(Some) Atheists are the most arrogant and often ignorant people out there.

[Danus]

Funny......I was an atheist/egnostic once and I got to say, with the acception of a very few people claiming Christ, few In the Christian community every showed much grace to me.

Christian, atheist; for many, these are just labels we identify with. Clubs we like to say we belong to so we can make shallow arguments based in our own thoughts often borrowed. The true measure of anyone is what's in the heart of that person. If God is working in that person, affecting them, I think it shows regardless of what they, or we, say they are.

I know what it is to not know God & I know what it is to know Him, & neither place is an easy position to stand when thinking about others, but if we are calming to know Christ, you'd think we could at the very least offer others what we claim has been offered to us.

If what you know is not indicative of what others know, only then can you say you're being honest. What I do admire in some of the atheist I've known, is their honesty, and honesty is a required element to have real dialog in our conversations. In other words, regardless of my belief, or understanding, if what others believe or understand makes me angry at them, then I'm not very honest about I believe or understand, because what I think I believe or understand is based and affected by them.

 

[Vaccine]

In other words, regardless of my belief, or understanding, if what others believe or understand makes me angry at them, then I'm not very honest about I believe or understand, because what I think I believe or understand is based and affected by them.

Words of wisdom there. You're right, on some level it shows when we cling to our own ideas more than truth. It took me a while to get to the point where I was immune to most misinformation (reason for my screen name), not that the process is ever complete, there's regularly new misinformation being put out there. Once I gain confidence I am clinging to truth and not just what I want to believe, I feel less affected by others beliefs or understanding.

 

[Danus]

In other words, regardless of my belief, or understanding, if what others believe or understand makes me angry at them, then I'm not very honest about I believe or understand, because what I think I believe or understand is based and affected by them.

Words of wisdom there. You're right, on some level it shows when we cling to our own ideas more than truth. It took me a while to get to the point where I was immune to most misinformation (reason for my screen name), not that the process is ever complete, there's regularly new misinformation being put out there. Once I gain confidence I am clinging to truth and not just what I want to believe, I feel less affected by others beliefs or understanding.

Me too.

It's one of the reasons I come here, in fact & I think it's why others come here also. We desire to have ourselves challenged. in fact we need that.

Someone once asked me if I'd rather argue with an atheist or another Christian about truth. Hum, who can really argue what they don't possess anyway? I've come to realize we can only point to truth. No one owns it, or possesses it & if we are looking to others to know truth, we are looking in the wrong place. So, I guess neither would be my answer to the question. I can make an argument for truth I suppose, but what good will I have done anyone who owns their own truth?

For me, the beauty of God is that He does not make sense to me, yet I love Him. I am totally at odds with God in so far as my thought and reason and will, yet I follow Him, I worship Him, He is my King and I am in peace with Him. There is nothing else I can say that about.

 

[Vaccine]

@Danus you're somebody I'm blessed to know. I completely agree about our motivation for coming here and our need for that.

For me, the beauty of God is that He does not make sense to me, yet I love Him. I am totally at odds with God in so far as my thought and reason and will, yet I follow Him, I worship Him, He is my King and I am in peace with Him. There is nothing else I can say that about.

Well said!

 

[Infinity]

Allot of minorities who were shunned or ridiculed (or worse) in the past will become more loud once they get some freedom. And since atheists weren't treated good ( I was treated quite good from religious people) in the past (even today there are some problems), they are more vocal now in the present. And unfortunately that can come with some insults.

For 26 years I lived under the rule of communism in Romania. As you may already know, one of the commandments of being a good communist is to be an atheist.
Trust me when I say that in recent history atheists were never treated as bad by the Christians as Christians were treated by atheists.
We had churches demolished. Priests assassinated. Entire congregations arrested and shot or thrown in gulags. Wedding and baptism sermons done in secret. Employees refused promotions because someone reported seeing them them inside or near a church. And many other niceties done to us, the "superstitious, bigoted and backward" Christians.

That is sad.

But the thing that always gets ignored when religious people present this argument is that nobody freely choosed atheism. Do you really think people identified back then as atheists because someone just presented some evidence that God doesn't exist? Nope, Stalin and his ideology was just so dangerous. It was always about politics and ideology.