To atheists/non-believers: Why the evangelism?

Christians have started a religion based conversation with me many times, and it annoys me a little. Never once has an atheist handed me an 'anti-God' pamphlet or asked me to go to their church. Its an opportunity for some atheists like me to say my side without coming of as rude and disrespectful as it could in real life. I hope people don't take anything too personal from the internet.

For somebody to say Atheism is a religion is not really understanding it. Its like the guy who was asking me who I wanted to win American Idol the other night. He insisted that I had to like one contestant or the other. He just wouldn't get it that I never watched any of American Idol at all. I'm just not part of that realm of things.

Originally posted by SouthernForkway26
Christians have started a religion based conversation with me many times, and it annoys me a little. Never once has an atheist handed me an 'anti-God' pamphlet or asked me to go to their church. Its an opportunity for some atheists like me to say my side without coming of as rude and disrespectful as it could in real life. I hope people don't take anything too personal from the internet.

For somebody to say Atheism is a religion is not really understanding it. Its like the guy who was asking me who I wanted to win American Idol the other night. He insisted that I had to like one contestant or the other. He just wouldn't get it that I never watched any of American Idol at all. I'm just not part of that realm of things.

edit on 29-5-2012 by SouthernForkway26 because: (no reason given)

edit on 29-5-2012 by SouthernForkway26 because: (no reason given)

I think where some claim atheism is becoming a religion is more so related to the actions some atheists have taken. Things like outright faith in the absolute conviction they are correct (as displayed in religions), and recently, the idea of building atheist "temples". It really is bordering on the ridiculous (as far as similarities to a religion go). I didn't really start this thread to get into a debate about the definitions of deism vs atheism or theism, etc.

Basically I just wanted to hear from atheists who believe in the proselytizing of atheism to garner a better understanding of why they choose to do it, and why they feel it isn't becoming what they hate (in relation to evangelism).

So far this thread has been helpful in that regard and the bulk of the responses have been very enlightening and respectful. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

Originally posted by DOLCOTT
reply to post by freedomSlave

 

Our forefathers founded this country on the basic principle that GOD gave men the right to be free, free to worship, free to be an atheist, free to be a buddist etc etc etc and free to be a atheist. Relax and enjoy your freedom, you have the freedom to ignore, change the channel, don't answer the door. However if you do not like your freedom and find that others bother you while exercising theirs. Pack you bags and get the he77 out of my country, if you do not like IN GOD WE TRUST, then leave perhaps China is a nice place or S. Korea, maybe even Syria. Get over yourself and live.

LOL. So basically people are free to be atheists, but if they disagree with "in god we trust" or "under god" (which wasn't part of the original pledge of allegiance), they should get out? That's hilarious. This is the exact type of intolerant nonsense people are talking about, and is the same mentality you get from many middle eastern countries about their god. This is why atheists speak out. Having "in god we trust" on money is clearly going against freedom of religion and pandering to one certain religion as true and "government endorsed". Why should anyone have to accept that in a "free" country? Atheists have every right to speak out against what they believe are injustices, just like any other group in America. If you don't like freedom of speech, perhaps you should take your own advice.

reply to post by DeadSeraph


People have actually brought up wanting to build athiest temples? If that is true, WTF are they to be used for? Sounds like maybe some athiests want to establish a tax exempt social club

Originally posted by TKDRL
reply to post by DeadSeraph

 

People have actually brought up wanting to build athiest temples? If that is true, WTF are they to be used for? Sounds like maybe some athiests want to establish a tax exempt social club

Atheist Temple

Excerpt:

"Plans to build a £1m "temple for atheists" among the international banks and medieval church spires of the City of London have sparked a clash between two of Britain's most prominent non-believers. The philosopher and writer Alain de Botton is proposing to build a 46-metre (151ft) tower to celebrate a "new atheism" as an antidote to what he describes as Professor Richard Dawkins's "aggressive" and "destructive" approach to non-belief. Rather than attack religion, De Botton said he wants to borrow the idea of awe-inspiring buildings that give people a better sense of perspective on life."

Because some people are faithful to the truth and see no harm in peddling it.....

ohmyvolcano.blogspot.com...

Originally posted by Kryties
After 2-3 thousand years of Christianity and other religions being rammed down everyone's throats, I think the atheists have a right to be persistent in attempting to get their opinion heard without being drowned out by half the worlds population.

edit on 29/5/2012 by Kryties because: (no reason given)

This, I think is a good example of the spirit of atheism (lol)
It's all about being antagonistic and getting revenge. They've got a nasty little reputation to keep up. Want to debate with them? It's pretty useless. They don't listen and only wait for there turn to talk. They parrot the same ideas around and sound like broken records.

2-3,000 years? Were you around for it? No, so why the personal agenda against today's Christians? Makes no sense at all.

And the atheistic voice is NOT being drowned out today. The secular agenda is being PUSHED. Anyone who expresses their Christian Bible-based views today is being called a racist* (??) bigot simply for saying something like, "I believe homosexuality is a sin." But because it hurts someone's poor little feelings, we have to be politically correct and are even encouraged to embrace and applaud sinful behavior.

*Ah, the best way to end an argument you are losing is to yell "Racist!" LOL even when race has absolutely nothing to do with the topic at hand. I love when people assume over the internet that I'm white for my non-liberal Christian views... and find out that I'm not!

Christianity is marginalized today. I'm sure it makes people like you very happy. Congratulations. Freedom of religion for all... except Bible-following Christians of course!

This from a former rabid, militant atheist. I know all their pathetic tricks. It's the same old thing with them all.

Interesting documentary:

reply to post by DeadSeraph


I keep saying that it takes faith to be an atheist. And now some of them prove me right that Atheism is just another false religion. They want a temple so they can worship their own gods... themselves!

Yes, they've made themselves into Gods. Sad, they will have to answer for it to the one that made them.

You have a choice. The time is near. You wont live forever.

To be honest, it doesn't really bother me if anyone preaches or evangelises their religion or irreligion. No-one's being coerced to share their beliefs.

However, I must admit that the so-called ''evangelical atheists'' rub me up the wrong way more than religious evangelists. Simply because most of these outspoken atheists tend to adopt a supercilious and - dare I say it - ''holier-than-thou'' attitude, based on their perceived grasp of logic and reason.

The problem is that most of these hardcore atheists form their position from a belief in metaphysical naturalism; this belief makes its somewhat contradictory to proselytise, as the logical continuation of this belief system makes it necessary to adopt a nihilistic world-view. Yet, most of these ''atheist fundamentalists'' aren't nihilists, thereby ruining the supposed logical and rational superiority which they claim to hold.

It's fair to say that religion runs contrary to empiricism and logic, but, ignoring that obstacle, the application of religious tenets are perfectly logical, as they are based on an absolutist axiom.

On the other hand, atheism may be the logical choice, based on evidence and logic, but the application of any philosophy - other than nihilism - from an atheist completely nullifies the logical ground which the disbelief was originally based upon.

Here's my two cents:

The non-religious community has, up until recently, been unable to discuss their thoughts and ideas concerning religion publicly. These discussions are becoming more tolerable among the public, and non-religious individuals are finding courage to speak out against what they see as wrong doing. Yes, we will criticize the Catholic Church for covering up cases of child molestation. Yes, we will criticize those who advocate and commit violence in the name of Islam. Yes, we will condemn Christians in the United States for trying to legislate their beliefs as law.

We don't have to sit on our hands and let everyone else pull us down. Someone must speak for the unspoken.

reply to post by DeadSeraph


Religon has caused more death, hatred and wars throughout
history than anything else. This is fact. Even today this is happening,
so it seems these people never learn. We having religous people
hating other people for their skin colour, being gay, different religon,
to name but a few. I personly belive that religon, mainly muslim and
christianity and catholic are evil. Yes, i said evil!

And i also believe that these religons are man made, and thats the sad
part to all this I dont want to go into why i believe religon is man made
because i think its pretty obvious thst it is.

Saying that, i know that there a good people who are religous,
but as a whole, it has caused so much pain and grief on this planet.

Originally posted by Jay-morris
reply to post by DeadSeraph

 

Religon has caused more death, hatred and wars throughout
history than anything else. This is fact. Even today this is happening,
so it seems these people never learn. We having religous people
hating other people for their skin colour, being gay, different religon,
to name but a few. I personly belive that religon, mainly muslim and
christianity and catholic are evil. Yes, i said evil!

And i also believe that these religons are man made, and thats the sad
part to all this

I dont want to go into why i believe religon is man made
because i think its pretty obvious thst it is.

Saying that, i know that there a good people who are religous,
but as a whole, it has caused so much pain and grief on this planet.

Personally I believe religion makes a convenient scapegoat. Take away religion and the powers that be will find something else to make people kill each other for. It seems short sighted to blame the worlds problems on religion. People kill for a lot of reasons and I would suggest money and power are far higher on the list than religion. Men in power simply like to use religion as a way of manipulating the masses to do their will. Take it away and they'd find some other ideology to do the same. Communism all but stamped out religions and we still witnessed incredible amounts of death and destruction under it's rule. Stalin proved that much.

Originally posted by freedomSlave
The same reason why people wake me up out of bed to tell me the story of jesus , religious advertisement , little fish symbols on cars, or give my child a book about jesus when family and extended family clearly know my views on religion , Why not a book on Buddhism , stories from the Koran, or Hinduism. Never would a believer do such a thing of any faith. Imagine the reaction I would get when I give their children books about the Koran ect. Also we too hope to convert our religious fellow humans in the errors of their ways.

You know the hypocrisy of atheists kills me , little fishes on cars or a kids book about Jesus . How do you think us Christians fee when your religion is forced down our kids throats at school and on just about every science Chanel describing life on earth and the cosmos. We are forced to hear and learn your lies on a daily basis .

Yes you read correctly when I wrote your religion because evolution is a religion. The theory has more gapping holes in it then the Titanic did. Their is zero evidence we evolved yet it is the major dogma of the schools and the atheists .

Further I see atheists constantly jumping into the clearly marked religious forums to troll and insult the Christians and Jews . The hate you exude is unbelievable and expected . Why expected because Jesus warned us of you in these end of days and it won't be long now before Christians are being killed for their beliefs just as it was prophecied thousands of years ago .

So the bottom line is the atheists have put forth the most aggressive evangelical p.atform since the dark ages when the catholic church persecuted the faithful. Stop your whining and try on tolerance .

Originally posted by Jay-morris
reply to post by DeadSeraph

 

Religon has caused more death, hatred and wars throughout
history than anything else. This is fact. Even today this is happening,
so it seems these people never learn. We having religous people
hating other people for their skin colour, being gay, different religon,
to name but a few. I personly belive that religon, mainly muslim and
christianity and catholic are evil. Yes, i said evil!

And i also believe that these religons are man made, and thats the sad
part to all this

I dont want to go into why i believe religon is man made
because i think its pretty obvious thst it is.

Saying that, i know that there a good people who are religous,
but as a whole, it has caused so much pain and grief on this planet.

That's a blatant lie , atheism has caused way more deaths then all the religious wars combined . Stalin killed at least thirty million , Pol Pot another ten million , the numbers killed in China over the millinia are in the hundreds of millions and that's just a couple of examples . Lies are so easy to disprove stick with the truth and maybe you may gain some credibility in life. Also try researching instead of being a parrot .

These atheist threads always make me laugh. They seem to be designed to instigate controversy between atheists and god-believers. I'm an atheist. All of my friends are Christian. I think my friends suspect I'm atheist but they just don't bring up the subject. I don't bring up the subject either. Seems to work better that way.

the atheists have put forth the most aggressive evangelical p.atform since the dark ages

This is so inaccurate it's plain stupid. How many people have been burned at the stake, put in camps, or had their cultures destroyed in the name of atheism???

Originally posted by tristi43
These atheist threads always make me laugh. They seem to be designed to instigate controversy between atheists and god-believers. I'm an atheist. All of my friends are Christian. I think my friends suspect I'm atheist but they just don't bring up the subject. I don't bring up the subject either. Seems to work better that way.

Did you read the whole thread? Not at all what I was trying to do. I respect your beliefs the same way I'd expect you to respect mine. I created this thread out of curiosity. Honestly no antagonism on my part.

So why is it atheists seem to be more zealous and preachy than half the Christians I know? I would appreciate if you could limit your responses to WHY you choose to engage in this behavior (if you do), or why choose not to (if you don't). I'm really not interested in debating the existence of God (let's face it, that's literally been done to death for thousands of years). I just want to know why you feel the need to engage in atheist "evangelism", and why you don't feel this is something that is completely hypocritical (an accusation often leveled against Christians).

Because you don't know many preachy Christians? I don't know of any preachy people myself because I don't associate with them in the first place.

If you ask a really preachy atheist why they are like that, you probably will hear something like "religion is wrong because religion is wrong". In other words: "religion is wrong because I say so". Just like all preachy people -- such as fundamentalist Muslims -- preachy atheists gain strength in large numbers. And preachy people are indeed increasing in number thanks to an overall decline in mental acuity of the population.

I think Christians ought to take care of their own problems before trying to correct others. Jesus said something to the effect of "take the log out of your own eye before you take the speck out of someone else's eye". IT GOES WITHOUT SAYING (but I'll say it anyways because people might flame me if I don't) that atheists should do just the same.

Originally posted by CB328

the atheists have put forth the most aggressive evangelical p.atform since the dark ages

This is so inaccurate it's plain stupid. How many people have been burned at the stake, put in camps, or had their cultures destroyed in the name of atheism???

edit on 8-6-2012 by CB328 because: (no reason given)

Funny how you omitted the rest of my statement.

reply to post by Azadok2day

Haven't atheists killed more people in the name of atheism than religious theists have killed in the name of their religion? No: atheism isn't a philosophy or ideology.

And this is the sad thing. If you go by the commandments, then christianity should be a peaceful religon. So why so much murder and hatred. You could say its down to the people and the way they look at their religon, but at the end of the day, its down to religon. Religon has alot of blood on its hands.

Even if you are right that atheism has killed more people than religon, its still
disgusting thst a so called peacful religon has killed millions of people, many
of them innocent people.