"Why Are Atheists So Angry?"

Originally posted by Penguin
This is exactly it, and put far more succinctly than I would have.

I would also however add that although it is true that Atheists and Theists have different world-views, so do Christians and Sikhs, Sikhs and Buddhists, Buddhists and Scientologists, Scientologists and Muslims, Muslims and Hindus, Hindus and Jews, etc. etc. etc.

If any one of those gro ...[text shortened]... s does occasionally happen, the other group would get angry. It's as simple as that.

Penguin.

Does online public spirituality forum conversation meet your definition of "impose"?

Not directly and I hope I personally do not normally come across as angry at you guys, but when discussing religion and its influence on people and policy, topics that provoke concern (such as state-funded creationist schools to give one example) are bound to come up.

Penguin.

Originally posted by Penguin
Not directly and I hope I personally do not normally come across as angry at you guys, but when discussing religion and its influence on people and policy, topics that provoke concern (such as state-funded creationist schools to give one example) are bound to come up.

Penguin.

It's possible that you and I see eye to eye on more issues than the circumstantial frictions allow us to discover.

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
It's possible that you and I see eye to eye on more issues than the circumstantial frictions allow us to discover.

On a superficial level, you are probably right.

Penguin

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby (OP)
"Why Are Atheists So Angry?"

"By Rabbi David Wolpe - Huffington Post Added: Friday, 11 March 2011 at 3:21 AM Thanks to Morgan Zee for the link. How harmless is it to post an article about why people should read the bible on a site devoted to religion? I did on this very page, and it evoked more than 2,000 responses, most of them angry. I had previously written a similarly gentle article about how God should be taught to children that evoked more than 1,000 responses, almost all negative and many downright nasty.

It is curious that a religion site draws responses mostly from atheists, and that the atheists are very unhappy. They are unhappy with the bible ("foolish fairy tales" is one of the more generous descriptions), unhappy with the idea of God (the "imaginary dictator" whose task in human history, apparently, is to ensure that oppression and evil triumph) and very unhappy with anyone (read: me) who presumes to offer religious advice to the religious. Only the untutored assume that religious people predominate on websites (Huffington Post Religion page, On Faith in the Washington Post, Beliefnet.com) devoted to religion.

In the past when I have debated noted atheists -- Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris and others -- the audience was heavily weighted toward my opponents. That makes sense. Each of these men -- like Dawkins, Dennett and others -- brings with them a large following. But why seek out a religious site solely to insult religion? I wondered: Why are atheists so angry?

Here are four reasons, none exclusive of the others:

1. Atheists genuinely resent the evil that religion has done. No one can seriously deny that religion has been guilty of wickedness in this world and has provided cover for wickedness. I refer not only to abusers who hide under the cloak of clergy, but religious persecutions, the stifling of speech and dissent, the mistreatment of women -- the crimes are legion. While as a believer I think there is much more to be said about this topic, it is certainly reasonable for people to be angry at religion for its abuses, particularly people who have themselves been victims.

2. They are convinced that religion is a fairy tale made up of whole cloth that impedes science/progress/rational thought. No avalanche of counterexamples, from noted scientists who are believers to the way in which the scientific method has flourished in the monotheistic west (as opposed to say, the non-monotheistic eastern societies) will serve to dissuade. That which is understood to have happened to Galileo is all, apparently, one needs to know.

3. Here is where I make my bid for more obloquy to be visited on my head. There is an arrogant unwillingness to engage with religion's serious thinkers. Too many atheists assume that a couple of insults will substitute for argument. They suffer from the incredulity of those who cannot believe anyone would disagree. It reminds me of the most self-assured of the faithful, who suffer the same intellectual imperialism. "I am right," a statement we all identify with from time to time, becomes "therefore you are stupid for disagreeing." A disagreeable sentiment, to say the least. And a narrow, thoughtless one, to boot.

4. Finally, I will go so far as to say that there is sometimes in the atheist a want of wonder. In a world in which so much is still not understood, in which multiple universes are possible, in which we have not pierced the mystery of consciousness, to discount the supernatural is to lack the openness to mystery that should be a human hallmark. There is so much we do not know. Religious people too should acknowledge this truth. Epistemological humility -- the acknowledgment that we are at the very first baby steps of understanding -- is far wiser than arrogance on either side. After all, we comprehend with our brains, and who knows how limited are our only organs of understanding?

So please, feel free to vituperate, argue and belittle. But understand that the religious dialogue is not advanced by shaken fists and snide asides. To quote the prophet, "Come let us reason together (Isaiah 1:18)." All of us ought to be astonished by our miraculous ability to talk, think, dream and disagree. Our first response to life should be gratitude and wonder that we share this remarkable world so far beyond our poor power to grasp. Now, let the derision begin!"

http://old.richarddawkins.net/articles/601271-why-are-atheists-so-angry

5. Atheists appear to be irritated by those in their periphery who possess a quiet confidence in their biblically informed and diametrically opposed points of view. The innermost being (right lobe of the soul) of a human being who has rejected the possibility that God Is and always has been without beginning or ending endures a continual inner rebellion against God which produces emptiness, darkness and self induced misery. Atheists appear to resent those who by faith alone in Christ alone have become trichotomous human beings with a human spirit which enables them to apprehend scriptural truth, grow in grace, gradually acquire the mind of Christ and share the perfect happiness of God. 'Grace' is a foreign word.

Originally posted by Suzianne
Yes.

This is perhaps the truest thing said in this thread yet.

Thankyou.

Originally posted by Penguin
Not directly and I hope I personally do not normally come across as angry at you guys, but when discussing religion and its influence on people and policy, topics that provoke concern (such as state-funded creationist schools to give one example) are bound to come up.

Penguin.

It looks to me your concern is with the politics.

Hey All,
I got the following in e-mail. . .
------------------------------------------------

THIS STORY IS TOTALLY AWSOME

A snowstorm in the South is about as rare as a glass of unsweetened tea at a church supper. Folks around Birmingham, Ala. weren’t all that worried though. The storm was only supposed to dust the city – not even enough powder for a Southern snowman.

So when the first snowflakes began to fall, no one paid all that much attention. But then, the flakes kept falling. Before too long folks in places like Hoover and Inverness realized it was much more than a dusting. By that point, it was too late for anyone to do anything.
Icy interstates and highways soon became clogged with cars and trucks. Thousands of motorists soon found themselves stranded with nowhere to go – including many stuck on Highway 280.

But a good number of those stranded motorists were able to find shelter in the storm thanks to the kindness and generosity of Chick-fil-A restaurant employees and the restaurant's owner, Mark Meadows.

Once the snow started accumulating, Meadows closed the restaurant and sent his staff home. But a few hours later, many of them returned – unable to get to their homes.

“Our store is about a mile and a half from the interstate and it took me two hours to get there,” manager Audrey Pitt told me. “It was a parking lot as far as I could see.”

So Audrey left her car on the side of the interstate and joined a flock of bundled up drivers trudging through the snow.

“At one point there were more people walking than driving,” she said.
Some of the drivers had been stuck in their cars for nearly seven hours without any food or water. So the staff of the Chick-fil-A decided to lend a helping hand.

“We cooked several hundred sandwiches and stood out on both sides of 280 and handed out the sandwiches to anyone we could get to – as long as we had food to give out.”

The staffers braved the falling snow and ice, slipping and sliding, as they offered hot juicy chicken breasts tucked between two buttered buns. And Chick-fil-A refused to take a single penny for their sandwiches.

The meal was a gift – no strings attached.
For the frozen drivers, it was manna from heaven.
“They were very excited and extremely thankful,” she said. “People were thankful to get something to put in their stomachs.”

Audrey said they were especially surprised that the sandwiches were free. Why not make some extra money during the storm? It’s not like anyone could go to another restaurant. Chick-fil-A had a captive crowd of hungry customers. So why did they give away their food?

“This company is based on taking care of people and loving people before you’re worried about money or profit,” Audrey told me. “We were just trying to follow the model that we’ve all worked under for so long and the model that we’ve come to love. There was really nothing else we could have done but try to help people any way we could.”
Lauren Dango was one of those stranded motorists. She’s known Meadows for years and she was stunned when she saw him walking from car to car with Chick-fil-A sandwiches.

“I looked up and I’m like, what is he doing,” Dango told me. “He had a catering order and it got canceled, so he pulled over and started giving away food.”
And if that wasn’t enough, Meadows helped a driver maneuver along the icy road by pushing a car up an incline.
Dango was so touched by Meadows’ kindness, she sent a letter to Chick-fil-A’s corporate headquarters.
“Kudos to Mark Meadows for not only preaching the "second mile" concept, but actually living by it,” she wrote.

It’s no secret that Chick-fil-A was founded by a Christian family. And it’s no secret that they run their business on biblical values. What happened in Birmingham is an example of how those biblical values are played out.

“We just wanted to be able to help,” Audrey said. “Yesterday was such a hopeless situation. We wanted to do something to make people feel a little bit better. We were here. We had food and there were people outside who needed food. So it just made sense to do something for them.”

But Chick-fil-A’s generosity didn’t stop there.
“We opened up our dining room to anyone who wanted to sleep on a bench or a booth,” Audrey told me.

And this morning, the weary staff members fired up their ovens and began preparing chicken biscuits. The only thing that is closed – is Chick-fil-A’s cash register.

“We’re not open for business,” she said. ‘We’re just feeding people who are hungry.”
I’d say the Chick-fil-A team blessed a lot of people in Birmingham – but that’s not how Audrey sees it.
“It’s a blessing to us to be able to help people,” she said. “It really is.”
“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat,” Jesus said in the Gospel of Matthew. “I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in.” It was a Sunday school lesson illustrated on a snowy winter day along Highway 280 in Alabama with a chicken sandwich and a side of waffle fries.

Originally posted by KingOnPoint
Hey All,
I got the following in e-mail. . .
------------------------------------------------

THIS STORY IS TOTALLY AWSOME

A snowstorm in the South is about as rare as a glass of unsweetened tea at a church supper. Folks around Birmingham, Ala. weren’t all that worried though. The storm was only supposed to dust the city – not even enough powde ...[text shortened]... nowy winter day along Highway 280 in Alabama with a chicken sandwich and a side of waffle fries.

You are spamming. (Posting this same thing in multiple threads).

That's not cool. Stop doing it, please.