Why Are Believers So Hostile Toward Atheists?

[Ian David]

Why Are Believers So Hostile Toward Atheists?
Atheists get labeled as offensive and bitter when we express anger, when we express hope, morality and meaning. What are believers scared of?


Is there anything atheists can say about our atheism -- or even just about our lives -- that won't make people look at us with revulsion?

Two recent stories in the news/blogs/opinionosphere have made me vividly aware -- not for the first time -- of the "damned if you do, damned if you don't" position of non-believers in our culture. In one piece, atheists were called out for being negative and confrontational, and readers were informed that we're angry and bitter all the time because we have no hope of life after death. In the other piece, non-believers were called out for sharing the positive, joyful aspects of our lives and the ways we find meaning and hope even in the face of death... and for failing to mention God when we do.

<snip>

The first trope is the more familiar one. You've probably heard the tune before -- even if you haven't heard this particular rendition. In a blog post for the National Post newspaper in Canada, Father Tim Moyle mused on why so much atheist opinion he'd seen was so very angry... and opined that atheists are angry because we're bitter and hopeless about mortality. He wrote:

Atheists tend to see the state of their personal world as being limited to the best they can achieve. Life's injustices will never ultimately be surmounted and they are limited to a 'what you see is what you get' assessment of life's trials. Believers know that things will be better. They know that following the teachings of the church can bring them closer to that promised ideal in the here and now, and that any justice denied them by the events of their personal lives as a result of their fidelity to God will be theirs to enjoy in the life to come.

More:
http://www.alternet.org/story/149419/why_are_believers_so_hostile_toward_atheists

[yellerpup]

1. Excellent article.

I think that the hostility all comes down to fear. Fear that they are wrong.

[BlueJazz]

2. Yep....the idea that death might truly be "The End" sends massive amounts of terror...

...through their Holy brains.

[yellerpup]

3. Just glad that's not MY problem.

My niece once asked me, "Auntie, why don't you want to go to heaven?" By this, I knew the rest of the congregation around the kitchen table had been ripping me up behind my back. I said, "Is heaven where Oral Roberts, and Jerry Falwell, and Jimmy Swaggart are going to be?" (she was about 6) She said, "Yep." I said, "Well I don't think I'd fit in very well with that bunch, do you?" She broke out into giggles and hooted, "No, AV, I don't believe you would!"

[Arugula Latte]

12. They've all invested a lot of effort in tamping down that nagging flicker of doubt.

Anyone with more than two brain cells to rub together has to have some level of doubt about the fairy tales they've been told to take as truth. It makes them mad when we expose that ember to oxygen.

[LeftishBrit]

4. In my experience -which is in the UK-

most religious believers are not hostile to atheists. However, there is a certain minority who feel that they are 'persecuted for their beliefs' if, for example, they are not allowed to actively discriminate against gays, or if the laws of their country permit abortion.

Some of these people have a serious persecution complex. I have seen allegations, for instance, that Labour politicians have pursued a 'secular inquisition'; that David Cameron is acquiescing in a 'dictatorship of relativism'; and that the deprivation of 'freedom of religion' in this country by restricting Christians' rights to discriminate against gays differs only in degree from the murder of Christians and other religious minorities in places like Pakistan.

Most people of this sort are very right-wing politically; though in the UK, unlike the USA, it's often not true the other way round: many political conservatives are not particularly preoccupied with religion.

It's often unclear whether the particular brand of religion turns these people into social bigots and control freaks, or whether people who are social bigots and control freaks use religion as an excuse. There are some clear cases of the latter: just as the saying goes that 'you don't have to be Jewish to be a Jewish mother', in the UK, you don't actually have to be Christian to be a promoter of the Christian Right! Two of our strongest promoters of social bigotry and right-wing anti-secularism are Norman Tebbit, who is said to be an atheist, and Melanie Phillips, who is Jewish and probably not ultra-Orthodox.

At any rate, some religious hostility to atheists seems to stem from a fear of losing control, personal or political. It is a far smaller problem in the UK than the USA, but it exists.

[PassingFair]

5. Some of them actually believe that we have no constraints on our behavior...

because we don't believe in eternal punishment or reward.

Those types really bug me, because they don't trust THEMSELVES
to "do the right thing" without specific rules and punishments.

:scared:

[LeftishBrit]

6. Reminds me of one of our worst Tory Education Secretaries ever...

John Patten, who also happened (for my sins, but not through my vote!) to be *my* MP, was an all-round-dreadful Education Secretary from 1992 to 1994. One of his first statements in an article in the 'Spectator' was:

"Dwindling belief in redemption and damnation has led to loss of fear of the eternal consequences of goodness and badness.".

Which he saw as a key cause of juvenile delinquency and school indiscipline.

A contemporary article on him and his views:

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/come-hell-parents-or-boycotts-profile-john-patten-religiously-reforming-education-1472655.html

As I used to say: get John Patten as your Education Secretary, and you too can believe in Hell!

[Taverner]

7. Because they envy us

And most Christians believe out of fear

[Warpy]

8. I think it's because we threaten that little compartmentalized space

they keep for the illogical stuff that assures them they're completely safe, no matter what happens. We're threatening them on a purely visceral level by our existence as people who don't have that security blanket and don't seem to need it. They're terrified we'll somehow take theirs away from them.

That's why they freak out about atheists. They're all two years old and terrified we'll snatch their binkies away.

[truebrit71]

9. Because we accept the reality they are desperately trying to avoid..

...

[Kerrytravelers]

10. They know that, at varying levels, they are being controlled. And we are not.

They are being controlled by something intangible and make decisions based on that intangible controlling mechanism. We are free to make decisions based on reality and we are not trapped by a thought processed based on aural stories told, retold and rewritten for centuries.

I felt most free the moment I came to the realization that there is no invisible hand guiding my life. I am in charge of my life.

[laconicsax]

11. Why don't we ask them?

Believers who are hostile toward us are typically willing to scream their deluded heads off about the subject. Hell, half the popular Christians in YouTube have videos about why they hate atheists.

[Deep13]

13. We're right, they're wrong and on some level most of them know it. nt