Why are non-religous or athiest people so hateful toward people of faith? What are they afraid of?

It seems we live in a world where people try to influence others continually, whether for products to buy, ways to make money, healthy eating or medicines, votes, to smoke/drink or not to, on and on...and also in ways of faith. One person believes one way, and shares what they have received..or expresses their worship. I love the fact that in America we are encouraged to enjoy our freedom of religion...and the freedom of speech to share the joy we have gotten. I just don't understand why those who do not have faith in a creator, cannot allow others to enjoy the expression of this, whether in a public park or store or school or office. It seems that we are being taught that the "absence" of an awareness of God is better than faith in God. Why do these people who lack faith in a higher power desire the power to stop people of faith from expressing their beliefs? Maybe that's it, a power trip....since they can't believe, they want others to be just as lonely as they are?

Im agnostic and personally dont mind what other people believe in. I come from a family of Christians and i dont push anything on them. I also work with muslims and jewish people, and i never say a word. If they ask me an honest opinion i will tell them what i think.

But i dont expect them to understand or share what i believe in. I want them to have what they believe in. Im not hateful of anyone..."some" religious people need to remember to stop stereotyping non religious folk and remember that there are decent people out there. Its the hateful ones out there that give the good ones a bad name As you stated it is a free world and people have their choice of worship. I wouldnt want to take that away from anyone.

When someone acts unkindly toward you, why would you assume they're jealous of you? Or afraid of you. The obvious answer is that they don't like you. Why are you unkind to people?

Being Wrong, and confined to authority and morals, oh and accountability

or is it that they just feel so bad that we don't CHOOSE to have as much sinful fun as they do?

The darkness hates the light.
The light exposes sins.
If one accepts they have sin then they have to be accountable for it.
Then Accountable to who?
And then would they have to give up a sinful lifestyle?
The darkness hates the light.

THE TRUTH

Actually, I'm just sick of you. You're not satisfied with the freedom to practice your own faith, your have to practice it ON everyone else.

Whether it's Sunday liquor laws, abortion, traching creationism in public schools, the 10 commandments on government property, outlawing gay marriage, you just HAVE to butt into everyone else's lives with YOUR religion. Practice it yourself!!!

1: Atheists are not always lonely. Most of us have a circle of friends we can depend on.
2: It's not a power trip. It's about keeping church and state seperate. You want to put a statue of Jesus in your yard, okay. But the public parks, schools, libraries, and courts are all funded by the State with is required by law to be NEUTRAL on religious matters.
3: You like to express your beliefs, that's fine. Don't try to legislate it into law or we'll have trouble.
4: The only thing athiests fear is not a divinity: It is the people who claim to follow it. Such people have caused a great deal of misery for others in the past, and continue to try to push their superstitions into the sciences and convert non-believers (ie: Not just atheists, but non-Chrisitans as well) to their way of thought. At its most extreme, it gives rise to the Ann Coulters, Tim LaHayes, and Inquisitors of the world.

Obey Matthew 6:6 and turn down the volume.

I ask my wife this question all the time also. I don't understand the hatred that some have. To be fair though, some Christians respond hatefully to the Atheists as well. All the Atheists here do not respond hatefully, as most are pretty respectful. I don't believe in what they say, but as you said, in America, this is our right. Some people just go a little too far, I believe, in trying to prove something and don't really understand how to make fair and civil argument. God bless.

Because most religious people think we are going to burn forever. i don't like being around people that feel this way of me...gives me the creeps

not always true...sometimes they are mistaken themselves and often miunderstand others...they aren't always jeolous if they are mean...it depends on the person...sometimes it is their own insecurities they must deal with and they choose being mean to others as a coping mechanism..
the human mind is an ingtriguing thing
but try being nice to them and even if that doesn't change thir thinking it will certainly compel them to feel uncomfortable about the situation and think about it for a while.

:) merry christmas

I'm non-religious, and I don't hate religious people. I hate that a lot of them try to shove their faith down my throat, but I don't hate the people that let me carry on in peace.

I respect all forms of religion, I just find it very hard to believe in any of them. I celebrate Christmas, for example, but only for the "spirit" of it, the togetherness and the love that seems to be abound at this time of the year. I will also go to a religious wedding, I just won't participate in the parts that are outright religious.

It's not exactly a choice for me, per se, just that I am too logical and scientically-minded to truely believe in any higher power, other than emotion and instinct.

It seems that most of the time, it's the religious people that are hateful and scared of non-religious people. I'm not saying it's true for all of you, just a great deal of you.

Of course, I can only speak for myself here, so you may get some more hurtful answers as well. Just letting you know, not everyone's in the same mindset.

they want to be the one who look in their hearts in awe so that they can be treated like a god and make people as miserable . it is that they like to see everything or they hear or they think their being"mentally unstable"because we learn if you can't explain something,there's no such thing.

That arrogant to try to speak for me huh?

Please, non believers can't even use that freedom to express OUR view without you religious people freaking out over hearing something other then what you only want to here.

Isn't it rather patently the other way around? People who use Jesus as their personal weapon? Politicians who proclaim their "relationship with god" and then lay waste small countries or pilfer your rights in "his" name. (It's a he-god, I reckon)
Freedom of religion means freedom FROM religion too. I do not want that debased morality imposed on me. Like those shrieking Muslims, freaked about pictures of Muhammad - drawn by non-muslims who are under no such injunction. Next they'll be telling me I can't drink or do the hokey dance because they can't.

First of all I like the way you lump every atheist, and probably agnostic too, into one generalization - this immediately exposes your ignorance.

Aside from that, if an atheist uses his freedom of expression to call out the hoax of God you consider him hateful, but if a religious person uses the freedom of expression to boast the reality of their God, how isn't this the same from the atheists standpoint? Perhaps you are perceiving it as hateful because you're not as sure about your own beliefs as you think.

And of course, you consider all atheists to be lonely, yet one might say the lonely one is the one who has to call onto an imaginary friend for company and joy. I say 'might' because I don't necessarily believe this, I'm just randomly generalizing like you are.

1) Dogma filled presidents can campaign saying atheists should not be considered citizens or patriots (GHW Bush, 1987)
2) Tax money goes to so called 'social' organizations that bar atheists from membership (like the Boy Scouts)
3) Seven states still have laws preventing Atheists from holding government office (I live in one, Texas)
4) Belief in the Genesis mythology requires either intellectual or moral disfunction (the first two chapters don't even give compatible much less coherent explanations)

Those of us in the USA (America is 2 continents, with no consistent political structure across the whole of them) are not encouraged (legally) to enjoy anything religious, as this would be a violation of the "'wall of seperation' between church and state". as per the opinion of US Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, Everson v. Board of Education (1947). History has been misrepresented to forward the idea that this nation was founded on Christianity. (1) Freedom should be constrained by truth, not used to impose the guesswork of desert nomads on a 21st century population.

Lets be honest here both sides are trying to force their thoughts and beliefs on one another! I frankly would like to see them leave us alone and not try to force us to stop believing. They can think whatever they want to think One of these days we will all know the real Truth.But how can we tell each other the real truth after we've died?