Are Atheists Afraid of God?

I hate explaining politics 101 to people but here goes.

Any group of people or individual has a right to lobby congress for their views. If there is a group of people who want equal rights for rocks they have as much right as anyone. It doesn't mean anyone is going to pay attention to them however.

However, this is about votes for the politician. The larger the group the more likely they are to be heard because on large enough numbers they will simply vote someone else in. This does not mean they will get what they want but a politician needs to recognize their voting blocks.

This is how our system works. The most powerful lobby group in the nation is the AARP because they have millions of voters at their disposal. Even they do not get whatever they want though. Lobbying rarely works because there are so many aspects to politics.

 

If they rarely succeed, it doesn't matter. If they rarely succeed at the same rate, even less so.

 

That is true and kind of my point. Christians have no more influence to oppress people than anyone else. In fact, the homosexual lobby has far more influence than Christians do.

 

The pain I'm talking about is empathic concern. Empathic concern consists of two things: knowing the condition of others and having compassion for their condition. It is unlikely that God would take away the knowledge of Hell, since that is something we can already have in life, so that leaves only taking away my compassion as a solution. That would be Hell for me as well. Again, if traditional Christianity is true, then there can be no such thing as Heaven for me.

Leaving Christianity has greatly improved my life. I've seen it improve the lives of others as well, particularly homosexuals and people in strained interfaith relationships. Would it improve everyone's life? Probably not, but that isn't the issue. The issue is that Pascal's Wager asks me to make an assumption that I know to be false: that there would be no downside during my lifetime for becoming a Christian again, even if Christianity were false.

Additionally, Pascal's Wager makes the false assumption that there are only two options. That is false. If the Westboro Baptist Church is right, then you and I are both screwed in the afterlife. If strict, fundamentalist Jews are right, then you have lived a life of idolatry, and I may fare better than you in the afterlife for having avoided that particular sin. Scientologist? You and I would both be screwed. What about TULIP-style Reformed Christians? If they are right, then neither of us have any choice in the matter to begin with. What about Christian Universalists? If they are right, then neither one of us are screwed. What if the Germanic pagans were right? Their gods will not look kindly on your worship on the one that their people called the "white Christ" ("white" meaning cowardly in their culture, and cowardice being one of the biggest sins you could commit). If the Egyptian pagans were right, then my good and bad actions will be weighed against each other to determine my fate. A previous poster in these forums said that all white people are damned to Hell anyway, so I'd be screwed again. Some members of the Christian Identity movement, on the other hand, say that only white people are saved.

 

I think that has something to do with admonishment against worshiping idols and graven images.

 

thats pretty correct, it depends on how lobbied with or without deep pockets, or as you said votes.

 

seems to me, many theists fear their jealous God

 

Less than 4% of the voters have more influence than 75% do?

Seriously?

 

But the two groups are not mutually exclusive, as I understand it many Christians support the LGBT lobby.

 

The opposition by some atheists to some theists is because of politics, not because they are secretly afraid of God. If religion had no influence on politics, you'd see far less of that.

But when you have your feet on the ground and yet you see others advocating policies based on having your head in the clouds, it can be hard to remain silent. For example, to somebody who does not believe in a deity, special rights and special exemptions for those who claim they do can be hard to swallow.

 

I thought, what a rather inane question the OP posed.

 

Christians themselves are appalled by religion in govt (when it's any religion other than their own), so their advocacy for same is laughable. We dismiss it for the lie that it is.

 

I'm not.

It's a matter of common courtesy to assist people by pointing out misrepresentations and contradictions.

You cherry-pick your values.

Christianity exists only because it was forced on society by governments.

 

OP...which one?

http://godfinder.tumblr.com/post/132405757586/godfinder-archive

 

Apparently, Nature intended it, too.

Also, so do some non-theists.

 

Actually the Christian worst case scenario is that another religion is right and you end up burning in the Muslim hell or reincarnated as a worm or something.

 

I dont trust any man who doesn't think there is a higher authority than themselves

 

So you only trust those who act on the orders of a poorly defined sky dwelling magician? And only act on those orders because they want to save their own skin?

 

I believe you said that..

Not me..

 

If you want to get technical, nature never intended anyone to get married. But gays have as much right to it as anyone, unless you have a bigoted opinion concerning gays and marriage. And where can I find a prime motivation for that bigotry?

There are non-theists who do not believe in Theory of Evolution, but their ignorance is not based on atheism.

 

In America you cannot run for office if you are atheist in 7 states. In some countries you can be killed for being atheist. But you're right, we clearly are just scared that we might be wrong.

 

I don't trust people who claims to be acting on a higher authority... when that higher authority is invisible and inaudible to everyone but themselves.

 

There is no marriage in nature. And same sex mating bonds occur in nature, so I guess Nature intended homosexuality.