Why do Christians outnumber atheists?

[bilby]

Then what are you doing on this thread?
Most Likely Answer: Many atheists are unhappy being in the minority.

Well done. You managed to contain yourself for six whole hours before repeating the nonsense that you were asked not to repeat, after the reason why it's nonsense was carefully explained to you.

You KEEP saying this, as if it hsn’t been addressed scores of times already.

You seem to imply that an atheist’s interaction or interest in the topic of Christians (who are real) has some bearing on a god (which is not real). And that’s really just a shallow trick. The existence of Christians and their negative impact (or positive impact) on people around them has nothing whatsoever to do with the veracity of Christianity, and it never has. The existence of christians and our willingness to talk about them does not have anything to do with whether they are right.


For example, a large number of us talk at great length about crime and criminals, but it’s obvious to the most casual observer that none of us think they are right or doing any good.

Can we make this the last time we see, “you must have some reason to post about this!” Pls?

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Frankly, I do not care to explain why people hold irrational beliefs. Emily Lake in this thread gave some reasonable explanations. And, I don't see what relevance/importance in that there are more believers of X than believers of Y.

Then what are you doing on this thread?

When someone says "I don't see the relevance", it does not means the person has no interest. It means you should explain the relevance. As the OP-writer, it's on you to clarify your point when it is not understood.

I explained everything in the OP. If anybody thinks that that doesn't interest them, then they can move on. That's what I do. There are buttons on my mouse that I can use to exit a boring thread.

 

[laughing dog]

Frankly, I do not care to explain why people hold irrational beliefs. Emily Lake in this thread gave some reasonable explanations. And, I don't see what relevance/importance in that there are more believers of X than believers of Y.

Then what are you doing on this thread?

When someone says "I don't see the relevance", it does not means the person has no interest. It means you should explain the relevance. As the OP-writer, it's on you to clarify your point when it is not understood.

I explained everything in the OP. If anybody thinks that that doesn't interest them, then they can move on. That's what I do. There are buttons on my mouse that I can use to exit a boring thread.

Until your OP, I had never seen nor heard of anyone asking atheists "Why are you in a minority?" or "Why do you think you are in a minority?". Your OP does not explain the relevance of the question or why anyone would even think such a question was worthwhile.

But if that question is relevant and worthwhile, then certainly the fact that non-Christians vastly outnumber Christians in the world prompts the similarly relevant and worthwhile question


Why are you Christians in a minority?

In fact, you have been asked this question twice and not answered it. Your non-answer suggests it is not relevant nor worthwhile which then suggests your OP question is neither relevant nor worthwhile.

As an aside, I don't know why you think "I fail to see the relevance" suggests the writer thinks the thread is boring. I find your response generate a rather rare combination of amusement and depression.

 

[Emily Lake]

But atheists also disagree over why no Gods exist

The only time nonexistence requires an explanation is when there is evidence of prior existence. Since atheists do not belief Gods never existed, they have no need for an explanation for the nonexistence.

Your claim is illogical.

Seriously. We don't disagree over why god doesn't exist. No why is needed at all.

What we do have is different tactics that we use when engaging a religionist, to try to counter the baseless assertions of those religionists that the existence of god is an absolute given because they say so. We have a multitude of arguments that get used, and they get used to poke holes in the wafer-thin arguments for god that we get presented with on a regular basis.

Well, many atheists do that. I rarely do. Mostly because I don't see enough supporting evidence for the existence of your cosmic jewish zombie to be bothered to argue with you about it. And I'm certainly not going to spend hours learning your terminology and your language and your religious doctrine, just so I can let you set the terms of the discussion. Nobody has yet convinced me that your gods are any more real than santa claus.

 

[Emily Lake]

500 A.D. -- "Why do so many flat-earthers outnumber non-flat-earthers?" by Roman philosopher VeritasSeekicus

I think I can now see why so many of the atheists here are getting upset: They're objecting to the apparent fallacy that the majority is right. I'm not arguing that Christians are right because they outnumber atheists, of course. But we must wonder!

Lol, I don't think any of us are upset. You haven't challenged any of our rationale sufficiently to cause upset.

What you're seeing is irritation. Irritation because you suck at arguing, keep changing what you're saying. and can't seem to even keep your own premise straight. And when someone gives you a solid response to your OP, you get snippy and change directions. It's annoying.

 

[Emily Lake]

Can you offer an explanation for why those who believe in the Christian God greatly outnumber atheists?

It is true that most surveys of religious populations show that there are more Christians than any other religious category. But given my observations of Christians and experiences with Christians, it is not clear to me that they all believe in the same version of god.

I'd rather not get bogged down in intersect rivalry, so just understand "Christian" as any person sincerely claiming to be one.

Frankly, I do not care to explain why people hold irrational beliefs. Emily Lake in this thread gave some reasonable explanations. And, I don't see what relevance/importance in that there are more believers of X than believers of Y.

Then what are you doing on this thread?
Most Likely Answer: Many atheists are unhappy being in the minority.

Actual answer: We enjoy watching die-hard religionists flail around and make idiotic arguments. It's a very specific sort of schadenfreude that many of us share.

 

[Emily Lake]

Frankly, I do not care to explain why people hold irrational beliefs. Emily Lake in this thread gave some reasonable explanations. And, I don't see what relevance/importance in that there are more believers of X than believers of Y.

Then what are you doing on this thread?

When someone says "I don't see the relevance", it does not means the person has no interest. It means you should explain the relevance. As the OP-writer, it's on you to clarify your point when it is not understood.

I explained everything in the OP. If anybody thinks that that doesn't interest them, then they can move on. That's what I do. There are buttons on my mouse that I can use to exit a boring thread.

I invite you to use them.

 

[TomC]

500 A.D. -- "Why do so many flat-earthers outnumber non-flat-earthers?" by Roman philosopher VeritasSeekicus

I think I can now see why so many of the atheists here are getting upset: They're objecting to the apparent fallacy that the majority is right. I'm not arguing that Christians are right because they outnumber atheists, of course. But we must wonder!

Lol, I don't think any of us are upset. You haven't challenged any of our rationale sufficiently to cause upset.

What you're seeing is irritation. Irritation because you suck at arguing, keep changing what you're saying. and can't seem to even keep your own premise straight. And when someone gives you a solid response to your OP, you get snippy and change directions. It's annoying.

Bingo.
It's irritation at OP's consistent dodging the responses he gets while claiming to be a truth seeker.

It's the dishonesty that's so irritating.
Tom

 

[Emily Lake]

To be fair, OP is also going to be out of his depth here. Most of us have been interacting with each other for well over a decade. Some of us much longer than that. I think I've been posting here in one incarnation or another for around 20 years, and I'm still a bit of a n00b compared to some others like both the Lorens and LD.

OP doesn't get that we *absolutely fucking love* arguing. We will argue about damned near anything. Even when we're largely in agreement, I guarantee that some of us are going to argue with each other about immaterial technicalities. And we'll do it until we're blue in the face, and we'll seem completely passionate about it the entire time!

At this point, there are really only a few topics that actually get me fired up. And some of those are ones that I will actively avoid discussing here, because I know I won't be able to keep my emotions reined in.

 

[bilby]

we *absolutely fucking love* arguing. We will argue about damned near anything.

No we won't.





Oh, wait...

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Frankly, I do not care to explain why people hold irrational beliefs. Emily Lake in this thread gave some reasonable explanations. And, I don't see what relevance/importance in that there are more believers of X than believers of Y.

Then what are you doing on this thread?

When someone says "I don't see the relevance", it does not means the person has no interest. It means you should explain the relevance. As the OP-writer, it's on you to clarify your point when it is not understood.

I explained everything in the OP. If anybody thinks that that doesn't interest them, then they can move on. That's what I do. There are buttons on my mouse that I can use to exit a boring thread.

Until your OP, I had never seen nor heard of anyone asking atheists "Why are you in a minority?" or "Why do you think you are in a minority?". Your OP does not explain the relevance of the question or why anyone would even think such a question was worthwhile.

But if that question is relevant and worthwhile, then certainly the fact that non-Christians vastly outnumber Christians in the world prompts the similarly relevant and worthwhile question


Why are you Christians in a minority?

In fact, you have been asked this question twice and not answered it. Your non-answer suggests it is not relevant nor worthwhile which then suggests your OP question is neither relevant nor worthwhile.

As an aside, I don't know why you think "I fail to see the relevance" suggests the writer thinks the thread is boring. I find your response generate a rather rare combination of amusement and depression.

Hey, Christian, if gods are so wonderful why does your religion only have one? Your god is a minority. Wacka wacka

 

[ideologyhunter]

Why do C's outnumber A's? Hell, that's easy. As everyone knows -- because you argued it, "with some success" -- there are no atheists. We so-called atheists are actually harboring secret theism, which you, only you, were able to ferret out. Can we now invite the crickets in and let this thread phase out?

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Until your OP, I had never seen nor heard of anyone asking atheists "Why are you in a minority?" or "Why do you think you are in a minority?". Your OP does not explain the relevance of the question or why anyone would even think such a question was worthwhile.

If any Christians read that atheists cannot understand the relevance of a question about the numbers of Christians versus atheists when that question appears in a forum created by atheists, then we should not be surprised that Christians outnumber atheists.

But if that question is relevant and worthwhile, then certainly the fact that non-Christians vastly outnumber Christians in the world prompts the similarly relevant and worthwhile question

Worldwide atheism is about 7 percent of the population versus about 25 percent Christian.

Why are you Christians in a minority?

In fact, you have been asked this question twice and not answered it. Your non-answer suggests it is not relevant nor worthwhile which then suggests your OP question is neither relevant nor worthwhile.

Aside from your post here, I cannot find that question posed to me anywhere in this thread. If it's meant for me to answer, then it's misaddressed because I'm a truth seeker and not a Christian. So who wants to be an atheist when they see that atheists falsely claim they asked somebody a question never posed to that person which is in any case misaddressed?

 

[Unknown Soldier]

We enjoy watching die-hard religionists flail around and make idiotic arguments. It's a very specific sort of schadenfreude that many of us share.

Now, are those the religionists who believe in God or those who don't? I've battled both.

 

[laughing dog]

Worldwide atheism is about 7 percent of the population versus about 25 percent Christian.

. Worldwide there are more people who do not believe in a Christian god ( Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, atheists. Bahais, etc…) then who do. Why are there more non-believers in a Christian god than who do?

Aside from your post here, I cannot find that question posed to me anywhere in this thread. If it's meant for me to answer, then it's misaddressed because I'm a truth seeker and not a Christian. So who wants to be an atheist when they see that atheists falsely claim they asked somebody a question never posed to that person which is in any case misaddressed?

Post 66 and 73 ask the question in different forms.

Your refusal to answer casts the “ truth seeker” claim hard to believe.

Why is it so hard for you to answer

Why are Christians in the minority?

 

[Tiburon]

Here's what one source has to say:

In 2019, a Pew study found that 65% of American adults described themselves as Christians while the religiously unaffiliated, including atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular”, is 26%. According to a 2018 Pew report, 72% of the "Nones" have belief in God, a higher power, or spiritual force.

If you ask atheists why they are outnumbered, they'll typically explain their being in the minority results from the tendency of people to be irrational and superstitious. They'll tell you that atheism does not offer hope of immortality, miracles, or revelations, and lonely, hurting, insecure people need these things to find a way through life.

But there are other reasons there are so few atheists and so many Christians. Perhaps Christian apologetics convinces Christians that they are right to believe in God and the Bible. Besides, atheism does not have a good history or at least atheists do not have a good history. Stalin, for example, did far more evil than any Christian ever did.

So it really shouldn't be too hard to understand why Christianity is in the mainstream of society and atheism on the fringe.

Christianity provides a comforting delusion. Atheism doesn't.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

I will try to put this another way for Unknown Soldier's benefit...

The op asks the question "Why do Christians outnumber atheists?"

The op then goes on to focus exclusively on the United States talking about statistics. Then, the op opines on internal mental motivations that could be explanatory variables.

One of the problems with this thinking is a time and location bias. Because the time and location are cherry-picked (perhaps not intentionally), the ability to explore other explanatory variables is reduced.

If you picture the Earth in a time video where you can zoom in and zoom out of locations and examine demographics and observe religiosity, what kind of things might you see?

Imagine in 2023, you zoom way in to a neighborhood block in Seattle. You note 80% of the people there are atheist or agnostic. You ask the question, "why do non-believers outnumber Christians?" Is it something in the water? The people in the neighborhood go around killing Christians? Then, you zoom out to encompass 3 neighborhoods but 2 of them are largely Muslim. You ask "Why do Muslims outnumber Christians?" You zoom out to all of the United States. "Why do Christians outnumber non-believers?" You zoom out to planet Earth then ask "Why do non-Christians outnumber Christians?"

Now, imagine that instead, you started in Beijing, zoomed out more and more to all of China. China is pretty much all atheist. "Why do atheists outnumber Christians?" Is it because Christianity offers nothing to people?

Or you start out in Tehran. Zoom to Iran. "Why are there so many Muslims and virtually no Christians?"

You should note a strong location-bias for present day, 2023. It is completely related to history and what empires have colonized, subjugated or otherwise exerted undue influence over the thinking present in people in their formative years.

People in Iran don't turn 10 years old and say, "Hey today I am going to look into Christianity and see if that is right for me." China provides a secular education. Most other places in the world include religious rites for youth--to include baptisms and so forth--and undue pressure from communities and parents and families.

What's the difference between Christianity, Judaism, and Islam? Two of these religions have historically had a very strong feature of conquest and forced conversions. If we flip through time in our video of the planet to see how Christianity spread, we would see it spread to parts of Europe, then North and South America, Australia, and Africa during colonization and imperialism.

Go back to a view of today, look at planet Earth, now zoom out to the whole galaxy. We don't know how many intelligent species there are, but suppose there are 3 others in the galaxy of similar populations to Earth. None of them would be Christians and plenty would have at least some atheism. As you zoom out more and more, Christianity becomes less and less of a thing, and atheism population grows, just like if you were looking at the population of Vietnam and zooming out to include China and nearby countries.

So far as only looking at US citizens (while by the way making side commentary about Stalin and no one else), how would one measure the factors involved in being a Christian or an atheist objectively to the exclusion of confounding variable of undue influence exerted by society and family?

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Worldwide atheism is about 7 percent of the population versus about 25 percent Christian.

. Worldwide there are more people who do not believe in a Christian god ( Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, atheists. Bahais, etc…) then who do.

That is correct.

Why are there more non-believers in a Christian god than who do?

I don't know, I don't know why I'm supposed to know, you should be able to find out yourself, and the issue is irrelevant to the topic.

Aside from your post here, I cannot find that question posed to me anywhere in this thread. If it's meant for me to answer, then it's misaddressed because I'm a truth seeker and not a Christian. So who wants to be an atheist when they see that atheists falsely claim they asked somebody a question never posed to that person which is in any case misaddressed?

Post 66...

OK, I see the question now. Like everybody else in this forum, I don't answer all the questions posed to me because I'm not obligated to answer all those questions.

...and 73 ask the question in different forms.

[removed]

Your refusal to answer casts the “ truth seeker” claim hard to believe.

There are many reasons questions may go unanswered like I listed above so you're probably wrong to assume dishonesty on my part (in fact you are wrong by assuming I'm being dishonest).

Let me conclude this post by pointing out that what you're saying here amounts to an ad hominem fallacy. It's well known that a good clue that somebody knows he's losing an argument is when he goes on the personal attack.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

Why are there more non-believers in a Christian god than who do?

I don't know, I don't know why I'm supposed to know, you should be able to find out yourself, and the issue is irrelevant to the topic.

It's relevant but it isn't the narrative you are supporting. Therefore, you are not seeking truth.

...and 73 ask the question in different forms.

I generally don't respond to apparently mentally deranged posters who threaten to kill me.

Ahah! This is a sure sign you are losing the argument. A very superb poster and master debater once said this:

...an ad hominem fallacy. It's well known that a good clue that somebody knows he's losing an argument is when he goes on the personal attack.

 

[Thomas II]

Why do Christian outnumber atheists?

God only knows!