To really hate it when atheists take the piss out of those who believe in God?

[sharkirasharkira]

I have several FB friends who are obvious atheists, and often share things about science and/or about the concept of God being stupid -basically saying that anyone who believes in God is an idiot, a child (with an 'imaginary friend') or someone who has no idea about science and the universe.

I get that not everyone has faith in a higher being/religion etc but why the childish name calling and the necessity to take the piss out of those who do? It just really irritates me! Belief in God and an appriciation of science are not mutually exclusive. I find it quite offensive that people who don't know my personal beliefs are essentially saying that if I believe in God I must be an idiot or a child who believes in magical sky fairies, because theres no possible way I can believe in evolution (for example) and be an agnostic.

Aibu to think that people should just let others believe what they want to believe without mocking them for it, even if they don't agree with it?

Very good points. Figment and I agree that the reasons - and for me, the triggers, conditions and mechanisms for a successful religious movement. That said, when faced with a ridiculous statement about belief in gods and science being of equal merit and weight, it should be challenged.

As I said earlier, the reasonably consistent predictor of organised violence seems to be ideology and dogma, which regularly leads to bigotry, discrimination and onwards to violence and death.

That’s why I think if anything will save us, it’s science. Not just for what it discovers, but much more for teaching and promoting a mindset and value system that is based on the concept of changing your mind about your idea if the information changes.

Nonsense doesn't get respect, end of. I acknowledge your right to believe your favourite bullshit (whether that's gods, pixies, homeopathy, or the inherent superiority of one football team over another) but it's still bullshit.

The reason religions survive is because they are useful for advantaging people who want power over others. Convince enough people that your imaginary friend has given you extra rights and they must do what you say or the imaginary friend will be ever so cross, and you've got it made. (OK, for it to work properly you've got to pick a class of people to award privileges to, like men, or white people, or tall people or whatever, and a class who are designated as lesser/servants/property, so you're not all on your own. Those who gain the privileges will help you reinforce the concept that it's up to the imaginary friend to keep the lower class in their place.)

Well I think what it shows is the importance of teaching humanities - religious beliefs, philosophy, ethics, literature, poetry, history alongside science.

When you say 'England exists and here are it's sea borders', this is obviously just an idea - widely shared, but still just a belief system. The sea doesn't care where you say the border is. Manifestly it isn't there. There is no 'border', just a collectively held belief in a border. To me belief in God is similar - the belief in God exists. It's no more physically present than the sea borders of England, but it's no less 'real' for that.

And because the sea borders are simply a concept, we can get rid of them. Then England as a concept will cease to exist and the landmass I now reside upon will simply be Europe.

Can you do that with your belief in god? If someone said to you “we aren’t using that concept any more” can you accept that the concept of God is over and you now exist in time and space with everyone else?

People who take god seriously are going to feel insulted by the comparison between god and dragons. The are millions/billions of people in whose daily life no-one bats an eye at religious belief, but no similar widespread belief in dragons. There's no shame in believing what million/billions of other people believe, but the person with eccentric belief in dragons will be ridiculed.

Nevertheless, it is a valid challenge from those who see little difference in the credibility of the two beliefs, to make this comparison as politely and gently as we can. We are trying to get believers to see things from our point of view. (I acknowledge I made a Santa Claus comparison up-thread, I really wasn't wanting to offend, but to be understood.)

From where I stand there is not much difference in credibility between god and dragons, but I recognise the same is not true for billions of people who were born and brought up in a religious culture.

There was a thread on here recently about a poster with a strong catholic faith and her teenager who cba with church.

One of the first replies was along the lines of “just because you believe in a sky fairy”

Which i thought was incredibly rude and insulting.

If people want to believe that’s up to them. We are better challenging the practice of their belief rather than the belief itself.

I wouldn’t tell a muslim that Allah doesn’t exist. But i can challenge the parts of the religion i don’t agree with- like burka wearing or segregation of women.

I think I'm in agreement with a lot of what Bob has said, and feel that the people who are offended by him have not understood the points he was making. I believe he was making an argument for humility, by making the correct point that there was no stark difference in kind between how atheist and religious beliefs are acquired by most individuals. (We are not talking about the belief systems at the collective level, where there are important differences governing how they evolve and propagate.)

Note that saying there's little difference in how we acquire beliefs is not an argument that the beliefs are in any sense equal. Some Christians may be persuaded to concede that both Christians and Muslims came by their beliefs in a similar way, it doesn't necessarily follow that to the Christian, Muslim beliefs are as valid, worthy and correct as their own. If atheists can have the humility to realise that their ability to be atheists is usually far far more an accident of birth than superior reasoning ability, they may be able to have some of the humility that the aforementioned Christians would hopefully show in tolerating the "wrong" beliefs of the Muslims.

It's exceptional rather usual for someone born into firm Christianity/Islam/atheism culture to cross over to another culture. Mostly what we believe is a consequence of an accident of birth. This is true for atheists as much as it is the religious. There are some people who manage to shrug off strong religious upbringings by thinking their way out of their first mental framework, but it's not that common. Most people here who think they've done it will not have started from a position of strong belief, and will therefore be overestimating their achievement.

A lot of religious people have researched their chosen religion, which is also one of the many reasons people chose to leave faith as well. Religion is absolutely defendable, or it would not have lasted well over 2000 years, with a very high population (84%) of the world following a religion.

That doesn't follow. That a belief survives doesn't at all mean it is either well researched or well grounded.

I believe he was making an argument for humility, by making the correct point that there was no stark difference in kind between how atheist and religious beliefs are acquired by most individuals.

Most believers believe in the religion they were brought up in with the exception of atheists. Most atheists have religious parents.

So, of all the religions and atheism, the starkest difference is how atheists acquired their beliefs.

Most people here who think they've done it will not have started from a position of strong belief, and will therefore be overestimating their achievement.

Here we go, the, "well you didn't really believe" argument.

Just to save time I am also aware of

God of the gaps
You just want to sin
Do you worship Satan?
Why do you hate God?

Most atheists have religious parents. Have you done a study on this subject?

Most people grew up being fed one or the other of the main bullshit myth systems by their parents. Some people identify as a follower of one or another on cultural grounds (CofE is a default option for quite a lot of people who use it to mean 'British-born and raised, and conventional) but don't give it a lot of thought beyond weddings and funerals or maybe naming ceremonies. Some people think it through a little, realise it's crap and make themselves unhappy by worrying about what their families will say when they point out that they have no time for the imaginary friend any more. Some people have to struggle quite hard to get away from the nonsense, particularly if they've grown up with one of the more toxic variations (the sort that's riddled with misogyny and homophobia)and the young adult is aware that the imaginary friend thus hates the young adult.

Some people are either gullible and prefer to have their thinking done for them, or actively invested in having an imaginary friend to back up their own wish to be percieved as special, and getting their thrills out of bullying others because the big special imaginary friend says so. (Aggressive religiousity is almost always associated with sexual dysfunction BTW).

I don't have religious parents. Or grandparents.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4851448/Number-atheists-UK-reaches-highest-level.html#comments
Read these DM comments. They are well in tune with most of the beliefs of people on this thread. Sneering and snide.

religions had all the power for thousands of years, now theyre losing it and getting upset about sneery and snide comments

remember what they did when they had power......

by making the correct point that there was no stark difference in kind between how atheist and religious beliefs are acquired by most individuals.

That is an awfully big call. Is there evidence to support it? It is particularly difficult to make the argument for an ‘atheist’ culture in a country with an established church, compulsory daily worship in schools and a third of schools being run by Christian churches.

Note that saying there's little difference in how we acquire beliefs is not an argument that the beliefs are in any sense equal.

I think the problem here is treating atheism as a ‘belief’ in any way equivalent to religious belief. It is an absence of belief.

It's exceptional rather usual for someone born into firm Christianity/Islam/atheism culture to cross over to another culture.

This certainly doesn’t hold true if you are including atheism - which I don’t think you can describe as an a analogous ‘culture’ because there are no common rituals, events, gatherings or beliefs.

It is rare for people from one religious tradition to cross over into another. It is staggeringly common for people from a dominant religious tradition to stop believing it it and to ultimately become atheists, when you look at the massive drop off in participation in the Christian faith in the last 50-60 years - whether it’s church attendance, belief in a deity, or even those identifying as Christian in the Census (which is itself problematic).

getting upset about sneery and snide comments I'm not upset. I just think you're all empty inside.

If God people are upset about the piss-taking, imagine how Satanists feel ... lots of people freely say mean stuff about our boss.

One of the first replies was along the lines of “just because you believe in a sky fairy”
Which i thought was incredibly rude and insulting.
This ^^. It's sneery and rude. People who believe in God don't belittle atheists so why can't these rude atheists (and I'm not saying all atheists are like this because they aren't) have the same courtesy? Or are they the same people who feel the need to put others down if their views differ on other diverse subjects such as politics or choice of supermarket?

I dunno, billions of people have heard of dragons. I read about them in modern literature and ancient stories. I regularly watch tv and films with dragons in them. Cultures all over from the world tell stories about magical dragons that perform miraculous feats. People really like the idea of dragons, it’s captured imaginations for millennia. There’s a huge body of work about dragons available and it’s been added to all the time. Surely, with all this human created evidence available you have to accept that dragons are real?

If God people are upset about the piss-taking, imagine how Satanists feel ... lots of people freely say mean stuff about our boss.
Poor lambs.

Didn't the Patron Saint of England slay a dragon?

Have you done a study on this subject?

It's easily googleable that the number of people who identify as religious is fast declining, with younger people much less religious than older. So, unless you think all those young people are all immigrants from Atheistonia, they were likely born to religious parents.

I don't have religious parents. Or grandparents.

Presumably this is directed at me. Neither does my DP. This would be a good point if I said all.

People who believe in God don't belittle atheists so why can't these rude atheists (and I'm not saying all atheists are like this because they aren't) have the same courtesy?

Atheists don't insist that 1/3 of state funded schools teach atheism.

I'd say there are two reasons for comments like that. We live in a country where religious people constantly don't own up to the privileges they have, and it makes the point that in fact god is indistinguishable from an imaginary friend.

Atheists don't insist that 1/3 of state funded schools teach atheism.
That is a complete non sequitur

" I just think you're all empty inside."

thats a bit sneery and snide

People who believe in God don't belittle atheists

They jolly well do. As well as burning, persecuting and torturing them to death for the past few millennia.