16 Common myths about christians

Common myths atheists have about Christians. This is a thread based on www.abovetopsecret.com...
But here I have flipped it, to show what atheists would have thought about Christianity.



Myth 1) Christians hate atheists and atheism.
No, we don’t. Personally, I do not hate the atrocities that have been committed in the name of religion, the dishonesty of most religions, and the way that they encourage people not to think or question, and not to trust or use their minds. But I do dislike someone just because of their religion.


Myth 2) Most Christians started out as atheists, and started believing because of some good experience with other atheists.
Or maybe we simply stopped questioning, to not wonder what happened when we applied the standards of logic, reason and burden of proof to religion, although we already didn´t to everything in our lives. Or, perhaps, we were never unbelievers at all. It happens, you know.


Myth 3) Christians have no sense of morality, since morality comes from man.
But as we know: "without fear of hell, there is nothing to stop people from being bloodthirsty monsters." It may come as a surprise to most Atheists, but there are no reasons for being good other than fear of punishment - which really is a reason, and only shows Atheists in a very bad light;
Reasons like human empathy, genuine feelings for others, and, least importantly rational principles. Behaving yourself just because daddy will spank you otherwise does make you a nice child.


Myth 4) Christians aren´t a unified group, like Atheists.
Aren´t we? I must have missed the memo then. If anything, I’d say Christians are less diverse than atheists, because we`re more sheep-like, and accept things on faith, or from authority.


Myth 5) Christians actually know, deep inside, that there’s no God, as that’s perfectly obvious; we are simply too brainwashed and irrational to admit the non-existence of something greater than themselves.
Not exactly. You see, the existence of a god is not only obvious if you`ve been brainwashed (either by others, or by your own irrationality) into believing it. We are truly convinced that there’s a god, and are not in denial. Really, I’m serious.


Myth 6) Christians don’t really know anything about Atheists.
Again, it depends. Some certainly know more than others. However, non religion is so ubiquitous that, like it or not, we`ve all had varying degrees of contact with it, with its teachings, and with nonbelievers. Besides, a lot of Christians are naturally curious. I, myself, have read the Atheist Bible - more than once, in fact.
Now, dear non-believer, ask yourself how many Christian books, magazines or essays you have read. Oh, I forgot, they`re all not the work of Satan, so an atheist wouldn’t read it then... right? Don’t be ignorant.


Myth 7) Christian lives are cold and empty, as they can`t feel the joy and love that comes only from yourself.
Really? I`d never call my life cold or empty - I have the joys of friendship, love, family, and doing the things I love to do. And, what` s more, I`m self-sufficient, and I don`t know how anyone could live without God in their lives - as many Atheists do.


Myth 8) Christians are depressive and nihilistic, since they believe there’s something after death, and therefore there`s no point to anything.
On the contrary, we, unlike you, know how precious life isn´t, because we’re aware that it’s not our only one. And, this may come as a shock to you, but we can’t love our lives, we can’t feel the joy of being alive, because we believe that this is the devils world, and that this is just a test before the real thing. Life is not precious, and it’s not our own – it`s Gods`.

Myth 9) Christians are cold and uncaring.
No, we are not. Having delusions makes anyone more caring. And, again, we don´t treat life as precious, and do not do what we can to improve it, both ours and that of our loved ones, because we believe life is suffering, and there’s nothing we can do about it.


Myth 10) Christians are arrogant.
What, because we dare to not use our minds, but ask: who are we to know? No, were not.


Myth 11) Christians want to forbid non-religious worship.
Wrong. We just don’t want to be harmed by it. Want to believe in nothing? Be my guest. Want to teach your kids to do the same? I feel sorry for them, but it will still take many years until people realize how crippling ones reason in childhood is like a bird crippling its offspring’s wings.

(*) Want to give all your money to no one? Fine. But don’t try to save me, don’t harass me in the street or at my home, don’t get politicians to enact laws to give power to you, don’t try to teach your non-religion in religion classes by dishonestly giving it a new name and disguising it as religion, and don’t use my tax money to write your idiocies in public places. In short, do as you want, as long as you keep it to yourself - just like I don’t go to your place trying to convert you.


Myth 12) Christians are incapable of feeling awe at simple things, like a beautiful sunset, as they see everything in terms of cold religion, instead of science.
Ah, unweaving the rainbow - the idea that beauty and poetry only exist if we know much - to everything - about how things work. But I ask you: does not the fact that you know about astronomy, physics and light make the sunset less beautiful? Was it beautiful only because it seemed real - or an act of nature - to you?


Myth 13) Christians live their lives in constant fear of death.
Few people actually want to die - those that do are either depressed and suicidal, or are Atheists who believe that the world is evil, please, nature, take me, and all that. A reasonable fear of death is perfectly unnatural.
Also, we may not believe that this life is it, which makes us treat it less precious, but we think that there’s a chance of going to a place where you burn and are tortured for eternity


Myth 14) Most criminals are Christians (or, alternatively, the percentage of Christians among criminals is higher than among the general populace).
Oddly enough, the opposite is not true.


Myth 15) Christians are stubborn and closed-minded.
Not unless you define closed-minded like this. But, as Ebon said, “ask any non-believer what would convince him he was mistaken and persuade him to leave his non-religion and become a Christian, and if you get a response, it will almost invariably be”: - “unfakable Evidence please”.

Although such people may well exist, I personally have met an atheist who would acknowledge the possibility that his belief was in error. Many atheists, by their own admission, don’t structure their beliefs so that no evidence could possibly disprove them. Christians, on the other hand, are not easy to convince - all it requires is for God to show himself in some fakeable way, say, for instance by letting me hear an inner voice or letting one of my many prayers come true. -Not easy to convince.


Myth 16) Christians make bad parents.
Again, there are good and bad Christian parents, and good and bad atheist parents. Christian parents, however, would do what Abraham was about to do to his son Isaac (and Atheists don’t see Abrahams behavior as applaudable!), because, to most Christians, our lives are not our own. In fact, even if there wasn’t a God, it would follow that our lives are HIS.



Did my best to translate into opposites, it was hard, but really funny, stupid and worth it. Dont take it seriosly.

reply to post by Daniem


Ummmm.....Ok....where did you get these myths. These myths are all outrages and far off. I mean "But I do dislike someone just because of their religion."?
Clearly you must not be a Christian to dislike someone.

"without fear of hell, there is nothing to stop people from being bloodthirsty monsters." Well, actually it is called ethics. The same reason why before the Moses people never killed each other. It is not fear of hell, but it is because each human has a bond with one another.

"because we`re more sheep-like, and accept things on faith, or from authority. " That is a terrible thing, which only makes me realize more that Christians will do anything their priest tells them.

"I don`t know how anyone could live without God in their lives - as many Atheists do. " I know many ex-Christians that are Atheists because people pushed them to the limit.

"On the contrary, we, unlike you, know how precious life isn´t, because we’re aware that it’s not our only one. And, this may come as a shock to you, but we can’t love our lives, we can’t feel the joy of being alive, because we believe that this is the devils world, and that this is just a test before the real thing. Life is not precious, and it’s not our own – it`s Gods`."

Great job, you are officially not a Christian in my book. You are separating people, or in other words divide and conquer which will not work.

Originally posted by Daniem
Myth 13) Christians live their lives in constant fear of death.
Few people actually want to die - those that do are either depressed and suicidal, or are Atheists who believe that the world is evil, please, nature, take me, and all that. A reasonable fear of death is perfectly unnatural.
Also, we may not believe that this life is it, which makes us treat it less precious, but we think that there’s a chance of going to a place where you burn and are tortured for eternity

No we don't fear death. At least...if anyone else does, they really shouldn't.
We don't treat life as less precious either.

Basing off the first script, I believe that played into any given "athiests" hands (please, I don't mean to sound negative), but to a certain level, yeah, okay you have to leave your stuff, but posessions aren't everything.

We don't look forward to death, but we aren't afraid of it either.
We know what's on the other side, and that's really all that it takes for reknowned christians to sleep in peace at night (going to myth 5), we know deep down the exact opposite of the question. We know deep down and whole heartedly that there is a god.

I have no problems expressing the fact that I believe myself to be reknowned, I'm not an elitist by any means, or an extremist.

Some of the points made are...okay...but the attitude of the thread sounds extreme to me.

[edit on 23.4.2008 by Shugo]

You are making fun of the religion of many people which just makes you a hypocrite. To take this as a joke. I can make fun of Atheists too for being monkey's, or sorry being Apes. However unlike you I respect people's beliefs.
What will you come up with next, why Muslims are terrorists? This post is made by a hypocrite who has no knowledge of religion nor Atheism.

Great job OP, this is not a conspiracy it is a terrible joke.

plz visit the thread linked to at the top. www.abovetopsecret.com...
there you will find the original questions and answers, this thread is made as an opposite of that, and made in a way to show what he mostly is realy saying in his thread.

Myth 8 seems to contradict Myth 6, in fact a lot of them do. Who's this "you" that you are referring to? Athiests in particular it seems, so I'm going out on a limb here as one of those "weak christians" and say that this is a Christian attack on the Athiest belief.

Which by the way, makes your point extremely moot and biased.

reply to post by Daniem


So let me ask a few questions.
Are you a Christian?
do you fight fire with fire?

If you are a Christian then fighting fire with fire is wrong. Let Madness say what he wants to say. How will it affect your life?

I'm wondering if the two repliers here read the ops entire thread. It was a joke! Or to be better described, a play on another thread about atheism. He/she tried their best to mimic the answers of the other thread that was written by an atheist? Probably a Christian. Anyway, you are taking it too seriously.

However, there are a few funny points the op makes about how Christians do not question their leaders. That I find as almost as true as one can be about Christians. The truth of the matter is that if a Christian truly questioned all of the wholly 'faith' based assumptions of the religion they would probably stop being Christians within a month.

Just my opinion.

Just an FYI, it took me about 6 months of really hammering out the hard questions before I made a decision on my 'faith'.

reply to post by Daniem


"Personally, I do not hate the atrocities that have been committed in the name of religion, the dishonesty of most religions, and the way that they encourage people not to think or question, and not to trust or use their minds. But I do dislike someone just because of their religion."


Not very Christ-like is it ?


I'd spit at your feet if I met you in the street,
as you speak forth lies like the whore of the beast,
wearing the guise of a good christian, the beast has you in a position,
where you believe death to those who will not listen,
to the words of your god, who's word you believe is written,
no one else in the world matters to you cause the Beast has got you smitten!

reply to post by Equinox99


Im raised a christian, now an agnostic atheist. But this text is pretty much just a transalition, to show how silly it can get when you see what another thread accually is saying. I dont believe in this as a whole, i just find it interesting that this was the outcome.

reply to post by Daniem


Sir, you cannot speak for Christians, seeing as you yourself are not a Christian, this is total bunk. I read what you wrote, it is not what any Christians believe, we are not people who coohse "not to use our minds", this sir is an insult to us as a whole and you know that, please, stop the silliness, Atheism is getting so annoying, all you guy's do is copy and patse BS all the time, BS that has been debunked over and over, and then I have to write what I'm writing now because you guys don't seem to get it. I think that threads about how to disprove Christianity and the existance of Yeshua/Jesus should be banned on here, nobody benifits from them, they keep getting debunked, yet up pops a new one, it's like the atheists are trying to spam Christianity away or something, it's all just way too silly.

guess I'm confused with why anyone has any issue regarding to the Op.
If some people believe what he said about Christian's then he is correct that they are at a minimum, myths. Just plain retarded is probably closer to the truth but that would be my bias.
No reason to get all defensive about this thread though. He said they were myths and ( I suppose I should have read his responses to each myth, my bad I haven't, but again that wouldn't serve any purpose either)
.....the point is.....if someone believes that about the majority of Christian's, well then he is correct, they are myths.

reply to post by dariousg


If it was a joke, there's a lovely forum dedicated to this kinda of "haha" in BTS. This is more offensive than anything, joke or not.

reply to post by Shugo


Yea I have to agree. I dont think the OP has thought through the questions or answers very well.

-fm

Isn't it called trolling when you misrepresent yourself to disgrace someone's belief?
I think it's just rather childish.

[edit on 23-4-2008 by Clearskies]

Folks, I don't think the OP meant any harm here. It was just a poorly written joke made in very bad taste and put in the wrong forum. Most of it doesn't even make sense, really.

From my point of view those are some very bunk myths.
From my stand point, I cant say I have really even considered any of those so called myths you wrote down.. (Err copy and pasted down might be a better way to put it..)

You left out the myth that some people consider most faiths as cults.
It seems you want to call out just christians. When the fact of the matter is you cant pick on one, and not the other.

I have my own feelings about God.. I do not deny God. Yet I have my own personal relationship with this being.

I do not know what God is.. But I surely know what God isnt.

You leave out many many points.. And you dont seem to be a christian yourself. So I dont know what kind of point you are trying to make, other than picking out one group of people, when we are mostly all to blame. Its not just one faith that is wrong, or misguided.
I feel over-all many of us are mislead on purpose, which works for those with power, and thats what keeps us at witts end with eachother.
Shed the myths.. They will only hurt you and me in the long run.

[edit on 23-4-2008 by zysin5]

Alrighty then.

I was about to ask if you were insane or kidding until I read this at the very bottom of your second OP comment:

Did my best to translate into opposites, it was hard, but really funny, stupid and worth it. Dont take it seriosly.

Maybe the mods will move the thread for you to the BTS joke forum.

Did my best to translate into opposites, it was hard, but really funny, stupid and worth it. Dont take it seriosly.

That is the last line in what the OP stated.

If you would go to the link you would see that what he/she did was take what someone had written about atheism and reversed it to the 'T'. Or tried to. There were moments where it seemed a bit difficult thus the ridiculous statements.

However, on some of the replies I have seen I am starting to believe most statements about religious people.

They don't really read everything. As soon as they sniff any challenge to their 'faith' they get mad and retaliate without truly understanding the situation.

The OP didn't state anything about he/she being a Christian or NOT being a Christian. They took another post and turned it around. Some of it fit and obviously some of it didn't.