affectionate person, and I am offended if someone implies I most be coldhearted because I have not "opened my heart to Jesus" or something similar.
Jesus is supposed to be perfect love, and being the loving, open-minded, optimistic person I am, I open my heart to everything, and the reason I'm an atheist is that Jesus hasn't walked into my heart, even though the door is wide open.
Why?
Because he's not real.
Well I was born an original sinner
I was spawned from original sin
And if I had a dollar bill for all the things I've done
There'd be a mountain of money piled up to my chin
Well, you will probably get lots of answers but to my mind, the ones that get me the most are along the lines of:
“Why do you believe in the non-existence of god?”
OK, the simple fact is that is a weasel type of question that is intended to atheism is some type of alternative religion. The problem is that it is not.
I do not believe in god. That should be simple enough. The fact is that I don't believe in a great deal of things. However, to intentionally reformulate the question to force me to believe in something is just bad reasoning. For example, it is an established fact that the sky in blue. So I clearly do not believe that they sky is red. This does not imply that by extension I believe that the sky is not red.
Another one is the idea that god provides the source of all that is moral. Honestly, it is offensive to me when a theist says that if god did not exist, he would have nothing stopping him from being a serial rapist. If that were even close to being true, then the approximately 75% of the world that has never even heard of god jr. are all depraved maniacs.
=
Most offensive question? I'll have to get creative.
"Aren't you just like Pol Pot, Hitler and Stalin?"
"Don't you realize that you're going to hell?" (Not really offensive, just weird)
"Isn't your mother ashamed?"
or, like Nikolaj mentioned, "Does that mean you're devoid of morality?"
I guess I'm not easily offended, because the above questions make me think the person lacks the inclination to read, rather than thinking they're terribly offensive. Being compared to Pol Pot is pretty offensive, though.
Saint Will: no gyration without funkstification.
fabulae! nil satis firmi video quam ob rem accipere hunc mi expediat metum. - Terence
Actually, I see the whole offensive question business as part of the classic projection christians normally engage in. They are the ones who feel offended by our rejection of their myths, and so they assume that we're offended by their myths, hence that question. Them elevating their own superstition to "a higher plane of knowledge" isn't offensive, it's absurd.
As evidence I offer not scientific evidence (I suggest reading Hamby's posts for that), but anecdotal from my own online conversations with christians. I am constantly accused of "being bothered" by their beliefs. Apparently, I "hate christians" and they always wonder why I am so "offended"? All because I refuse to take their baseless assertions as truth.
Why did you put this post in the "Kill em with kindness" forum? I can't pull my fangs out.
Ok, then I will simply give an example.
"Yea well, Hitler and Stalin killed far more people than theists"
I hate that one.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
*Knock Knock*
Hello stranger, may I come in?
These questions are more annoying than offensive.
Why do you hate God?
Where did you come from?
How does everything poof out of nothing?
Since you have no source for morality, aren't you lost?
_________________________________
Christian: Have you ever been to space?
Me: No.
Christian: Well then, how do you know it exists?
Me: *Cites overwhelming evidence.*
Christian: But, you've never been there, right?
Me: No. I already answered that.
Christian: Then how can you be sure that space exists? The evidence could be wrong. You could be interpreting it the wrong way. People could be lying to you.
Me: *rips hair out*
Our revels now are ended. These our actors, | As I foretold you, were all spirits, and | Are melted into air, into thin air; | And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, | The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, | The solemn temples, the great globe itself, - Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, | And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, | Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff | As dreams are made on, and our little life | Is rounded with a sleep. - Shakespeare
Actually, the most offensive thing I have ever heard directed towards me was not a question. It was when I was told that a parent was pulling her daughter out of my music class (after learning I'm atheist) because she didn't want a degenerate influencing her young mind.
(It's true that I'm a degenerate, but it's not because I was an atheist!)
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
Now THAT's offensive. I can only imagine myself looking askance at such a woman, like Toshiro Mifune in Yojimbo, thinking, "how do you even tie your shoes?"
Somewhere in that woman's mythology, I imagine that atheists are officers in the pandemonic horde, unmentioned by Dante for fear of eternal torment. It's too bad you couldn't teach the kid, but you know what the effects of over-zealous parenting are: she's definitely going to be sleeping with atheist musicians who are too old for her, now. (I trust that's a tame enough description for the kindness forum?)
Saint Will: no gyration without funkstification.
fabulae! nil satis firmi video quam ob rem accipere hunc mi expediat metum. - Terence
I remember a point early in my college years when I had just switched universities and didn't really know anyone, and I was bored a lot, and missed my friends at my old uni, and all I ever did was read thing for school. I started to feel pretty lousy. Not depressed, just a bit lonely for a while. But I remember walking to one of my classes and seeing a bunch of flyers posted by the Campus Ministry group at my uni. The flyers had an image of a single person, sitting on a bench by himself, leaning his elbows on his knees, and staring at the ground. The campus around him was completely void of life. A crumpled wrapper was blowing past the bench like a tumbleweed. Underneath in large, bold letters was the caption: "Feeling Alone?"
And then directions to Campus Ministry.
And you know what? I was alone. But that pissed me off. Why don't you try targeting lonely people for the sake of making them feel not lonely? Why are you using their loneliness as a way to hook them into your jesus club? And why put a picture on your flyer that gives them a painful visual for how lonely they feel? I mean, way to turn the knife. The more it hurts, the more likely they'll ask for your help, right?
I understand what they must have been thinking. It would be just fine for something like: "Feeling Alone? Come hang out with the Anime Club!" or whatever. But watching movies with a group is a social activity and is not being sold as the solution for the person's loneliness. HUMAN INTERACTION is being sold as the solution, but anime would incidentally be involved.
I think we all know what Campus Ministry believes is the solution for a lonely college student. They just need jesus. When you go to anime club, you get human interaction. When you go to jesus club, you get served christian values and philosophies. Even if they're not directly telling you that you need jesus in your life, this is clearly their wish.
Anime is not a lifestyle. (Even if the otakus do like to say that.)
Chess is not a lifestyle. So a chess club does not sell one.
Philosophy is not a lifestyle. So a Philosophy club does not sell one.
Pool is not a lifestyle. So a pool shooting club does not sell one.
Christianity is a lifestyle. So a campus ministry club, whether or not it is explicitly offering one, is offering a lifestyle. So to a lonely person, as I was at the time, this poster can easily read as follows: "Lonely? Come let us share with you our values and beliefs. Once you know them, you might like them, and then you might decide to be a christian like us, and then you'll feel better, because you just needed a little jesus medicine."
Lonely people don't lack jesus. They lack OTHER PEOPLE.
I don't think they should be allowed to use that message. I ripped several of them down. Not because they were christian flyers, but because I found the advertisement kind of disgusting. So that's a long way of saying that I found that kind of offensive.
I solved the loneliness problem quickly. No jesus was required. Just people.
A place common to all will be maintained by none. A religion common to all is perhaps not much different.
I appreciate you guys taking the time to respond and for all the honest responses to this question. I only know one atheist in person and he doesn't like to talk much about atheism, agnosticism (spell?), or any religious/spiritual stuff at all. So again I say thanks for your time and responses. I will certainly benefit in my theological studies.
One thing I have discovered is that when Christians say things that are inappropriate or offensive to atheists (the Hitler, Stalin, and Attila the Hun stuff), it usually comes from a sense of anger that person feels towards the atheist. Why anger? Not sure. The most commonly given response is that the theist cannot understand HOW or WHY a person would knowing reject God with such arrogance because it is not something they can conceive in their own minds. This does not justify the bad behavior of the Christians who say mean or offensive things, but it does seem to be an underlying cause of that type of behavior.
Emotion certainly carries a lot of weight in the action or reactions of human beings, sometimes overcoming the logical or reasonable response. Emotion is hard to suppress, much less control.
Thanks for the great responses and feel free to add more! Be safe this week and look out for your chunk of the "stimulus" package...
Things guaranteed to raise my temperature:
Morality only comes from god! I so want to hit people that say that. How unfortunate that my morality forbids me from doing so.
I didn't come from a monkey! No [kidding] sherlock. But your ancestors were apes, whether you like it or not.
The redefining of words. True/truth being the perfect example.
Things that stem from these things.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
However it is the theist who is arrogant in such situations. They are sure they can answer all with a simple "It's because of God." They get angry because they are told that's not really an answer and they're not as wise as they think they are. There whole basis for existence and their place within the wider world is challenged. And they sometimes see that the atheist does not suffer the wrath of god and, in fact, does not lead a miserable life. They then sometimes see that all these weird rules and assurances they count on in their life are not necessary. The unfairness of this in their world view really pisses some of them off. Not all theists are angry because of these reasons of course, but I have seen this often enough. They work hard to follow the dogma of their religion and see in the atheist that it's all for naught. Instead of getting angry at their religion, or even at god, they get mad at the atheist who shows by their very existence that religion is not necessary in human life.
"I am that I am." - Proof that the writers of the bible were beyond stoned.
Undoubtedly, its these two:
"If you don't believe in god, you worhsip the devil, right?"
And:
"If you don't read the bible, how do you have morals?"
I could go into detail on how these piss me off, but I'm tired and low on time, so I can't. But if someone else wants to, please, do so.
I don't have the time to cater to your religious beliefs. Its much less time consuming to simply mock them, and, on occasion, give a reasonable explanation as to why I do so. But that's if I'm in a good mood.
Oops. I didn't realize cursing in general was frowned on in kewk. I'll note that for the future. Sorry.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
I really hate when they assume that i'm some sort of satanist and worship devil.
But the most offensive thing I could hear from a theist is when they tell me that I'm confused and that I don't know any better and that Jesus still loves me and I should let him in. There's absolutely no chance that I would ever return to religon so they shouldn't even try.
It offends me when theists claim in-depth knowledge of certain scientific fields, and state that because of their scientific "knowledge" they believe God exists. You can't claim understanding of evolution and still subscribe to intelligent design. They're mutual exclusive propositions. Yet theists do it all the time.
Nobody I know was brainwashed into being an atheist.
Why Believe?
I asked a christian how they managed to still be a decent human being and manage to be a christian at the same and they got a bit pissed of with that.
Gandhi once said
“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
I totally disagree with him on this, christ was a complete c*nt , most christians are actually far better people that their fictional 'hero'
If he existed...
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
LOL I'm going to try that one. That is very funny.
People who think there is something they refer to as god don't ask enough questions.