What are Atheists afraid of?

I've been enjoying the answers. I tell you, when you call the ground rules so clearly. "Watch who is the most arrogant, demeaning, and contemptuous", and then people are arrogant, demeaning, and contemptuous?

Wow. It is like watching someone call their shot at home plate and then hit the home run.

Does it make sense for Atheism to prosper on the internet more than in real life? Of course it makes sense. In this place we can pretend to be anyone. It is a realm based on fantasy and built to promote fantasy. Just check out reality.com some time and you will see how the internet defines the word.

Reality on the internet = Dungeons and Dragons style PBEM (Play-By-E-Mail) fantasy. The exact opposite of reality. Unicorns, fairy folk, the whole thing.

Thus...

Religion on the internet = Atheism. And it makes complete sense.

1. True. All people are fearfully and wonderfully made. Beating worldly fear is one the greatest signs of an overcomer.

2. Too general. I've seen more than a couple already that just post the most loving and caring things you may ever read. They come here when they are hurting and ask for prayers.

3. I don't honestly know. All the statistics I have read show the most devout Atheists coming from families that were church-goers. But in all honesty, I would guess this to probably be true.

4. True.

5. No, I do not. I think most Atheists I know are the opposite of lazy. They think work makes them holy and look down their nose at people who can't carry their own weight. The weak and stupid etc.

6. Pity is a form of iniquity. For me to pity them is to stop seeing them as my equals. God loves them as much as He loves me. I don't wish. Wishes are magic. I hope, pray, and offer to serve.

7. Unfair, I watched the answers. My guess was probably very close to your guess.

Thanks for posting this! No moss indeed! Star!

Did you know that there are 2 types of atheists? Explicit ones and Implicit ones? An explicit atheist denies the existence of God or any other deities. This person’s views are based solely on what can be found to be true using the scientific method. Since the existence of God cannot be proven using science, the strong atheist concludes that God does not exist while an implicit atheist does not deny the existence of God outright, but rather claims a religious relativism. That is, they would claim that anyone’s belief can be true for that person, but they do believe in God themselves.

I assume by your questions we are talking about the explicit type? I will answer your questions one at a time if I may?

Yes some of them do come to this section of the site to rattle the cages of the believers. Some do it I am sure out of ignorance, trying to be clever while others do it to invoke a reaction. I think some of these people have had something terrible happen in their lives that has caused them to choose this path.

While I believe in each to their own I feel pity for these people for they are lost and confused and it somehow makes them feel stronger by knocking religion. I am not a believer in Christianity or any organised religion, but that is my belief.

I often wonder when the time comes and the atheists are lying on their death beds, what do they think about..oblivion or just the slightest possibility that they have been wrong all of their lives?

Some atheists or pseudo atheists are what they are because it is not cool to say one believes in a God or that one reads the Bible. Others I am sure are as firm in their belief as you are.

What is it with Christians? Why do they feel they have to 'help' atheists? Most of them will just have the very opposite affect by pushing their beliefs down the atheists throats..leave them alone!

Honour Christians and the Bible! Do you honour them? Just because they have differed views from you does not mean that they have to honour you or your religions just because you think you are right. Do you honour the Koran, the Torah? Don't be so hypocritical..that is a trait far too many Christians have.

With regards to who will offer the most arrogant, demeaning, contemptuous answers? Christians or Atheists? Real believers, both Christian and Atheist, would never answer in such a way

> Atheists come to a religion and spiritually site but they deny religion. How much sense does that make?

Lots. There are loads of questions here about atheists and atheism, and I show up on a regular basis to answer them. I hope that I'm helping others to be better informed about the subject. I would have no objection to atheism being placed in a separate category from religion, but that's up to Y!A, not me.

>True or false?--Atheists seem to come to this site to debunk Christianity out of fear.

I don't come to debunk Christianity at all. I mean, I think it' is, in large part, a house built on sand, but I don't bother anyone about it.

>True or false? -- An Atheist hopes that other Atheists will join them on this site to aid them in their jeering and slandering of Christians

I have no idea what you're talking about since I don't jeer, don't slander, and don't really try to convince anybody of anything.

>True or false? -- Most Atheists come from a non Christian family or [...] feel they have become smarter than the Bible and Christianity.

That's not even a question. You just asserted that atheists come from Christian and non-Christian families. How else could it possibly be?

>True or false? -- Many Atheists don't want to give honor to anyone or anything other than themselves.

I have no idea what that means. Apart from the Church bit, atheists' lives are not much different from Christians' lives, and they share many, if not nearly all of the same values.

>Do you think Atheists are lazy, would rather sleep in, and don't want to get up Sunday mornings and go to church?

Well, I *am* from a non-religious home (which makes me in the minority of atheists my age), so I've never gone to church in my whole life. Having said that, I have hobbies and friends, and I do voluntary work on weekends. I could count the number of Sundays I slept past 8:30 in the past year on the fingers of one hand.

>Who do you think will offer the most arrogant, demeaning, contemptuous answers? Christians or Atheists?

Arrogant, demeaning and contemptuous? You have just spent a very long post accusing atheists of fearfulness, dishonesty, slander, arrogance, and laziness. If that's not demeaning and contemptuous, I don't know what is. Maybe you'd like to deal with the two-by-four blocking your vision before you reach for the tweezers.

"Atheists come to a religion and spiritually site but they deny religion. How much sense does that make?" Almost as much sense as Christians coming to R&S to discuss Atheism..

"True or false?--Atheists seem to come to this site to debunk Christianity out of fear." False - I come to this site to ask and answer questions about Religion and Spirituality...And to keep the bigoted Christians in check..

"True or false? -- Most Atheists come from a non Christian family or, don't want to do as their Christian parent/s desire that they do, or, at a relatively young age arrogantly feel they have become smarter than the Bible and Christianity. ( yet without reading the Bible with understanding or going to church very often.)" False again - Most of my family is Christian and I have read the bible cover to cover more then once... Can you say the same?? BTW.. I am 39 Years old and didn't become Atheist until about 6 years ago...

"True or false? -- Many Atheists don't want to give honor to anyone or anything other than themselves. And they especially don't want to honor God, Christ, the Bible, and Christians."

False again - I honor my parents, family and friends and anyone who deserves it.. Most of my friends are Christian and we get along fine...

"Do you think Atheists are lazy, would rather sleep in, and don't want to get up Sunday mornings and go to church?" False again - I work 50 to 60 hours a week and still find time to spend with my friend and family and take care of the people who are important to me...

People like YOU is why I come to R&S...Because people like YOU is what makes Good Christian people look BAD!!

Thanks for playing!

I promise you that I will not deny anything at all that makes sense. Please share.

All atheists come here to anger Christians. I'm sorry but that just does not make any sense, We probably all have different reasons for popping into the forum. I just happen to find it entertaining.

False

False (Atheists are not, for the most part, goup oriented beings. They tend to be off doing their own things.) You really do not need much information to debunk Christianity. Remarkable claims require remarkable evidence. Claims that lack evidence can be dismissed without evidence.

False (Though I am not sure how one "gives honor," I certainly admire many of the worlds finest scientific minds.) If your measure of lazyness is a willingness to stay in bed on Sunday and sleep, hen I am a lazy atheist. I wish I were as all powerful as god who could go 6 days without resting. I will be working 13 hours a day M~F for the month of Jan. But I will have 10 days off in the first part of FEB. I am going to the Philippines to spend some of the extra money I make. I know that taking a vacation is lazy but its just something I want to do with my time. I admit it, I am lazy; especially when I do not have to work.

You will get more responses from Atheists of course. They are more curious and more interested in what is going on around them.

They will also be the ones giving your the more contemptuous answers. but then you expected that when you asked all the loaded questions. So what is the point?

You're welcome!

Well (he said with an air of superiority) MY personal opinion is that all theists have lasers in the middle of their foreheads and eat babies. I have no evidence to back this claim up but I'm not a theist and therefore theists must all be evil, I just like to pull nonsense like this out of my *rse.

False. Atheists debunk Christianity out of sheer despair that anyone buys in to the stories.

False. I couldn't care less if other atheists join in my ridicule of people like you.

False. I (and I suspect a lot of other atheists) come from Christian backgrounds as Christianity is pretty much ones faith by default in the western world. You're right that I haven't read the bible, I also haven't read the koran or holy scripture that supports Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism or Buddhism, but I don't suppose you have either yet you've disregarded those faiths.

False. I honour my wife (she's Catholic by the way), my parents and my siblings.

Once more for the slow child at the back: Atheism is the non-belief in ANY god, not just your Christian god. So, you know how you don't believe in Ra and Thor and Allah and Vishnu and Isis? Well neither do I, and I also don't believe in your god.

Atheism is not the counter-Christianity culture you wish it was, Christians account for about 2,000,000,000 people on this planet, you will never be the underdog, you will never be oppressed, your society and system of laws and ethics is based on hundreds of years of Christian influence. Stop being a whiny little bint and pull your head out of your *rse.

False. We reject belief in your religions because there is no solid proof to them. However, we see solid proof through science.

False. Atheists do not care who joins them. This is not meant to be a battle. Fact is, Christians instigate just as much as the most loudmouthed atheist.

True. Most of us came from Christian families. Buuut.... This isn't the generation where we get slapped for denying the existence of the big man in the sky. Atheism has been around much longer than you think. It has nothing to do with being rebellious. But everything to do with being logical and intelligent.

False. We honor those who deserve it. Sorry, but I am not giving honor to something that does not exist. We love our families and our friends/spouses.

It has nothing to do with being lazy. If we do not believe, why would we attend?

Some Christians do try and lead us to "the light." It's the ones who knock on our door and give us negative reinforcement that we are "going to hell" that piss us off.

Atheists. There are simply more of us. And you can only post one answer at a time.

There will be arrogance from both sides. You have chosen to generalize atheists as "bad people." There is positive and negative in all.

I'm scared of spiders. And any bug that moves faster than it should, really. Oceans make me uneasy.

Just because I don't buy what religions have to sell doesn't mean I'm not interested in them or don't know anything about them. You don't have to be a dinosaur to be a paleontologist.

The reason I come here is to answer questions about atheists and religious questions I know the answer to. I'm currently on winter break, so I don't have much else to do.

I am not afraid of Christianity. Or its god. You must fear that Heaven and Hell and your god aren't real, or else you'd leave atheists alone.

I really don't care if other atheists are here or not. Many of them annoy me, really.

I come from a very religious upbringing. I went to church every Sunday, went to Bible study every Sunday, and was rather obsessed with Yahweh and Jesus. I still honor my parents. I even went to their church's Christmas Eve service. *shrug*

I give credit where credit is due. I acknowledge the existence of things that exist.

I have to wake up at 5:00 or 6:00 every day to teach; I'd still be sleeping in three or four hours if I went to church on Sunday compared to every other day.

Your "questions" are thinly veiled statements of judgment and contempt. I think Christians win your little "who's more arrogant" contest before anyone even answered.

No you fear heaven and hell. Atheists, who do not believe that such places exist, could not possibly fear them. And this site is not for Christians. Yahoo is still amongst the major search engines on the internet and this part of Yahoo is a Q&A forum. If you want to seriously discuss your religion then go to a site established for that purpose. It may have escaped you by YA is a game.

Religion is the enemy of freedom in the eyes of many. So, we want to consolidate out freedom in whatever ways we can. We fear theocracy. We fear the loss of the rational mind. We fear reason tossed asunder for dogma. We fear the death of pragmatism.

According to a recent study, Iran is just slightly less religious than the US. While we have a system og governance that gives us a slight protection, we must become vigilant to avoid becoming the Christian version of Iran or Afghanistan.