Why Are Atheists Angry?

[John_Flux]

I decided to make this thread after watching this particular video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUI_ML1qkQE

But it raises a good point. Why do theists immediately say that Atheists are angry for having a different view, and assuming that we don't actually have anything to be angry about with religion. So I ask you, what makes you angry about religion?

For me, it is the hypocrites, the attempts by people to teach creationism as scientific fact (it has failed every scientific test by the way), the fact that thousands of people die each year because of STD in Africa because the Catholic Church threatens people to eternal damnation for using CONDOMS, the fact that repeatedly the Catholic Church has hidden CHILD RAPISTS from being exposed, the fact that Muslims will force a teenage girl to have her clitoris cut off and her vagina mutilated, the fact that people adore so called "saints" like Mother Teresa for having a house of the dying where the dying people (many of who could have been saved) were denied proper health care and denied visitations from there own family, the fact that people look at the Dhali Lama with reverence overlooking the fact that before he and the other lamas were kicked out by the Chinese lived in absolute wealth while the rest of the population around them were STARVING.

I could go on, but I will cut it off there. So, What say you?

[ksst]

Well, I'm not an atheist, nor particularly angry in general (unless you start talking child rape). But those are all good reasons to be angry at certain religiously motivated groups and individuals. My Master is an atheist. His dad is a Methodist minister. So they have a few interesting discussions at family events sometimes when Master asks his dad to defend religion in the face of these abuses, and really there is no defense. Which his dad, being a kind, compassionate and fair minded person, will readily admit. Basically, he says, there are a lot of people out there using religion to justify their own twisted and horrible ends and goals.

[ksst]

I'm not including the Dalai Lama in all that. Just being exiled and having a decent place to live afterward does not make him a horrible person. After all, many of us are living pretty good lives right now while others around the globe do not.

[thir]

I'm not including the Dalai Lama in all that. Just being exiled and having a decent place to live afterward does not make him a horrible person. After all, many of us are living pretty good lives right now while others around the globe do not.

good point - glass houses and all that.

[MMI]

Speaking as a committed atheist, I find nothing at all annoying about religion - that is, about religious belief and practices. In fact, I find it interesting, stimulating and at times, uplifting.

It's when religion is used for non-religious purposes that I get agitated.

[Thorne]

I have to go with MMI on this one. I'm not angry at any religion in particular, just the way that con artists can use religion as a means of controlling people, or use it to justify atrocities, or use it as a weapon against dissent. Sure, other institutions can do similar things, but few of them actually warp peoples minds the way religions can.

Mostly, I'm angry about the way religious people fight so doggedly against what's right and just, only to turn around (once they've been beaten bloody with their own prejudices) and proclaim that they were in the right all along. (See slavery in the US). Or the way some religious organizations can justify the deaths of children, and adults, by claiming it is God's will. And I'm angry that one of the richest organizations in the world, the Roman Catholic Church, pays no taxes on any of its properties in the US, regardless of whether or not those properties are actually used for charitable work. (At one time, the Church was the largest landlord, or slumlord, in NYC, yet paid no property taxes or income taxes on the rents that they collected. This is a crime!)

And I get really angry when supposedly good Christians (mostly, because this IS the US) shrug off some of the horrific things others do because of religion by saying, "Well, they're not REAL Christians!"

I only get mildly annoyed, though, when someone says, "Thank God" when I tell them I'm cancer free. I simply say, "No, I blame God for giving me cancer in the first place. I thank the doctor for making me healthy again." Of course, I don't really blame their fantasy god, but it sure knocks them back a bit!

[thir]

But it raises a good point. Why do theists immediately say that Atheists are angry for having a different view, and assuming that we don't actually have anything to be angry about with religion. So I ask you, what makes you angry about religion?

The dogmatic part. The part that decides not just what its converts should think and do, but others as well.
I have no problem with non-dogmatic religions.

[John_Flux]

And the part about the Dhali Lama I include because I find it horrible that someone who is of a that great religious importance and claimed by many to a be one of the most peaceful men in the world who lives in poverty starts of as one of the wealthiest people letting the population of Tibet starve rather then help them and then takes CIA funded money to train other lamas how to kill. Yea. I find that a bit hypocritical and that bit annoys me.

[badboy1204]

I'm a Christian. but some of these arguments make since. It sickens me some of the things people do and say it's in the name of my loving God. Like Westboro Baptist Church. they protest at military funerals! And say God hates gay people. God doesnt hate anyone! So if sick people like this are what people see as Christians its understandable. God Bless yall!

[Thorne]

So if sick people like this are what people see as Christians its understandable.

No, most atheists can see that such people are truly sick, regardless of which religion they profess. We know there are good people in the Christian communities, just as there are good people in the Muslim communities, and any other religious community. What bothers me is that these "good" Christians don't come out and condemn the actions of the fringe. If good Christians would come out against such atrocities, instead of sitting back and quietly ignoring them, it would make many atheists much less "angry". But perhaps they would have to look a little too deeply into their own hearts in such a case, and they may well be afraid of what they may find.

[IAN 2411]

I was born a Christian, I was baptised a Christian, I believe I was created. I believe that people no longer fear the unknown because of education, and it is for that reason why religion is now on the outskirts of life. I reserve the right to change my mind with the show of real hard evidence of Gods existence.

Be well IAN 2411

[Thorne]

I was born a Christian, I was baptised a Christian,

Which explains the vast majority of Christians. So many of them only know what they were raised to believe, and have little real understanding of their own religions. If you had been born of Muslim parents, you would be Muslim. But while you may have been born into a Christian home, you weren't born a Christian. ALL children are born atheists, not believing in a god or gods. Our parents are our gods, if anything. It's the teachings of their parents that make them whichever religion they eventually claim.

I believe that people no longer fear the unknown because of education, and it is for that reason why religion is now on the outskirts of life.

Quite right! Because religion tends to perpetuate the unknown, rather than explain it. And so many religions try to restrict education to those things which agree with that religion, and deny anything which contradicts it.

I reserve the right to change my mind with the show of real hard evidence of Gods existence.

Might I suggest that you not hold your breath waiting?