Why do some Atheists say Christianity is harmful?

[ChristineM]

I'm not going to carry on with you.

Your choice,
How's your dog?

 

[LuisDantas]

All religions are by their nature prone to superstition, rigid doctrine, the promotion of hierarchies, accusations of heresy etc. The question is whether on balance, they do more harm than good.

Nope. Abrahamic are arrogant. Dharmic try not to be. That is a key difference and deserves acknowledgement.

 

[LuisDantas]

I'm not demanding anything; I'm merely insisting on the right to remain sceptical, whenever anyone anywhere proclaims a universal truth (or untruth).

My point exactly.

 

[LuisDantas]

But those who are anti-religious (anti-Christian) can't judge that, as they aren't focused on, or even aware of the good religions can do in people's lives. They may recognize it abstractly, but they have no real sense of it. And so for them it mostly doesn't exist.

Being anti-Christian is hardly the same as being anti-religious.

Even if it were, your prejudice would still be unfounded.

Make no mistake; you are being gravely prejudiced.

 

[Aupmanyav]

What evidence is there for all the magic and mysticism associated with dharmic religions? And would it be reasonable to dismiss all of Eastern religious thought and insight because it is often wrapped in superstition?

as you know, i am a strong atheist. i do not believe in gods and goddesses and not in the least in magic, myticism, miracles. i dismiss all that, and follow what is left after that, i.e., 'dharma' (my duties). that is independent of gods and goddesses.

Note it was a theist who started this thread. What would you expect from such an OP, that all the non theists lay back so you can tickle their belly?

^^^ (i note that ^^^ is 666 if we do not press caps lock)
my grand daughter will celebrate christmas. her husband is roman catholic.

 

[RestlessSoul]

Nope. Abrahamic are arrogant. Dharmic try not to be. That is a key difference and deserves acknowledgement.

That may be your experience, but the assumption that your experience is universal is itself somewhat arrogant, wouldn’t you say?

 

[Sgt. Pepper]

The flaws in its moral theory (hell theology, sin intolerance, homophobia, misogyny, atheophobia) tell us not to go there for life advice.

In my opinion, this is why no one should ever derive their understanding of morality, love, and justice from the Bible. To be honest, I can't help but scoff whenever I hear a Christian or some other Abrahamic theist claim that the God of the Bible is loving and merciful. When I decided to disavow my belief in God and forsake my Christian faith, it took some time for me to detox from all of the indoctrination I had been subjected to while I was a Christian. So it took awhile for me to realize that I'm not sinful and in need of forgiveness based on a brutal blood sacrifice to appease a jealous, sadistic, psychotic, and genocidal God, who I believe, based on numerous stories in the Bible, is about as loving and merciful to people as a deadly king cobra.

 

[ChristineM]

That may be your experience, but the assumption that your experience is universal is itself somewhat arrogant, wouldn’t you say?

One can only go from experience, and i happen to agree witb @LuisDantas on this.

 

[Sgt. Pepper]

One can only go from experience, and i happen to agree witb @LuisDantas on this.

And so do I.

 

[LuisDantas]

That may be your experience, but the assumption that your experience is universal is itself somewhat arrogant, wouldn’t you say?

Yeah. Which is why I do not fall into such an obvious trap.

You can do that as well.

 

[Trailblazer]

i am talking of the teachings. is there any evidence of god, soul and the related things. what jesus taught is not true.

Jesus was the evidence of God. The soul is a mystery of God that no man can comprehend.

 

[Aupmanyav]

Jesus was the evidence of God. The soul is a mystery of God that no man can comprehend.

what is the evidence for jesus himself to be what is claimed and how does jesus or muhammad or the 19th century uneducated iranian are evidence of god? god is a mystery, soul is a mystery, heaven is a mystery, every thing is a mystery, then what is the reason to believe in them?

 

[F1fan]

We are all free to decide what we believe;

And how humans believe is often discussed. Belief is not automatically valid and true just because the human believes.

that does not make even the most grandiose of us 'arbiters of truth' for all our fellows, though of course many do aspire to cast themselves in this light.

These forums offer a platform to discuss what and how we believe. Let's note that Christians often assert that salvation is something that applies to all humans. Some even think any non-Christian is damned and bound for hell for not accepting Jesus as savior. The are taught to believe this, and they repeat it.

 

[Tomef]

Obviously not all Atheists claim this, most atheists dont really care about ones faith. However there are some atheists who claim Christianity is harmful as a religion. They tend to be more on the antitheist side.

My question is why? And how? How is christianity in any way form or shape harmful? Some say its because of the strict rules, but how is that bad? How are rules who lead to a better society bad?

And how is sexual purity exactly a bad thing? I dont see how Christianity can be harmful at all. So why do they claim it?

Some teachings, practices and behaviours associated with Christianity have caused harm. Obvious examples are the use of religious power structures to inflict all kinds of abuse, particularly on women and children but in some respects on whole societies, i.e. by resisting progress towards more enlightened and equal social norms at various points in history, starting wars over religious squabbles and so on. Teaching that people who don't share the same beliefs, or the same particular flavour of one subset of Christian beliefs, will be tortured for eternity by an infinitely loving god. Conflicts over dogma have led to who knows how many many horrible instances of torture, maiming, imprisonment, death (and so on and so on) over the centuries.

Like some other groups formed by humans based on some set of (more or less) shared beliefs Christianity has brought some benefits along with a great deal of harm. Arguably it has pretty much outlived its usefulness, as evidenced by the better standard of life and greater levels of overall happiness and wellbeing enjoyed in countries that lack the kind of fundamentalist religious groups that some other countries have in large numbers.

 

[Altfish]

Obviously not all Atheists claim this, most atheists dont really care about ones faith. However there are some atheists who claim Christianity is harmful as a religion. They tend to be more on the antitheist side.

My question is why? And how? How is christianity in any way form or shape harmful? Some say its because of the strict rules, but how is that bad? How are rules who lead to a better society bad?

And how is sexual purity exactly a bad thing? I dont see how Christianity can be harmful at all. So why do they claim it?

It is bad when Christians try to impose their ideas on non-Christians.
By all means Christians can obey 'sexual purity' BUT don't expect me to do so.
The same for the likes of abortion, why impose your ideas on others.
The fact that many Christians back the rapist, serial cheat and business fraud for President when a faithful Christian opponent is shunned.

I could go on but when Christians do this, it is harmful.

 

[Colt]

Obviously not all Atheists claim this, most atheists dont really care about ones faith. However there are some atheists who claim Christianity is harmful as a religion. They tend to be more on the antitheist side.

My question is why? And how? How is christianity in any way form or shape harmful? Some say its because of the strict rules, but how is that bad? How are rules who lead to a better society bad?

And how is sexual purity exactly a bad thing? I dont see how Christianity can be harmful at all. So why do they claim it?

There is a strange hatred of Gods love, of Gods Son that's perplexing. The separated, primal human ego is threatened by the thought of falling under the dominance of the religion of Jesus. When I was a functional agnostic I was really annoyed by evangelicals. It was written "the hated him without a cause". IMOP

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

The thing is, im not trolling

No, you're preaching. You aren't interested in hearing why some atheists call Christianity harmful even though that's your title for the thread. You're interested in telling them why they're wrong.

Why do I say that Christianity is harmful? Look at what it's taught you. Here are three comments from you:

• "Well you tried to dechristianize society, and people got angry about it. Now im not saying you personally did that, but Jews never liked christianity. And no it doesnt have to do with history, they hated it before."
• "lets say no society can tolerate too much deviancy or subversion."
• "Why is suffering for God even a bad thing? Like do you really think suffering is always bad? Personally i like suffering if it leads to purification"

Regarding the first one, you're antisemitic (not to mention dismissive of the criticism of the treatment of Jews at the hands of Christians). That's one thing to not like about Christianity.

Regarding the second, I know what you consider deviancy and subversion (atheists are included; see this post for details). And I'm sorry that you find your own sexual proclivities deviant. That was an unfair thing to do to you. Your religion is no friend to atheists or homosexuals, and only makes such people's lives more difficult and more dangerous by marginalizing and demonizing them. You and I have both been harmed by these bigotries, which is also reason to disesteem Christianity.

Regarding the third, I consider that comment about gratuitous suffering a perversion. Like Mother Teresa, I come from a hospice background. That's an opinion she shared much to the disgust of professional hospices and much to the distress of her already suffering patients, who were allowed to suffer in preparation for their imminent encounter with a harsh judge in the afterlife, which belief also contributed to the suffering of the dying. Yet another reason to be an antitheist.

Outsiders are going to judge a religion (or any other ideology such as atheistic humanism) by its fruits, not what it says about itself. I personally don't care what scriptures say or if preachers say love another if these don't yield moral and intellectual excellence in people, and they don't.

But thanks for starting the thread even if you had no interest in the answers. Others did.

 

[IndigoChild5559]

Obviously not all Atheists claim this, most atheists dont really care about ones faith. However there are some atheists who claim Christianity is harmful as a religion. They tend to be more on the antitheist side.

You know, I think it is a very interesting development. Traditionally, atheists have been live and let live -- they only wanted equal rights for themselves. But then you had the development of the New Athesism in the earlier part of this century. Many people became anti-theist due to the writings of Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens, and Dennett, known sometimes as the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

However, I think this was a passing phase. Your latest, most avant guard atheists today are people like David Wilson Sloan, evolutionary biologist, who write that religion is still around because it is adaptive.

 

[Audie]

No, you're preaching. You aren't interested in hearing why some atheists call Christianity harmful even though that's your title for the thread. You're interested in telling them why they're wrong.

Why do I say that Christianity is harmful? Look at what it's taught you. Here are three comments from you:

• "Well you tried to dechristianize society, and people got angry about it. Now im not saying you personally did that, but Jews never liked christianity. And no it doesnt have to do with history, they hated it before."
• "lets say no society can tolerate too much deviancy or subversion."
• "Why is suffering for God even a bad thing? Like do you really think suffering is always bad? Personally i like suffering if it leads to purification"

Regarding the first one, you're antisemitic (not to mention dismissive of the criticism of the treatment of Jews at the hands of Christians). That's one thing to not like about Christianity.

Regarding the second, I know what you consider deviancy and subversion (atheists are included; see this post for details). And I'm sorry that you find your own sexual proclivities deviant. That was an unfair thing to do to you. Your religion is no friend to atheists or homosexuals, and only makes such people's lives more difficult and more dangerous by marginalizing and demonizing them. You and I have both been harmed by these bigotries, which is also reason to disesteem Christianity.

Regarding the third, I consider that comment about gratuitous suffering a perversion. Like Mother Teresa, I come from a hospice background. That's an opinion she shared much to the disgust of professional hospices and much to the distress of her already suffering patients, who were allowed to suffer in preparation for their imminent encounter with a harsh judge in the afterlife, which belief also contributed to the suffering of the dying. Yet another reason to be an antitheist.

Outsiders are going to judge a religion (or any other ideology such as atheistic humanism) by its fruits, not what it says about itself. I personally don't care what scriptures say or if preachers say love another if these don't yield moral and intellectual excellence in people, and they don't.

But thanks for starting the thread even if you had no interest in the answers. Others did.

And judge it by the op

 

[PureX]

Religions are just collections of intellectual and emotional tools that people can use for any number of purposes, good and bad. And a religion of the size and complexity and variety of Christianity cover the whole array of possibilities. So just saying that Christianity is good, or bad, is wildly naive and overly-simplistic.

Great harm has been done by people wielding the tools of religious Christianity, and great good has been done by people wielding those same tools. And the subject is far too comprehensive for any one of us to accurately assess these outcomes against each other. And as a resut it comes down to personal experience and opinion. That's not nothing, but it's not much, either.