Love thy Neighbour… or not: Christians, but not Atheists, Show High In-Group Favoritism

Wildswanderer said:

It's probably due to athiests who try to get Christmas scenes taken down. Even nominal Christians and even people from other religions like Christmas.

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No the report shows atheists are not hostile towards other religions.
I love xmas, wine, women and song, what is not to like?

Justanatheist said:

Christians on average appear less tolerant of atheists than atheists are of Christians, why is this?

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Why is this? What does this teach people to think about unbelievers?

[1] "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.' They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good" - Psalm 14:1

[2] "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, and all and the enemy of a good god." - Revelation 21:8

[3]"Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?"- 2 Corinthians 6:14

[4] Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ." - 1 John 2:22

[5] "Whoever is not with me is against me" - Luke 11:23

In summary, we're corrupt, vile, wicked, abominable fools and liars, godless vessels of darkness in the service of evil who one doesn't want to be yoked to, not one of us does any good, to be shunned, and all are fit to be burned alive forever as enemies of a good god and the moral equivalent of murderers and whoremongers. Isn't that lovely.

These words are millennia old. The book they're in is given to as many people as will read it. We see evidence of this hatred of atheists in this venue regularly, as a few theists a week start a thread to tell us how much they dislike atheists. We don't start such threads.

Is it any wonder that people indoctrinated with that bigotry above consider atheists the least acceptable people in society not guilty of a crime? Although most of the following is no longer the case, in my lifetime, atheists were forbidden (or subject to formidable barriers) to adopt, teach, coach, or serve on juries because they were considered morally unfit for any of those. Atheists still have great difficulty being elected to public office if they don't conceal their atheism.

As far as who is the aggressor and who is responding to provocation, I think it's pretty clear which is which. As I like to say, when the day comes that Christianity stops having a negative effect on the lives of non-Christians, we'll probably all stop thinking about it, just as we don't think about any other group lacking cultural hegemony. And as soon as the church shrinks to that size, atheophobic bigotry will begin to wane until it vanishes. In the West, Christianity is the effectively the only source of anti-atheist indoctrination. It's not coming from any other entity - not government, not the public schools, not television or the movies, not comic books, not the music industry or comedians, not the NFL, not McDonald's, not Greenpeace, nor any other source - just the church and those whose thinking it can influence. Nobody else is telling the world how horrible we are and how to feel about us.

What do you suppose is the source of these? These are the equivalent of Nazi anti-Judaism posters showing evil Jews with long noses and sinister expressions.

Justanatheist said:

Abstract
Atheists are among the most disliked groups in America, which has been explained in a variety of ways, one of which is that atheists are hostile towards religion and that anti-atheist prejudice is therefore reactive. We tested this hypothesis by using the 2018 American General Social Survey by investigating attitudes towards atheists, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, and Muslims. We initially used a general sample of Americans, but then identified and isolated individuals who were atheists, theists, nonreligious atheists, religious theists, and/or theistic Christians. Logically, if atheists were inordinately hostile towards religion, we would expect to see a greater degree of in-group favouritism in the atheist group and a greater degree of out-group dislike. Results indicated several notable findings: 1). Atheists were significantly more disliked than any other religious group. 2). Atheists rated Christians, Buddhists, Jews, and Hindus as favourably as they rated their own atheist in-group, but rated Muslims less positively (although this effect was small). 3). Christian theists showed pronounced in-group favouritism and a strong dislike towards atheists. No evidence could be found to support the contention that atheists are hostile towards religious groups in general, and towards Christians specifically, although this may have been a Type II error. If atheist groups do dislike religious groups, then this hypothetical dislike would be significantly smaller in magnitude than the dislike directed toward atheists by Christians.
Secularism and Nonreligion

This is an interesting report it actually confirms what I thought was my possibly biased perception that many Christians see atheist as the bogeyman.

Of course this is only for the US it would be interesting to see if results were different in other countries, especially less monotheist based.ones

So what is it that some Christians find so upsetting about atheists
Edit, on further reading and discussion, this is not a fair representation of the report.

Christians on average appear less tolerant of atheists than atheists are of Christians, why is this?

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i agree completely with the findings

i’d much rather hang out with a group of atheists vs. christians

It Aint Necessarily So said:

Why is this? What does this teach people to think about unbelievers?

[1] "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.' They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good" - Psalm 14:1

[2] "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, and all and the enemy of a good god." - Revelation 21:8

[3]"Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?"- 2 Corinthians 6:14

[4] Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ." - 1 John 2:22

[5] "Whoever is not with me is against me" - Luke 11:23

In summary, we're corrupt, vile, wicked, abominable fools and liars, godless vessels of darkness in the service of evil who one doesn't want to be yoked to, not one of us does any good, to be shunned, and all are fit to be burned alive forever as enemies of a good god and the moral equivalent of murderers and whoremongers. Isn't that lovely.

These words are millennia old. The book they're in is given to as many people as will read it. We see evidence of this hatred of atheists in this venue regularly, as a few theists a week start a thread to tell us how much they dislike atheists. We don't start such threads.

Is it any wonder that people indoctrinated with that bigotry above consider atheists the least acceptable people in society not guilty of a crime? Although most of the following is no longer the case, in my lifetime, atheists were forbidden (or subject to formidable barriers) to adopt, teach, coach, or serve on juries because they were considered morally unfit for any of those. Atheists still have great difficulty being elected to public office if they don't conceal their atheism.

As far as who is the aggressor and who is responding to provocation, I think it's pretty clear which is which. As I like to say, when the day comes that Christianity stops having a negative effect on the lives of non-Christians, we'll probably all stop thinking about it, just as we don't think about any other group lacking cultural hegemony. And as soon as the church shrinks to that size, atheophobic bigotry will begin to wane until it vanishes. In the West, Christianity is the effectively the only source of anti-atheist indoctrination. It's not coming from any other entity - not government, not the public schools, not television or the movies, not comic books, not the music industry or comedians, not the NFL, not McDonald's, not Greenpeace, nor any other source - just the church and those whose thinking it can influence. Nobody else is telling the world how horrible we are and how to feel about us.

What do you suppose is the source of these? These are the equivalent of Nazi anti-Judaism posters showing evil Jews with long noses and sinister expressions.

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Do you really have to put up with that stuff in the US? I just could not imagine it here in the UK, maybe 40 years a go but not now. We have had Atheist PMs Ramsey McDonald being one.

Justanatheist said:

No the report shows atheists are not hostile towards other religions.
I love xmas, wine, women and song, what is not to like?

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I mean it only takes one Christmas hating atheist to mess things up for all of you, and religious people like me will think ya are all like that.

It Aint Necessarily So said:

Why is this? What does this teach people to think about unbelievers?

[1] "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.' They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good" - Psalm 14:1

[2] "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, and all and the enemy of a good god." - Revelation 21:8

[3]"Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?"- 2 Corinthians 6:14

[4] Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ." - 1 John 2:22

[5] "Whoever is not with me is against me" - Luke 11:23

In summary, we're corrupt, vile, wicked, abominable fools and liars, godless vessels of darkness in the service of evil who one doesn't want to be yoked to, not one of us does any good, to be shunned, and all are fit to be burned alive forever as enemies of a good god and the moral equivalent of murderers and whoremongers. Isn't that lovely.

These words are millennia old. The book they're in is given to as many people as will read it. We see evidence of this hatred of atheists in this venue regularly, as a few theists a week start a thread to tell us how much they dislike atheists. We don't start such threads.

Is it any wonder that people indoctrinated with that bigotry above consider atheists the least acceptable people in society not guilty of a crime? Although most of the following is no longer the case, in my lifetime, atheists were forbidden (or subject to formidable barriers) to adopt, teach, coach, or serve on juries because they were considered morally unfit for any of those. Atheists still have great difficulty being elected to public office if they don't conceal their atheism.

As far as who is the aggressor and who is responding to provocation, I think it's pretty clear which is which. As I like to say, when the day comes that Christianity stops having a negative effect on the lives of non-Christians, we'll probably all stop thinking about it, just as we don't think about any other group lacking cultural hegemony. And as soon as the church shrinks to that size, atheophobic bigotry will begin to wane until it vanishes. In the West, Christianity is the effectively the only source of anti-atheist indoctrination. It's not coming from any other entity - not government, not the public schools, not television or the movies, not comic books, not the music industry or comedians, not the NFL, not McDonald's, not Greenpeace, nor any other source - just the church and those whose thinking it can influence. Nobody else is telling the world how horrible we are and how to feel about us.

What do you suppose is the source of these? These are the equivalent of Nazi anti-Judaism posters showing evil Jews with long noses and sinister expressions.

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i would like to offer my 2 cents (that’s all it’s worth)

the Bible is written to specific people (nothing to do with races, nationality, etc)

only people who have a belief in God

if atheists have no belief, or anyone else for that matter, the Bible is silent regarding them

there are many of those who CLAIM to be Christians, but their actions say otherwise

these are those of whom those verses speak

these are those who have the condemnation

a kind atheist is infinitely better off than an unkind alleged christian

just my opinion (remember what it’s worth)

Wildswanderer said:

I mean it only takes one Christmas hating atheist to mess things up for all of you, and religious people like me will think ya are all like that.

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Why would you do that? I would not judge you by the Wesbo Baptist Church or what ever they are called.

It Aint Necessarily So said:

Why is this? What does this teach people to think about unbelievers?

[1] "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.' They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good" - Psalm 14:1

[2] "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, and all and the enemy of a good god." - Revelation 21:8

[3]"Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?"- 2 Corinthians 6:14

[4] Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ." - 1 John 2:22

[5] "Whoever is not with me is against me" - Luke 11:23

In summary, we're corrupt, vile, wicked, abominable fools and liars, godless vessels of darkness in the service of evil who one doesn't want to be yoked to, not one of us does any good, to be shunned, and all are fit to be burned alive forever as enemies of a good god and the moral equivalent of murderers and whoremongers. Isn't that lovely.

These words are millennia old. The book they're in is given to as many people as will read it. We see evidence of this hatred of atheists in this venue regularly, as a few theists a week start a thread to tell us how much they dislike atheists. We don't start such threads.

Is it any wonder that people indoctrinated with that bigotry above consider atheists the least acceptable people in society not guilty of a crime? Although most of the following is no longer the case, in my lifetime, atheists were forbidden (or subject to formidable barriers) to adopt, teach, coach, or serve on juries because they were considered morally unfit for any of those. Atheists still have great difficulty being elected to public office if they don't conceal their atheism.

As far as who is the aggressor and who is responding to provocation, I think it's pretty clear which is which. As I like to say, when the day comes that Christianity stops having a negative effect on the lives of non-Christians, we'll probably all stop thinking about it, just as we don't think about any other group lacking cultural hegemony. And as soon as the church shrinks to that size, atheophobic bigotry will begin to wane until it vanishes. In the West, Christianity is the effectively the only source of anti-atheist indoctrination. It's not coming from any other entity - not government, not the public schools, not television or the movies, not comic books, not the music industry or comedians, not the NFL, not McDonald's, not Greenpeace, nor any other source - just the church and those whose thinking it can influence. Nobody else is telling the world how horrible we are and how to feel about us.

What do you suppose is the source of these? These are the equivalent of Nazi anti-Judaism posters showing evil Jews with long noses and sinister expressions.

View attachment 52915 View attachment 52916

Click to expand...

You might want to add the verses about loving your enemies to make this post a little less biased....
I mean Jesus did hang out with the sinners.

Justanatheist said:

Why would you do that? I would not judge you by the Wesbo Baptist Church or what ever they are called.

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Well it isn't like most of us know any athiests, so it's pretty hard to get a accurate picture.

Wildswanderer said:

It's probably due to athiests who try to get Christmas scenes taken down. Even nominal Christians and even people from other religions like Christmas.

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There may be some (very few) atheists who don't like Christmas scenes but usually it is secularists who try to get equal rights for all religions and non-religions when it comes to getting access to public property for displaying their message.
When a manger scene is displayed on public property at one time, the same property has to be rented with the same conditions to show a Baphomet statue at another time. It's the Christians who'd rather not show their manger scene then.

Justanatheist said:

Why would you do that? I would not judge you by the Wesbo Baptist Church or what ever they are called.

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when I first heard of the wacko baptist church, I thought that was as extreme as it could get and also very limited

but I wonder if that particular mentality is more widespread than we think, especially in evangelicals ?

Wildswanderer said:

Well it isn't like most of us know any athiests, so it's pretty hard to get a accurate picture.

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Really, do you not know any atheists personally? I find that amazing.

Jeremiah Ames said:

when I first heard of the wacko baptist church, I thought that was as extreme as it could get and also very limited

but I wonder if that particular mentality is more widespread than we think, especially in evangelicals ?

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I do not know about your country but I am sure in the UK this is not true, I must admit I do find some of the attitudes on here very poor, I had never debated with someone who outright lies and denies it when the evidence is there in black and white until I joined this forum. Sad really but I have learned my lesson.

Justanatheist said:

Really, do you not know any atheists personally? I find that amazing.

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I might, but I'm not a fair example. I tend to live a bit like a hermit. But even when I got out more I found that most people that talk about it believe in some form of God. I worked with one guy who was probably an agnostic. We got along well. I mean we argued constantly and insulted each other, but that was all part of the fun.

Jeremiah Ames said:

when I first heard of the wacko baptist church, I thought that was as extreme as it could get and also very limited

but I wonder if that particular mentality is more widespread than we think, especially in evangelicals ?

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No, not in hating the military and that sort of thing. I think you would find most evangelicals very pro-military.
And although some evangelicals might be very anti-gay, they don't cheer for homos deaths.

KAT-KAT said:

Hopefully I don't come off as one who hates atheists. I have my concerns sometimes when a Creationist posts about Creationism in the science board, though.... it's kind of like putting an apple in your mouth and asking to be baked. I remember the subject got to science vs. religion a few times on RF on other subjects and I may have had to debate atheists. While it was an unusual debate - I realize now, in 2021, that science is what's probably kept me alive in regards to medical science etc, while I can't make quite that drastic a statement about religion.

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Although you've said a thing or two of anti atheist rhetoric (I don't remember what) it's only been very mild and perhaps in the heat of debate. No, you don't come across as hating atheists,

Wildswanderer said:

You might want to add the verses about loving your enemies to make this post a little less biased....
I mean Jesus did hang out with the sinners.

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Considering people your enemies just because they lack belief is part of the problem, not the solution.

In my opinion.

ChristineM said:

Although you've said a thing or two of anti atheist rhetoric (I don't remember what) it's only been very mild and perhaps in the heat of debate. No, you don't come across as hating atheists,

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Yeah. Some subjects are really hard. For example, to be nice sometimes I try to say that atheists would be just as worthy of heaven as Christians if it existed, something I truly believe, yet with the different worldview of atheists sometimes, it comes off as, I think, a little insulting.

Wildswanderer said:

You might want to add the verses about loving your enemies to make this post a little less biased....
I mean Jesus did hang out with the sinners.

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Why wouldn't I have a bias against those teachings? It's a perfectly rational bias based on evidence, like a bias against driving drunk or wife beating, also evidence based and not irrational.

What not a rational bias is the bigotry they teach about atheists.

So you didn't have anything to say about the argument I made apart from it being biased? Do you think it's incorrect? If so, feel free to rebut it. My argument was that hatred of atheists in the West is principally the doing of the Christian church. Maybe you could suggest a second significant source. Islam is just as atheophobic, but it doesn't have much influence in the West and is therefore not the source of bigotry against atheists there. Who else is teaching North Americans and Europeans that atheists are to be disesteemed just for being atheists?

I'm curious why you chose love thy enemy over love one another and love thy neighbor. Why are we enemies? Because we object to being demeaned by a religion's holy book? Maybe it's this: "Whoever is not with me is against me" - Luke 11:23 Do you see the subliminal effect of that teaching? We're enemies according to that scripture just for not supporting them. If I were in some other group beside atheist, say Hindu or Druid, would you have quoted scripture advising you on the treatment of enemies?

Why are atheists distrusted? Who propagated that message? From In Atheists We Distrust

Wildswanderer said:

I might, but I'm not a fair example. I tend to live a bit like a hermit. But even when I got out more I found that most people that talk about it believe in some form of God. I worked with one guy who was probably an agnostic. We got along well. I mean we argued constantly and insulted each other, but that was all part of the fun.

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How do you feel about Romans 1.18 can you see how that would get to an atheist, the idea we really believe in a god and do not know our own minds.