religion, activism-promotion, sensitivitiesIt seems illogical that you’d be more offended by someone just saying ‘your god isn’t real’ than by someone saying ‘your god isn’t real, but I have this other god that is’. Yet that seems to be the case with many religious folks. Why?
Non belief is more of a threat to institutions which are dependent on belief than non aligned belief.
Because all religions have inherent flaws, its easy for religious people to point fingers at each other. For example:
Muslim: Bible is corrupted, it was changed many times, etc. But the quran is supreme and unchanged.
Christian: Yea, but the quran is full of contradictions and errors, and look at this crazy hadith saying camel urine has healing powers.
Muslim: Fine, but bible has more errors, and it promotes genocide and slavery, etc etc etc.
When an atheist comes into the equation, religious people no longer have the convenience of pointing out the flaws in the other religion in order to make their own religion look superior. There are no contradicting religious scriptures, no prophets, no gods, etc. As a result, they respond with anger and 'getting offended'.
Remember: offense is taken, not given.
The only way to maintain an irrational belief is if everyone around you shares it. If everyone you know has a belief in a god of some kind you can take comfort in your own god even if others have different gods. Atheism challenges the comfortable belief in the existence of supernatural beings.
Consider beer drinkers as an analogy. They may differ on which beer is the best but they all agree that beer is good to drink. If someone insisted that all beer should be poured down the drain and never consumed I’m sure there would be some level of outrage among drinkers.
I answered a similar question here: Why is actively promoting atheism looked down on
It probably is also rooted in fact that atheism affirms that their religion, one that worships a god, is false.
I simply disagree with the implication that they do consider it worse. Historically, religions are far more likely to make war on each other, than on nonbelievers. Even today, you’re more likely to be discriminated against (in the US, and many westernized countries) for being a muslim than an atheist.
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