I am beginning to feel that atheism is complex, and people hold it for many reasons. People like Mike are trying to work through their former world view which they no longer find enhancing and now trying to explain, understand, and gain closure on the change. The Sort of rabid hate monger Dawkinsia who says "I don't need to study theology be I know it's bull shit, so even though I don't know anything about it, I know all about and I don't need to learn" that type of rabid hateful brown shirt type (aka from now on I call them "Dawkinsians") are just trying to find a place to hang their hates. It's just like Hitler's Brown shirts, hating Christianity is a social cement that binds them together. They have such a negative cement because their rejection of God has led them to a place where black is white and negative is positive and having no hope is the only hope they have. In words of the immortal Richard Farina "Been Down So long it Looks like up to me."
Christian theology, especially in the liberal Protestant mold, requires a life time of learning. It's for bookish people. Anyone who could say "I refuse to learn about these ideas becasue I disagree with them so I will not pay attention, but I'm sure they are stupid and I don't know about them to say that" is the sort of person who si unbookish and who does not enjoy learning, doesn't understand the world of letters.
Sot heir persecution of Christianity is nothing more than the brown shirts beating up the Jews. they are giving in to a primal urge for mob rule and to persecute and destroy the unknown. In other words, they are bullies. This is nothing more than the school bully sees the smart kid with books under his arm and goes over and takes the books through them away and smashes the kid's violin.
When I was an atheist atheists wanted to learn and think. My atheists never said "I don't want to learn about unicorns becasue they don't exist so don't tell me about theology." My atheists said "I want to learn all about Christians so I will know if I agree or not and if not I will know how to refute it." But the Dawkinsians are not in it to gain knowledge or to think, they are gaining a sense of power and sense of identity by fomenting their hate and by hurting religious people. In the final analysis they are only hurting themselves.
why the heck to do they bother religious people? Why do they pretend they want discussion and argument? why put up message boards? IN other old days message boards were supposed to be a way people could communicate. But to communicate you must accept the fact that people have their own ideas. The art of respecting others is to listen to their ideas. How can we discuss ideas if we are not willing to learn about ideas we don't accept as well as those we do? The Dawkinsians don't want communication. They want power, they want to be the bully boy, they want hate.
why can't they just go else where? I am not asking people to read my blog. I'm going to talk about theology on this blog. you would think hey would get the picture. If you don't' want that just go away. Because they really want to ridicule religious people so they can feel superior.
Don't worry, I know all atheists are not like this. But the one's that are have ruined message boards. Now they are ruining blogs.
3 comments:
A lot of the angry atheists I know came from rigid religious backgrounds and some have become rigid in their atheism.
Many believed so firmly in their beliefs as Christians that they continue to write off other religions or variation on Christianity as atheists, just like they did when they were Christians.
Some are perfectly content as atheists and have no desire to investigate any other spiritual path, but are frustrated with a society that has made it acceptable for the religious to force their beliefs on others, sometimes even using the government to do so. They get so angry and frustrated that they then make the mistake of lumping all theists, especially all Christians, together, thinking that all of them want to force their beliefs.
A lot of the angry atheists I know came from rigid religious backgrounds and some have become rigid in their atheism.
I think there is definitely some of that going on, although I'm not sure that all the militant atheists fall into that category. But I have noticed that some atheists are former fundamentalists who have just switched teams without changing the mindset.
Mike, I do appreciate, from what I have seen of your comments in this blog, that you don't fall into that category, that you don't approach this from a dogmatic perspective, and I certain believe that it is possible to have a respectful discussion about religion between believers and non-believers. Maybe because I fall into the realm of skeptical theist (or I should say skeptical panentheist), and am a former atheist myself, I can relate to the concerns and issues that atheists bring to the table. Unfortunately, some atheists of the militant variety seem to be as rabidly intolerant as their fundamentalist Christian cousins.
those are good observations seeker.
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