caught somewhere between real life, simple faith, & raw emotion
A Bitter Rift Between…Atheists?
As a person of faith, I frequently feel like Atheists are antagonistic toward people like me. And I’m sure they feel the same way. For me, it’s because so many of them are bent on either disproving the existence of God or barring the idea of God from entering the public arena in any way. Beyond that, there is the common framing of people of faith as either idiots or evil.
For example, I found the picture above from an Atheist website that claims not to be about hate. They simply want to present all views. There is irony since the picture is meant to be funny, but is obviously quite insulting.
There are also those that celebrate Blasphemy week in which they do things like celebrate the freedom to denigrate and insult religion. Some trade pornography for Bibles. Others de-baptized people with hair dryers. And in Washington, D.C., an art exhibit opened that shows, among other paintings, one entitled Divine Wine, where Jesus, on the cross, has blood flowing from his wound into a wine bottle.
Now I know this does not represent the majority of Atheists. It’s just they’re the ones who get and want the attention. Do I like this stuff. No. But I also affirm the freedom of individuals to celebrate what they believe–or don’t believe–so long as it doesn’t tread on my rights.
But did you know that Atheists fight with each other? Why?
NPR has an article chronicling the issue. And it’s for the reasons named above. There are those Atheists that find it very offensive and unnecessary to take such insulting and seemingly hostile approaches to people or ideas of faith.
For example, the renowned Atheist Christopher Hitchens, a columnist for Vanity Fair and author of the book God Is Not Great,told a capacity crowd at the University of Toronto, “I think religion should be treated with ridicule, hatred and contempt, and I claim that right.” His words were greeted with hoots of approval. This is known as the New Atheism and there are plenty of Atheists who don’t agree with the antagonistic and hostile approach.
I know there are many underlying issues and tangents that enter this
discussion. But I simply wanted to draw attention to it and ask what
the right approach from all sides of this?
Because of the nature of my book, over the last year I have ended up on several Atheist discussion threads. And there is always a common thread: they want a world that is free. Don’t be fooled. It’s a world free from religion. That’s depicted as true freedom. Again, there is irony. They want people to be free, just not free to worship or believe in anything that reason can not clearly prove or dictate. But that’s not really freedom. Because in a free world, people would be free to believe…or not believe.
Am I mad or offended? No.
What does this mean to me as a Christian? Will I still tell people about Jesus. Yes, because he said in the Gospel of Matthew that I should.
I will continue to believe and write books that make it into discussion threads that call me stupid and superstitious.
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Mike,
Thanks for the comments. While I understand what you are saying, I must disagree (which probably comes as no surprise).
I never implied that religion should be the focal point of a society in order for it to be free. I simply mean that freedom means to be left alone to believe what you want.
Historically, societies that have sought to ban religion (in order to promote true ‘reasoned’ freedom) were oppressive at beast and genocidal at worst. Secular humanism doesn’t exactly create the enlightenment, generosity, and reason that so many think it does. That premise is a fantasy to me (and a lie).
I suppose I am glad to disappoint you.
-jason
I don’t think true freedom can be achieved with religion as a focal point. It will, as it has always in the past, be batardized into something manipulative and profitable. Plus, why keep telling lies to people every Sunday? Do you understand why some people don’t like you? Who likes a liar? Nobody. And to them, you are a liar, because you refuse to accept the facts, science, laws, common sense, that normal men were born with.