Why do atheists seem so angry and threatened by Christians? Is it my imagination?

Because the God we believe exists...that they dont....is scary to them.

They are scared of the God that they dont even believe is real.

It depends.

If you're talking about your presence or your ideas, then it is your imagination. I've noticed that some Christians perceive disagreement as "anger" or "hate." Make sure that you're not one of these.

If you're talking about the reaction you get when you preach to someone, then the anger may be real. Most people don't like being preached at without consent, and these would include atheists. They would not feel threatened, however. Since they don't believe you, there's nothing to be threatened about. If one tries to avoid you, it's more likely out of irritation than feeling threatened.

If you're expressing a wish that the government would enforce some aspect of your religion, *then* the atheist will likely regard you as a threat. While your religion is an idea, the police and national intelligence agencies are very real.

Because sometimes they have legitimate reasons to be angry. And it definitely is not your imagination.

Catherine E:

Read your blog, would it surprise you to hear that many Christians are made vein throbbing eye-bulging angry by many of the same things that you mentioned. Most in fact. The fact that I consider myself a Christian does not mean I go along blindly with everything that they do or believe. Nor do many other Christians.

Why don't we say something? We do. No one cares. Its kind of the same thing some black people complain about. When something happens in the black community there are tons of intelligent articulate African-American people that want to talk about it. But, who gets the air-time? Al Sharpton.

When some of us as Christians fight against some policy that the religious right has cooked up, or some horrible thing said, we get a tiny sound bite that everyone pretty much ignores that gets drowned out by the reverend this or league or something or other. Its not just Atheists who are mad about those things.

But I have to say I throughly disagree about Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings.

Imagine everyday, 50 times a day, a sales company called you trying to get you to buy the same product. They do everything from promising it will make your life better to threatening to hurt you with fire if you do not buy the product. You know you are just fine with out the product, you are happy and healthy and you are comfortable not having the product. Or better yet at one time you had the product but you found you did not like it do you got rid of the product. Now then wouldn't you get slightly annoyed?

That's about what what many Christians do to atheist.

The Bard~

Why are black people angry and threatened by the KKK?

Christianity is a scourge on American society.

But it will be dead in a couple generations. You may even live to see it. But it doesn't really matter. The religion has already been disproven. Mainly due to the efforts of creationists and fundamentalist politicians, a lot of Americans simply don't realize this.

But it's just America... and either the religion will go, or the country will.

Many Atheists feel threatened and angered by Christians because they've spend a great deal of their lives testing, researching, and discovering what they believe. Many Christians, however, are taught that ANY time they listen to another belief or try to view God in a different way than they might see him in their minds they are being told "lies by the devil."

Because of this, Atheists don't really feel that Christian ever really LISTEN to them. Any person who is not willing to listen to another person and hear what they have to say does not value them as people. And in this way, many Christians in fact make a bad name for themselves because they appear stubborn, cold-hearted, unloving, unintelligent, and like sheep led to slaughter--never thinking for themselves.

My advice to you, if you're a Christian, is to start listening to people other than OTHER CHRISTIANS. Get out into the world, meet different people, open your mind. You don't need to change what you believe, but once you start realizing that everyone has value and a place in this world, you might start to realize that other people wont' think so badly about you anymore.

I'm more threatened by the idea of a pack of fundamentalist Christians in Congress than I am by the thought of being confronted a hundred rabid, starving wolves. Literally.

Why?

Because they shove their religion onto me. They shove their religion onto the people around me. They shove their religion onto my government, which would strongly effect its laws and, in turn, my life.

What's more threatening than that?

Atheists have a right to be angry. You want to better understand? Read here, because she puts is better than I could (and there's too much to be typed out in a forum like Y/A):

http://gretachristina.typepad.com/greta_christinas...

when it comes to talking about me, it's your imagination. I like several Christians, just not all of them.

What is there to waste my time and energy being angry about? and unless you're holding a gun to my head, there's no threat. And if you're holding a gun to my head, your religion is likely the last thing on my mind.

Threatened? Yes dear, that is your imagination.

Must be. I'm not angry or feel threatened. If their OK with me then I'm OK with them. The ones that threaten me with hell make me angry though.