Explain to me why some people are accepting of other religions but not of atheism

[Leros]

I hate to make a religion thread, but I have to ask a question.

I was just looking at a thread about the Boy Scouts of America. It appears that the Boy Scouts is tolerant of other religions, but will kick out atheists/agnostics.

I'm personally atheist, although I prefer the term non-religious as religious people seem to view atheism as a religion of its own.

When I "came out" as atheist as a teenager, I lost a bunch of my friends. I had friends of varying religions: Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Christian, etc. A decent number of them told me that they could understand if I believed in a different religion, but they could not accept that somebody could be atheist. The mother of the last girl I dated refused to accept me because I was atheist, but she was fine with other religions.

Apparently this is a common view-point, but I don't understand it.

How could a religious person, who doesn't believe in all the other religions, be tolerant of all the other religions, but not of atheism?

The following quote comes to mind:
"I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours"

 

[Greenman]

I hate to make a religion thread, but I have to ask a question.

I was just looking at a thread about the Boy Scouts of America. It appears that the Boy Scouts is tolerant of other religions, but will kick out atheists/agnostics.

I'm personally atheist, although I prefer the term non-religious as religious people seem to view atheism as a religion of its own.

When I "came out" as atheist as a teenager, I lost a bunch of my friends. I had friends of varying religions: Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Christian, etc. I decent number of them told me that they could understand if I believed in a different religion, but they could not accept that somebody could be atheist. The mother of the last girl I dated refused to accept me because I was atheist, but she was fine with other religions.

Apparently this is a common view-point, but I don't understand it.

How could a religious person, who doesn't believe in all the other religions, be tolerant of all the other religions, but not of atheism?

The following quote comes to mind:
"I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours"

That's a very good question. Now I'll have to decide if I've been intolerant.

 

[IronWing]

It's like sports. It's okay to cheer for the other team but to not like sports at all is weird, subversive.

 

[Chaotic42]

Because other believers have a similar mindset, they just focus it in a different place. Atheists are completely different. My guess is that they can't relate to your religious belief (or lack thereof).

 

[Leros]

Because other believers have a similar mindset, they just focus it in a different place. Atheists are completely different. My guess is that they can't relate to your religious belief (or lack thereof).

That kinda makes sense. I've had people tell me that they "can't understand how I believe in nothing". I try to tell them how I believe in science and how I can get spiritual feelings out of things like astronomy but they don't seem to get it.

 

[Leros]

It's like sports. It's okay to cheer for the other team but to not like sports at all is weird, subversive.

I don't like sports either. I guess I'm just some kind of heathen manlet

 

[Destiny]

Because at the end of the day... people think a religion's ultimate goal is help guide you through an ethical life and be a good person to your family and to others...

I am Buddhist... and technically Buddhism is not a religion, but a way of life...

 

[ALIVE]

Because other believers have a similar mindset, they just focus it in a different place. Atheists are completely different. My guess is that they can't relate to your religious belief (or lack thereof).

well actually both believers and not believers are the same in mentality

the believers can prove the existence of god?!??! NO
atheist can prove god does not exist??? NO

so both sides can not prove their fundamentals and yet both sides think they are smarter and more intellectual than the other side. Hmm the similarities are so many. Ones believe in a god and the others believe to nothing. But never the less both of them are believers. And as someone said since we can not prove any side believing that there is a god is a much safer bet

 

[paperfist]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but atheism means the disbelief that there is a 'god'.

So if I belonged to a religion that believes there is a god and along came an atheist saying there is no god I would have a hard time having you around knowing that atheist is mocking my god all the time.

 

[Duddy]

I don't like sports either. I guess I'm just some kind of heathen manlet

You and me are twins.

 

[Leros]

And the thread has already dissolved into a shitty atheism thread

Please try to stay on topic. I truly am curious about the topic.

 

[ALIVE]

Because at the end of the day... people think a religion's ultimate goal is help guide you through an ethical life and be a good person to your family and to others...

I am Buddhist... and technically Buddhism is not a religion, but a way of life...

lol really practical Buddhist is a religion Buddha was to Hindu what christ was to the jews. A reformer. Buddha did not come to demolish hindu religion but to answer the problem of endless re carnations. Buddha found the way to break the cycle.

 

[disappoint]

A few reasons.

1. They've been brainwashed into believing atheists are evil.

2. They don't think things through and just accept what others tell them to believe. Most people are lemmings. They follow the herd. There is safety in the herd, in large numbers. This herd mentality is animal instinct for self preservation that some jokester embedded in their DNA to keep them from being eaten but not to keep them from walking off a cliff because everyone else is. (lemmings). See WWII for deadly examples of this.

3. They lack education especially in science. Especially Physics/Cosmology/Cosmetology <--putting on makeup. If they don't know something they just make stuff up. kidding on that last one
4. Profit? No seriously. Profit.

5. The human brain doesn't like not knowing things like how we got here, what happens when we die, why is pizza so tasty (the food not the AT poster, well maybe the poster I dunno you guys can debate that if you wish) Where were we? Oh yeah religion fills in the gaps and makes them feel better with make-believe. See make-up above.

6. See? Si.

 

[Slew Foot]

I hate the Jesus freaks as much as any normal human but the Athiests can be really extreme sometimes. There was this one asshole who tried to sue the hospital because a nurse walking down the hallway was wearing a necklace of rosary beads or something. The hospital told the guy to get bent.

 

[Spungo]

Hindu god Durga:

Atheists claim this creature probably doesn't exist. Hindus claim that it does exist. Your Christian friends think the Hindu position is more realistic. Because they saw it with their own eyes. This molecule made them see it:

 

[Pray To Jesus]

I don't think atheists are smart because I find most of them want to stay ignorant and ignore proof.

 

[SlitheryDee]

Probably because they feel as though they could place themselves in that person's position and at least understand them. If I'm christian, and I'm trying to imagine what it is like to be muslim, a simple way to do that is just take my own feelings about aspects of my own religion and simply change the names of those things to muslim aspects. I love Jesus, a muslim loves Mohammed. I pray to God, a muslim prays to Allah. I can at least tell myself that it's the same thing, only with different labels. In this way I can imagine that I understand the mind of the muslim. This is probably all wrong. Islam probably has a flavor in the mind of the muslim that is entirely alien to a christian, but that doesn't matter so much when all we're talking about is perception. Because it's the perception that other religions can be easily related to that fosters a willingness to accept the believers of other religions.

In trying to understand an atheist, all that would go out the window. An atheist may feel reverential to science and knowledge, but not in the same personal way a christian would feel love toward Jesus. The religious would take all their own feelings and attempt to apply them to the atheistic mindset only to find that none of them fit. There is no personification to which all the emotion could flow. Because the religious cannot imagine living without these feelings, they perceive the atheist to have a strange and alien mind. It is this inability to even imagine that they understand atheism that makes them prefer someone of another religion to an atheist.

 

[lxskllr]

I don't like sports either. I guess I'm just some kind of heathen manlet

Seems we have a bit in common. We should start a religion :^D

 

[Pray To Jesus]

The smart ones stay agnostic. The truly smart one make Pascal's wager.

 

[Spungo]

I don't think atheists are smart because I find most of them want to stay ignorant and ignore proof.

Yeah but accurately describes most people on the planet.

 

[Pray To Jesus]

Also atheistic states are crap, even crappier than Muslim ones.

 

[AreaCode707]

People who have a spiritual side to their lives consider it as essentially a part of them as their emotional life. It's unfathomable to them that somebody would be straight up missing an entire component of human experience. It's the same way we can't fathom someone who is psychopathic - it's kind of unimaginable when you try to consider what it would be like to be unable to empathize with other human beings. With regards to religious people preferring people of other religious affiliations over atheists it's easier to think someone is like you but misdirected than to think someone is utterly unlike you.

Atheists make that easier by having their most prominent position in society be one of outspoken assholes. I know several thoughtful well-spoken atheists but none of them are half as loud as the rabid fanatics who walk around being as insulting as possible on the least provocation.

 

[Pray To Jesus]

Yeah but accurately describes most people on the planet.

The atheists claim they are learned more than others, that's what irks me.

 

[Pray To Jesus]

The following quote comes to mind:
"I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours"

That quote is really ignorant. I don't think other gods are possible at all. Just one. That's because I was shown the truth by God through events in my life. Therefore, I think that quote is just coming from an ignorant person.

I understand why I dismiss false gods, because I know them to be false. I don't understand why this person would dismiss God unless it's out of ignorance.

 

[KeithP]

How could a religious person, who doesn't believe in all the other religions, be tolerant of all the other religions, but not of atheism?

Probably a question best answered by a person with that belief. When you came across such a person, did you ask their reasoning and if so, what was their response?

-KeithP