The Reason I'm Angry

[Sam988]

I loved this article. Have fun



Greta Christina's Blog: Atheists and Anger

[Sam988]

Originally Posted by Sam988

I loved this article. Have fun



Greta Christina's Blog: Atheists and Anger

The question, for the fellow atheists, is: do you also get angry?

[Brutha]

The question, for the fellow atheists, is: do you also get angry?

No, I simply think that the US still needs a few years to have a periode like the Enlightment like Europe had.
But it would be probably different if I would be living in the US.

[hollowman]

I am not an atheist but i agree with the most of the reasons of anger in Christina's blog.

I mean i dun have to be an atheist to be angry with those points.

I concur that anger is part of our natural reactions to unfavourable circumstances. But i guess what is more important is what we do with anger?
How does anger affect us in our judgment and action?

Anybody has every reason to be angry with something they find unjustified. I believe the more important thing is the cause of anger and where does that lead us to?

[cdn2wheeler]

Originally Posted by hollowman

II believe the more important thing is the cause of anger and where does that lead us to?

Wiser words have rarely been spoken.

Anger is a fuel to propel positive action. Otherwise it just sits there and burns and creates nothing.

[cylon]

I did for quite awhile, I was an "active" atheist, meaning I spent most of my time debating Christians, studying evolution, keeping up to date with all the church and state stuff... it gave me the feeling that I was involved in a great cause. Then I realized that even though I didn't agree with believers, they were still people, and I shouldn't assume all people are the same. I started becoming more tolerant, more open minded. And even though I don't believe in God (the personal "not me" God), or the Bible, it has allowed me to keep exploring and now I'm here talking about how IM is working in my life.

Now the anger is gone.

[hollowman]

I am a Christian. Someone on other thread has just shown me the other side of Christianity which is really causing great dissonance in me. I am confused and perhaps frustrated but i am not angry. Perhaps anger is a choice.

I used to be very bad-tempered when i was younger. Later i read a lot of self-help about anger and now i am in good control of anger. While i was quick to be angry then, now i feel 'frustration' and 'disappointment' more often than feeling 'angry'. When unfavourable situation arise that may provoke anger, i would pause the generation of feeling in me and contemplate what is the type of feeling i should feel. I slowly learn that i have actually learnt how to choose what to feel (as in what kind of feeling i wish to experience in myself). Of course it's not always 100% practical in every situation.

[mlc82]

I understand the article completely. Christianity generally makes me angry, and I try to avoid it or anything to do with it for the sake of my mental health (and I was raised Christian BTW). I especially think the Catholic Church is possibly the nastiest institution that ever plagued mankind, with a history that makes Hitler's brand of National Socialism look humanitarian.


Just thinking about the questions I used to ask when I was starting to disbelieve, and the runaround answers I got to them, and the reaction from family members who asked me if I believed in God and I answered with a simple "no", and etc, are making me want to smash something. I guess that's enough then.

[cdn2wheeler]

I fell away from Christianity a few years back when I couldn't get straight answers to some basic and fundamental questions. Never made me angry, though. More sad than anything.

Still, I'm glad it's no longer part of my life. Agnosticism suits me.

[mlc82]

Originally Posted by cdn2wheeler

I fell away from Christianity a few years back when I couldn't get straight answers to some basic and fundamental questions. Never made me angry, though. More sad than anything.

Still, I'm glad it's no longer part of my life. Agnosticism suits me.

I think the anger stemmed more from the general attitude of people toward questions (everything from "How could you ask that!?" to "Don't worry about that, just keep praying and believing"- absolutely NO real answers except for one respectable "I don't know either"), mixed in with serious depression/anger after realizing I no longer believed in it, and thus having what I perceived as the basis for being alive fall out from beneath me- needless to say, I became pretty well acquianted with suicidal thoughts for a few years afterward.

The above doesn't really anger me much anymore, however many of the issues in the above blog certainly do.

[Zukin]

My hope is that as internet access spreads throughout the world, fundamentalist religions will have trouble recruiting followers since all the people will be playing video games and watching porn.

One can hope.

[Jennihul]

All of those things in Christina's blog can either make you angry or make you laugh out loud at the relative stupidity that surrounds us all. I chose to laugh out loud. The thing that really made me laugh is that her name means "follower of Christ."

Anger is just a choice you make. Since when has a negative emotion ever served anyone, really? A negative emotion on a grand scale can maim like a weapon. Not a choice I personally feel comfortable with.

Just make the opposite choice. Accept that people are sometimes really dumb, do dumb things and say really dumb things. Acceptance is not a weak stance. Everyone honestly has the right to believe what they believe and as an a-theist you should really have a strong attachment to that concept. It's not about who is right. It's about mutual respect.

If you as an a-theist decide that those things in Christina's blog do not suit your world, I would suggest you cast aside your anger and find joyful and constructive ways to change the world. Anger is for wimps and weak people. Anger puts you on the defensive and causes your energy to be wasted on endeavors that cast your faction in an even less desireable light. Be the better person. With some religious folk, that is almost as easy as pie.

Jennifer