Why I'm Atheist, Reason #42

[keilexandra]

Or, more specifically, why I am generally against Christianity (and Islam, for the same following reason) and less so against other religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism.

Christianity doesn't tell impressionable young children, "God most likely exists and created this world and loves you, and here's why." It tells them, "God exists and created this world and loves you, therefore you should glorify Him, and anyone who says otherwise is terribly misguided, therefore must be led to the true path. By the way, if you sin and don't pray for forgiveness, you'll burn in Hell. But if you love God and praise Him, you'll be happy forever in Heaven!" ETA: Because multiple people have missed my point, through no fault of theirs, I am striking this through to mark it as an optional addition, although I still stand by it. But the unstruck section is a valid critique of all Christianity and its hereditary nature.

Monotheistic religions usually leave no room for doubt. And I've always believed that skepticism is healthy, regardless of your religious views--but hey, I'm a pessimist who looks forward to the idea of oblivion when I die. I'm obviously a not-to-be-trusted weirdo.

P.S. Go read Greta Christina's Top Ten Reasons I Don't Believe in God, especially the end of Part Two.

[statement of faith] As always, I am open to polite, reasoned, non-troll/spammer debate.

Comments

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

That depends very much on which branch of Christianity you're dealing with. There are, for example, Christian Universalists, who don't believe in Hell.

[keilexandra]

Well, Christian Universalists are pretty far left in terms of Christianity. Almost radical. I know someone--a hard-core atheist--who belongs to a Unitarian Universalist church.

Also, subtext that you had absolutely no way of perceiving: the post was made of out frustration with the fact that due to my mother's conversion a few years ago, my little sister (currently aged 4, turning 5 in November) will be raised in a very conservative evangelical Christian church. Conservative as in literal-interpretation and Creationism/ID.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yep, radicals exist. And "I don't want to be a radical within such a group" is a perfectly sound reason for not being a member, as are many other reasons starting with "I don't believe that stuff." I just feel like the screaming-about-hell Christians make their own press, so the Christian Universalists and their friends need to speak up in this sort of context and say no, Jesus does not make you certain about everything, and God is not an asshole who made carbon-dating possible to punish us for using our minds, and the people who tell you they have to believe that because they're Christians are wrong. They can be Christians and still have a choice about this stuff.

Which certainly doesn't negate your frustration. I'm sorry. That sucks.

[keilexandra]

I like Christian Universalists. Hell, I even like Lutherans. They're fun to debate with, without venturing into the banging-head-against-brick-wall experience of trying to argue with an evangelical IDer.