I’ve met Christians that think like this. I think the “logic” goes something like this:
God says not to do a lot of things because they’re wrong
I try not to do those things, and some of them are totally gross
Atheists don’t believe in God, so there’s nothing stopping them from doing those things, including the gross ones
The just totally miss that atheists generally don’t want to do those things any more than they do. It reminds me of what Penn Jillette said in an interview:
The question I get asked by religious people all the time is, without God, what’s to stop me from raping all I want? And my answer is: I do rape all I want. And the amount I want is zero. And I do murder all I want, and the amount I want is zero. The fact that these people think that if they didn’t have this person watching over them that they would go on killing, raping rampages is the most self-damning thing I can imagine. I don’t want to do that. Right now, without any god, I don’t want to jump across this table and strangle you. I have no desire to strangle you. I have no desire to flip you over and rape you.
The sad part is the hypocrisy. They throw the book at you to explain why they are “non violent” and “love” their neighbors. Then when you point out the millennia of rape and killings the Church committed against their neighbors, they say it was in service of God. Which fucking thing is it: god makes you a good person, or god ordains killing and raping (reserved for Christians only)?
Extremist members of every religion have gone on holy wars to exterminate non-believers at some point. Christians get the most attention because they were the most successful, but they’re by no means the only ones. Even if Christians didn’t exist, extremists of the next biggest group would step up to do the exact same thing.
Every major world religion is built on holy texts that advise people to love one another. Inevitably, extremists will (sometimes willfully) misinterpret these texts to lend justification to atrocities. This tendency belongs to humans, not religion. Religion is the means to the end, but it isn’t inherently harmful. Just as knives don’t stab people, religions don’t go on crusades; people do.
Christians just do whatever they want, their “belief” in God doesn’t factor into any decisions they make. They just use it as a thought terminating cliché, an excuse to have the opinions and beliefs they have, with no regard for their biblical basis.
My favorite example is that God said plainly and clearly, with no room for interpretation, “Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.” Every “Christian” I’ve ever met seems to think the next verse says “unless they’re a homeless guy in the Kroger parking lot, because he’ll probably use that spare change to buy drugs.”
I’ve met Christians that think like this. I think the “logic” goes something like this:
The just totally miss that atheists generally don’t want to do those things any more than they do. It reminds me of what Penn Jillette said in an interview:
The sad part is the hypocrisy. They throw the book at you to explain why they are “non violent” and “love” their neighbors. Then when you point out the millennia of rape and killings the Church committed against their neighbors, they say it was in service of God. Which fucking thing is it: god makes you a good person, or god ordains killing and raping (reserved for Christians only)?
Have you ever read the bible? You can find something to justify anything, as long as you’re willing to ignore other parts.
Extremist members of every religion have gone on holy wars to exterminate non-believers at some point. Christians get the most attention because they were the most successful, but they’re by no means the only ones. Even if Christians didn’t exist, extremists of the next biggest group would step up to do the exact same thing.
Every major world religion is built on holy texts that advise people to love one another. Inevitably, extremists will (sometimes willfully) misinterpret these texts to lend justification to atrocities. This tendency belongs to humans, not religion. Religion is the means to the end, but it isn’t inherently harmful. Just as knives don’t stab people, religions don’t go on crusades; people do.
Christians just do whatever they want, their “belief” in God doesn’t factor into any decisions they make. They just use it as a thought terminating cliché, an excuse to have the opinions and beliefs they have, with no regard for their biblical basis.
My favorite example is that God said plainly and clearly, with no room for interpretation, “Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.” Every “Christian” I’ve ever met seems to think the next verse says “unless they’re a homeless guy in the Kroger parking lot, because he’ll probably use that spare change to buy drugs.”