Dealing with Atheist Anger

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crenfro said:
Hello.

Just a thought. Where there is love, there is never indifference. Where there is anger, joy, kindness - all those passionate things - there is love. An angry atheist, in my opinion, is in danger of becoming a believer at some point because somewhere in their soul they are passionate about the idea of God. I think C.S. Lewis said something about atheists can’t be too careful.

It’s the cool, indifferent atheists who I worry about.

“Oh” is a good reply to an angry atheist, then to pray for them and give the best example of being a Christian as I can. That keeps me busy as I fail so often at being good myself.
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That’s a good point regarding the Angry/Evangelical Atheists v the Cool Calm Collected Atheists. What was it CS Lewis also said,

“Atheists express their rage against God although in their view He does not exist.”

Gandhi also said something similar

“It amazes me to find an intelligent person who fights against something which he does not at all believe exists.”

Definitely a paradox when you stop to think about it. The cool calm atheists however you are correct, aren’t living in this paradoxical state. They simply don’t believe.
 
This is just my opinion, but I feel the reason for the hostility is that deep down inside the dark recesses of their consciousness they do believe that there is a God and this drives them into conflict with themselves that is manifested as outward hostility. Otherwise if they truly believed that there was no God they would dismiss anything that has to do with God as insignificant and not worthy of their time, energy, or efforts to oppose.
 
wmscott said:
This is just my opinion, but I feel the reason for the hostility is that deep down inside the dark recesses of their consciousness they do believe that there is a God and this drives them into conflict with themselves that is manifested as outward hostility. Otherwise if they truly believed that there was no God they would dismiss anything that has to do with God as insignificant and not worthy of their time, energy, or efforts to oppose.
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I think being told one was just ‘in denial’ would certainly be enough to make one more than a little miffed.
 
Kaninchen said:
I think being told one was just ‘in denial’ would certainly be enough to make one more than a little miffed.
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Yeah I think that’s the flip side. Some start out as the calm indifferent atheists, and come religious feel the need to inform them repeatedly about how they’re in denial, going to hell, etc… You don’t necessarily have to have some deep seated belief hiding away in the dark to eventually begin to become resentful and annoyed at the religious segment of society in such a situation.

I mean back to my OP and my friend to my knowledge he was raised Atheist. He didn’t always express a disdain towards religion publicly (or that I was aware of). But it seems that his anger developed far more recently. And the first time I ever saw it expressed publicly was about 5 years ago when he counter protested some particularly nasty “Christian” protestors (that included the Westboro Baptist Church but was not limited to them). And his annoyance with religion seems to have grown from that initial counter protest. And one of the things often said by these folks is that if you don’t believe like them they’re in denial (and mind you they don’t just attack atheists in this way, but Catholics and Anglicans as well).

Now of course I can’t say for certain that he doesn’t have some deep doubt or belief hiding somewhere in his mind as I’m obviously not a mind reader. But at the same time it really seems to have been triggered initially by an attack on him and his “people” (namely nerds), by the religious.
 
Kaninchen said:
I think being told one was just ‘in denial’ would certainly be enough to make one more than a little miffed.
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Denial I thought that was a river in Egypt, sorry couldn’t resist. I guess that if an atheist was 100% sure all the way to their core that there was no God, then all the things they rail against would be so meaningless to them that they would not give it the time of day regardless of where they see it referenced or practiced. Take the one dollar bill, it has In God We Trust on it and it drives them nuts. Yet they do not have an issue with making that money and spending that money. So to me this begs to ask the question as to just why are they really here on CA? Is it to defend their beliefs or to convert? Really why give a religious web site the time of day? I don’t get it.
 
wmscott said:
Denial I thought that was a river in Egypt, sorry couldn’t resist. **I guess that if an atheist was 100% sure all the way to their core that there was no God, then all the things they rail against would be so meaningless to them that they would not give it the time of day regardless of where they see it referenced or practiced. **Take the one dollar bill, it has In God We Trust on it and it drives them nuts. Yet they do not have an issue with making that money and spending that money. So to me this begs to ask the question as to just why are they really here on CA? Is it to defend their beliefs or to convert? Really why give a religious web site the time of day? I don’t get it.
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I would imagine an atheist’s reason for being on this site specifically could run the gamut of reasons. Conversion to their way of thinking is undoubtedly one reason some may come. Trying to understand the Catholic perspective on issues spiritual, moral, temporal, is another (one doesn’t have to be an atheist non-Catholic to come on to CA for these reasons). Defense of their beliefs and positions is likely another.

I mean religion does still make up a large part of American society in particular, and Catholicism is the largest branch of the largest religious group in the US. So that makes a Catholic site an appealing place to focus your attention if you’re talking about religion.

As for the bolded, that’s what my post just above references. The idea that you can see religion as meaningless but that there are plenty of reasons why you might still give it the time of day. Prime among them being as a response to the actions of the religious toward you or those like you. Religion becomes harder to ignore, even for the 100% sure and content atheist, when the followers of religion get all up in your business, particularly socially, politically, and morally.
 
wmscott said:
So to me this begs to ask the question as to just why are they really here on CA? Is it to defend their beliefs or to convert? Really why give a religious web site the time of day? I don’t get it.
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Well, you might well think that but, speaking as a Jew who has spent over nine years on a Catholic site, I couldn’t possibly comment (sorry, I couldn’t resist). 🙂
 
This would be a good way to approach it;

“I charge you all that each one of you concentrate all the thoughts of your heart on love and unity…Thoughts of love are constructive of brotherhood, peace, friendship, and happiness”. (Abdul’baha)

Regards Tony
 
Kaninchen said:
Well, you might well think that but, speaking as a Jew who has spent over nine years on a Catholic site, I couldn’t possibly comment (sorry, I couldn’t resist). 🙂
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However you have God in your life and as a point of reference.
 
wmscott said:
However you have God in your life and as a point of reference.
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It was just smiling at the whole question of being a ‘foreigner’ on a board. I expect we have all sorts of motivations - including the fact that just being with people you agree with can get a bit boring. 😉
 
Kaninchen said:
It was just smiling at the whole question of being a ‘foreigner’ on a board. I expect we have all sorts of motivations - including the fact that just being with people you agree with can get a bit boring. 😉
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Understood, thanks
 
The last instructions that Christ gave his apostles was " Go teach the Gospel to
the whole world, " The Book of Acts recounts the actions of the early church,
with particular reference to the apostles and Saint Paul. They met with a lot of
opposition and violence and most of them were martyred.
People are not indifferent to the Gospel. And the Gospel message is a message
of God’s love for all people. An unbeliever is challenged to respond to God’s love
for him or her and God’s absolute hatred of sin. Most people are ok with God’s
love, but not everyone likes to hear about God’s hatred of sin.:nope:
 
Moro_Rock said:
The last instructions that Christ gave his apostles was " Go teach the Gospel to
the whole world, " The Book of Acts recounts the actions of the early church,
with particular reference to the apostles and Saint Paul. They met with a lot of
opposition and violence and most of them were martyred.
People are not indifferent to the Gospel. And the Gospel message is a message
of God’s love for all people. An unbeliever is challenged to respond to God’s love
for him or her and God’s absolute hatred of sin. Most people are ok with God’s
love, but not everyone likes to hear about God’s hatred of sin.:nope:
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Is this a suggestion that atheists form their opinions as they do because they are afraid of God’s hatred of sin? If so, it is a very curious argument.
 
Moro_Rock said:
The last instructions that Christ gave his apostles was " Go teach the Gospel to
the whole world, " The Book of Acts recounts the actions of the early church,
with particular reference to the apostles and Saint Paul. They met with a lot of
opposition and violence and most of them were martyred.
People are not indifferent to the Gospel. And the Gospel message is a message
of God’s love for all people. An unbeliever is challenged to respond to God’s love
for him or her and God’s absolute hatred of sin. Most people are ok with God’s
love, but not everyone likes to hear about God’s hatred of sin.:nope:
Click to expand...
In my experience, some don’t want to hear about God’s love either.
 
Moro_Rock said:
The last instructions that Christ gave his apostles was " Go teach the Gospel to
the whole world, " The Book of Acts recounts the actions of the early church,
with particular reference to the apostles and Saint Paul. They met with a lot of
opposition and violence and most of them were martyred.
People are not indifferent to the Gospel. And the Gospel message is a message
of God’s love for all people. An unbeliever is challenged to respond to God’s love
for him or her and God’s absolute hatred of sin. Most people are ok with God’s
love, but not everyone likes to hear about God’s hatred of sin.:nope:
Click to expand...
It was not to Atheist anger that the Martyers of any Faith gave their life to. It was the Followers of Faiths that committed those crimes.

It is those crimes that feed the Atheists justification to have anger towards a God.

Thus the blame lies upon people that call themselves beleivers and then fall in great error.

Regards Tony
 
Padres1969 said:
At long last we get to my basic question for this thread. How do you deal with that kind of response? Obviously not interacting with them at all is not possible, as in many cases these are lifelong friends, or family. And obviously avoiding the topic works well in the majority of situations. But sometimes it just can’t be avoided. 🤷 So what is one to do? :confused:
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I think No.1 is accepting people for who they are. No.2 is praying for them
God doesn’t demand us to be successful. He asks us to be faithful
All our friends and relatives have freedom to make their own choices. I would
just quote Saint Padre Pio who said " Pray, Hope and Don’t Worry " :bible1::signofcross:
 
TonyBS said:
It was not to Atheist anger that the Martyers of any Faith gave their life to. It was the Followers of Faiths that committed those crimes.

It is those crimes that feed the Atheists justification to have anger towards a God.

Thus the blame lies upon people that call themselves beleivers and then fall in great error.

Regards Tony
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Scandal and hypocrisy are part of the problem, but not all.

Plenty of people simply don’t want to serve God.
 
Randy_Carson said:
Scandal and hypocrisy are part of the problem, but not all.

Plenty of people simply don’t want to serve God.
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Yes, this has been foretold.

This wave of thought has mostly stemmed out of witnessing religious hypocrisy and fighting between religions . My father being a until death Atheist, will in no uncertain terms list all of this hypocrisy.

Had the world managed to live to the Word, these times would not be as they are. Words must change to deeds if religion is to be again taken seriously by the many who have turned away from it.

Regards Tony
 
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