What would help with the anger of Atheists is Christians refraining from making sweeping judgements about Atheists (and the reverse of this also applies). However, I think there is also a distinction to be made in the kinds of aggressive/antagonistic comments made on either side. An angry Atheist will make comments ridiculing Christianity, but angry Christians often make more personal comments, such as claiming that an Atheist is evil, going to hell, needs to beg for forgiveness, and is generally deserving of hate and is to be shunned. Personal attacks are more likely to elicit anger. In other words, the Christians started it and have historically been more violent towards nonbelievers. — Pinprick
"People unaffiliated with organized religion, atheists and agnostics also report anger toward God either in the past, or anger focused on a hypothetical image - that is, what they imagined God might be like - said lead study author Julie Exline, Case Western Reserve University psychologist. — 3017amen
Death and violence statistics are quite alarming in Eastern Asia/ Atheist Communist countries. That's a good question though, I can grab some statistics for you if you'd like. — 3017amen
Look, Coben...we all can be angry. If a person is arguing (discussing) in an Internet Philosophy forum...and does not occasionally show some anger...that person should probably leave the forum and take up crocheting. — Frank Apisa
↪Frank Apisa
If you’re only referring to Atheists in this forum, you are likely correct. I am referring to society in general. Watch any televangelist, or attend practically any church long enough and you will hear Atheists being disparaged. My claim is also that history bears this out. The number of nonbelievers who have been killed in the name of God far outnumbers the number of Christians or even Theists in general that have been killed in the name of Atheism. Also, I would suspect that you are more likely to encounter Atheists in a philosophy forum than in society at large, simply because those who engage in philosophical discussions are more likely to have received a higher education than the general public, and Atheism and education are correlated.
For the record, I would agree that a lot of Atheists are resentful towards Christianity for the reasons I earlier explained. I’m not trying to defend anger or animosity from either side, just observe and hypothesize. — Pinprick
Hummm...I always though education and agnosticism seem the more proper fit.
I think much of it comes back to our ego (sin of pride). It's one thing being proud of your accomplishments, your family, so on and so forth but it's entirely another to have exaggerated self worth.
99% of everything comes down to our ego, for better and worse. It is bad to have an exaggerated self worth, and also to get your sense of self worth from your conviction in unprovable beliefs like the EOG. Although I’m certainly guilty of this myself at times. — Pinprick
As I've alluded to previously I certainly understand the psychological damage people have experienced...not to mention all those who've perished from religious wars throughout history... — 3017amen
Probably more accurate to say that religious belief and education are inversely correlated. — Pinprick
This is a common folk or cultural myth, and a rather naïve and superstitious one at that; in reality, however, it's highly debatable that whatever the inherent traits which manifested themselves in "religious" wars are, that they exist solely within a "religious" contest, often simply using a simplistic, superstitious, or nonsense definition of "religion" to begin with and reinforced via circular reasoning.
It's arguable that there was a strong profit motive in every war, whether marketed as "religious" otherwise, much, as how most wars in civilized, 1st world nations are motivated by national pride or ideology (e.x. nationalism, capitalism, communism, socialism, etc), rather than "resources" as ignorant and false childish myths about war tell people or insinuate (it's "resources" for the war, not "war for resources) - there isn't arguably any practical difference between a war in the name of a "religion", and won in the name of any other type of ideology or political stance.
Given that scientific fields such as evolutionary psychology, as well as most of the philosophies of major law and legal systems or institutions (e.x. Common Law theory; Zimbardo's Standford Prison Experiment) more or less confirm that warfare and violence among men and women is an innate part of who we are (not a good one to devolve into, but a part of one nonetheless), such as having roots in biology, I would like to think that silly and archaic notions such as the above would be extinct rather than continuing to be blindly repeated. — IvoryBlackBishop
I guess, all of this, religion, war is simply a reflection of how corrupt humans are and while we may have been gifted with rationality, our animal nature still reigns supreme sometime. — StarsFromMemory
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