What do atheists think about pagans and pagan so-called gods? Is our God the only one that atheists refuse to believe in?

[ThinkingSapien]

How about laws on gay marriage, abortion, drinking, or prayers in school? The US isn’t a theocracy, but there are christians who try to make rather theocratic laws.

There were also the Blue laws. While those may sound ancient the area in which I live just got ride of the last blue law about 2 years ago. And of course whether or not Christian inspired doctrine is to be taught in public schools is something that comes up throughout the USA here and there.

Side note: There have been areas where people have objected against Yoga being taught in school. Yoga is a part of the Hindu religion. The parents that were objecting against it were religious (cases objecting to Yoga come up every few years). As pointed out earlier within the thread objections are often times reactive, not proactive. If the we saw more interjections in policies and procedures from people of a particular religion, we would see a raise in objections against that particular religion.

 

[livingwordunity]

Yes because preschoolers are not impressionable.

Christians are more tolerant since we don’t protest all the pagan things that are in government.

 

[Skadi]

I’ve noticed that many atheists will spend a lot of their time trying to criticize the religion of Christians and Jews, and many of them will vehemently deny belief in our God. But they never criticize the pagans and their so-called gods. For example, militant atheists will protest even a small cross on public property, but I’ve never heard them calling for the Statue of Liberty (a huge public statue of a pagan so-called goddess) to be taken down. I find this omission of protest to be interesting. It seems kind of ironic to note that the early Christians were called atheists (falsely, of course) by the pagans because the Christians refused to believe in the false gods of the pagans.

In my experience militant athiests think christians are stupid or uneducated, and pagans are just flat out insain.

Alot of my athiest friends were shocked when I told them I was pagan. They had just assumed I was athiest because I wasn’t Christian, the shock on their faces was almost comical.

 

[livingwordunity]

In my experience militant athiests think christians are stupid or uneducated, and pagans are just flat out insain.

Alot of my athiest friends were shocked when I told them I was pagan. They had just assumed I was athiest because I wasn’t Christian, the shock on their faces was almost comical.

That’s interesting. But we don’t see that on a large scale like with atheists being against the Christians and Jews.

 

[Skadi]

Christians are more tolerant since we don’t protest all the pagan things that are in government.

Well we don’t protest the inumerably Christian things in the government. You don’t see me demanding they change the pledge to “under the gods”. And the only reason the christians don’t protest is most people don’t recognize roman symbolism when they see it. There is pagan symbolism in every courthouse in the nation thanks to the scales of justice.

If more people understood Roman symbolism the fundies would be up in arms.

 

[Lokadottir]

Christians are more tolerant since we don’t protest all the pagan things that are in government.

Name 10

 

[Skadi]

The institute of natural marriage being between one man and one woman predates our religion and goes all the way back to the first man and woman. It is based on basic biology and on what is best for a child. It isn’t based on religion. Does one have to be a Christian to have morals, believe that infanticide is wrong, and to believe in traditional family values?

Um false for multiple reasons.

1. This assumes Adam and Eve, which the US Government canot do without actual existence of their existence, of which there is none.
2. Homosexuality is. Genetic trait in most cases and as such is natural for that person.
3. Modern anthropology suggests marraige as n institution is less than 10,000 years old at most, and likely closer to 5,000. Before that individuals were simply monogamist lovers or lived in small groups with a few dominant males and additional women and children.

 

[Skadi]

That’s interesting. But we don’t see that on a large scale like with atheists being against the Christians and Jews.

Yes because there are fewer pagans and pagans don’t attempt to convert athiests to their religion.

 

[Michael_Mayo]

.
Atheists don’t find it reasonable to believe in any God, so far–not just the God of the Jews/Christians.

Why would they seemingly “tolerate” one God more than another?
That’s easy. If a specific God is causing trouble–if the followers of that God are trying to force that God’s doctrine into the schools, courthouses and bedrooms of the country–then that God would be harder to tolerate because the followers are loudly insisting you adhere to their beliefs, even if you don’t believe in their God.

Zeus isn’t interfering with anyone’s life so…He is easily tolerated.

.

Yes, Atheists I know want “proof”. The pride themselves on being logical adn using the scientific , method. If you don’t have proof or evidence they see no reason to believe. And if a religion starts telling them what to do they resent it.

 

[livingwordunity]

Yes because there are fewer pagans and pagans don’t attempt to convert athiests to their religion.

What do you mean by “attempt to convert atheists”? Do you mean how Christians aren’t afraid to tell people about what we believe and why? We don’t force anyone to be Christian. It’s not like Islam where if someone leaves it they may have to fear for their life because of a fatwa. Many of the atheists are Christians who have fallen away. And the fact that Christians can fall away and become atheists is proof that Christianity is not forced on anyone. We may try to explain with reason why they made a mistake by leaving, and we may pray for their conversion. But we don’t (and can’t) force them to come back.

 

[ThinkingSapien]

What do you mean by “attempt to convert atheists”? Do you mean how Christians aren’t afraid to tell people about what we believe and why? We don’t force anyone to be Christian.

Attempts to convert don’t imply that one is forcing some one. To convert someone all that is necessary is to convince her that the propositions or claims of Christianity are true.

It’s not like Islam where if someone leaves it they have to fear for their lives.

That’s anti-apostasy. That’s not converting others to a religion, but compelling them to maintain their current status. Not quite the same.

 

[livingwordunity]

Attempts to convert don’t imply that one is forcing some one. To convert someone all that is necessary is to convince her that the propositions or claims of Christianity are true.

That’s anti-apostasy. That’s not converting others to a religion, but compelling them to maintain their current status. Not quite the same.

The point is that with Christianity everyone is free to come and go as they please. It’s a straw man argument when someone even tries to imply that Christianity is in any way forced on someone. Catholics take free will so seriously that we call it heresy if a Christian denies that we have it.

 

[ThinkingSapien]

The point is that with Christianity everyone is free to come and go as they please.

I don’t think any one has implied or stated anything to the contrary.

It’s a straw man argument when someone even tries to imply that Christianity is in any way forced on someone.

I think we are both in agreement that we want to avoid strawman arguments or misrepresenting any one in any way. That being said let’s take note that what was said is “pagans don’t attempt to convert athiests to their religion.” Even if pagans (or or people of other religions) did attempt to convert people I don’t think that’s necessarily the same as forcing something on someone. For example, I had a friend that tried to convince me to be a vegetarian. In trying to convince me she did not try to force me to be a vegetarian. Had she removed all the meat from my house and tried to impead my ability to get more then she could be said to try to force vegetarianism on me.