Thursday, December 03, 2015

It’s Time to Call Out Ignorant and Hateful Atheists



I don’t have a problem with atheists. Believe or don’t. It’s your soul. I hope you come to know and love God, but if you don’t, that’s your issue.

I have a problem with boorish atheists. Not atheists who do their own thing. Not even atheists who have objections to religion.

I have a problem with hateful who cloak themselves in atheism, as if that were the uniform of any rational, sane and enlightened human being then proceed to spew bigotry and ignorance, then act like they are far too intelligent to adopt the benighted superstition called religion.

Case in point: Today I had a discussion with an atheist who stated that God raped Mary.

This is a common trope among atheists.

My beef here is that they have the nerve to disrespect and disdain Christians for ignorance, but can’t even bother to get religious teaching correct. And so they lie. The atheist tried to convince me that the text of Luke could be read as a rape. The whole point of the text in Luke was that there was no bodily contact and that Mary was happy to bear the Son of God.

But hey, we’re the stupid ones!

Another atheist had the gall to state that Jesus had unleashed violence and killing on a scale with Hitler, Stalin and Mao.

The failure of logic should be evident. But the atheist I was discussing with was completely un-self-aware that statement was. Just the fact that it was about Jesus made his statement, no matter how outrageous, completely acceptable.

Of course it’s stupid. But where’s the hate? The hate is in the prejudice. These atheists think they know it all – when they don’t—and based on that false information and lack of logic—they feel justified in heaping contempt on Christians.

Of course, atheists will retort that Christians can be just as stupid and hateful, and that they use their religion to makes themselves seem superior.

Nobody is arguing with that.

But the fact that some Christians do it doesn’t make it is okay for atheists to do it.
It’s really intellectually dishonest.

Intellectual humility is the only path to mutual co-existence. What does that mean? It means that some people might have to accept that they don’t know it all. But I think some atheists might find that objectionable. They’re certain religion is stupid, and if that’s doubted, they might have to admit that sometimes religions are right and have good points. And that would undermine their whole worldview.

Fundamentalism doesn’t only exist among believers.