[quote=scaredyclassic][quote=CA renter]
…I’ve known many Christians and atheists, and both groups have their good, bad, and neutral. I’ve seen no difference in the level of obnoxiousness where the extreme ones are concerned.[/quote]
perhaps. but the obnoxious superior atheist is a relatively new phenomenon. the obnoxious and dangerous religious viewpoint is pretty old.
im wondering how tht came about. when i was a kid, i dont recall religious people being so in your face, so proseyletizing, so demanding of public presence. kind of lik e veterans, they were proud and in the background.
as religiions got pushier and more needy, maybe atheists repsonded with “back the hell off?’ Im talking about the last 40 years in the usa only….[/quote]
I had to attend a Southern Baptist school. We were supposed to “witness” to our neighbors every Wednesday, IIRC. We didn’t do it more than the couple of times when we went with a larger church group (for a mandatory introductory experience, IIRC).
The Christians have probably been pretty obnoxious all along if there was someone who needed “correction,” but since more (most?) people were thought to be Christian decades ago, the religious nuts probably didn’t have as many people to pick on. That’s probably why they just picked on each other, fighting over ridiculous religious dogma and how the other person’s form of Christianity was going to doom them to an eternity of fire and brimstone with the screaming demons and worms eating away at their flesh. You have no idea how many (Protestant) Christians I’ve talked to who insist that Catholics are not “Christians” (hell-bound or not), not to mention some of the other religions. Ignorance abounds.
It’s likely that if there were many professed atheists around at the time, the Christians would probably be highly obnoxious around them, too. We just have more pronounced atheists (and other religious followers) now, so more folks to heap scorn and pity upon…and that would make it look more obnoxious.
