PUNCHING AN ATHEIST IN THE NOSE sometimes feels like the good and godly thing to do.
It’s not, of course.
But I sometimes feel it is. And I say that in partial sincerity, as a writer who has devoted his career to targeting people outside the faith.
Perhaps you have noticed that atheists are coming alive. They’re more aggressive and downright evangelical in sometimes trying to bully, ridicule, and even threaten Christians who disagree with them. Much like Christians have been from time to time.
I recently had an atheist threaten to rally his fellow atheists from coast-to-coast and send them out on a mission to destroy my career by writing bad book reviews and by doing whatever it takes to bring me down.
His comment was one of around 4,000 comments I’ve gotten so far on the YouTube video What Romans Said About Crucifixion.
I don’t know what it is about that video that gets atheists jerked out of shape, but they are clearly upset because nearly all of those 4,000 comments are extremely critical—and they seem to come from unbelievers, or twisted-sister Christians.
The video view count is quickly moving toward 600,000—which is unprecedented among the Bible background videos I’ve produced. It has over 1,000 thumbs down, and more than 21,000 thumbs up.
What that suggests to me is that most of the people watching the video are either Christians or open-minded unbelievers. They give me a thumbs up and then move on.
Atheists, however, seem to have trouble simply giving me a thumbs down and moving on.
They want to give me a few choice words, too.
Some of the atheists stick to the facts and question the Roman history that I report in the video, because they don’t seem convinced that Jesus ever existed. So they argue that the quotes I’m reporting were made up by Christians centuries later.
I tried to assure them that the quotes I use are considered authentic, at least by a great many historians. There are some atheist historians that dispute the history. But they do seem to be exceptions to the rule.
Here are some of the comments the video has drawn so far.
Not-kind words
You’re not a historian
“Dishonest M. Miller…You are not a historian, you care more about what you wanted to believe than what is actually true, and you are a dishonest individual. Then again, that is precisely what religion does to otherwise decent people. And you sir and apologists just like you, are exhibit one…I am a Historian and you are NOT, and worked very hard almost 5 years of my life to get my degree from one of the most prestigious and expensive Universities of Mexico City.” Vidal Soberon
You’re a liar
“Liar, there is not ONE contemporary extra-biblical account of Jesus anywhere, not ONE. Shame on you and your ilk for lowering yourself to lying to protect your baseless religious belief.” HughJaxident67
Fertilizer ahead
“The evidence to Jesus being a real person, was not recorded by the Romans or the Jews. What a load of crap.” Justin Case
Jesus who?
“Who gives a s*** about Jesus? I’m trying to learn about Rome!” Brian Kaul
Kind words
- “I am not a Christian but gave you a thumbs up anyway for putting forward a credible historical argument that Jesus existed.” Lee Wardle
- “I don’t know if I agree with all the statements made, but what a light heart you have sir. Love and peace!” Getranke Nomimono
Atheism as an emerging religious movement
The more I read these stern comments and try to have conversations with the seemingly better educated critics, the more I am convinced that atheism is an intense religion. A lot of atheists seem quite angry at Christians, and at all other religions in general.
It feels like many of them hate us. I can’t be sure that they do, but I feel the heat.
Many of them call Christians fools, and much worse.
Paul, on critics of Christianity
There are Bible verses that offer advice about how to deal with this kind of an attack.
Some of it comes from the apostle Paul. So I’m guessing Paul dealt with similar critics.
Here’s an excerpt from Paul’s letter to Christians in Corinth, Greece. I’m working on paraphrasing 1, 2 Corinthians for the Casual English Bible.
“God in his wisdom decided the world wouldn’t get to know him through their wisdom. Instead, God would save only those who believed the foolishness we preach…
Listen, the foolishness of God has more smarts to it than the wisest wisdom of humans…
Here’s what God decided: foolish ideas would shame the wise…
No one is going to be bragging when they stand in front of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:21, 25, 27, 29, Casual English Bible
I really don’t know why they bother.
Why stop at McDonald’s if you’re just there to tell people how awful McDonald’s is? Why, if you don’t believe Jesus or crucifixion even existed are you watching videos about Jesus and crucifixion?
I don’t know how many Christians are trolling atheists sites, calling them names. Maybe it’s a two-sided battle and you’ve just found yourself caught in the middle. I don’t know. This is an age in which even the president has a Twitter account.
So maybe we just can’t resist getting in each others’ faces — just because we can.
Hi, Steve.
Some commentators seemed drawn to the video by an interest in Roman history. I suspect others were looking for more ammo to debunk Christianity, and were disappointed to find the opposite.
I didn’t intend to mislead anyone. I myself was curious about what Romans said about Crucifixion. So I researched it, and then put the research in a video.