Christians/Atheists

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Contrast and compare to the UK. Telling someone you are an atheist or a Christian is about as controversial as telling them you like or don't like anchovies on your pizza. If anything, saying you are a Christian is more likely to raise eyebrows as folks wonder if you are going to try to start preaching. But then people don't talk about religion in the UK much at all, it is irrelevant to most people's lives.

The Jehovah's Witnesses stuffed a leaflet in my letterbox on Saturday, curiously it was in English, so they obviously made a note of my nationality on their previous visit around 4 years ago. The leaflet will no doubt be followed up with a visit in person. I can't decide whether to be blunt and tell them to bugger off or try to hold a dialogue with them. If they only speak French then a technical discussion where I bring up evolution, genetics, fossils and cosmology etc may be stretching my conversational French ability too far, but might be worth it for the French practice. Last time they visited the guy pulled a big book out of his bag which appeared to have "The Sermon on the Mount" translated into every language in the world, enabling them to harass anybody, anywhere on the planet. He thrust it under my nose almost forcing me to read it. I politely told him I wasn't interested and he left, disappointed at not saving another soul. Maybe I should print out some evolution documentation in French from the web so I can thrust that under their nose?

Who would dare desecrate a pizza by putting anchovies on it when there are perfectly delicious calamari available. Off with the anchoviests heads!! !!

"Chris·tian
ˈkrisCHən/
adjective
noun
noun: Christian; plural noun: Christians
1.a person who has received Christian baptism or is a believer in Jesus Christ and his teachings."

Nothing in the definition about being in anyones face.

If anyone has ever personally asked me if I have accepted Jesus as my lord and savior (for the record I have accepted him) it's been so rare and low key that I've forgotten about it. What you people are talking about are what we call Bible thumpers and holy rollers. They are not the mainstream and they can be rather annoying. I can annoy them worse, though, and it's always much more fun to be the upsetter than the upsetee.
The average mainstream Christian might ask you if or what church you go to but won't make an issue out of it.

BTW: Putting dead little fish on pizza is just wrong.

On that definition I'm a Christian! I was baptised as a young kid; not that my parents ever went to church, baptism was just one of those things that was often done 50 years ago. Much less so nowadays.

I'm only the part that comes after "or" since I was not baptised.

This atheist sure did. Got sick and tired of it. There are some reasonable Christians out there, but they are quite hard to come by. Most do not understand why it's necessary for them to adjust their worldview in order to accommodate findings in science. Instead, they close their ears and say that it's not relevant, important or even true; faith fills their gaps (in more than one way! hehehe). When this happens, you get crack opinions, crap political decisions, and, for many sects, lots of prejudice. This isn't always the case, but it sure happens more than it doesn't.

I've been on both sides of this fence, and can appreciate both sides. I still get pinged by Christians who think I've turned aside from God and need to find my way back. When I was on the other side, I disliked atheism, thinking it was blind. Oh well... each to their own journey.

you all us idiots. how is that not offensive and hatred? that and other names doesn't make me feel like you like us much.
and most Christians don't run around forcing atheist to believe in god, or go to church.
also not all hatred leads to violence. you can hate some one a lot want to kill them, but never actually do it.


the 1st amendment says Christians can openly do their beliefs without being suppressed. how is trying to limit Christians openly doing their beliefs doing as the 1st amendment directs? you know not all people say that. and to be tru we were founded and first populated by Christians who fled the attacks on them in England. the pilgrims and all that. the colonies wer very very relgious, burning witches and all that. do you really believe that all colonists were artiest is is it possible that when were were founded as a nation most if not all were part of a christian religion? as for the 2nd part I don't see such edict . as for politics, why not should not a group of people be able to elect a person to represent their interest including their beliefs?

see you judge me I don't think I need to save you, yeah I think you might go to hell, but that's between god and you. heck I think I might go to hell. they can be just as loving and caring, they just tend not to towards Christians. the bible says non believers can't be loving where does it say that? I don't ever remember being told that or reading that. certianly isn't what any church i went to growing up taught. we are taught to love you regardless if you don't beleive in god. we are taught to love our enemies.

really no war on us. bill nye the evolution guy thinks different its his goal to prevent us from "brainwashing our children" regardless of if we agree or not, its his and others goals to convert every christian to stop believing. to have a nation ith no religion where everyone believes in evolution. sounds and feels like war to me. then there are those who talk of actual war, of purging the world of those who believe in god. that only genocide can free the world of such ret*ds, and let us evolove thru science.

I believe in god and science. I don't push my beliefs on others, I don't even usually bring up god. yet I always get attacked why why? what have I ever done, why is me simply believing in god such a horrible thing to them. it doesn't hurt you or others what I do in my mind. yet I must be made to no believe.

good friend yes, good atheist no. good libertarian no. you can be a good friend and be bad at other things. a good atheist wouldn't force his ideas on others or say hateful things about those groups. he does. even though he says he doesn't care, his actions and other conversations say other wise.

i would like to have said super atheists, or extremists on both sides. I have no doubt there are good atheists. they just don't talk about their beliefs or push it on others, people likely don't even know what they are. like most people don't know i'm christian. they don't know my political ideas or that I like guns. I don't see a reason to talk to people or push my ideas on people. I may even know some but not know it, but the ones who I know are atheists I know cause they push their ideas on me and others.

I don't like being letched four hours about how i'm going to hell and how i need to repent /go to church/don't drink, smoke, swear, never ending list(basically don't do anything but read the bible and go to church) I also hate being lectured about how horrible I am and how god doesn't exist and I'm a idiot for believing so. I just want to be left alone.

I have actually been officially sworn in/converted, taking the whole "I accept Jesus..blah, blah, blah, two times, at the incessant prodding of an particularly annoying gatekeeper of a homeless shelter who would net permit homeless people to have a place to sleep or hot meal unless they participated in services and prayer. I indulged his annoyance, respectfully rather than to offend him. I don't believe he cared one way or other about sincerity as long as I mouthed the words with him.

Hey, "a mans gotta do what he has to do when he has a hungry mouth to feed."- Dylan

^And therein lies the biggest problem. It is the most extreme and outspoken that are used to judge others, and not the majority.

But the biggest concern with most atheists in the US is the insistence on putting anyone's religion into government and public schools (although as Christianity is the dominant religion in the political world, it tends to be the biggest focus). It isn't a demand for people to give up their faith; it is a push to make it a private matter and not a public one. It is the people trapped in the hate/fear mongering mindset (on all sides) that tend to stir the pot.

Personally, I don't think religion should be taught in public schools at all, other than from a cultural standpoint, and it should definitely be out of politics completely. But I also don't think telling kids there is no God should be taught in public schools, either. Science and fact are what belong in schools.

I am the only non Christian in my family. I live in an apartment full of mainline Christians who post religious literature throughout the building and have regularly scheduled prayer meetings and services in the community room with visiting ministers leading in singing gospel songs. Same thing happens in nearby apartments. Yes I interact with mainstream Christians everyday, all of who are kind towards me but I have not a doubt in the world that the majority of these Christians, aside from family members, would shun me as if I were the devil incarnate should I make my nonbelief known to them.

^out of politics!! AMEN!!

@khaoz, I have friends who've done something similar in order to get scholarships from Christian organizations. I realize they've got their own evangelical agenda, but when helping out others, seems odd to have this one condition of "follow my traditional values".

I agree with this, except that perhaps 'religious' kids should have access to 'something' for them in the school environment. School isn't just about job preparation. It's also about life and being literate about the world, and about how we fit the individual right of expression into it all.

One of the important parts of education is not teaching people what to think, but how to think. Each time we put up a wall against one type of thinking, regardless of how much we might personally dislike it, we limit the learning.

As a literacy teacher, with debate/issues being part of the curriculum, one of the big hurdles I face is students with fixed opinions, not interested in writing about both sides of an issue, much less in playing devil's advocate.

^I have no issues with this at all, as long as it comes from the students and not the teachers. There is a huge difference between something that comes from your peers (although there are also inherent problems with this) and something that comes from those in a position of authority.

I think the biggest cause of the divisiveness on the issue is that so many think that teaching evolution = teaching atheism or that not teaching Creationism/ID = teaching atheism.

I think you've got it right, there.

I'm glad that here in Australia, people aren't so polarized in that way. People reasonably see science for what it is and rarely make any fuss over the creation/evolution issue. We also have an optional religious instruction subject in many schools and many also have a chaplain. For the more devout parents, we have Christian, Catholic, Muslim and other private schools.

What does make me angry though is the brain-drain here in Australia as govt and industry cutbacks are causing our scientists to go overseas for a job or better pay. Ten years ago, we were at the leading edge in many areas of science. Now we farm it out.