Why do some people feel the need to denigrate the religious?

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Religion is declining in western society except for the imported ''cough'' Islam. Most of western Europe, Canada, Australia and Japan are irreligious. Now that may not be the case in the U.S of course.

I'm from Canada and rarely ever meet religious people except for Muslim. An overwhelming amount of whites and Asians here have absolutely no belief in God. I myself do not either. I do not thinking about religion much but the only time I would ''denigrate'' a religious person is if they some how imposed themselves onto me. I would not go out of my way to ''get them'' I would just let them know I was not interested and did not want to hear it.

I think some people don't understand religious freedom. They don't get it that they are entitled to any religious belief (atheism is also a belief) they choose but so is everybody else.

Can only speak for myself. I don't "denigrate the religious". In fact sometime on WP I even defend religion from unreasonable attack. But I do call out the religious when they venture outside of religion to try manipulate science to "prove" literal interpretation of scripture. When some religious folks try to claim things like "the grand canyon was formed in a few hours by being dug out by Noah's flood" you cant not laugh at the absurdity.

My mother never believed that there were ever such a thing as dinosaurs. She, like others, seem to think that all this false information was put here by God to throw us off the track so that we have to believe by faith, not observation.

I never believed that God would lie to us like that. If it's in the fossil record, it's there because it really happened.

I have no problem saying religion is stupid and it tells you how to live your life and what to believe in or that god is just like believing in the Easter bunny or Santa Claus and that some people need religion to function in life because they lack morals and some use religion to cope in life like if they are about to be put to death by the state or to cope being locked up behind bars and someone at the autism group here used it to cope with her differences and being autistic. But I do not go around saying to others they're stupid or that they are crazy or delusional just because they choose to have a religion. Religion only becomes an illness if it affects the person's functioning like there are religious schizophrenics out there for example and they believe they can communicate with god and that he tells them to do things. They look at why they are religious like is it an illness that causes them to be that way with their religion so hence a diagnoses. It goes both ways with religion and atheism. People hate atheists because they shove their anti god in their face while atheists hate religious people because they also shove their religion in their face. So if we can both respect each other's beliefs and not shove it in our face, we're all good and we must not criticize each other.

But I do not condone hate groups on religion groups or bigotry like I have seen with Muslims, Jewish, Catholic, Christianity, and how all the Jews and other groups like Gyspsies were all rounded up and sent to Concentration camps and seeing justification for it. Just look up the propaganda about it. You will see them painted as monsters that were made during WWII to justify genocide. I believe these films were made to make people condone it.

I do believe some people use religion as an excuse to hate, to be bigoted against other groups, etc. and then there are irreligious nutters out there. They take it too far to a point they do damage and even go as far as neglecting their children because they don't believe in doctors and they keep thinking god will heal their child and they let the condition get so bad social services have to step in and take the kids away. I mean who could do that to do their and religion is no excuse to fail your kid's health. This would be an example of propaganda if our president decided to round up everyone who does religion and uses these extreme cases to paint a picture of why all religious people are toxic and must be exterminated like Hitler did.

Just speaking for myself, I'm not interested in trying to correct Atheists' misunderstandings about Theists and what they believe or what they mean. I'm not interested in discussing or criticizing the beliefs of Atheists. That's their business and none of mine.

But the question is: Why do they take so much interest in someone else's beliefs? Why is it a topic for them?

Well, I suppose the answer could be, "What other Atheist activity is there?"

Sure, it's reasonable to talk about and object to the abusive conduct of many members of the door-to-door denominations. But that would be a different, more specific, topic.

Michael Ossipoff

Thanks for exemplifying exactly what the OP was referring to. I couldn't care less what Atheists believe, or how stupid it is. I don't post that Atheists' beliefs are stupid, because why should I care? But you display a judgmental character. And your sureness that you're right leads you to name-calling. There's a word for that kind of manners, but, ironically, if I said it then I'd be accused of personal attack .



You're trotting-out the usual standard aggressive-Atheist liturgy. Do you all get it from the same hymn-book?

At least try to come up with some original wording.

Michael829

Last edited by Michael829 on 02 Dec 2017, 5:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Religion is faith. One cannot argue faith.

For some people, religion is actually essential; it provides a way to make sense of the world.

I convey my views on it, and I listen to others' views on it.

I don't directly argue it---because religion is based on personal faith, not on "scientific logic."

I've met many good people from many different Faith's.
And there are plenty of jerks in the world, too.
I don't think that being a good person or being a jerk has anything to do with with a person's faith, really.

Quite so.



Yes, that's why I often say that religion isn't a debate topic, why I don't debate it.

Yes, and when science or supposed "rationality" is applied outside its legitimate area of applicability, the science becomes pseudoscience, and the "rationality" becomes irrationality.

Michael829

So basically in general its ok to slam only the people one disagrees with or from a group you've had the most fallings out with. I won't be rude to anyone unless I really, really hate what they believe or do, then I'm allowed to be as rude as possible... seems to be what I'm hearing.

I still don't see the point of being rude. Born again Christians and Athiests have been the most rude and verbally abusive towards me. But I'm not going to be rude to them.

I used to have customer service jobs. I find it best to let the other person get what they want to say off their chest and listen. Most people just want a listening ear. Then the conversation can move forward. Whether it's an angry customer wanting to return a product or a person who disagrees with how I live or what I believe.

And don't let their words affect you emotionally if possible. There's lots of things going on in people's lives. You don't know what kind of day they are having. Best to give benefit of the doubt and try and be calm in one's response. There's no point arguing back.

Quoting Thomas Jefferson; "It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are 20 gods or no God"

I have a better topic for discussion: why do religious people feel the need to denigrate the use of logic? It's perfectly okay for them to point out logical fallacies, but to just completely throw logic out the window is uncalled for. The question I asked is meant in a rhetorical sense, but feel free to give any answer you please.

Logic is fine, within its area of applicability. When misapplied, due to a misunderstanding of what logic is, and what it's for, then "logic" becomes illogic.

Michael829

Logic can't explain why music feels the way it does.
In martial arts, acting in accordance with logic is really going to hurt.

Exactly why things are going downhill for society. There are things our pure logic can't explain, and society (usually western society) tries to misapply it sometimes, and it even hurt society in a lot of areas.

I also want to mention my answer to OP is that people (probably in America more than any other developed country) are nasty. For example, speaking from the right point-of-view in political/social terms, I understand that a lot of those on the "team" I can identify the most on can be just as self-righteous and emotional reactionary-driven as those on the other side. And I think the polarization on both sides of theist vs. atheist and other religion-driven debate issues are the same with re contributing to ideological or belief denigration. Like how some people compare Christianity to Islam on one side and the other can compare atheists to those who are all attackful and hate-driven.

I do find it kind of funny how atheists only appear to have an outright disrespect (or at least a certain passive-aggressiveness) toward Christians, but I can also understand that Christianity is the dominant religion of the US and the average person tends to be more religious than European counterparts.