Rude W*nkers I have met - Atheism & Religion in the Social Context 2

[Guest Raidne]

I don't think that God before family is hard to understand, but it fights the popular notion that religion - in an individual - is harmless and should be respected when ideas about some schizophrenic nearly killing his son on the say so of some fairy monster take center stage. So while it can be easily understood, it's hard to accept, because of the inescapable conclusion that follows, which is that religion, even limited to the life of an individual, can be evil.

[Ser Greguh]

I think that most people who put God before family have faith that God would never interfere with family.

[Lord Toblerone]

on the topic of Abraham and Isaac:

[Galactus]

Yeah, I don't see the issue either. Family and friends can be dicks.

It does remind me a bit of how confucian critics in china accused buddhism of being anti-family though.

[TerraPrime]

on the topic of Abraham and Isaac:

:rofl:

"Ivan! That's a much better name than Isaac!"

[Eponine]

This only makes sense if you don't believe in God. Otherwise the statement itself is ridiculous.

I see this among a lot of atheists and "agnostic" religious people and for the life of me I don't see what's so hard to grasp here.

I wouldn't say it's hard to grasp so much as it's hard to accept (and yes, my parents have also explicitly told me that god is first, family is second). And hard to know the right way to respond because there's no point at which we can reach an equivalency. Even though from my point of view, them loving god more than me is the same to me as if I decided I loved Harry Potter more than them, I obviously know that from their point of view, it's not like that at all. But even if I can say I understand their point of view insofar as I can express it clearly and explain its consequences, like I might say that I understand how and why the ancient Romans worshiped a moon goddess, etc., I don't actually "understand" the initial assumption in any way where it actually seems like a reasonable thing to me

[kissdbyfire]

It is a bit hard to rise above when they then decide to kill you for your "offence"

An extreme example yes but isn't that exactly what causes a so called "christian" to blow up an abortion clinic?

Certainly it is not faith in a loving and forgiving God, nor is it the teachings of that faith, heck one could make a decent case for saying that it is instead on the "opposite side".

Or when they battle like mad to stop gay marriage....... hell you can go on and on about pretty much any religion for example apparently the Delai Lama beleives that sex in the afternoon is a sin.

And then you get the atheists who claim that their lack of "imaginery friend" is better than your acceptance and if you don't happen to agree then your an idiot.

Feck it all I am off to the pub!

I don't know but I've always seen the things you mention as being caused by good old plain lack of common sense. Then again, I've always seen extremism, fanaticism and intolerance as lack of common sense, possibly coupled with... well, stupidity. Not to mention how astonishingly counterproductive it all is - blowing up people/things, hatred, etc.