Top 20 Ridiculous Things Atheists Say To Christians
1) "A sane father wouldn't let his child burn in eternity for a finite crime"
This is imposing human standards on a higher power. God's ways are not our ways.
2) "I don't want you to believe in a fantasy"
Right. You want me to believe in science, logic, and reason only. Look at the 20th century to see what happened when people eschewed religion and relied solely on science, logic, and reason only. Look at how that experiment turned out. It was horrendous. No thanks. You want me to believe that I'm a worthless clump of matter and nothing more. I'll stick to believing in my "fantasy," thanks.
In fact, let me address the "fantasy" issue. I have written an entire blog post on archaeological discoveries that validate the authenticity of the Bible. It irritates me to no end when atheists call my faith/religion a myth or a fantasy. It irritates me to no end when atheists call the Bible "your big book of fiction." The Bible is not a work of fiction. My faith is not a fantasy or a work of fiction. As someone who values her faith and works of fiction immensely, I find it very insulting. Look around my blog. You'll see how important works of fiction are to me. But more importantly, you'll see how important my faith is to me.
Let me use one of my favorite works of fiction to illustrate how insulting and ludicrous calling my religion "a fantasy" is.
I'm a huge fan of 007. I think very highly of the James Bond films, especially the ones starring Daniel Craig. My sister got me a t-shirt that says, "Daniel Craig as Ian Fleming's James Bond 007 in Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, SPECTRE, and No Time To Die," for my birthday. Besides that, there are several images from each of the Daniel Craig 007 movies. The shirt is basically a wearable movie poster.
Even though I love the 007 film franchise, I do not use it to make major life-decisions. Sure, Bond has some good and desirable qualities that I aspire to emulate. His life philosophy is also worth adopting. But other than that, James Bond movies are nothing more than made-up stories that I love and watch for my own enjoyment.
James Bond 007 is a fictional character with virtues and flaws of his own. He was created by a human being for our entertainment. Whether or not I take meaning from the Bible is my choice and my perogative alone.
And if that's not enough, here's a screenshot of a Tumblr reblog from one of your fellow atheists who would very much like you to stop criticizing people for being religious.
I disagree that the concept of deities will die, but I agree with everything else the OP said. So there you have it: a fellow atheist is telling you to knock it off with "your god is fictional," or "religions have brought nothing but great suffering."
3) "God is an abusive significant other and you should break up with him"
No, He's not. I have an entire blog post on this. I will never break up with God.
4) "Believing in God is no different than believing in elves, fairies, unicorns, leprechauns, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy."
Just stop right there. This is similiar to "I don't want you to believe in a fantasy."
5) "I want to help you leave your immoral religion and your abusive relationship with your God character."
And I don't want your help. Period.
6) "You're indoctrinated/brainwashed."
Cult specialists understand that telling someone who's in a cult they've been brainwashed/indoctrinated will backfire, which is exactly why they advise people not to say that to an individual in a cult. Cult specialists are the experts on mind control. They're the ones deprogramming people so we would be wise to follow their advice.
If it's not advisable to tell someone in a cult that they've been brainwashed and indoctrinated, it's even less prudent to say so to a person who follows a legitimate religion.
In fact, let me tell how my religion is different from a cult. So my cousin's husband recently started practicing Catholicism again. He was raised Catholic, but in recent years, he was a Sufi, which is one of three major sects in Islam. He's read the sacred texts of every major religion: The Koran, the Bible, the Torah, etc. He told me that he has apps containing the holy texts of the major religions on his phone. And for Christianity, he's got a Catholic Bible and a Protestant Bible.
The Protestant Bible has 66 books while the Catholic Bible has 73 books.
After hearing via my sister that he's also done a lot of research on Scientology, I talked to him about it since I've done research on Scientology, too (though not as extensively as he has and I've done mine out of concern and compassion for Tom Cruise). We compared notes, so to speak. When I told him about an ex-Scientologist's observations about the one-sided friendship between Tom Cruise and David Miscavige, he told me that the Church of Scientology controls every aspect of TC's life.
I had heard that before due to reading about the higher-ups in Scientology having Scientologists work in the Cruise household to make him comfortable (and happy) and also spy on him (and then report to the Church executives about what TC is up to), but my cousin's husband explained to me just how much: their control over Tom Cruise's life even extends to when he's making movies. They will have Scientologists working on location of the movies he makes, just to keep him in the Scientology mindset. They will use Scientology lingo to keep it in his mind.
The Catholic Church is not doing that to me. They're not surrounding me with other Catholics in every aspect of my life. They are not having fellow Catholics be employed at my workplace to keep me in the Catholic mindset. Pope Francis and the rest of the Church hierarchy are not having fellow Catholics work in my household as staff to make me comfortable and happy and spy on me so they can report back to the Church leadership about my fidelity to the Church.
David Miscavige is a despot who abuses those under him, much like a tyrant. Pope Francis is a humble, friendly, and caring man who carries himself more like a spiritual grandfather than a dignitary or a monarch.
One of the reasons Scientology does that in regards to Tom Cruise is because he's a celebrity. They're so afraid of losing him that they're compelled to exert that much control over him. I don't have nearly as much as clout as Tom Cruise. I'm not someone of much consequence. I'm not a world-famous Hollywood actor. I'm just a humble blogger and author.
The Catholic Church knows that I don't have to be thinking about her and God every second of the day. They know that's not realistic.
7) "Your religion is misogynistic."
My religion is the one where one woman above all others was chosen to be the mother of Jesus Christ, God the Son. My religion is the one in which that one lady is honored and respected as the mother of the human race.
*sarcastically* My religion is so sexist!
8) "Your Stockholm Syndrome is showing"
God is not my captor so I don't have Stockholm Syndrome. Yes, I have positive feelings towards my God. Yes, I have positive feelings towards the Catholic Church. But I could freely leave if I wanted to. And that's a big if.
The only thing holding me captive in any way is my OCD tendencies.
9) "You religious people are freaking nuts"
I have an excerpt from an Op-Ed by David Segal in The Washington Post for this one. Segal writes, "As a critique of faith, "You people are nuts" isn't likely to change a lot of minds."
10) "Religious people are so closed-minded"
Some religious people are and some are not. My experience is that many religious people are actually pretty open-minded.
11) "Religion has no real spirituality to offer. Only meangless rituals and entertaintment."
I won't speak for any other Christian denomination, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and Pagans, etc. But the Catholic Mass is not a meaningless ritual. And it is certainly not entertainment. If I want to be entertained, then I'll listen to music, read a book, play a game, watch a movie or TV, go see a play, an opera, a Broadway show, or a ballet rather than go to church.
12) Christianity is a cult