Why do atheists think that religious people are delusional?

Robini, who is one forum poster that I usually admire, and is not a theist (he’s a deist), challenged me to answer why I thought theists were delusional, when I can’t even prove that their god does not exist.
Yes, valid question, as it would be wrong to actually call people “delusional” willy nilly.
Question: is this partial list fair, or where am I wrong? Thanks.


Many of them believe in a book that believes:

Talking donkeys are real.
Evolution is false.
500 zombies are real.
A man living inside a fish for 3 days is actually real.
Mass murderers like Moses, David, and Elijah are heroes in the Bible, and Jesus met with Moses/Elijah.
I can actually survive my own death if I simply believe in a magic zombie from Nazareth, w/no court-room level of evidence.
Talking snakes are real.
A person who could have stopped the Holocaust, AND cancer, but refuses to do so, is the most moral per-son of all time.
They don't mind giving their kid a book that says the earth is 6000 years old.
An invisible evil guy is real, and works to mess up our lives.
Fossils were just a "plant", by said evil guy, to fool us.
People have lived to be 900 years old.
Yes, the best book of all time says women are inferior.
A book that approves of slavery is the best book of all time.
The earth is flat.
Magic is real (walking on water.)
It's moral to condemn Gandhi to hell, but a fully repentant ex-Auschwitz guard who fully "finds Jesus" gets in!
Talking dead guys are real.
Dragons are real.
Invisible "demons" are real.
Witches are not just for Halloween, they are real, and should be killed.
Moral non-believers are "evil".
Giants are real.
The end of the earth will actually be a good thing.
The most knowledgeable entity of all time thinks that gays should be killed, even if they are moral people.
Unicorns are real [or change the translation, jeez.]
Magic invisible people that fly around with wings are real.
A person who could prevent horrific birth defects in innocent children (god/Jesus), refuses to do so.
If a story sounds more like a fairy tale than most all fairy tales do, then yeah, it could be real.
Locust headed scorpions are real.


....we don't have enough server space at PF.com for all the rest.....

 

Do you assume all Christians believe the above?

 

Well, his favorite target are the fundamentalists. And they are easy targets, I reckon.

He would have to have a degree in philosophy to go after the more educated religious, those that base their beliefs on theologians and religious philosophers. For non of those educated people believe in his list. They see something beyond the literal words, and understand why the fairy tales were used as a medium. No wonder the RCC didn't use the vernicular in their services or have their bible where people could read it. For the knew what would happen if uneducated people got ahold of that book. They would start believing in some weird stuff. LOL.

But since America has so many evangelicals and fundamentalists, he has a large audience which to attack. These beliefs held by these sorts of people are by and large incoherent, but when you demand to save your own ego and get eternal life for it, no attention is paid to incoherence, for you just gotta have this thing called faith,which allows you to ignore the utter absurdity of some of these beliefs. So when you get one of these true believers backed into a corner, of course it is time to play the faith card.

The bible says it, I believe it, and its true. The trouble is, there are so many different ways to interpret what the bible says. It is a Rorschach inkblot. How you interpret the words in the bible tells a lot about the character, conditioning, education, and personality of the interpreter.

 

He only proscribes to an absolute literalism in interpretation of religious literature. Its a lot more convenient and it extends this dysfuncton dynamic to which he is so attached. He wants a 'plain spoken' God who speaks in sound bite quips, has no use for context, metaphor or allegory, etc.

 

Yeah, does he want those dumb people to join him with the atheists?

At least, whatever they believe which has them behaving as Christians society is way better off.

 

Guys, I would expect an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-everything creator of the entire universe to not be so INCREDIBLY STUPID to (allegedly) inspire a book that actually looks more like a fairy tale than just about any fairy tale! So of course I believe the book is a lie, so then of course it's followers are delusional...and having 70% of the people in my country be DELUSIONAL does bother me, since I care about people so much.
If the bible is the best that "god" can do, then the LAST thing I want to do is spend an eternity in "heaven" with that psycho.

 

I doubt this is the case.

Christ summed up all he said by stating that he represent Truth.

Christ said, "I am the truth," which is "the way and life" for men to live by.
Truth is synonymous with Christ.

They say wisdom is brief.
One word seems very short.
"Truth."

 

Sure ask Christians, "alot of the crazy things in the bible are just metaphor, right?"...and they'll say (to save face) "Yes, the crazy stuff is just metaphor!"...but then ask "so the crazy story of the zombie coming back thousands of years later to let you magically survive your own death, THAT'S METAPHOR too, and not literally true, right?", ha, and see the response! They are delusional, and morbidly scared of death (ha, wait, does that wording make sense??)

You dudes are awesome, see you later.

 

The book is 100% correct.
An reader who does not recognize the Literary Arts at work will not have the reading comprehension to understand all the foolishness you stated in your list.

 

Do ALL Muslims have to believe in terrorism/Jihad for it to be a threat to the world? Did ALL Nazis have to believe 100% in Hitler's dream of eliminating the Jews for it to be a threat to the world? Do ALL cops have to be racist for racism in our police departments to be a potential powderkeg?

 

Metaphors and analogy, to say nothing about similes and hyperbole, etc, are ALL necessary literary techniques to make people understand what a writer is communicating to you.

You probably understand the we are all born because of the genes which use a pattern the body arises from.
Those genes are which were used to make you and I, they are still in the human gene pool.
They are still in the body of the living people.

They re-manufacture the same mind you are using right now.
When you are born, even a 1000 years from now, it will be the genes that did the job.


Revelation 21:4-5 (Amplified Theistic Evolution Bible: http://build.tripod.lycos.com/trellix/sitebuilder/f_edit_page.html)
And God, (blessing them with Total Phylogenetic Consciousness: [Carl Jung]), shall wipe away, (in their awakened Unconscious Mind: [Freudian Hypothesis]), all tears from their eyes, (for life is a genetically rememberable continuum from one generation to the next living generation); and (in genetic memories of prior existences held in our Unconscious Mind) there shall be no more death... (for we shall not all "sleep:" [1Co15:51], but total phylogenetic Consciousness will have evolved), ... neither sorrow... (for we, individually, are part of a living continuum of our own past(s), flowers upon our genetic vine),... nor crying,... (for we are happy in these revelations of reconstitution from our human gene pool), neither shall there be any more pain... (as is circumvented by hypnosis even today): for the former things (in Modern Homo sapiens paradigm of the life experience) are passed away.
And He, (the ancient, phylogenetic, Collective Unconscious Mind), that sat upon the throne (within the kingdom of the evolving Homoiousian sapiens' brain: [Luke 17:21]) said, Behold, (in this way, through evolution: [Gen 9:11-18]), I make all things (in human experience) new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true, (rational, and scientifically feasible), and (worthy of) faithful (belief).

 

Dodge noted.

 

I am a fundamental Christian. I believe in the Bible. I believe it is directed and inspired by God---a God that does exist and created us.

A huge proportion of people who founded, pioneered and built this country believed in the Bible and God. They crossed the waters, endured hardships and took great risks and did great things and believed in God. And the Bible. Their strength came from God.

When you call fundamental Christian delusional you defy logic. Calling some of our greatest presidents delusional? Some of our greatest thinkers, builders and innovators?

I would say Atheism is based on delusion. There certainly is no evidence of it as a positive record in our history of mankind. No beneficial country was built on atheism, no civilization built its greatness around "Atheism". As a matter a fact---evidence so far shows Atheism as a totaltarian ideology against freedom and tolerance of different beliefs. Do you ever wonder why atheists tend to justify and defend Islam??? Its because Atheists relate.

Live in your world my man...but its an illusion.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a problem in America...a big one.

 

... but Christians don't do jihad, and they are focused on Charity.

You want to ridicule Sister Theresa for no good reason at all, except she, too, was against the Gay and Feminists sexual revolution.
The sexual revolution in 1965 changed the culture.
It created Welfare, produced 1.2 million annual Abortions, has America giving birth to 2 million illegitimate babies yearly, and spends $1 Trillion dollars on an ever larger Welfare System.

 

And because of the immorality of the Bible, these same people ENSLAVED PEOPLE FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS, all with Biblical approval! But I'm sure that Christians, especially black Christians (as you would expect), have of course mustered the moral fortitude to have removed those slavery-approving verses from the "best book of all time" that they give their impressionable children. Modern Secular Humanism has never had approval of slavery in it's texts, because it's a moral step up from religion.

 

Maher, Dawkins, Hirsi Ali, Hitch, Harris, crank, et al sure as hell don't justify and defend Islam! Atheists that defend Islam I would say are as delusional on that topic as, say, Christians are that think that somehow their books approval of gays is going to be still accepted say 50 years from now. 50 years from now society will look back at "kill gays" in the bible in utter disgust, just like Harris looks at it today. Time is on our side. We are winning.

 

Oh yeah.
These atheists are really just acting exactly the same way as the mythological religions did before Jesus changed the Roman World.
Eros is fine and dandy now that his people can get married.

Even in Rome, that was not possible.
And Ishtar, the idol of the Feminist who were all raised with Barbie Doll, has managed to get No Fault Divorce permitted if her husband is rich enough to deserve it.

 

No, not ALL Christians (or any other illogical belief system) or Muslims need to believe it 100% for their belief system to be very very damaging to the world.

I was hoping you'd get what I was trying to imply with my response in that post.

 

My issue with many of your arguments is that you use broad sweeping steriotypes. Perhaps try limiting words like some, many, often, at times... etc. IMO the OP applies to an extreme few not the majority. In your defense you did say many in the OP.

 

The OT of the Hebrew patriarchs used every form of force to eliminate the Gays and harlots in exactly the same way Islam does now.
These god who created patriarchs did make them exactly as you say.

The muslim patriarchs of Islam prove you are right.

But he also made you sexually promiscuous people too.
He saw that your Gay and courtesan behaviors will bring down every successful empire or kingdom built.
So, God sided against you, because your type will become extinct, while sexually prudent people will not become extinct.

 

I know it doesn't get as much traction on PF compared to baiting, but maybe you should try outlining why you think theism is harmful.

By attacking scriptural belief you just end up attacking the image of theism, not what it is. Its like a historian saying Hitler was bad because he had a stupid looking mustache and spit during his speeches. Its true, its just not the real issue.

 

Gays are very silly people for coming OUT.
They are lined up for exactly what happened when Hitler rose up after the German Feminism fell apart.




Two (2) billion Muslims are not going to be happy with Gays and harots whom they now attacking.
Gays now can get married.
They need to shut up about gayness, and help the Christians convince Muslims that Truth can get rid of sexually promiscuous people, not bullets.

 

We have huge problems in America having little to nothing to do with whether someone believes in the Bible. These problems will require a communitarian approach to be effectively battled. Religion adds to community. Atheism does not.

 

I really appreciate that feedback, especially from you, and I have very recently seen a real pattern to this criticism of me, and I thank you folks for making it even more clear to me than ever before. I appreciate the patience you folks have shown too, even though I'm implying some of you are delusional. Yes, NOT ALL Muslims, Christians, etc. follow their texts 100%. You guys are right.

But like I said, not all have to, in order to make those texts dangerous. It only took 19 Muslims on 9/11 to kill almost 3000 people, and only what, 20-30 Muslims I'm guessing will be needed to import an Iranian nuke into NY harbor.....