Why do Christians outnumber atheists?

[ideologyhunter]

I'm thinking that Christians outnumber atheists because Christians offer immortality while atheists offer no such thing. Do you have any thoughts on that idea?

Yeah, and it's "Duh."
Christians: When you die, you'll be able to reunite with your family, thank Aunt Clara for the cookies she baked, and flap wings with your ma and pa and Jesus on golden clouds.
Atheists: At brain death, your consciousness is no more, and all the contents of your rational mind are extinguished. Then they either burn you up or gut you, pipe in chemicals, and plant you. The end.
Gee, which one gets the high ratings??
I swore I wasn't gonna get into these endless threads again, but here I am. Since I'm here, I'll ask again, does this warrant 120+ posts? I can hear a lot of impatient crickets waiting to get in.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

I like these comments:

They're nearly all born into it, just like all religions. For example, like, if you're born in Chicago you're a Bears fan. Exactly like that.

Historically? Point of a sword was quite popular.

1. raised that way.
2. want to fuck someone raised that way.
3. you're fucking crazy.

That's about it.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

I'm thinking that Christians outnumber atheists because Christians offer immortality while atheists offer no such thing. Do you have any thoughts on that idea?

Yeah, and it's "Duh."

I tried to be civil. Welcome to Ignore Land.

 

[Rhea]

Why aren't there more atheists? For one thing, humans need community and atheists are hard to herd. Even when we start up organized groups, it can be hard to keep them going. I can't count right now how many atheist and humanist organizations I've been involved with over the past 25 years. Some have faded away. Some are going strong.

I hear this argument a lot, but are we? Are we really hard to herd? We form up a lot, just not FOR atheism. We have yoga studios and book clubs and bike clubs and auto-racing. We join the Sierra Club and the Democratic Party. We have tupperware parties and ladies’ weekends. We inhabit Green Peace and Medecines sans Frontiers and Swifties and the Red Cross.

I think it’s a flaw to disregard all the ways we do form community, just because it doesn’t say “atheism” on the door.

Because he’s a Christian pretending to be an atheist?

Who is now pretending not to be an atheist.

His official designation is "Truth Seeker". Manages to be both Christian on CARM and atheist on IIDB.
Tom

Is that True, Seeker? You are in the “christians Only” forum at CARM? Are you lying to them or to us?

My concern is that your question is intended to shift attention away from the fact that many of the atheists here fear the implications of their being outnumbered by Christians.

Are you kidding? Atheists have ALWAYS feared the large numbers of rabid and dangerous Christians who harm our lives. They are harmful folk, over the centuries. And they are still fighting to harm us. We understand the implications quite well.

I'm thinking that Christians outnumber atheists because Christians offer immortality while atheists offer no such thing. Do you have any thoughts on that idea?

Your argument is that there are more Christians than Atheists because people want a pixie story really badly? I mean, if that’s how Christians want to protray themselves, as people who are desperate to believe a pixie story. I mean, I guess I can believe that of them.

Tom, is it possible that the fear of hell is so great that more people try to escape that fear via Christian belief than people who "risk hell" as atheists?

Wait, I thought it was immortality. Now it’s fear of punishment? Why the goalpost shift? Wasn’t your previoushypothesis reliable feeling enough?

When you consider the Universe, Christians likely do not outnumber atheists.

Indeed, when you consider the plant earth through its entire history, likely they still don’t.

But how might we explain any "historical coincidence" regarding the relative numbers of Christians and atheists? Are Christians just lucky that they've achieved great numbers?

You’ve been told the answer to this over and over and over again. Christians spent centuries using murder and genocide to increase their relative numbers. How many times do you need to be told?

 

[laughing dog]

I tried to be civil. Welcome to Ignore Land.

Pretty hard to seek truth when you actively avoid it.

 

[bilby]

I tried to be civil.

Do, or do not. There is no "try".

- Yoda

 

[Swammerdami]

OP's thesis seems to revolve around whether the percentage of Christians in some universe (USA? Humanity? Intelligent life on Earth? All intelligent life in the Galaxy?) is at least 51% or no more than 49%.

Another quibble can be thrown his way: -- Who are "Christians" anyway? Muslims regard 'Isa as one of the great Ulu'l-Azm, and most follow his philosophy more closely than many who call themselves "Christian." Should we include these Muslims in our quest to get to 51%?

I'm not sure the charity preached by the following preacher conforms to Jesus' own prescriptions. @Unknown S; do you include him and his Ilk as "Christians"?



One is reminded of the line from a John Belushi movie: "We tolerate BOTH kinds of religion here: Baptist AND Methodist."

 

[southernhybrid]

That you are not willing to engage in honest discussion.

Then we have no more to discuss.

Then why are you still here?

Let me explain what you do. You start threads. People post replies that you don't like or disagree with, so instead of explaining why you don't agree, you light a little fire, by perhaps saying or insinuating that person is lying or does't like being in the minority or is upset etc. Then, being only human, some posters add fuel to the little fire that you started. I've seen this again and again from you. You seem to enjoy watching how high the flames get and you do nothing to put out the flames. For example, when you asked if we were real atheists, you called us liars. When most posters said they supported voluntary assisted euthanasia, you called some posters immoral and said or implied that a person's right to end their suffering was a form of murder. You do this all the time. Then, while you are the flame thrower, throwing the most ad hom attacks, as well as making false implications about people, you accuse others of that, even when all they are doing is criticizing your posts, not directly criticizing you.

I hear this argument a lot, but are we? Are we really hard to herd? We form up a lot, just not FOR atheism. We have yoga studios and book clubs and bike clubs and auto-racing. We join the Sierra Club and the Democratic Party. We have tupperware parties and ladies’ weekends. We inhabit Green Peace and Medecines sans Frontiers and Swifties and the Red Cross.

I think it’s a flaw to disregard all the ways we do form community, just because it doesn’t say “atheism” on the door.

Because he’s a Christian pretending to be an atheist?

Who is now pretending not to be an atheist.

His official designation is "Truth Seeker". Manages to be both Christian on CARM and atheist on IIDB.
Tom

Is that True, Seeker? You are in the “christians Only” forum at CARM? Are you lying to them or to us?

My concern is that your question is intended to shift attention away from the fact that many of the atheists here fear the implications of their being outnumbered by Christians.

Are you kidding? Atheists have ALWAYS feared the large numbers of rabid and dangerous Christians who harm our lives. They are harmful folk, over the centuries. And they are still fighting to harm us. We understand the implications quite well.

I'm thinking that Christians outnumber atheists because Christians offer immortality while atheists offer no such thing. Do you have any thoughts on that idea?

Your argument is that there are more Christians than Atheists because people want a pixie story really badly? I mean, if that’s how Christians want to protray themselves, as people who are desperate to believe a pixie story. I mean, I guess I can believe that of them.

Tom, is it possible that the fear of hell is so great that more people try to escape that fear via Christian belief than people who "risk hell" as atheists?

Wait, I thought it was immortality. Now it’s fear of punishment? Why the goalpost shift? Wasn’t your previoushypothesis reliable feeling enough?

When you consider the Universe, Christians likely do not outnumber atheists.

Indeed, when you consider the plant earth through its entire history, likely they still don’t.

But how might we explain any "historical coincidence" regarding the relative numbers of Christians and atheists? Are Christians just lucky that they've achieved great numbers?

You’ve been told the answer to this over and over and over again. Christians spent centuries using murder and genocide to increase their relative numbers. How many times do you need to be told?

I'm only basing the "hard to herd" concept based on my many years of being involved with atheist groups. We do have some success in starting groups and some of them last for decades, for example, The Atlanta Freethought Society", but it seems as if it's very hard to keep us going. My now little local group was started over 10 years ago by a former neighbor of mine. About 5 or 6 of us have been loyal members, but over the years, we've had countless numbers of atheists who show up a few time and then disappear. I always wonder what happened to them. We just gather for social reasons and I remember one man who wanted serious discussions. We encouraged him to start a discussion group but we never heard from him again. The Humanist of Georgia was around for a long time, but membership gradually fading away, so the group ended. I think the fact that we all lived so far apart may be why that group ended. There is a humanist group in a town about 30 miles from me that seems intact. We used to go there once in awhile, but we don't like to drive that far at night so it's been a few years since we've attended any of their socials. Maybe religious folks are better at getting together because they think it pleases their god or something like that. I don't really know, but I am happy to see so many newer groups of atheists getting together, although the pandemic seemed to hurt their progress. I've not heard anything from the Black Nonbelievers of Atlanta is quite awhile. I've met some of their members, mostly women who are a lot of fun to be with, so I don't know Rhea. Have you had any personal experience with atheist groups? I totally enjoy them, but I've found it's kind of hard to keep our little herds intact.

Other than that, I agree with your responses to UK. Atheists have no fear of hell. If we were raised with that fear, many of us realized as we grew up that it was superstitious nonsense, meant to instill fear in people. I have no fear of Christianity, other than how it has been influencing our government as it has recently become more radical.

 

[Emily Lake]

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.

All of the above. And I include in that people who believe in ghosts, alien abductions with anal probes, and bigfoot.

 

[Emily Lake]

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 as relevant as your question was. Why are we supposed to know the answer to the question you asked? Shouldn't you be able to go find out yourself?

 

[Emily Lake]

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

Umm... This is some ridiculously exaggerated bullshittery.

1) Threatening other members of the forum is 100% against the rules. If you believe you've been threatened, report the post.
2) Calling other posters crazy, and euphemistic variations thereof, is also against the rules. Thus I have reported your post.

 

[Emily Lake]

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.

That's correct. If I feel physically threatened by a deranged person I'm debating, then I make a hasty exit warning others about the danger. It's better for me to lose a debate than to lose my life.

And I didn't fail to notice your lack of shock at the death-threat revelation.

Feeling physically threatened by a stranger who is likely thousands of miles away from you because they hurt your feelings on the interwebs is not exactly the most rational position I've seen.

Are you just throwing out every possible victim cry you can think of? What's next, you're going to accuse us all of being vicious racists who want to genocide you?

 

[Emily Lake]

What is it about my being threatened that you don't get?

Supporting evidence.

 

[Emily Lake]

I'm thinking that Christians outnumber atheists because Christians offer immortality while atheists offer no such thing. Do you have any thoughts on that idea?

Let's be accurate: christians offer the unsupported and unverified promise of continued existence after death, to be taken solely on faith. Let's also be accurate in noting that most other religions offer the same thing.

 

[Emily Lake]

Tom, is it possible that the fear of hell is so great that more people try to escape that fear via Christian belief than people who "risk hell" as atheists?

Sure. Just as it's possible that if a young child is repeatedly told that there's a monster in their closet that will eat them if they get out of bed at night, that kid is going to escape that fear by peeing the bed instead of risking a nighttime venture to the toilet.

It's an intentionally-created fear, invented for the purpose of coercing people to believe in an imagined deity. It's a protection racket.

 

[Emily Lake]

I tried to be civil. Welcome to Ignore Land.

Your concept of "civil" appears to be extremely biased and selective.

 

[pood]

</thread> via Emily, I’d say.

 

[steve_bank]

Christianity is based on fear. That is obvious.

I think it was 5th grade when a nun I had for a teacher lost control. She scribbled with red chalk on the blackboard and ranted that is hell and it is where us kids were going.

The premise of Christianity is an all mighty god impregnated a human he created to begin with and the offspring was created t0 suffer to 'save the world' from sin. A bizarre kind of myth to say the least. Greek myths are far more elegant.

Believe in Jesus as your savior or go to hell.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Is that True, Seeker? You are in the “christians Only” forum at CARM? Are you lying to them or to us?

I'm being libeled. Plus what I am is not relevant to the discussion.

My concern is that your question is intended to shift attention away from the fact that many of the atheists here fear the implications of their being outnumbered by Christians.

Are you kidding? Atheists have ALWAYS feared the large numbers of rabid and dangerous Christians who harm our lives.

Then I'm right. Some atheists are spooked by the fact that Christians outnumber them, and fear tends to bring out the worst in people.

They are harmful folk, over the centuries. And they are still fighting to harm us. We understand the implications quite well.

As you should know "the centuries" tell us that atheists have fought hard to harm Christians too. Let's consider all the truth and not just what we think is favorable to our points of view.

I'm thinking that Christians outnumber atheists because Christians offer immortality while atheists offer no such thing. Do you have any thoughts on that idea?

Your argument is that there are more Christians than Atheists because people want a pixie story really badly? I mean, if that’s how Christians want to protray themselves, as people who are desperate to believe a pixie story. I mean, I guess I can believe that of them.

Well--I asked, now didn't I?

Tom, is it possible that the fear of hell is so great that more people try to escape that fear via Christian belief than people who "risk hell" as atheists?

Wait, I thought it was immortality. Now it’s fear of punishment? Why the goalpost shift? Wasn’t your previoushypothesis reliable feeling enough?

There is no "goalpost shift." I simply asked a different question regarding the topic. There are many possible reasons why Christians outnumber atheists, and the sensible thing to do is consider all of them.

When you consider the Universe, Christians likely do not outnumber atheists.

Indeed, when you consider the plant earth through its entire history, likely they still don’t.

Unfortunately, we have no statistics on atheists stretching back to prehistory, and all we can do is speculate in our own favor regarding any number of atheists we hope exceed the number of Christians.

But how might we explain any "historical coincidence" regarding the relative numbers of Christians and atheists? Are Christians just lucky that they've achieved great numbers?

You’ve been told the answer to this over and over and over again.

You forgot to consider that I was unconvinced over and over again. Again, you insist that I believe what I'm told on this board. Is that where you get your information?

Christians spent centuries using murder and genocide to increase their relative numbers. How many times do you need to be told?

I suppose I need to be told enough times for me to think I'm being told the truth. Personally, I think a statement isn't true based on how often it's stated but by how logical and fact-based it is.

And that's truth seeking; truth isn't based on popularity or peer pressure or slogans. To seek truth is to think logically and base conclusions on that logic and any relevant facts. I strongly recommend it!

 

[Unknown Soldier]

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

Umm... This is some ridiculously exaggerated bullshittery.

1) Threatening other members of the forum is 100% against the rules. If you believe you've been threatened, report the post.
2) Calling other posters crazy, and euphemistic variations thereof, is also against the rules. Thus I have reported your post.

You are on ignore.