will ever put a gun to your head and force you to believe. I’m shocked by how angry and hateful atheists get at their fellow pedes who bring up prayer or faith. You are acting exactly like liberals, going in to a post just to hate-reply. It’s sad. All we are doing is praying snd encouraging others to pray. If you don’t want to, that’s fine. There’s no need to harass those who want to. We are all on the same team here.
Where i used to work, a group of people got together by the flagpole every day at lunch. They didn’t demand anyone join them. They didn’t force the company to make prayer mandatory. They just got together and prayed, and everyone else moved on about their day.
There’s no need for the infighting. God bless
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Had to stop and comment here.
In keeping with the thread, atheists who go out of their way to be asses are unhelpful at best.
That being said, many atheists ARE anti-faith. Many (myself included) have had/seen their families torn apart by people who put blind faith in something, and then demanding that their loved ones follow suit.
-Lives lost. -Relationships destroyed. -People living in fear for their loved ones. Afraid that they will suffer for eternity etc etc.
Sorry, I don’t buy that as healthy behavior.
Sorry, people aren’t convinced by the same things you are, whatever they happen to be, regardless of their usefulness in your life.
You ARE correct that it does not make sense to hate on something they claim does not exist. - It doesn’t -
It does make sense to attack the concepts of faith and belief.
Just like with leftists, it’s all harmony and roses until someone says “sorry, I just don’t experience or see things that way”
That being said... OP is right that people who go around to “asking for prayers” threads just to be dicks are being generally awful and unhelpful.
MAGA on. Trump 2020
You are absolutely correct on the definition of faith.
And this IS the definition that I am talking about.
There are plenty of reasons someone might be convinced about something, be it politics or religion or otherwise.
The danger is in looking at what you consider evidence and how you might expect that to inform someone.
As i probably should have said this in my original post, This is not an attack on believers.
This is a warning that taking something personally convincing (personal experience and holy book in this case), and expecting that this should suffice for others, is dangerous.
There are many religions who have conviction in their lives, hope and expectations. These in and of themselves are not innately bad.
Personal experience and inspired writings are claims made in good faith by many people, in many traditions. This is also fine.
The danger is when this personal conviction is mistaken for absolute truth in what the convictions are about. (Again, not saying this is what you are doing, just that this is the danger with faith. Yes, this means atheists fall in this too cough dawkins cough)
My original point is that:
I disagree with the painting of the opposition as irrational angst (even when they act like it).
There are legitimate concerns when discussing faith as a virtue. All sides can fall to it, but I targeted the post at theism in general because religion are the ones who promote faith itself as something to want. This is seeking conviction over substance. That’s the unhealthy bit.
That being said, I have no way of knowing how you live your life, or what you think, etc. so these critiques are an attack on the concepts in general, not anyone or any brand in particular.
Thanks for the comment and thanks for not telling me to fuck myself. I genuinely enjoy these things :D
Cheers!
You can see video evidence of people cheating the election, you cant see video evidence of God as far as I know. I dont believe there was cheating because Trump says it was. Even if he said it wasnt fraud, I'd still say it was based on the enormous amount of irrefutable evidence
'Logical' and theological proofs arent really proof tho. You have video evidence of voter fraud, not video evidence of God
Well that is a strange notion of faith. Although I am no expert in Christianity (although I do have a masters in theology), I am not particularly aware of a religion that calls for "blind faith".
I can speak for the religion I am most familiar with, which is Judaism, and it most definitely does not call for blind faith in a manner which can cause one harm.
In fact one is supposed to make all humanely efforts possible to achieve a virtuous goal, whether that is taking medication for sickness, learning a trade or educating oneself to earn a living etc. Once one has done all thy can, then they need to half faith.
Additionally, having faith that everything G-d does is for the best, does not necessarily mean that we will appreciate the immediate outcome. G-d has a longer term vision than we can see, and that is where faith is required.
However, there is no situation where having faith should cause harm, as one is required to do their part regardless.
Now what is a possibility, is some people choose to do things for their own selfish reasons (sometimes not even realizing it themselves), while using "Faith" as an excuse. That is not "faith", that is laziness.
Every thinking person puts faith in something. It is either faith in G-d that he is the creator, or faith that. Or faith in the hypothesis of the Big Bang Theory
Interesting, my parents cut me off when I joined a church. My daughter cut us off when she left (no, I do not believe in hell and we supported 100% her decision to live as she chose and never, ever forced church.) Truly it is intolerance that is the problem, not religion or lack of it. That said I have met the people you are describing and I understand where you are coming from. My theology doesn't even believe in hell or that we have to convert in this life so we tend to be a patient bunch. There are idiots in every group.
Well, that is interesting. I wonder how the person whose faith is being attacked feels.