Friday, April 26, 2013

Why are Christians so arrogant?

Have you ever had discussions or debates with theists regarding their beliefs only to find out well into the conversation that you are literally talking to a wall? If you listen to the words they use and the manner in which they speak you will come to realize that theists speak with absolute and undeniable certainty that what the bible says is the word of their god. Because they believe that it is the word of their god they take it as a given that whatever it says is true and undeniable.


In my previous post I accused Christians of being intolerant and I made my case using their own scriptures against them. I intend to do the same here but this time I am accusing them of arrogance. At the same time I would like to help my fellow atheists, agnostics, and skeptics understand why they think the way they do. Before going any further I would like to take a moment to define the word arrogance.

Arrogance: an attitude of superiority manifested in an overbearing manner or in presumptuous claims or assumptions 

The two key words in this definition for me are presumptuous and assumptions. Christians out of their own ignorance derived from their arrogance, love to make incorrect assumptions and are presumptuous in that they have no respect for the opinions or beliefs of others. Now we get to the why? What makes a theists so arrogant and annoying all at once? It's faith. 

 1Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1

One thing that must be brought to the forefront of this discussion is that based on the description of faith as cited above; faith is not derived from reason. Faith is derived from a psycho-emotional commitment to a belief without reason, research, or evidence. You accept what you have been told without thinking it through. Somehow it just "feels" right. Just like it felt right when you met a guy/girl and thought to yourself: she/he is the one. Only to find out later that you were wrong and that the person you gave your heart to was not what they seemed.

Where do Christians get the idea that the bible is inspired by God? Some are stupid enough to say that he actually wrote it! Yes, I have heard it all. But they get their ideas from the source; the bible.

21For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. 2 Peter 1:21

16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17

This is known as circular reasoning


Once they accept that the bible is the word of God by faith then they are open to anything it says, no matter how illogical or nonsensical it may seem. The reason for this is that they have abandoned reason.

12What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. 1 Corinthians 2:12-13

Notice in this verse that human wisdom is believed to be different from the wisdom of God or of his Spirit. In fact, the bible condemns human wisdom by stating both in the old and new testaments that it is corrupt and that because it is corrupt and limited, it cannot know the things of God. This is the reason that theists claim that we don't understand the word of their god. It is a matter of the spirit and is only understood through the spirit. In other words you can't rationalize God he just is and no amount of thought or human reason is going to lead you to their idea of "truth."

Christians are arrogant because they believe that they have come to learn the truth through faith based on emotions. The way they feel when they read the bible confirms to them that what they are reading is true. It's like that tingly feeling you get while watching a movie that hit a nerve just before you're about to cry for one of the characters or the situation as presented on the screen. 

As pointed out earlier emotions lie. When someones judgement is clouded by emotions they tend to do and believe irrational things. Most Christians are arrogant and they aren't even aware that they are doing it. Here is an example: When theists say things like "I am a child of God" or "you don't understand the bible although you have read it" or "you can't know the ways of God" or " you are a sinner in need of salvation" you are doing several things at once. You are being condescending, arrogant, and presumptuous.

It takes more humility to state as someone who does not know certain things that he does not know. Scientists do this all the time. Ask a scientist how the universe came into existence or how life began on earth and you will get an I don't know or we are not entirely certain. We know part of the how but the actual process is still a mystery. But to arrogantly claim that God did it is the most blatant display of the abandonment of reason. Where faith is the driving force to knowledge; reason and logic must take a back seat.

I have read your bible and have understood it and seen it for what it is. It's not the word of God; it's the product of ancient mythological thinking and beliefs. The bible was written, compiled, edited, and produced entirely by man. Thinking that you have a conduit to insights not available to anyone else is just arrogant.

When I was a theist I too lived by my emotions. If I prayed and got that tingly feeling inside I took that as confirmation that God has heard me. Every time I laid hands on someone and they passed out I took that as confirmation of God's power working through me. Every time someone came to me to tell me what God did for them through my ministry I took that as confirmation that I was on the right side of the Lord and properly doing his work.

Watching theists try to rationalize their beliefs is like watching the segment at the circus where the clowns come out and perform all sorts of funny and crazy antics for the entertainment of the crowd. They go out of their way to rationalize God's cruelty to man in the old testament and try to make a monster look like a prince. They are arrogant because they have abandoned reason and as such their idea of reason is not derived through logical thinking but rather through how they process their emotions.

Note: All biblical citations are taken from the New International Version

8 comments:

  1. I've noticed online a lot they will quote the Buybull at Atheists as if we give it any weight. Even when you tell them that it's nonsense they still quote what it says - like they really don't get that some people think it's utter fiction. I got one really mad because they got me mad by keeping that up and I told her to shove the Bible up her ass.

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  2. Yes. It's amazing to me that christians (as well as other religious nuts) cling to the idea that whatever their particular book of fiction says is true merely because it says it's true, all the while refusing to accept the validity of well-documented, peer-reviewed literature describing factual scientific data.

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  3. Let's not forget also that several books from the bible were based on a vote at the council of Trent in the 16th century.Those that supported the church dogma made it through while those in opposition of dogma were discarded.This is yet another proof that the bible is not the word of god but solely a decision based on a voting by fallible human beings.

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  4. ^ actually way before that, at the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE.

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  5. I'm not a Christian, but the most arrogant people I've dealt with are undoubtedly atheists. Arrogance often coupled with incredible ignorance, while they aren't even aware of it.

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    1. I can attest to having dealt with arrogance from both atheists and theists. But the arrogance I am speaking of here is about their claim to having obtained absolute truth despite all the evidence to the contrary. They claim their god is the one and only true god ignoring that man has created for himself throughout the ages literally thousands of gods.

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  6. Dear Chatpilot, at the end of the day, no God=trusting in man. No thanks, because people (me included) always have their stupid, silly agendas. Oh, we just fancy ourselves as all that - we're not, we all (me included) are whack!

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    1. Thanks for your comment Sue. I would rather trust in things that can be verified scientificallly, duplicated, and verified than to subscribe to the delusion of invisible forces whose existence is unverifiable and unprovable.

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