Quick to React

Posted by on Jul 23, 2007 in Rants | 3 comments

Just a note on on something I’ve noticed lately. When theists comment on something atheist/secular (anything, anywhere) its often sloppy and poorly written. I do not mean to say, under any circumstances, that theists are less intelligent or bad writers; we all make mistakes. What I am getting at is a quickness to react. From my experience, theists have to respond right away with “you’re wrong”, “you’re going to [my version of] Hell!”, or the ever-so condescending “may [my] god bless you anyway”.

I honestly believe that neither are angry (as a general rule), but theists tend to be more defensive about their beliefs. And rightly so. You have every right to believe what you want, but I am not the one who needs to offer evidence of anything. To quote Carl Sagan, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”.

EDIT: This was just a rant I ventured on because of something I saw on myspace (of all places…its okay roll your eyes). There were these general comments on Christopher Hitchens’ book “God Is Not Great”; many criticized him, not based on the subject of his book or even his character. All I saw were many quick, emotional responses just because some phrase (the title) hit them the wrong way.

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  • Larro

    Agreed. Yet we all get passionate about something or other and make mistakes while writing. My erratums begin to occur after the fourth beer or so.

    I have also noticed that theists find it convenient to “rationalize” an argument without really rationalizing. For instance, I know quite a few who may or may not quote scripture, but I know that’s what they are thinking about. As if they are unable to think outside the box….or book. Granted I know some thoughtful people who are theists and I can have some deep and meaningful discussions with them (mostly not about religion), but invariably religion is what they base everything on.

  • Intergalactic Hussy

    Perhaps you are right: “Yet we all get passionate about something or other and make mistakes while writing.” I know I have.

    But I wrote this blog because I saw on myspace (of all places) comments on Christopher Hitchens “God Is Not Great”. Of the comments who criticized him, none knew anything of his book or even him. It was just an emotional response from the title. Uneducated emotional responses because a phrase hit them the wrong way.

  • Tommy

    My favorite theist response is when they say “Well, you are simply judging God using human standards of logic and reason, but because we’re humans we can’t always fathom God’s reasons for doing things, but they are all part of a master plan that we cannot comprehend”, but of course because they have faith they think they can comprehend it.