Are the religions too bigoted/narrow minded?

Affable · 26-05-2009 10:46pm #1

Is this what's put athiests/agnostics off?

Mickeroo · 26-05-2009 10:52pm

Not at all, its that all their beliefs are seemingly made up and don't correspond with reality.

Hivemind187 · 26-05-2009 10:56pm

Its one of the things yes ...

Sam Vimes · 27-05-2009 8:09am

Nope. I don't believe in the supernatural, that's what puts me off

Handsome Bob · 27-05-2009 11:14am

No, because you'll have bigots and narrow minded people on both sides of the fence. On the one hand you'll have a select number of religious people who are bigoted towards homosexuality, opposing faiths, gender and race.

On the other hand there are are a select number of atheists who cannot differentiate between fundamentalists and religious moderates. In fact some will blame religious moderates for fundamentalists having so much "freedom" to spread their rhetoric. Thus, some atheists would like to see nothing more than a total "cleansing" or purging of religious belief from the world. That to me is narrow minded and bigoted.

bnt · 27-05-2009 12:22pm

In general, atheism is about the lack of belief in what theists claim. It's not, by definition, a negative reaction to anything, but that is something some theists seem to want to believe about atheists. Please don't feed the fallacy.

In my case, for example, I doubt that I ever really Believed with a capital B, so if I had kept being taken to church after age 12, I expect I would have gotten bored and stopped anyway. Some folks find it hard to accept that my atheism is genuine and permanent, not a reaction to anything, not a phase I'm going through. It is the natural state for me.

dvpower · 27-05-2009 4:14pm

Not narrow minded enough:D. They believe all sorts of weird stuff.

Also (for the craic), not nearly bigoted enough.
If (as some believe) the rest of us are going to burn for eternity in hell, then the religious, who know the way to heaven, should be putting their case much more forceably. Most religious people *know* we are doomed, but don't even bother to warn us.

humanji · 27-05-2009 4:35pm

I'm not sure why you have agnostics in there. We're happily on the fence.

Tim Robbins · 27-05-2009 5:09pm

No. The believes are very far - fetched.

--amadeus-- · 28-05-2009 12:00am

No more so than the Tooth Faeries unfair and sexist employment policies put me off them.

If the central idea is nonsensical then the open or closed mindedness of it's followers is pretty much irrelevant, don't you think?

Splendour · 29-05-2009 12:01am

If I was athiest/agnostic, I think the bigoted narrow minded believers would be a huge factor. I'm Christian and tbh, at times I've problems with this myself from other believers.
Having said that if God has you ear marked, you've no escape no matter what your beliefs are at the moment...

Overblood · 29-05-2009 12:26am

There are a lot of reasons why I don't like religion. Bigoted narrowmindedness is one issue. There are many, many more.

CerebralCortex · 29-05-2009 10:07am

:eek:

Escape from what? God and his wrath?

I don't know how anyone could buy into Christianity.

Húrin · 02-06-2009 12:40am

Given all the anger against Christianity, it's clear that atheists for the most part do not have a mere intellectual disagreement with Christianity. Their objection is heartfelt and passionate and of a moral nature.

Zombrex · 02-06-2009 12:55am

Did anyone claim it was a "mere" intellectual disagreement?

Given all the harm religion has done and still does to society I would be worried about someone who is opposed to religion merely on intellectual grounds, the way someone might think one opening in Chess is better than another without caring either way.

To oppose something like support for genocide purely on intellectual grounds (if that is even possible) without being emotionally repulsed would to me be as morally repugnant as the side you are opposing.

--amadeus-- · 02-06-2009 10:27am

Personally I'm not angered by or against Christianity, anymore than I am by the worldwide conspiracy on Santa. It actually isn't important enough to get angry about.

Now the effects of religion. teh abuses (mental, phsical, financial and sexual), teh genocide, the exploitation of teh weak and gullible - that's worth getting angry about.

Flamed Diving · 02-06-2009 10:50am

Yes, I agree. Because when Religion is given too much authority and respect, no bad ever comes of it. I can't think of a single case in this country of when a religious authority was given so much respect that it was free to commit terrible acts behind the curtain of its own infallibility. Nor can I think of any other examples, beyond our borders.

Damn those bigots.

A Primal Nut · 02-06-2009 11:34am

Long before I read anything about Atheism, I questioned the God which was being shoved down my throat every day at school and every Sunday at mass and this was one of the main reasons. It was all about Geography; if you were born in the Middle East/North Africa you would be Muslim; Southern Europe or Ireland you would probably be Catholic; Eastern Europe is Orthodox, the rest of Europe Protestant; India you would be Hindu; Israel you would be Jewish. For 99% of people who believe in a God it is where they were born that is the primary cause of that. This was something I couldn't get my head around.

So basically, where you were born was the primary factor (by far) in whether or not you would be saved. Simultaneously, we were being thought not to be racist.

I find the idea that you are judged by your beliefs rather than how you were as a person to be repulsive, regardless of whether God really exists or not. In practice, this means where you were born decides whether you are saved or not.

One of my favourite South Park lines is where they are all waiting around to get into Heaven; the Devil (I think, a long time since I've seen the film) comes out and says the correct religion is....Mormonism (as if he is announcing the winner of a raffle), which shows how rediculous the whole thing is; religion seems like a form of gambling to me.:D

In fairness to us Atheists, at least most of us came to our conclusion by ourselves.

Tim Robbins · 02-06-2009 2:07pm

Well I have three major objections with it:
1. The cringe inducing sloppy logic associated with people who try to argue for it.
2. The bigoted nature of it, even though it thinks it has some sort of moral highground.
3. The way it thrives of fear, mind - controls, brain washes, indoctrinates people.

Sam Vimes · 02-06-2009 2:31pm

Whether or not I approve of the actions of priests has no effect whatsoever on whether or not God exists. To use an analogy for the third time in as many weeks:

I don't like George Bush's policies and in fact I hate him so I'm an a-Bushist, I've decided that I don't believe he exists.

Sounds a bit ridiculous no? What you're describing would maybe be an anti-theist but even then, being against the church doesn't require being against god himself.

Just like how you continue to keep that out of context statement from Sam Harris in your sig when it's been pointed out to you that the only "propositions are so dangerous that it may even be ethical to kill people for believing them" is the proposition of somebody who is actively trying to kill you, when it would of course be ethical to kill them in self-defence. That irks me somewhat because it's an example of "the cringe inducing sloppy logic associated with people who try to argue for it" but that doesn't change the probability of God's existence

Are the religions too bigoted/narrow minded?

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