Question:
European sincerely asking: are most Americans as divided about these issues as most people are on here?
ღAmayAღ (Pond)
2018-09-25 18:07:42 UTC
Are really most American Christians so thoroughly invasive, and intrusive, and unable/unwilling to accept people who don't think exactly like them? Or are there actually a lot of nice, chill and respectful Christians, too?

Are most American atheists really as thoroughly anti-religion, and anti-theistic, as the ones on here? Or are most of them willing to live and let live, and just want to be left alone? What do YOU think? Based on your own experience, I mean?

And yeah... I do realize, it probably varies a lot from state to state, right? But please share with me your experience, and your opinion anyway. If you're an atheist, for instance: have you been accepted by most people around you? Or condemned and rejected? And if you're a Christian: how does your church, and your denomination, approach non-believers? I would be most interested to know. :)
28 answers:
Serene E
2018-10-01 01:06:14 UTC
Yes. Unfortunately, it is like that.



I'm a Baha'i, a member of the Baha'i Faith. We believe there is only one God, that sent Buddha, Jesus, Moses, etc to humanity, now Baha’u’llah has come.

hearttoheart.net

www.bahai.us
Chi girl
2018-09-30 18:19:59 UTC
Don't make the mistake of thinking Y/A is reality.
flowerchilde
2018-09-29 21:56:54 UTC
Every group has their more obnoxious folks.. i am a Christian, but some of my very favorite people are atheists, and quite firm in that belief, but not obnoxious about it. Though of course they do think their view to be superior, as I consider my view to be superior. Lol.



The thing that concerns me is politics. The growing division. Which I think is being encouraged. And that is not a good thing. But very regretful. I used to be able to have conversation and dialog w/ppl who have different views, including political. But these days I mostly remain silent. Yep. Silenced. Conversation has been preempted by name calling/labeling. Every issue seems to have the same argument. I am a solitary Christian I don’t know what the churches are doing. But between Christian & atheist, I blame the old world superstition called ‘hell’. I mean really, how can anyone believe “good news”/“glad tidings for all” like that? :)
Tommy
2018-09-29 19:05:39 UTC
America is becoming more and more divided. Religiously it's not as bad as you seen here in the R&S but take a look at the politics section here. You'd swear to whatever god you subscribe to that you are in the R&S section when you are in the political section. There are those who believe in their particular party so strongly that they will vote for any POS is placed on the ballot. The right stand behind DT and are willing to fight to prove his greatness. The left believe Bills wife should be our leader and would have been great. Seriously, look at those two choices. Trump is the reason I stopped considering myself a republican and the reason I didn't chose. For the first time in my adult life I didn't vote for the republican on the ballot. As bad as the current leader is, nothing about Clinton inspired me to change parties. They say if you don't vote you can't *****. Give me a ballot with those two as my only choices and I will refrain from voting and ***** all I want. With both religion and politics, I don't fit the mold. I won't pick a leader on the basis of one being less of a criminal than the other and I will not pick a religion I don't believe in just to make a choice.
?
2018-09-28 14:15:17 UTC
I have met many christians on both sides. Some are really great but then you have the folks were more like flower child and fireball. Those are the hypocrites and I do not respect them or their beliefs. As for the respectful christians, even though I don't agree with them I respect them.
Alexander
2018-09-26 23:07:27 UTC
Anonymity does unfortunate things to many people, cowards and bullies especially.



The sci-fi movie "Forbidden Planet" has an interesting take on what happens when there are no safeguards against giving vent in the real world to our baser impulses.
?
2018-09-25 21:08:20 UTC
No, there are no longer street preachers in the US any more than there are wild Indians or buffalo roaming the prairies. Wiping out an entire species for their hide is a sick value system. Neither is there a Wild Wild gunslinging West w/o values anymore.



Seriously, you're comparing a made up, boxed in, mythical fantasy world called YA (it could vanish in a second) where everyone can be anonymous or say whatever they want, there are really no enforced rules, no absolutes, and you compare this to REALITY? I suppose one OPINION is as good as another to an atheist, since you don't use facts? How often do you see a fact? How delusionally worthless and pointless is that? Or is nobody interested in truth anymore, like in the EU, just shuttering churches because of stupid cultist or catholic practices? It was only a matter of time for them, but has little to do with Christianity. Christianity continues as though the atheist or cultist never existed. I wonder how it makes the atheists feel that they are only irrelevant, background noise; post-modern chattering?



If a lot of the trolls here acted that way on the street they would get hurt or die, not sure about those pansy Euro countries that open the doors to openly terrorist groups. Who is a terrorist? Someone with really messed up but identifiable values (opposite of Christianity). You come on my property here with a weapon evil intent and you die, straightforward, no discussion or litigation or jail sentence necessary. Those with evil intent KNOW that, cuts down on the attacks and name-calling when everyone's packin'. And isn't it amazing that several hundred million people did NOT die from guns yesterday, including the hundred million or so gun owners?



Guess who's got my back? Got anything like that in the EU, your own people's army? Scared of the ability to kill or the ignorance to kill? Whatcha gonna do when they come for you, wave a broomstick?



None of that bullcrap on the anonymous internet websites goes on here on the street -- open verbal attacks for no reason -- open verbal ridicule would smother them. It's like the "black thing" with slavery here or some religious bigot in authority lied to them, someone gets a false OPINION of themselves after being rejected but remains in denial, and the likes of this racism is seldom seen, like a woman scorned.



Aw, did I step on your poor little bitty ego? You got offended? Aw, ruined your life getting offended, didn't you? Admit it, learn from it and never go there again. You got more important stuff...



We've all been there. It's your attitude (the only thing they can't take from you), your choice, how you handle a crisis or an insult or a mishap. You can get mad and make it worse or you can figure out most things aren't even personal; effect me not. So what if you screwed me, you get the curse of a lie; not my problem. I can move on, you're waiting for a bomb or three to go off.



I've been married once before 18 years and kids, but the second time I gave them a test. I took this lovely but shallow woman out on my boat, knew I had not filled it up with gas, going 60 MPH across the lake (she was impressed, but it was smooth and safe sailing and close to shore), got miles from anyone and ran out of gas. Had thought about leaving the plug out too, but decided against it, would've been too much.



We're stranded, paddling to shallower water getting nowhere; wind blowing. We're screwed heading for the rocks on the far empty side of the lake; helpless. This woman had a mental breakdown, screaming stuff about we're going to die out here, thought I was going to have to slap her. She wasn't wrong, just not fit for relationship or reality; a screaming nightmare. She had no idea I had beer and food on-board, jumped to conclusions easily.



People are good at hiding who they are and how they got there, love to pretend, imagine if I were god. Give them an anonymous icon and a forum without rules, they can act out anything they want, mostly untrained children rebelling.



I rebelled with long hair in the Sixties and Seventies, grownups thought I was "disgusting" long-haired hippie, and Dylan taught us we couldn't trust anyone over 30. Took down the whole shee-bang with one word "why?" Anarchy, stupid, free drugs, free sex, free booze, geez, how much trouble can we get into now? Disgusting? But we never destroyed anything or attacked anyone, just Peace lovers.



It took a War on Drugs to stop us, what will stop this new atheist? Maybe a full scale organized war on untruth and oxymoronic fallacy? Google and Facebook and Twitter are still trying to figure that one out, it isn't just here or there, it's everywhere.



Forty years later, now I'm surrounded by rebellious militant trolls, how "disgusting". Why doesn't someone else DO something, like make more laws, deny more of our rights, hire more police?



Tell you what, I been deletin' those troll sonsabitches here; doing my part because they don't belong here, just helpin' 'em out the door to somewhere else they're not wanted. They're so delusioned about everyone else, logic cannot reach a mental obsession, and they can't even figure out when it's time to leave.



The apathy of the masses kills the country, the forum, all media, when truth disappears. You just whinin' or do you have a solution? Part of the solution or the problem?



Missed the last question you asked, "How does your church approach non-believers?" The word "approach" is an active verb. You mean aside from disaster relief for every hurricane that hit the coast, building several outreaches and food banks and turning around the poor parts of our city, and training and sending missionaries to build schools and churches in over 100 different countries? A church denomination of 15,000 can do a lot to help the needy, hungry, homeless, but obviously our mission is to help those w/o spiritual guidance when welcomed, to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ and the literal truth of the Bible. From a city of half a million people, our church has quite an impact throughout our city and the world. Our pastor has been televised regularly, so wherever Daystar reaches... a weekly Christian message can now be downloaded on an iPhone in Iraq and Iran; never before has Christian media reached these people, other than the hundreds of thousands of Bibles that have been smuggled in by donkey over the past four decades.



I'm openly bragging when I say our church has the most diverse congregation on the planet, proud to have more blacks, hispanics, asian (40 different countries represented at our church) and mixed couples and colors than ANY other church I've seen, proud to be almost rid of the shackles of racism. We get to see each other in a family setting; amazingly, they're just people (not "black" anymore, like in Europe, just other people--we have a deep racial problem in USA that the churches can fix). I've never been so enthralled as by the Asians, jaw-dropping honesty and responsibility; very serious. The Spanish Americans are decidedly the most fun (just my opinion). Trying to give you a feel for 50 States of a melting pot, with lots of foreigners near universities (mostly younger people, a vibrant growing youth movement actively reaching out). Church is an activity for us, not passive. Contrast this to an armchair pew sitting religious person following their regular Programming or playing with rosary beads being bored and feeling mighty righteous. Lazy hands come to ruin (Prov 21:25), ours are busy in outreach and staying ahead of the youth.



Our denomination is an Evangelical church or part of the charismatic movement (email if you want specifics). There will be all colors of people in heaven, might as well start getting along and used to each other now. They flock to us to attend our schools from all over the world. Yes, a Megachurch, where the Pastor takes a salary of about the same as the average citizen here (with housing and clothing for TV, we think he needs a plane), makes less money than you do probably, operates debt free, travels the world several times a year, busier than I want to be. Thank God for men that accept their calling with vigor and take it to a new level.



Addendum

See Comments below for an example of "The Disgusting Problem" here on YA in real time...
?
2018-09-25 20:04:52 UTC
AmayA, truth is the subject doesn't come up that often. There's a saying in America, "In polite company, never discuss religion, sex, or politics." Most people would be unable to tell you what the religion is of the people they work with or even their neighbors.



So the answer to your question is "no." The controversy is not as visceral as it is on YA R&S where we're all (most) hidden behind avatars.
anonymous
2018-09-25 18:40:54 UTC
A lot of this is regional. Keep in mind that the US is huge. The souther states as well as many midwestern states are aggressively Christiabn, and a Dominionist strain of Christianity at that. They teach Christian propaganda in public schools, even though it is illegal. Atheists and non-Christians (and non-Evangelicals) spend a lot of time having to fight battles in those areas. Cities like NYC and LA are much more diverse, so it's much less of an issue.
anonymous
2018-09-25 18:09:17 UTC
Here, let me help you. We Christians are against certain things and if you cross us on those things, then we'll go to war over it (not actual war). Other than those things, we can get along fine. We try to attract others to the faith by preaching to them the Gospel. This is called by some soulwinning.
anonymous
2018-10-01 19:02:13 UTC
I DO NOT know any atheists in real life which is fine with me...I AM NOT polling everyone either about all this..
Joseph hola
2018-09-30 00:45:34 UTC
yes theres a lot on both ends of the spectrum from all types of worldviews
Enguerarrard
2018-09-29 20:10:01 UTC
Christians account for about 60% of the population, and Evangelicals for about 35%. Some Evangelicals like Jehovah's Witnesses are pacifists and apolitical. A very few are liberal in the way of Quakers, but by far the majority of evangelicals are rabid racists foaming at the mouth who have embraced the triple idolatry of nationalism, militarism and capitalism. Most American atheists are quiet unbelievers. We have friends and family members who are Christians, and realize it's not politically wise to call for banning clerical people from public office, for example, as I would like to do. All the people I know are indifferent to people's beliefs, except when those beliefs interfere with human rights, such as the crazed evangelical hatred of gays. Personally, I despise half the people in my country.
sparkplug
2018-09-29 04:11:12 UTC
Ok heres your answer, There are alot of people that claim to be Christians and those type of people may act the way you are describing but there are real Christians and they are nothing like that. I can't answer for the atheist.
anonymous
2018-09-28 11:11:36 UTC
>Are really most American Christians so thoroughly invasive, and intrusive, and unable/unwilling to accept people who don't think exactly like them?<



No this is a straw man argument. My experience has been that you've described Europeans far better than you've described Americans. Y'all have the "short man's" complex.
Special EPhex
2018-09-28 09:08:37 UTC
I don't think so. The internet is the realm of extreme exaggeration, which is often projected on to real life. I've lived in many regions of the US, and tend to make many friends where ever I go. By my experience, Americans, almost everywhere I've been, are pretty tolerant and accepting. I believe Americans generally have a good sense of the faith and culture of regions we find ourselves in, and accept "majority rule".



I've probably had almost as many atheist friends as theist, in more recent years in my life, and I've never got the sense that anyone's faith has been directly attacked by an opposing belief system, with any regularity. I can understand atheists feeling like outcasts in Christian dominated society, and I can also understand how many Christians feel that secularism has taken over many aspects of our society. When I can see both sides of an issue, it becomes "a wash", which I take to be a good thing.



When it comes to online, "all bets are off", and it is "no holds barred". The extreme of both side represent a marginal percentage of Americans, but are the majority on the internet, because they are the type of people looking to "have it out" with the other side, behind the safety and security of anonymity. I've seen atheist/theist debate in real life, which were no where near the degree of what I see here. I've seen debates get contentious, but not on the level of disrespect and personal attacks on the internet.



I am theist and accept the 'spiritual truths' many faiths share in common. I come from a Southern Baptist background, but did not have religion forced upon me, so I was left to make my own conclusions about faith. I don't totally agree with all theists, nor do I totally disagree with all atheists, as I share much of my belief with Buddhism, which does not subscribe to the concept of God. Because I assume everyone is just as convicted in their beliefs as I am in mine, I don't have disputes, and usually have respectful and meaningful discussions on the subject of faith.
JORGE N
2018-09-28 03:05:51 UTC
Are you kidding? I can't even get my grandkids to agree on just one thing for dinner. No. One has to have teriyaki and the other wants instant noodles. That means two different stores because the kind of teriyaki he likes can only be got at this one particular store. And the other of course, I have to park the car. Go into the store, get the instant noodles, get in line, pay, and walk back out to the car where the kid is just finishing off his teriyaki and now wants flaming hot Cheetos. Either way, that is nothing to the fight over one or other of the videos, movies, games and whatever else goes on there. By the time it is over old grandpa is like an old bone that has been tossed around the back yard all day by dinosaurs. What in the world makes me think they are going to be together and not divided into many fighting little parts when they get old? Only the bonds of love can make so many violent people create a very violent form of plasma about themselves that helps them stay together.
Archer
2018-09-27 07:43:44 UTC
Americans are as insecure as Europeans are.
anonymous
2018-09-26 22:40:21 UTC
These days every man seems to have his very own brand of religion. And there are over 7 billion alive today.



But Christ does things differently from the rest of the world. And we Christians serve Christ by doing things his ways and not ours.



Nowhere are we commanded to be "nice and chill." And we respect only the things that Christ respects.



Sounds like Christianity is not for you.
?
2018-09-26 22:23:44 UTC
How athiests and Christian relate in my experience depends on thre individuals. On YA, athiests and Christians are more open about where they stand, which is often true when not known.
?
2018-09-26 18:26:25 UTC
There are a *lot*! of nice, chill and respectful Christians.



Some of them are very nearby too.
Jimmy C
2018-09-26 03:12:27 UTC
Your use of words is american in style, so I suspect that you are actually american. Only an american describes people as 'chill' which is grammatically incorrect.

And yes, as you know, it varies from place to place, or from state to state.
anonymous
2018-09-25 19:51:00 UTC
True Christians respect all people's right to choose. Even if they choose not to know God or worship him. True Christians strive very hard to imitate God's spirit as revealed in these Scriptures - Galatians 5:22 & 23 - 22 On the other hand, the fruitage of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, 23 mildness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. - - - - And they follow the Scriptural command to be completely united in this endeavor all over the globe - 1 Corinthians 1:10 - Now I urge you, brothers, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you should all speak in agreement and that there should be no divisions among you, but that you may be completely united in the same mind and in the same line of thought. - - - - As Jesus indicated, they are identified by their unfailing love - John 13:35 - By this all will know that you are my disciples — if you have love among yourselves. - - - - This superlative aspect of love being displayed even toward those that hate them, just as the Scriptures teach throughout the Bible - Proverbs 25:21 - If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; If he is thirsty, give him water to drink. - - - - Luke 6:27 - “But I say to you who are listening: Continue to love your enemies, to do good to those hating you. - - - - Romans 12:20 - But “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; - - - - You can learn more about the Bible here, without even giving your email address - www.jw.org
anonymous
2018-09-25 18:36:00 UTC
Most atheists would rather be left alone. But it's hard when Christians are constantly bombarding everyone with their nonsense. In America, Christians always try to influence politics AND they usually succeed. Many of our laws are based on Christians delusions. In addition, Christians destory education. There are Christian based "schools" that teach fairy tales. (i.e. intelligent design). Christians are the ones that are divisive.
.
2018-09-25 18:25:55 UTC
I don't know what you're talking about.

American Christians are civilized and charming people, when you're standing face-to-face with them.

Nothing "invasive" or "intrusive".

American Atheists live and let live.

All are urbane.

One big happy family.
Hunter. ✞
2018-09-25 18:16:10 UTC
Yes, Europe has pretty much fallen to socialism/communism and its only a matter of time until the murders start.



America won't accept that fate.
Spiritus
2018-09-25 18:13:21 UTC
Majority of believers/atheists on here hide behind a vague Yahoo! profile and use it as a platform to name-call and argue why their particular beliefs are right without having to actually participate in any form of civilized face-to-face debate.
anonymous
2018-09-25 18:08:54 UTC
The short answer is no - most people are far more extreme on this site than in the general population.


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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