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Askville Post #5: Is Atheism a religion?
From the discussion thread for the question "Is Atheism a religion?"
I've been in other discussions with you, [user], so I know that you've been on the receiving end of some pretty nasty remarks due to your New Age inclinations. I didn't know that you'd been down-rated as well, though.
Here's the thing: maybe it's just me, but I make a particular point of not down-rating people for giving opinions that I disagree with. Nor do I give people better ratings because they agree with me. But time and time again I've seen that certain types of answers inevitably get awful ratings - and I'm quite sure that those ratings came from conservative Christians.
There's a degree of pettiness there that appalls me. These people claim to be true followers of what they believe is the ultimate power in the universe, the Creator of all things, the God of Love...and they spend their time screaming online against those who "dare" to disagree with them. They sit there securely anonymous behind their screens and deal out their version of divine vengeance against those whose crime is merely not sharing their belief.
It's kind of pathetic, and at the same time there's a sort of black humor to it, too. Do they think their God is so weak that it's necessary for them to take up a verbal cudgel to defend Him? Perhaps they think that sneering at atheists, quoting a million Bible verses, and down-rating them will somehow open their hearts?
My suspicion is that many of them are so passionate in their hatred of atheists not because they really hate atheists, but because in their minds atheists represent their own doubts and weaknesses. I've noticed that the arguments they make are invariably predicated on the assumption that all atheists share basic Christian belief; why else would they threaten an atheist with Hell when atheists by definition don't BELIEVE in Hell?
I think that all the polemics and rage are really directed at the most important audience of all: themselves. By attacking a "Godless" enemy, they bolster their own feelings of worthiness; a worthiness that they perhaps feel deep down they lack.
I've been in other discussions with you, [user], so I know that you've been on the receiving end of some pretty nasty remarks due to your New Age inclinations. I didn't know that you'd been down-rated as well, though.
Here's the thing: maybe it's just me, but I make a particular point of not down-rating people for giving opinions that I disagree with. Nor do I give people better ratings because they agree with me. But time and time again I've seen that certain types of answers inevitably get awful ratings - and I'm quite sure that those ratings came from conservative Christians.
There's a degree of pettiness there that appalls me. These people claim to be true followers of what they believe is the ultimate power in the universe, the Creator of all things, the God of Love...and they spend their time screaming online against those who "dare" to disagree with them. They sit there securely anonymous behind their screens and deal out their version of divine vengeance against those whose crime is merely not sharing their belief.
It's kind of pathetic, and at the same time there's a sort of black humor to it, too. Do they think their God is so weak that it's necessary for them to take up a verbal cudgel to defend Him? Perhaps they think that sneering at atheists, quoting a million Bible verses, and down-rating them will somehow open their hearts?
My suspicion is that many of them are so passionate in their hatred of atheists not because they really hate atheists, but because in their minds atheists represent their own doubts and weaknesses. I've noticed that the arguments they make are invariably predicated on the assumption that all atheists share basic Christian belief; why else would they threaten an atheist with Hell when atheists by definition don't BELIEVE in Hell?
I think that all the polemics and rage are really directed at the most important audience of all: themselves. By attacking a "Godless" enemy, they bolster their own feelings of worthiness; a worthiness that they perhaps feel deep down they lack.
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Certainly, that explains so much of the world, and why it's so screwed up...