Thread: am i intolerant for having anti-christian tendencies?

obviously i am asking this question to other non-christians...


i think i should be tolerant of other people's beliefs, not impose mine on others, and so forth... i don't hate christians or anyone else, but when i discover that someone is christian i begin to think less of them.

there are so many things i have against christianity, and i often think of the many things it can be held accountable for. i don't want to get into that here because that would lead to another huge discussion, and it's easy to go on and on..

so... it seems i am prejudiced against christians.

including when it comes to my family. my parents are not christian (although they were brought up that way) and they never tried very hard to make me conform to whatever standards they were raised with. as a teenager they never stood in my way when i was trying to figure things out for myself. but the rest of my family is mostly christian and i'm somewhat ashamed because of it. this is partly because of our history - i have a lot of respect for the certain types of paganism and native religion practiced by relatives further back in my family tree. i am disappointed that i was never allowed to be a part of that because my more immediate family forgot about it to be 'naturalized' in the christian community.


does anyone else have similar thoughts? i want to be less bitter when it comes to christianity in the context of culture and history, and maybe more open to certain people around me, but it's hard!

I have the same problem. I tend to look down on Christians.

Although, I don't know they're Christian until they've been blabbing about it for five minutes or say something like, "Well, you just have to trust in God."

I also look down on Christians and all religious people for that matter. My disrespect goes up or down depending on how involved they are in their religion.

well i definitely don't think religious people and religion are inherently bad.

Originally Posted by cygnus

well i definitely don't think religious people and religion are inherently bad.

My humble opinion: "Christians" per-say aren't what your being "intolerant" towards. It stems from the fact that it's the faith of the majority and as such has a disproportionate amount of idiots and "crazies" (at least in the west). The type of people who follow everything on "blind faith" are likely to be entrenched in this majority (i.e. never had to/wanted to question their beliefs.) If any other religion (or philosophy) was the clear majority the problem would be the same, just with different place settings.

In the immortal words of South Park:

"Look, maybe us Mormons do believe in crazy stories that make absolutely no sense, and maybe Joseph Smith did make it all up, but I have a great life. and a great family, and I have the Book of Mormon to thank for that. The truth is, I don't care if Joseph Smith made it all up, because what the church teaches now is loving your family, being nice and helping people. And even though people in this town might think that's stupid, I still choose to believe in it. All I ever did was try to be your friend, Stan, but you're so high and mighty you couldn't look past my religion and just be my friend back. You've got a lot of growing up to do, buddy. Suck my balls."

I look down on Christians also.
If they keep it private I can look past it.
If they are open-minded but just happen to admire Jesus Christ for his myth that is cool. Hey, I even admire Jesus.
But people who try to shape the world according to what a book says and who think that they are saved and everyone who doesn't believe what they do is damned, I have no respect for that.
I have no respect for people who try to make one feel guilty.
I also have anger towards what Christianity has done to the world and other people like you do. I have anger towards anyone who can take a message for loving everyone unconditionally and turning into an excuse for genocide, torture, etc.

Are we intolerant? Yes, we are, but maybe not enough.
But, really, we should try to look past it in individuals and just see them as another human like ourselves, no matter how misguided. But for Christianity as a whole, we should be intolerant to it, as well as any organized religion. Organized religion is the root of evil in my opinion. Unorganized Pagan Spirituality and mysticism is cool by me.

Originally Posted by cygnus

obviously i am asking this question to other non-christians...


i think i should be tolerant of other people's beliefs, not impose mine on others, and so forth... i don't hate christians or anyone else, but when i discover that someone is christian i begin to think less of them.

there are so many things i have against christianity, and i often think of the many things it can be held accountable for. i don't want to get into that here because that would lead to another huge discussion, and it's easy to go on and on..

so... it seems i am prejudiced against christians.

including when it comes to my family. my parents are not christian (although they were brought up that way) and they never tried very hard to make me conform to whatever standards they were raised with. as a teenager they never stood in my way when i was trying to figure things out for myself. but the rest of my family is mostly christian and i'm somewhat ashamed because of it. this is partly because of our history - i have a lot of respect for the certain types of paganism and native religion practiced by relatives further back in my family tree. i am disappointed that i was never allowed to be a part of that because my more immediate family forgot about it to be 'naturalized' in the christian community.


does anyone else have similar thoughts? i want to be less bitter when it comes to christianity in the context of culture and history, and maybe more open to certain people around me, but it's hard!

Jumping back to the original poster for a moment...no, you are not intolerant. Smug, yes. Intolerant, no. There's nothing wrong with being a bit smug from time to time, either. You're just convinced that your solution to the great problem makes more sense than the Christian view, and so see yourself as being more intelligent or something similar. Had you said something like, "All Christians deserve to die in a fiery pit of lava," then yes, that would be intolerance. What you are expressing is smugness and possibly arrogance (which I, too, am guilty of). Embrace it.

Originally Posted by Mario92

What you are expressing is smugness and possibly arrogance (which I, too, am guilty of). Embrace it.

oh i most definitely embrace it when it's around christmas time and i hear such shitty music

Cygnus get yourself a 5th of Hennessey turn off all the lights in your house and bump this. It will change your whole perspective and crank the volume.

gaaahahaha i can't believe you just linked me to a phil collins song!

i believe bill hicks said something like... 'i couldn't be adopted by pro-lifers. i'll live with the satan worshiping family - you know - the ones with the good albums'