You know, people keep saying Christians push atheists, but on this particular forum, I don't see that. I just see certain atheists who have had unfortunate experiences that caused them to be prejudiced against Christianity. Then aside from them, there are a bunch of chill atheists and non-Christians, and offended Christians.
Really, if you say Christianity causes wars, what reaction do you expect? Most Christians dislike war (much like most people do). Saying that Christianity is a war-mongering religion is like a mental kick to the groin; it's downright insulting. You say it's a violent religion, but from my point of view, having grown up with it, it's largely anti-war, pro-peace.
The thing is, it's not just the history of the Catholic Church people have a problem with.
I don't know where you live, but I've always lived in the US. Right now, in the US, we DO have a serious problem with a large contingent of intolerant fundamentalist Christianity. These people not only get really scary sometimes, but they also hold a very substantial amount of political clout, even with the highest tiers of government. I think this is kind of stuff: the "homosexuals are going to hell, Obama's a secret Muslim, atheists are devil-worshippers, let's lobby the government for abstinence-only sex education where we teach that using a condom is somehow less safe than not using one, and try to inject creationist textbooks into public schools" stuff, is what gets a lot of irreligious folks riled up right now, and for a damn good reason.
Does this mean that all Christians are like that, or that anybody should be intolerant towards them? Of course not, and I don't like to think that I am, either. I have a lot of Christian friends and they are generally very nice people. But I can see WHY non-Christians end up feeling that way, and why the whole situation can turn people off to religion entirely (for reasons with varying amounts of validity).
Seriously, though, it's hard to even be a federal-government politician in the US and not at least pay lip service to the far-right Christian "family values" base. I don't want to start a political flamewar here, so I won't mention much else about him, but George W. Bush's talk of how he was doing what God specifically and directly told him to, etc., comes off as a really, really sketchy thing to come from the President of the United States to a lot of people, even Christians, and abstinence-only sex education, while not something I had to encounter in school around here, has resulted in some completely ridiculous things I've seen elsewhere, like I mentioned above.
These kinds of beliefs aren't really confined to that section of the populace, either. Thanks to osmosis, they end up affecting a whole lot more people. For instance, some talk-radio windbag might have a sensationalistic show pandering to the right wing, including the Christian Fundamentalist set. People who aren't even Christian Fundamentalists will certainly still tune in, and have their views influenced. This is why you get people who aren't even Christian Fundamentalists talking about the same sort of "family values" rhetoric that the fundies do.
It's all just a terrible situation, and as an irreligious Atheist, I wish Christianity here were more like what Jesus actually seemed to intend for it, and less of what I've been mentioning. Obviously, not all Christians are like that, but the presence of it is far too strong regardless.
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