Why Are So Many Atheists So Publicly Critical Of Christianity?

Today's question comes from:

  Aj Winter · 
[Posted to MythVision Podcast Group] 

He writes:
"I’ve noticed athiests are just as devoted to Jesus as Christians. Their devotion is just a negative one.
Derek for example loves talking about Jesus..can’t get enough of it. If I don’t believe in something, I usually ignore it. What motivates an athiest to actively and passionately hate the idea of Jesus as Saviour?

And there’s atheists out there who actively hate - believers just for believing. Why!!?? "

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My reply: 
First, you're only assuming that all of those critics are "atheists". Atheists aren't alone in their condemnations of Christianities (plural). Many deists feel the same way; as do many pantheists, pandeists, agnostic-theists, wiccans, Native American/Indigenous spiritual peoples, etc.. Next,

Moving forward,
AJ, please consider joining a couple of these Facebook groups:

[Link] 

Read what Christianity put these poor people through.

Some of those testimonials and points will only apply to specific versions of Christianity.
Some will apply to pretty much all versions.
In every case, revered Bible-writers and revered Bible-figures really are largely to blame.
You might also want to do some research about "Religious Trauma Syndrome".

Meanwhile, I need to ask Derek if we can have a group chat activated. Why? Because I don't want to type out all the points I'd love to offer. I'd rather have a voice message option.

For now, I'll just cite a few example of a serious problems baked into all of Christianity.

Churches and organizations provide easy
ascent into power over others,
and access to other people's children.

"Ideally", only people of good character would avail themselves of those opportunities.
However, that's not the reality of the situation.

There's a church on nearly every street corner in most cities/towns/villages.

Those churches also monopolize every city's 
budget-friendly social-connection opportunities.

If our society's weren't so irresponsibly lazy, 
they'd create ample non-religious opportunities to socialize and build a sense of community.
 
But (usually) nobody bothers, because churches exist.
It's a "seemingly" cheap solution that's builds itself. 

Meanwhile, governments don't even WANT their citizens to develop secular replacements to those religious social-systems.

That's because churches help our government puppet-masters keep our society divided. 

That, in, turn, helps them keep us dominated. 

[Even when they don't realize it] Churches divide;
to help governments conquer.

Churches also help keep societies "mentally slave-yoked"; so that most of us remain so sheep-minded in our psychology's response to "authority".

  As a result,
that also helps governments control and exploit us.

They also install a mindset of self-infantilization and "learned helplessness". 

That too prevents our citizens from maturing beyond very problematic degrees of dependence on both secular and religious authorities. 

We hardly know how to do anything for ourselves; including food-independence, meeting our own social needs, and even thinking independently about moral issues.
That's because most of us have been so institutionalized into dependence on someone "above us" to provide those things. 

Meanwhile, 
it's common knowledge that it's really easy (in churches and religious organizations) to blend in, "talk the talk", appear to "walk the walk". Thus, many people understand how easy it is (in churches and religious organizations) to ascend into positions of access to, and influence over ... overly-trusting families, women, and children; including many who are extremely vulnerable. 

That easy ascent into dangerous levels of power is largely because churches foster an atmosphere of magical-thinking.

Part of that magical-thinking is that an all-knowing, all-wise, all-powerful, ever-present, always-watching, and reliably-protective "Father"-figure
guides and watches over those congregations.

In reality, no such protection exists.

Thus, whenever a cunning and patient covert predator finds themselves "in need" of prey,
they'd be passing up on a golden opportunity if they ignore the opportunities which are intrinsically part of all churches.

There, many families, women, and children will have their guard down.
They won't be as cautious as they would be in any non-religious setting.

Meanwhile, predators gain access to exploitable 'intel' into vulnerable people's lives, and access to special opportunities to be alone as mentors, "counselors", and activities directors.
Which kinds of covert predators?

All kinds.

Clinical narcissists,

sociopaths,

psychopaths,

white knights 'on the hunt' for vulnerable young women to capture into "marriage", control and exploit,

and pedophiles.

This is EXACTLY why the Catholic Church(es)
and the Protestant churches,
and the fringe independent churches
all have such SUPER HIGH rates of sexual abuse, psychosocial peer-group violence, and domestic violence.

To make matters worse, many (although, I really want to say "most") churches
will be SLOW to believe victims,
and FAST to protect the perpetrators.

That's partly because most "people of faith" are too are overly trusting of "spiritual" authority figures.
It's also because they want to protect the public reputation of their church and the larger project of "Christianity".

That's so they can
* protect "Jesus's" reputation by protecting "Jesus" from scandals,
AND
* make sure potential converts aren't scared away from their religion.

It's also because most Christians have their EGO tied into those religious institutions.
Because of this, any injury (or threat of injury) to the reputation of "Christianity" will feel like a threat to their public identity.
Thus, they will fight hard to internally deny what's really going on.
And they'll fight equally hard to protect their church's reputation.
As a result, victims' often won't feeling safe-enough to speak up.
It also sometimes results in victims not being believed by friends, family, and church.
In turn, that helps protect predators from exposure, removal, and justice.
It also greatly worsens victims' injuries, because many of their trusted people will turn against them to defend the abuser. Even with the best of intentions, many "people of faith" will invalidate, gaslight, defame and ostracize victims.

Granted, any of that can happen in families and non-religious clubs.
But the point is: It happens a lot more often in churches. And not merely because more people attend churches. It's largely because churches have baked-in social-design flaws. Worse yet, those are flaws which they CAN'T fix because they NEED those design elements in order to generate essential spiritual illusions. We see this throughout churches and religious organizations; specifically as a result of faith-specific magical-thinking. Examples? Those spaces are promoted as being overseen by an all-powerful and all-seeing protector. It's also because people imagine "spirituality" in a magical way. To help generate that illusion, people are seen as being "born again", "a new creation", "spirit led" and "indwelled" by a literally perfect and holy "spirit". And all they need to do, to mutually manipulate each other into that mystical fantasy is:

Say and do the things 
which those religious cultures treat as "evidence". 

A big part of that is:
merely participating in those social-ecosystem's mutual-endorsement circle-jerks. 

 "You're so spiritual!" 
"Awww shucks! So are you!". 

Those mutual-endorsements of people having mystical character-properties (like being filled by the radiance of an "approving" and divine god)
generates the illusion of special trustworthiness.

 It also causes people to deeply invest their sense of identity into those systems. 

That, in turn, creates a false sense of safety for vulnerable people. 

It perpetuates a complex and layered system of hidden dangers and celebrated disempowerment. 

It also weaponizes well-intending people against their own loved ones, against humanity, and even against themselves. 
Although, THAT really needs to be its own blog (or entire book). Because there is a lot more that needs to be said about this. 
--
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Lastly, "What motivates an atheist to actively and passionately hate the idea of Jesus as Savior"?
 
It's not usually the focus or reason for why skeptics push back against Christianity so much. 
However, it is relevant. And I'm happy to address this. 

The offer of "Salvation" has many abusive mind-hacks built into it. 

Among those:

1. It's literally a racketeering scheme.

Think about it.

What is the offer?
To "save" people from what exactly?
From a mysterious Boss who "owns this town; and everyone in it".
To "save" us from what he will violently DO to anyone who doesn't surrender to the "messengers".

Which "messengers"?

Any random rival sect's "messengers".

They all claim (without evidence) to speak for him, rule in his place, and collect money and donated labor "for Him".

And how do they go about giving the Boss all the resources they collect in his name? 
They don't.
It all goes directly into funding those "messengers" personal lives, and to help them keep the scam going. 

There are very good reasons for why racketeering is illegal for everyone else. 

There are only very unfortunate reasons for why Christianities (plural) don't have to live by the same ethical and legal standards everyone else must.

2. It fosters irrational thinking about moral character, rules, and responsibilities.
That, in turn, undermines ethical clarity; resulting in behaviors which are harmful to individuals, families, and societies.

Examples:

* Shaming and demonizing natural sexual thoughts, feelings, identities, and actions. 

* Demonizing other faiths.

 * Demonizing "atheists".

* Supporting politicians who push dangerous conspiracy theories about Global Climate Change.

That, in turn, sabotages humanity's efforts to greatly reduce polluting our air, water, and soil. 

 That, in turn, will increase infant and pediatric diseases and death, along with making everyone else sicker and die sooner too.

It also greatly hurts our chances of avoiding the catastrophic collapse of our entire global ecosystem.

 Even before we reach that tipping point, 
all of that pollution is still contributing to global warming.

That, in turn, will continue to cause wave after wave of people having to flee from hard-hit regions which can no longer provide clean water or grow crops.

Those people will have no place to go.
As a result, they'll be dying of hunger, thirst, disease, homelessness, exposure to harsh climate, rampant exploitation, and wars (over territory and resources). 

*Supporting cult-personality authoritarian politicians, in a misguided and destructive culture war. 

Already, this blog-reply is getting pretty long.
So I'll end it here. But if you want me to further elaborate on any of these observations,
let me know.