I do believe in the existance of a God, but I really woudln’t ever interpret the Bible literally. It was written a long time ago, and humans make mistakes and things come up and get lost through the ages. Looking for a reply!

As does ‘zealous’, ‘inflammatory’, and ‘pretentious’.

Humanism?

Shallow ego-entertainment. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_mechanism)

Two cents

I think it happens all the time. People seem to take personal offense at everything. I’ve found it true regarding vegetarianism. All a vegetarian or vegan has to do is merely exist, and that sets some people off.

And another important, but often overlooked point is the age of the person involved. I think it’s quite common for people to become atheists (not to mention vegetarians) during their college or university years. At that age, you’ve been taught critical thinking, but yet you’re young enough to know that you still have a lot to learn, so you’re open to new ideas.

I was posting to a feminist board, and knowing that it’s pretty common for feminists to be vegetarians, I simply asked how many of the women on the board happened to be vegetarians. I got such vitriol for simply asking a question. I didn’t even say anything about it being wrong or immoral to eat animals. I simply asked who was vegetarian. And the most vitriol came from the older women, the ones in their 50′s and 60′s, and I think it’s because as we age, we tend to think we become wiser and more knowledgeable. We feel that we have a lot to offer the younger generations. We don’t want to admit that we have been doing something immoral for 5 or 6 decades. Also, people want to feel that they are good people deep down.

And I think the age thing comes into play with atheism. If someone is 40, 50, or even older, they don’t want to face the idea that they have been stupid enough to be duped for all that time. People not only think they are good deep down, but they think they are smart. Too smart to be conned. I think younger people are more likely to reject the beliefs they were taught as children, because they don’t have years and years of reinforcement.

To be fair, I do also know many people of faith who have put their faith into action–public service, humanitarian aid, and generally manifesting a sense of equality and dignity toward all. In my mind, those who turn their faith into a force for positive activity can’t be entirely faulted — they actually do good, regardless the internal (religious) motivation. They ‘do’ instead of ‘talk’. And that’s cool.

But the majority of people (including myself when I was a fundamentalist evangelical Pentecostal Christian) invest their ‘faith’ and time, money, energy into “being holy”, browbeating others, and generally being a pain in the butt to those around them. And I admit that I was in that bunch. And then I realized what a waste it was.

thanks for writing this post.