Why are Atheist's so Intolerant towards Religious people? Why are Religious people so Intolerant towards Atheist's? Why are Religious people so Intolerant towards other Religious people? And the most tolerant people are .... none. At first, I thought it was buddhist. But then, what happened in Myanmar changed my mind. definitely not Christian and Muslim. They had fought many wars.
Think of it like this: If God appeared to you personally AND you knew that it was the same Being who had appeared to your ancestors many, many times and had done many, many miracles to prove His power and love for them.....wouldn't you do what He asked you to do? The Apostle Paul experienced that, as did many others, a long time ago. He obeyed God. It's not like Paul made up this message to go and tell others that we live in a world where we have offended a Holy God and yet God, in His mercy, desires to save us, and suffered the punishment we deserve. That message is found in the Old Testament as well. This is what is recorded in the book of Acts that happened to Paul when he was imprisoned by "intolerant" people who didn't like his message: Acts 23:9-11 NIV: There was a great uproar, and some of the teachers of the law who were Pharisees stood up and argued vigorously. “We find nothing wrong with this man,” they said. “What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?” 10 The dispute became so violent that the commander was afraid Paul would be torn to pieces by them. He ordered the troops to go down and take him away from them by force and bring him into the barracks. 11 The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, “Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.” God came and spoke directly to Paul when he was in prison. Atheists cannot say that their Creator has appeared to them and commanded them to bear witness of nothing. Christians do have a written record in the Bible of God having personally appeared to or spoken to, many, many, people. Sometimes this was to individuals and sometimes this was to crowds of people witnessing His presence or His miracles. So, the message we have is offensive? It is offensive to be told that sin is worthy of punishment by a holy God? Ok, I understand that that is not something people want to hear. But can you honestly look around this broken world and say that people are not prone to doing evil? People seem to want to question God's right to pass judgment on His "innocent creation" even to the point, as some on these threads have done, of blaming God, for our sinful condition. But since God IS the Judge, and He is righteous in His judgment, no accusations against God will stand on Judgment Day. The Biblical account says that God is good and created our first parents good. But He created them with a choice. Would atheists say they would rather have been created slaves of God, without the ability to choose to depart from Him? If an atheist says they weren't given a free choice, they were born with a desire to sin....well then, God has freely offered reconciliation to Himself through the sacrifice of Jesus.... The question now becomes, "Are you willing to be reconciled to God?" John 3:16 BSB "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." As far as intolerance go, Christians are told to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. We are commanded not to steal, or do wrong to anyone. So, why the persecution? In my mind, it's simply because the message of one's accountability to a Holy God and need for the Savior, is repulsive to people.
Occam's razor (or Ockham's razor) is a principle from philosophy. Suppose there exist two explanations for an occurrence. In this case the one that requires the smallest number of assumptions is usually correct.