Reggie Miller
Well-Known Member
Yes. You are dead wrong, to be blunt. Atheist is an individual who does not believe deity(ies) exist. Everything else is personal definitions, prior experiences, and/or other things that is not atheism in and of itself.
All religious that follow religions that do not believe any deities exist are atheist. Many of which never even heard of Christianity (I know this first hand).
I am an atheist because I do know no deity(ies) exist. I wasn't raised religious at all; and, I wasn't raised atheist. At the time, my wanted to have the perfect family and took us children to church. She never came, so I was the only one that kept going. I wanted to be a nun and just study the Bible.
I left Christianity because of medical reasons. I had brain surgery and clinical depression and dropped my interests. I met a Roman Catholic friend and had been going with her and supporting her in her faith for almost 20 years.
Then I made the jump and became Catholic four years ago as an adult. I was never indoctrinated. What I love about Catholicism/Christianity is it is a highly devotional faith. You have people come in and support you the whole way through your repentance, your relationship with Christ, your involvement in the Church, and helping others. I went to a Catholic retreat one time and we had Mass every morning. The priest was available to talk every day. It was real nice.
When I was confirmed (said, Jesus I want you to be my lord and savior through the Eucharist/communion) every person in the Church stood up and clapped. I got I don't know how many rosaries. When I moved the Church helped me with food, furniture, and even helped me pay my rent.
I cannot say anything bad about the "Body of Christ" because the Body is what the whole Bible is about. The traditions of the Church and sacraments that are in all denominations support being part of that body. Is is a beautiful experience and I wouldn't trade that in for the world.
I didn't become an atheist. I have always been an atheist. I believe in the spirits, my ancestors, and the spirits of our environment: history, land, and humanity. Being a nun (as I mentioned earlier) and studying the Bible is very different than having a full relationship with Christ and knowing that god/deity is real and exists. It is different than taking the sacraments in the spirit of Christ and you dying in Christ instead of Christ dying for you.
I did not know this until I was further into my devotions and that is why I left Christianity. It wasn't because I hate Christianity. It was because I respect Christianity too much to be half-hearted in faith because I know god does not exist and I know jesus is not god. It didn't hit me until later on. I wish I went with the priest's advice to wait before I joined the Church; and, I didn't.
What makes Christianity (the history that makes it up) so horrible is because the Catholic Church (the authoritative/political part not the body of Christ) have killed people in the name of god. Protestants have done the same. The OT is riddled with killings and the Church are the people who put the Bible together and deemed what was inspired and what was not.
I do not believe in killing for whatever reason sacrifice, war, murder, or killing. I do not agree with it. It isn't part of my morals. If we didn't need to kill for food, I'd support living a life without killing animals as well.
So, atheists do not hate Christianity. Some of us know Christianity and have experienced a relationship with Christ.
Just a lot of people hate the indoctrination. A lot of people hate the inequality of not letting people marry in their own Church. A lot of people dislike the way Christians colonoized other religions to where we are practically non existent in our native faiths but many adopted Christiantiy for survival reasons. Many people hate Christianty because of what people do in the name of the religion not the religion itself. Many people hate Christianity because they feel the body of Christ represents Christiantiy (which they do) and when the body of Christ puts down people who are not christian, such as atheist, yes, they harbor sour feelings about it.
A lot of atheist haven't even heard of Christainity and/or never experienced belief in Christ and god personally. So they cannot hate what they know does not exist.
What you say is a huge inappropriate generalization. I don't know if it's based only online conversations or you live in an environment highly anti-christian. Not every part of the world is like that. Many religions accept other religions more than Christianity and Muslim does theirs. It's all politics. Nothing personal.
tl;dr
