Is it normal to lose all respect in someone if they believe in god?

i think it's very normal!
i do it too
especially if they're REALLY into god

Go for it, dude. It's perfectly normal to lose respect for God-believing people. You're not a bad person at all; quite the opposite I believe. Rock on.

Normal. I feel the same way. I couldn't have said it better.

i'm the same here. i think they are just not seeing the bigger picture

I think you guys have taught me a lot thank you. I have not known many people in real life who are religious, but the ones I have met on the internet say so many outrageous things I guess I was generalising and I'm sorry. I think that those who can give intelligent reasons to rationalise their beliefs probably deserve the benefit of the doubt

i think overall, if you admit this publicly, you will be looked upon as a bad person with a closed mind, just because it's like a silent social rule to feel that a person's doing bad when they look down upon someone else.

i completely understand this and think you're normal for a person with an atheist view or non-existent commercial-god view. i don't think you'll get results here much higher than 50%% though because followers of social rule will think you're a bad person. i doubt you'll find anyone with an opposite religious view to vote that it's normal, because when does anyone ever agree with someone they feel is judging them or discriminating against them?

imagine spending an hour with someone you've never met before, same age as you, and you're talking about really general things, say travel and places you've visited.. and you have a general respect for this person. she seems to be quite normal, but then the subject of christmas comes up and she starts talking in great detail about how excited she is for santa claus to come. this chick has no doubts that santa really comes to her house and gives her presents and so on. are you truly telling me that any of you don't lose any amount of respect for this person's level of intelligence? her belief in something we know not to be real tells us that her mind has not expanded to the point that ours has.

it seems true to me that there are different levels of intelligence. and just because you lose a respect for someone's amount / lack of intelligence doesn't mean there will be a change in the levels of any other forms of respect needed to peacefully get along.

and for another example, if an english teacher reads what i've just typed here... there's no doubt in my mind, that the thought would cross their mind, that i was of lesser intelligence due to my writing skills ; )

i clearly voted normal.

I'm an atheist but I don't lose respect for a person when I realize they follow a religious faith. I have Christian friends who are perfectly normal and intelligent people. There's plenty of people like that out there, trust me. :) Yes, there are people who let their faith turn them into narrow-minded and ignorant people, but to me that's a failure on THEIR part, not their religion's. Don't let the mere fact of someone being religious sway your perception of them, just give them a chance and try not to be quick to judge. After a while you'll start seeing the better side of people, including those to follow religion.

I don't think religiosity and intelligence are directly related, although I do think that the less intelligent tend to be theists.

I think it has more to do with their psychology. Some people, even intelligent ones, need that comfort of knowing there is a guardian or an afterlife to get through the day. I think that this tendency will die out, and someday, religions will only be moral guidelines.

Being an atheist myself, I know what you mean when you say you respect theists less. It does seem rather silly when you think about it, but remember, it's got a lot less to do with what they think is true than with what they are willing to believe for the comfort of being infinite.

I wouldn't say you are a bad person, just a bit arrogant about it. I think I know where you are coming from though. I am an atheist, and when I find out someone I know is religious, I become a bit more observant of their actions. I don't feel like I can be myself with them, but that is only because I've had bad experiences with religious people. I do have to admit that I tend to not trust their judgment on certain things as much as I used to.

I don't know if it's "normal", since most people are religious, but I feel the same way you. Loss of respect but most times I don't think any less of their intelligence, simply because I know many incredibly smart individuals who happen to be religious. It all depends on who it is, I guess.

I find your post highly hypocritical. You say that you believe that someone who believes in God is unintelligent, gullible and uninformed. Would you consider perhaps the opposite is true? Most God-believers do not hold their faith blindly. There are various theologists who use science and reasoning to prove the likely-hood of the existence of a creator. Read any number of their thesis' and try to refute their points - they may not be proven, but they are logical, well researched and come from some of the most intelligent minds on this planet.
This is not about religion - I personally do not consider myself a follower of any religion. But I believe in a God. I don't believe that cells randomly mutated over millions of years and created everything we see around us. I have heard a great comparison for this - imagine a hanger contains all the parts of a Boeing 747 in pieces. A hurricane comes through the hanger, and you are left with a complete 747 in working order, ready to fly. Science would classify the odds of that happening so unlikely it would be considered impossible. So why is it possible for the earth and all its inhabitants, in all their mind blowing complexity, to have been created my random chance? To me, the only logical answer is an intelligent creator.
The truth is, nobody knows. Nobody has the answer. But can you really tell me that my thoughts are unintelligent or uninformed? Have respect for other peoples opinions and don't assume that because they differ from yours that they are wrong. You might be made a fool of when the question is solved.

Christians are just brainwashed anal slaves spreading the disease. They're all about money and manipulation.

F*** them all.

~ V

I don't lose my respect for people who believe in God, but I don't trust religious people's jugdement. Every time when they speak of anything mumbo jumbo about faith, I can't help it but sneer slightly.

I happen to be a Deist myself, I believe in God and his relationship with us are transpersonal. I can assume you, He has absolutely nothing to do with the unreasonable myth of creation that many revealed religion make up.

Think of me as a spiritual person, and I'll completely respect you for understand why I'd rather follow my own line of rational thought and done with Bible-thumpers.

That is a very common attitude today, especially among young people. The problem is that, scientifically speaking, there HAS to be a god. This is because matter cannot be created from nothing, so in order to explain the existence of the universe, one would have to introduce a supernatural element to the equation. When one looks at the extreme complexity and order of the universe, the earth, and living creatures, it is natural to conclude that this supernatural element is a personal, intelligent, creative force; GOD, in other words. That is why YOU are the one that is unintelligent, not people who believe in a god.

I am an atheist and sometimes I do shake my head at blind faith. I have ended up in many discussions that get pretty heated on why I don't hold any religious beliefs, HOWEVER, I do still respect the fact that there are people who hold fast to their religion and use it as a foundation for everything they do or need to achieve. Much the same way I believe in the power of positive thinking, religious people use God as their means to achieving their goals. I say whatever works for you should be what you use in your daily life. God cannot be proven or disproven YET and seeing as the human race is doomed to fail due to the potential for global natural disasters looming over our heads, we're not likely to make it far enough up the scientific ladder to find out.

One thing I will say is that religion is a good means to creating social order in a community. Nobody can knock that, even though there are bigots out there who twist their religions to mean what they want it to mean and use it for the purpose of terrorism.

I guess we'll only know the answer when we're dead. OR NOT!

So why lose respect for a person who holds to a particular belief system? I think the fact that you are so narrow minded makes you seem rather uneducated and unintelligent.

It's normal for me to lose respect when I find this out about someone, at least when that God is tied into one of the big 3 religions (Christianity, Islam or Judaism). That particular concept of God is a huge wank, especially the Christian one which is basically Santa in the clouds.

The biggest turnoff is when someone mentions God of their own accord, especially in the context of literally thanking God. FUCK that shits me to tears. It reeks of unfounded righteousness and complete wankership.

I'm not so harsh on the older generations for their beliefs though, since I don't understand what times were like then. The church has copped a well deserved beating in our time and anyone with an ounce of sense these days knows all of today's religion is just one massive psyop to sucker in the sloppy-minded plebs/useless eaters/traffic/deception-fodder.

I Go To A Catholic School. How I Got Into It I Do Not Know. Christians/Catholics Are Who Many Of My Friends Are And They've All Got Faith Which Gives Them That Drive To Do Better At School. Right Now Our School Is Doing Best In The Borough, Is It Because We Have Faith?? It Does Get Annoying When People Are Preaching During Break Time And Saying That God Helped Them Get That 'A' In The Test Because It Was Them Alone Revising. Really And Truely I Get Annoyed At People Who Believe That Their Religion Is Right Because This Life Is Full Of Mystery.

just keep an open mind. i don't believe in god, but i believe in the idea of a god, or gods. just by people saying that they believe in god you lose respect for them makes you sound like the one who is unintelligent. just ask them why and inform them of the wholes that they have in their beliefs.

You silly little boy , you lose respect for people !? That because they understand a entire lot more than your little pea brain ever will for a start that thing makes you feel that way is called EGO and that is itself the reason evil is in this world Saturn was a angle from heaven cast out because he wanted to be above god ans wasn't too proud it's people like you the reason this earth is so deluded , you go on a lot about you "lose respect " because of there intelligents well how intelligent are you if you don't even understand everyone will have different paradigms in life you will prob google what that word is because you a little ignorant pea head anyways but please don't come and tell us how you all lose respecting while you are ones with all the issues like , anxiety , depression , guilt , shame and most of
All you all live in fear Because you have no clue what is going on with the world and us christians we do
And we are so free and don't get any of they above you need so as for you and your almighty respect you are not anything remember that you are
Nothing none of us are there are millions and millions of people in this world you are a little spick no one will care when you are gone the sooner you and your repspect realised that you will begin to feel better until then keep talking about others and walking around insecure and wondering and questioning everything but believe me sir one day god will smack you right in your face and your little pea head will shift paradigm and all your friends will say you have gone weird
When all it was is you woke up and you was saved from the life of a deamon you live with and it's from that point there is when you're little opinion is relevant and then you have a choice god or Saturn learn about the spiritual warfare that goes on and don't ever thing about bringing your little evil mind over here to change weaker people's belief you are nothing compared to god he warms us
About you and your types everything Happening everyday has already been spoke about In the bible as much as I can't stand your type of character , I am
To pray for you and hope god blesses you it's not you that makes me bubble inside it's the Desmons you let control your life by the choices you make and all your little commenting friends here too !!
You have a choice ! Lose your ego and wake up

God bless you and I hope he helps you
But if you don't wake up just stop going around talking about your opinion of our religion .

I'm not religious but I'm mature enough to understand where religious people are coming from if they haven't done their research. If they have all sorts of proof right in front of them that says that God is not real yet they still want to believe in him/her/it then I start to think that they don't believe in their own power but instead believe that if they pray and do good their God will protect and reward them. I have the option to either see them as "stupid" and "weak" or I can try to encourage them to realize that they are truly powerful and that they don't need a deity.

Why would you care?.. It's not like you have to believe in god..

God im sorry but..... FUCK YOU PEOPLE

typical atheists full of them selfes

I dont care that i spelled something wrong

I'd love to post the question 'Is it normal to lose all respect in someone if they aren't religious' see the response I get. Bet it wouldn't be nearly as positive as this. Probably would get a 10% normal.

Most people believe in god because they were raised to,anything you learn at a young age has a good chance of sticking with you for the rest of your life even if you are a highly intelligent person.The way I see it,don't blame them for being brainwashed.

Religion is just mind control. Years ago it served the purpose of creating a system of control, rules and organisation to society. It was also used (and still is to an extent) to justify acts of violence and war. Look into the Christian Crusades for example. 200 years of killing and raping of Muslims, Pagans and generally anyone who opposed the Pope, but hey it was all in the name of God. In today's world, with the freedom of knowledge, it is becoming incresingly more difficult to continue to control and justify actions with religion (in the Western world at least). In the near future, religion will become obsolete and hopefully it will bring people closer together.

"I have as much authority as the Pope. I just don’t have as many people who believe it." - George Carlin.

I am an atheist, but used to be southern baptist. I start to think less of people when they tell me they believe in God, but then I stop and realize that I used to believe in God for a long time and would say the same things they are saying.
If you were not indoctrinated by extremely strong Christian parents, then you don't know how difficult it was to come to terms with the fact that something I believed all my life could be a lie. It takes lots of time to let the facts sink in, and a lot of intelligence to change things that were indoctrinated into you through logic.

If there is a God, he's full of dirty tricks. He won't let the dead tell us if he's there. I think you should consider being agnostic. It's impossible at this point in civilization to know empirically if there is a God or not.
Some people have very sophisticated ideas about God,based on physics and concepts of computer science. We're probably all terrified of becoming fertilizer, or ashes, so we made him up. But, maybe not...

This has been a surprisingly interesting discussion so far :)

shows a lot about your character dude!!! what if your mom believes in god or grandparent? in the future a girl or guy (i dont know your prefrence) you happen to fall in love with believes in god. what then?

In these times of "my God's better than yours", "believe in mine or die" there is plenty of reason to question religion. Anything that was spread by war and hate is certainly the farthest from Godliness. Take the time to study Vedanta, Buddha and perhaps Hindu. These are more phylosiphy rather than some pushy monetarily fueled nonsense. All or no religion are correct...if it does not have love and respect for our fellow man it is useless hateful trash!

I feel the same way completly.

I understand how atheists could believe that Christians are uneducated. It seems that most atheists are raised in a catholic or christian home. It's understandable that one would shun from whence they came.

Just a thought.

I have the exact same problem, i also feel if somebody is laughing it's aimed at me.

Same here....I dont automatically lose my respect for them, but when I hear that they are religious I just think they arent that bright and after that whatever they say seems really stupid to me.

Thank you for making this post. You are brave, especially since you didn't stay anonymous.

I'm an Atheist too.

I was tempted to think that about the religious masses, but...

I nipped that prejudice thinking right in the bud because it's hypocritical.

If I can feel free to not believe, then they can feel free to believe.

This may seem awful, but it seems to me that the majority of Atheist are educated, whereas the majority of the religious masses are not.
That doesn't mean there are not intelligent, educated religious people out there - I think there are. However, I do have a difficult time trusting the opinions of people who believe in something that I find completely absurd. I try to ignore those feelings and give people the benefit of the doubt anyway.

I don't if it's exactly normal.
I know a lot of people loose respect for those who follow a religion. But, I think it's more normal (and mature) to respect everyone for the choices they make and for what they choose to believe.

What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed would evidence.

Normal.

Many religious people try to prove the existence of God through reason. You cant really say they arent intelligent, because those philosophers are the ones that you quote daily, like telling your kid, early to bed, early to rise. Why the hell would studying socrates give you a migrane if he was an ignoramous? i dont mean to insult you, but it wise to let facts reign OVER personal opinion.

Totally verified. Although I personally would loose so much respect for them.I have friends who believe in god but have different views and so forth, they don't blindly believe in everything their religion says. Believing in god and being religious are different things - religion being a set of rules one must follow in order to well..I dunno. I mean I do philosophy at my school and most people there are agnostic. They don't believe in this GOD that humankind have madeup (or not) but they accept the possibly it COULD be true, but also the possibility of other things. I mean have you ever wondered what is BEYOND everything?

I've kind of just learned to deal with it. I just think to myself that they arent educated enough to know the truth.
Im used to living around religious people, even tho i dont prefer it. The amount of atheists in my city? About 1 in 50 maybe

Is it normal to lose all respect in someone if they believe in god?

I don't know, man. Is it normal to lose all respect for people that use improper English?

I try not to, but I "...start to doubt their intellectual capacity...."

It's "...lose all respect FOR someone...."

Oh and if you mean the kind of people who push it on you like God is great and you need to convert yeah I can't stand that either, if someone asks me about God Cool, :D

You people all focus at him thinking he's mentally inferior or something, dude asked only if he's normal. He is normal, but its a snob thing to do, i mean realy, feeling i dunno whatever because someone has certain beliefs... its just stupid, but people do crazy stuff...

Sorry BrightEyes, that wasn't meant for you!

ahem! Your assuming people who believe in God is sick or somethign?? I'm so sick of you people! Its a belief. Thats like us Religious people saying Atheists are sick for their belief.

"Whenever I hear someone does NOT believe in God I lose respect for them and start doubting their intellectual capacity and think I'm better than them" Hmm, would you want to read that on here?? I don't think so.

You don't have to believe in God but yes! YES YOU ARE A BAD PERSON!

Your not better than them, every other person in the freaking world is better than you, religious or not!

What you are really saying is that you can not respect or tolerate people who have different beliefs than you. That has nothing to do with religion. That's just rude, arrogant and narrow-minded.

A lot of atheists do it so I suppose you could consider it normal, but I think that it shows hypocrisy and a lack of intelligence on your part.

I don't understand how anyone can think that everyone who believes in a god is unintelligent, when there are lots of intelligent people who do believe in a god. Your belief that people are intellectually inferior to you just because of their belief in a god is just as irrational as their belief in the god.

Belief in god can just be something weird some people's minds do, maybe to help protect them against their fear of death, and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with intelligence. I have OCD and sometimes I think things that are far stupider than belief in god but I'm not stupid myself (seriously I'm not, they did tests).

I do think there are some people who only believe in god because they're unintelligent, but they generally show other signs of their lack of intelligence so it's stupid to assume that everyone who believes in god is unintelligent.

In conclusion, yes you're normal. And yes you're a bad person.

you bad. to the bone. siriusly..

In a way no but in a way yes, I am extremely arrogant about those who are Religous or a Republican (Which according to recent study's Democratic Athiests [As I call them] have a HIGHER IQ than the status quo. But to loose all respect? I don't think that part is normal. My dad is religous and we joke around him telling me to "pray to my monkey god." But I still love him, and I don't think my beliefs could affect that so... 50/50.

If I lived my life talking to noone on my knees everynight, and telling everyone I meet that if they don't belive in my imaginary friend, and love him/her/it they well spend an eternity in a firery hell, people would think I'm crazy! Or belive me and give me donations weekly to read my self published book about my all powerfull invisible friend.

Well, you're obviously not 100%% sure about your attitude toward religious people or you wouldn't have had to post it on IsItNormal.com. You are a healthy agnostic, a proponent of empiricism. What you perhaps don't yet understand are the complexities of religion. Many young idealist intellectuals think that the issue of religion is very simple, and that the world is full of idiots who cannot see this. Once you've lived awhile, and perhaps experienced some of life's hardships and realities, you'll see that the issue of god (christian or otherwise) is by no means a simple factor in a simple 'world equation' you can write on a slip of paper and call it quits. It's a megalith, a true giant among the greatest philosophical, sociological and ethical questions that has faced humanity for millenia.

I think you seem pretty stuck up. I myself believe in God, but if I befriend people of any religion or belief. I am also open to try out their churches or temples or wherever their place of worship is. Try to give everything a shot at least once and if it is not for you, politely and respectfully say no thank you that is not for me, but for you to judge a person solely on their religion is BULL SHIT!!!

If someone said they believe in unicorns they would be equally stupid, it takes a weak, closed mind to believe in religion and that is why I feel this way.

Personally I don't beleive in religion either, but I DO strongly think you should respect someones beliefs. As the old saying goes, " Don't judge a book by it's cover."

Eh I don't know if it is normal but this does come off to me as a lot like judging someone just because they have a belief that you don't. In my eyes someone who looses resepect for someone just because they don't believe in God is the same as someone loosing respect for someone who doesn't believe in God or their version of God or a god.

Yes I do believe in God but I don't loose any respect nor feel that anyone who doesn't believe in God or my idea of God is any less intelligent or worthy of respect then me. And don't I feel that my religion/idea of God is the only true one in fact I view my religious aspects as sort of a "mix" of more then one, but I certainly don't believe in that only my way is the true way and all that crap.