Goal of anti theists

[lelinator]

Then I guess that their argument is with those individuals rather than God and religion as a whole.

To some extent yes, but some religions are by their very nature more prone, in the eyes of outsiders, to being judgmental and self-righteous. Because they simply don’t allow for alternatives, they’re right, and everyone else is wrong. Period. That’s an assertion to which any nonadherent, even an agnostic one, might understandably take offense.

I have a good friend Ahmed who is a Muslim. As a result I have learned to have a lot of respect for Islam. Just because there are fundamentalist extremists who are clearly not following the teachings of Islam, I don’t disrespect and criticise my friend’s faith. He is a good example of it.

Which is why Catholicism, as a religion, is of particular disdain to anti-theists I presume. Because it asserts as an institution that they’re right and everyone else is wrong. A position which some might view as being rather arrogant, and not particularly admirable.

As individuals Catholics can recognize and understand this criticism, but the Church as an institution seems to be based on the assertion that I’m right and everyone else is wrong. I’m righteous, and you’re not…We the Church…are by divine proclamation…the earthly manifestation of God Himself.

Thus it’s completely understandable that if you make such a claim, some people are going to be just as vehement in arguing that you’re wrong, as you are in arguing that you’re right. And yes, they may accept and admire you as an individual, but it’s the Church to which you’re so loyal that they’re really objecting to.

You as an individual can learn to accept and even respect your Muslim friend, but unfortunately to many, it seems as if your Church can’t.

 

[BornInMarch]

Their goal is to create an irreligious world, where nobody adheres to a religion anymore. They seek to accomplish this goal by ridiculing and criticizing religion and religious institutions at every turn.

To clarify, only a minority of irreligious people are dedicated anti-theists (also sometimes called New Atheists). The vast majority just have a stance of “live and let live” and are fine with other people being religious so long as said others find happiness in it and don’t use it as an excuse to hurt others.

 

[Kaninchen]

I’d have thought it’s more an opposition to religious ‘imperialism,’ the infiltration of religion into the lives of non-believers (or just people who don’t subscribe to the dominant faith).

 

[Freddy]

To destroy religion.

You say tomayto, I say tomahto. Rather than ‘destroy’ it I think their aim is to make it uneccesary. Which I appreciate makes absolutely no sense to you (and I don’t mean that in a derogatory way).

And humanism would be a good suggestion they’d make for a replacement.

 

[Freddy]

When they reject God, religion becomes an enemy, as it stands in diametric opposition to whatever they believe – whether it be politics, wealth and success, or materialist beliefs held as divine.

I think that you’re confusing rejecting something with not believing in it. I might reject the policies of a political party because they would interfere with my personal freedom but it would make no sense to say that I didn’t believe that either the party or their policies didn’t exist.

It would be like me suggesting that you don’t believe in Vishnu just because you don’t want to sacrifice a goat every month (or whatever Vishnu might want you to do).

 

[Freddy]

Neithan:

the power of suggestion is much more effective rhetoric than logical reasoning.

Because your underlying assumption is that people are rational.

I’m afraid that those days are becoming a distant memory.

He grew up with an alcoholic father and a neurotic mother, and was sent away to an English boarding school at only eight years of age, a school which significantly was Anglican. His mother ran away with an ex Anglican priest, and died with him in a suicide pact when Hitchens was only in his early twenties. Could that have something to do with his anti theism?

I don’t think so. He was an atheist from a very early age. There’s a story he would tell about a school trip to the countryside when he was about 8 years old. And the matrony teacher that was pointing out the wonders of nature to them was asked why the grass was green (the type of question kids like to ask). And she replied that God had made it green because that was a colour that was restful to our eyes.

And Hitch immediately thought ‘Hang on, I’m not sure why, but that seems to make absolutely no sense at all’. The rest, as they say…

 

[IanAG]

I don’t think so. He was an atheist from a very early age. There’s a story he would tell about a school trip to the countryside when he was about 8 years old. And the matrony teacher that was pointing out the wonders of nature to them was asked why the grass was green (the type of question kids like to ask). And she replied that God had made it green because that was a colour that was restful to our eyes.

That doesn’t change the circumstances of his childhood and his formative relationships to his primary caregivers. Attachment theory demonstrates that the ability to form healthy relational connections with others is established by the age of three.