Intolerant Atheists
Here is something I don't get. When I am browsing various religious and Atheist forums, I come across a lot of anger and insults from Atheists directed at religious types. In fact, most of the insults on said forums are from Atheists. The religious folk tend to be much more polite and conciliatory.
This is NOT to say that all or even many Atheists think religious people are stupid or deserving of insult, only that there is a very vocal minority who do.
Why?
Yes. Belief in god is irrational. There is no verifiable evidence, direct or indirect; the burden of proof is on the side that claims god does exist, because we scientific minds default to skepticism.
Yes, there ARE nutjobs out there who are religious. People who make museum exhibits depicting humans riding dinosaurs like the goddamned Flintstones. However, there are plenty of lunatic Atheists out there as well. In these cases it is not the religion that causes the lunacy, it is the lunacy that causes them to take the religion too far.
Religion has been used to justify some pretty terrible things, but most religious people do not believe that is alright. Head over to your local church and ask the pastor about the Inquisition, or about any number of other forms of religious oppression. Chances are they will tell you that those were atrocities that smear the name of god, not holy causes that were necessary.
Lesser forms of oppression, like Prop 8 (hey, compared to the Inquisition, Prop 8 is a minor inconvenience at worst), still exist, yes, but it is my stance that intolerant people would be intolerant regardless. If religion did not exist, they would most likely latch onto a different reason to be intolerant.
...and again, the bigoted and the intolerant exist everywhere. If you want to lash out at bigots, by all means do so... but it seems wrong to me to hold an entire group accountable for the actions and words of a very vocal minority.
The fact is the vast majority of religious folk are pleasant, rational, sensible people. They just suspend that rationality when it comes to the divine, much like we suspend our disbelief in a movie theater. They have a separate way of thinking when it comes to religion, which is why they will believe in a god, but not in an orbiting teapot.
Hell, we ALL have things about which we are irrational. Some of us believe in ghosts or magic. Some of us find strict monogamy to be a pretty irrational concept. I honestly believe that the Giants have a chance to win the division, and damn all of the evidence to the contrary.
Why sling mud at others because their irrationalities are different from ours? Is this not the very lack of tolerance that so many Atheists strive to combat? Who are we to say that our irrationalities are better than someone else's?
I honestly do not understand intolerance of any kind, so I am totally lost here.
This is NOT to say that all or even many Atheists think religious people are stupid or deserving of insult, only that there is a very vocal minority who do.
Why?
Yes. Belief in god is irrational. There is no verifiable evidence, direct or indirect; the burden of proof is on the side that claims god does exist, because we scientific minds default to skepticism.
Yes, there ARE nutjobs out there who are religious. People who make museum exhibits depicting humans riding dinosaurs like the goddamned Flintstones. However, there are plenty of lunatic Atheists out there as well. In these cases it is not the religion that causes the lunacy, it is the lunacy that causes them to take the religion too far.
Religion has been used to justify some pretty terrible things, but most religious people do not believe that is alright. Head over to your local church and ask the pastor about the Inquisition, or about any number of other forms of religious oppression. Chances are they will tell you that those were atrocities that smear the name of god, not holy causes that were necessary.
Lesser forms of oppression, like Prop 8 (hey, compared to the Inquisition, Prop 8 is a minor inconvenience at worst), still exist, yes, but it is my stance that intolerant people would be intolerant regardless. If religion did not exist, they would most likely latch onto a different reason to be intolerant.
...and again, the bigoted and the intolerant exist everywhere. If you want to lash out at bigots, by all means do so... but it seems wrong to me to hold an entire group accountable for the actions and words of a very vocal minority.
The fact is the vast majority of religious folk are pleasant, rational, sensible people. They just suspend that rationality when it comes to the divine, much like we suspend our disbelief in a movie theater. They have a separate way of thinking when it comes to religion, which is why they will believe in a god, but not in an orbiting teapot.
Hell, we ALL have things about which we are irrational. Some of us believe in ghosts or magic. Some of us find strict monogamy to be a pretty irrational concept. I honestly believe that the Giants have a chance to win the division, and damn all of the evidence to the contrary.
Why sling mud at others because their irrationalities are different from ours? Is this not the very lack of tolerance that so many Atheists strive to combat? Who are we to say that our irrationalities are better than someone else's?
I honestly do not understand intolerance of any kind, so I am totally lost here.