Atheists are angry and bitter because they have divorced from God

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

What do you think of this quote?  I was unable to find any wider context, except that Peter van Inwagen is a “prominent Christian philosopher”.  It’s from the Reasonable Faith Facebook page.

When two people divorce, one or both of them is often angry and bitter.  And the creature who divorces his creator can be the angriest and most bitter of all.

–Peter van Inwagen

 

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

I personally feel a bit angry and bitter because of the sucky behaviour of some religious people.

I don’t even feel “divorced from God”.

[NoelParticipant]

i don’t think I was ever married to the guy.

I’m bitter because I was born good looking and not rich. I pine for just a little ugliness and a raise…LOL

[_Robert_Participant]

I want my alimony….

Actually I think it’s all pretty funny. I mean look at this genius..

 

 

[DavisModerator]

It’s 100% bullshit. The biggest source of religious bitterness I see comes from evangelical Christians who are outraged that they no longer get a free pass to insult marginalised people, interfere in civil law and insert their rituals into daily secular life. Their bitterness on this topic manifests itself into their victim-complex

Some atheist are certainly miserable and bitter, those who are not just physically and psychologically opressed for non-belief, but even killed for not believing (apostacy in Saudi Arabia, summary execution in ISIS). Those who find doors closed, opportunities lost, discriminated against, thrown out of their homes, bullied at school for not believing. Their misery is quite understandable.

However, once again, the biggest reason this is bullshit is…the over-wealming majority of atheists never believed in a God to begin with, perhaps never even having heard of a singular God. How can they be bitter about losing something they never had? When I think of the millions of atheists in China and Vietnam for example, if they are bitter, its certainly not because of religion. A phrase like this is so clearly and obviously a defense mechanism for evangelical types who are finally being called out on their menacing, interfering and toxic form of religion.

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

“Divorced from God” has religious overtones of being cast out

or damned

but an atheist means “divorced from religion”, not cast out from heaven or damned.

[UnseenParticipant]

I’m no existentialist, but here’s an existentialist view: “That God does not exist, I cannot deny, That my whole being cries out for God I cannot forget.” — Sartre

What does he mean? He means that (in the context of his philosophy) man is condemned to freedom by the absence or nonexistence of God. This makes humans 100% responsible for their actions. People have to live and die with the consequences of their choices. Only God, he would argue, can offer meaningful and permanent absolution for one’s misdeeds.

Mankind is free, but it is, as he puts it, a “dreadful freedom.”

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

Unseen wrote:

Only God, he would argue, can offer meaningful and permanent absolution for one’s misdeeds. Mankind is free, but it is, as he puts it, a “dreadful freedom.”

I guess that depends on the misdeeds.  But perhaps everyone is troubled by their misdeeds like a pebble in their shoe.

I don’t feel too badly off under the circumstances.  I don’t feel like my freedom is dreadful.

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

Simon Paynton wrote:

the creature who divorces his creator can be the angriest and most bitter of all.

I agree that religion seems to bliss people out a lot of the time, so if people don’t have something to bliss them out, they are going to seem miserable in comparison.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Peter van Inwagen is a “prominent Christian philosopher”…

No, he is not a philosopher. At best he is an apologetic theologian. He is confused because he is divorced from reality but thinks he is still married to it.

[toddayoungParticipant]

I am confused. The over play of Religious Movies & Music over the holidays. I was supposedly taught the catechism of Christians all those years ago. Now all I thought I knew about religion & Atheist? Is gone. The movie is supposedly a story taken from Bible of the world wide flood & the events leading up to it. The supposed teaching Adam & Eve & off springs a lesson for sins? I need some help finding the Atheist version of the Great flood to kill off the 10 th generation of people on earth. Keeping a male & female pair of animals to repopulate Earth.  My question of how we came to be the population on Earth. How does this virgin birth & only Female is Eve. Adam & Eve had only Males. So is this Eve having sexual relations with her sons? Then it goes on to say that Fallen Angels become watchers of the Population to carry out Gods? Work? To be forgiven & to ascend to Heaven to sit with the 3 in 1 God. Watchers actions are forgiven? Divorced from God? I am if the story is changed or to suit the current Christian agenda? What really happens when we all die? I have distanced myself from religions after being told I was not a Christian by a Fundamentalist Mother in law. I thought I was on the right track for a good life. I give up on all this so called end times are here? Global Warming is killing the Planet. I am just so confused by News & the fake news. Help me Please?

[_Robert_Participant]

todd,

It’s ok not to know the answers to many of those questions. The best we can do is apply science. Medical science has given us cures (religions give us stories of healing miracles). Science taught us how to build aircraft and fly (religions talks about winged horses). Stick to learning secular based science.

[toddayoungParticipant]

Thanks for your reply. Were can I find more information? I have been diagnosed with Leukemia. Not sure how long I will be in this life form. Just want to be on right path to join my relatives before me. If that is even possible. All 3 of my daughters to go off religion. They have become Wiccan’s or Pagans. Not sure of the exactly what the old way of beliefs they finally ended up. My dear departed friend told me to find a Shamin to be cleansed? That I have been cursed by them. Oh well I have followed the Atheist page ever since I had a computer to internet. Thanks again for your help.

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

I’m sorry you’ve got leukemia.  My friend has it, and she’s in remission because of these new “immune system” drugs.

toddayoung wrote:

Not sure how long I will be in this life form. Just want to be on right path to join my relatives before me. If that is even possible.

If God exists, then He just wants you to be a good person.  If you think about it, who is all good or all bad?  Nobody.  Where’s the cutoff point for pass/fail?  It doesn’t make sense.  I think there are two separate issues: 1) the existence of an afterlife; 2) the existence of God.  We can have 1) without 2).  If so, then heaven or hell consist of the state of your good conscience at the time when you die, because after that, we are unable to fix anything we did wrong.

toddayoung wrote:

I am just so confused by News & the fake news. Help me Please?

In a way, this is the wrong question to ask.  Like all free-thinkers, you should be helping yourself find good information.  Question everything, check everything.  Reality lines up nicely alongside itself, and as Judge Judy says, if something doesn’t make sense it’s probably not true.

[Tom SarbeckParticipant]

So Peter van Inwagen says atheists can be the angriest and most bitter of all?

He is teaching himself what he needs to believe. Full stop.

 

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