You want atheists on your side

Excuse me, but isn't that just plain obvious!? Standing up to harmful beliefs (or any belief) is on itself not hateful. But we often see that people that do so often get carried away (religious and nonreligious alike).

 

God said it's okay to hate people. God steamrolled over all but his chosen people in the old testament, and his followers have done the steamrolling since shortly after Yeshua.

It's also not hateful to, say, use god for humor, or just about anything else. On the governmental level there must be an absolute freedom to believe as you wish so long as you hurt no one, but on a community level, beliefs that do hurt people, even if those believers are not directly doing the hurt, should be strongly argued against.

And to a degree, it's okay to fight fire with fire. If there are aggressive christians (as there tend to be), not only may their beliefs be rebuffed, but it's fine to continue the charge.

As for how I encounter these sorts of christians: Texas.

 

i agree that they should be argued against.

but here i'm talking about socio-political issues; abortion, gay marriage, gay adoption etc. i'm talking about campaigning for change, not just day-to-day discourse with people on the street. my point is that if you argue against someone on one of these issues "as an atheist" then your taking an issue of personal liberty and making it an issue of theological debate.

indeed, i've noticed a tendency in atheist campaigners to look for inconsistencies and hypocrisies in the bible on the issue in question and point them out at length which, while it can be funny, and i'm sure is very intellectually satisfying for the atheist, gets us literally nowhere. we've seen that these attempts to undermine the faith of the faithful are inneffectual, so to bring them into the public sphere and use them in arguments on a political issue is foolish.

its just a shit starting point for getting stuff done. why meet them on their playing field (stuff we believe in that you don't) when we have the field of human rights/rational, evidence based logic etc?

furthermore, as i've said, it makes atheism rigid, doctrinal and dull and engenders divisions between atheists and believers.

 

dope: I am this. I am that. I am not this. I am not that.

osiris: I don't care.

There, I just summarized the whole vapid argument you continue to assert you are not having with me. You are the winner. Ding. Ding. Collect your prize.