How could people be [reffering to believers of God of any kind] afraid of things? (ANYTHING)?
608456
just because it has a reason and that there is no avoiding it doesn't mean we don't have a need to fear. If i bee is destined to sting me i might be afraid of how bad it will hurt. or if i was in a situation where i thought i could die, i wouldn't be afraid of death, cause there's no getting around, it but i would be afraid of how i die or afraid of the things i have left unfinished. God has his plan set for us, and bad things happen to good people, but just because we don't want it to happen doesn't mean that if we pray hard enough its not going to happen, some bad has to happen so some good can come from it. So i don't know who the question went from fear to free Will , but there can be fear even in certainty and nothing can change what is destined
1093176
well I can neither prove the existence of god or disprove because hes intangible therefore I'm undecided  I guess that makes me a humanist. but some people are freakin crazy or just mean if you don't agree with them or there bible says it a sin to be gay or women should be subjugated or jews are going to hell lame crap like that make me sick so I really don't want to have anything to do with them
911463
The Bible tells us to fear God,,, look in the OT what happened to those whose didn't fear God.
353579
People are afraid of things they dont understand. People who dont understand god, spend all their time trying to rationalize with logic why he doesnt exist, which will be a never resolving issue because god is too mysterious to rationalize.
171432
Awesome! I respect you, alot, because of this statement. I agree that God should not be brought into alot of things. Alot of these people make such statements blindly as they've yet to receive any ACTUAL experience in the type of situation of which the person you're talking to has gone through, but they feel it necessary to enforce (selfishly, I might add.) that they are a Christian and that by saying this they gain points with God. It doesnt. Why would god want to enstill so much trauma on a person? Common sense doesnt react well with fear, and in this case it is the fear that God is abit shakey about their loyalty to him (Which if they were a true Christian then they would probably come to the conclusion that as long as you build good karma selflessly, then their diety would be happy.).\n\nNow the subject about people preaching their beliefs and then sinning out their asses, I believe you're right. In the Bible, it says that God'll cleanse your sins (NOTE: I am an Athiest and do not believe this, but this is for the sake of argument) but that doesnt mean you should rack up as much negative points while you can. A quote from an AWESOME Scream Christian Band (Hardcore True Christians, mind you.)-\n\n"...Christ is not a Fashion..." - Memphis Will Be Layed To Waste by Norma Jean.
105495
Religious people are not "afraid" of homosexuality, they fear the creator, the one who has power over all things and the one who deals out punishment in the hereafter. Those who choose not to engage in things they or their religion deems as sinful acts only fear the one who will judge them for their good and bad deeds when this life is over. Fear of the things that people choose to do with their own lives has nothing to do with it.
87135
Because many many people see the horrors of religion in general, the absolute lack of reason in involved with "faith" and are not afraid of death.  \n\nThe world is a teeny tiny place in the realm of the universe and whatever is beyond what we can see.  Many people need to be comforted by believeing that there is something "out there" taking care of the human race.  \n\nMany feel the need to have something to guide them (could it be that their moral principles are not strong enough, or that they just need SOME kind of purpose to not feel like a waste of flesh?).  \n\nFor some, it is just easier to be blind to reality and accept a made up god than to actually use their brain to ask the questions which might be able to actually provide any comprehensible answers.
637883
God doesn't hold the patent to those i'm afraid.\n\nMany atheists are moral & ethical people, so get off cloud 9.\n\nI can do whatever I want, but you know what, I choose not to.  Not out of fear, or god's retribution, but because I don't want to do harmful things.  Isn't that better, I'm not doing it for some distant reward, but simply because I want to.
978716
Do you really believe that God has any thing to fear about man.  Come on brother, think about it.  Remember when he was in front of Pilot and Herod.  They thought he should fear them too.\n  The only ones who have anything to fear with the coming of the Lord are the ones who wrap the poison of sin in the Bread of life, and try to feed it to His children.  And the ones that are so prideful that they cannot truly repent.
325208
If you are a Christian there is no reason for you to live in fear.\n\n1Jo 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
996307
I was a Christian for many years. I feared many things... death, evil, Hell, God, "backsliding".... all sorts of things.\n\nI am now an atheist and do not believe in ANYTHING supernatural, so by default Hell, gods, demons, etc. hold zero fear for me. Also, I do not think it will be any different for me after I die than it was for me all those years before I was born, and while I do try to avoid death, I do not fear it. I accept it as part of life. If you listen to what Christians pray for, it's pretty obvious they fear a lot more than the wrath of their own god.\n\nAlso, I no longer have Satan or God to blame for my actions in any way. Taking full responsibility for what you do brings self-confidence, and self-confidence is a great way to get rid of fear. When you think you can pray and some powerful buddy will bail you out of trouble, you aren't showing much self-reliance. Not feeling like you can do anything on your own against ultra-powerful entities should make it obvious to the Christians themselves that they naturally have more fear than atheists.\n\nI know many  Christians who use the argument that if I am wrong and there is a god, I will go to Hell. So if they use fear to recruit new Christians and keep them, doesn't it stand to reason they would have more fear?\n\nAdded after reading other responses: Almost every answer from Christians so far shows a fear I overcame... the fear of not being Christian! LOL!
520370
fear OF God is good. you're supposed to fear God. some people start out in fear of evil, fear of hell...that kind of thing...and that's good. good to start out i mean. b/c i know, from experience, that that fades as you come to know Him more. your fear fades.
829864
They might get scared of us, when we used logic to explain why we don't believe in god.
45517
Most people are afraid of things they do not understand
575788
When people begin to lose their belief they become untrustable ,in this century you find someone with belief and avoidance from bad acts ,with great difficulty.Never trust someone who doesn't fear from God.Be aware of humans.
293655
This is something I've wondered about for a long time.  To me it makes so much sense that everyones spiritual path is unique to them, that there is no such thing as a "one True" way.  Everyone sees a different face of the divine.... \n\nThe reasons why people are afraid are simple though - they are uncertain.   Any act of faith makes people feel vulnerable - it should!  Faith is an act of belief without any tangible proof, of course people can get touchy/defensive about it.  Faith makes people feel good, but any challenge to that (such as the existance of multiple religions) means that there may be something else that they haven't considered.   They are insecure.
240087
I am a former fundamentalist Christian and I can tell you that religion definitely causes harm. It instills fear - especially in children - fear of God, the devil, the unknown, demons, natural feelings... the list goes on. I spent my life terrified that anything I did or didn't do might have been a sin, and praying for forgiveness just in case. I think I was more afraid of Jesus than any "devil". Of course, I believed in the teaching that Jesus is love, and therefore any fear came from the "evil one" - but the fact of the matter was that it was God who imposed all the rules in the first place, so at the heart of it, I was terrified of my idea of God.\n\nI preached to strangers, gave more than a tithe (tenth) of my before-tax income every week, and was only friends with non-Christians because I believed it was my duty to bring the Gospel to them. I read the Bible every day and believed my church pastor and elders when they told me that it was my responsibility to take the message of Jesus to non-believers, and that if I let an opportunity slip by when I could have shared the Gospel, and that person then died without knowing Jesus, "their blood [would] be on [my] hands."\n\nReligion has caused countless fights within my own family alone and was the basis for abuse at the hands of my ex who raped me (among other things). The church elders informed me that I was too tempting for him, it was my fault because I was a woman. I was to accept such treatment (and other abuse) because I was the woman and the man is the head of the house - it was not my place to question this.\n\nIt took me years to recover, and after living in fear for so long - and fear of a person for which there is no historical evidence - I can tell you religion definitely causes harm.\n\nMost people wouldn't hold religious beliefs if they weren't taught those beliefs. They may believe in a "higher power" but in today's society, chances are they wouldn't believe in the stories of the Bible. We know that bats are not birds, that donkeys and snakes don't talk, that you can't determine a sheep's colouring by the plants they view while copulating. Most people today would not extol the virtues of a book that tells us to feel happy while smashing babies' heads on rocks, that contains a rape manual, and that glorifies brutal treatment of women and slaves. There are many people who, if they actually read that book, would be utterly horrified at the things that have been attributed to their god.\n\nWhether people want to believe in a deity is neither here nor there, as far as I'm concerned. What they do BECAUSE OF that belief is what matters - and that's what religion is: organised belief in a deity.\n\nI have helped more people as an ex-Christian than I ever did while a Christian - and whatever I do to help people now is worth more because my motivation is that I give a damn about people, and not out of fear of punishment. When "help" is given by religous people and organisations, there is often (not always) a pound of flesh - whether that be an expectation that you attend services, or constant conversion attempts, whatever - because the motivation is a religious one. If people would just love each other because they CARE, it would mean much more.\n\nWould you like your loved ones to help you and be good to you because they care, or because they think they're going to get a reward from you (an inheritance, perhaps)? Worse, would you want them to help you because they're terrified of what you'll do if you don't?\n\nI'm not saying there is no "god". I'm saying that I believe there is no god as people believe it. If such a being exists and is truly all-powerful and all-loving, it certainly doesn't have a need for a "hell" and sure doesn't need our money.