Question for atheists - do you hold Chiristians to a higher moral standard?

[Aikouka]

No, but I will criticize hypocracy, and that might be seen as holding Christians to a higher moral standard, even though it's really not.

I think that hypocrisy tends to be the more common reason. If I had to guess, people don't exactly like being demeaned for their lack of belief, and they find a bit of solace in the fact that some of those people tend to be no better than the "heathens" that they besmirch.

(This is also an excellent example of when an ad-hominum attack is a legitmate device.)

I don't agree with this. An ad hominem argument is still a failed argument even in the case of Bristol Palin's advocacy for celibacy. However, what you can do is use her failure to practice what she preaches as evidence against celibacy. Although, that also has an issue with statistical significance. In other words, pointing out the failure of one person (Bristol Palin) doesn't necessarily mean that celibacy is a bad idea.

 

[Darwin333]

Of course not, why would we?

 

[Annisman*]

And true believers of other faiths would make the same claim. Yet you would label them as mistaken, following the wrong path, not accepting as truth the one essential thing YOU believe, wouldn't you?

C.S. Lewis:

"I have been asked to tell you what Christians believe, and I am going to begin by telling you one thing that Christians do not need to believe. If you are a Christian you do not have to believe that all the other religions are simply wrong all through. If you are an atheist you do have to believe that the main point in all the religions of the whole world is simply one huge mistake. If you are a Christian, you are free to think that all these religions, even the queerest ones, contain at least some hint of the truth. When I was an atheist I had to try to persuade myself that most of the human race have always been wrong about the question that mattered to them most; when I became a Christian I was able to take a more liberal view. But, of course, being a Christian does mean thinking that where Christianity differs from other religions, Christianity is right and they are wrong. As in arithmetic-there is only one right answer to a sum, and all other answers are wrong: but some of the wrong answers are much nearer being right than others."

 

[sandorski]

C.S. Lewis:

"I have been asked to tell you what Christians believe, and I am going to begin by telling you one thing that Christians do not need to believe. If you are a Christian you do not have to believe that all the other religions are simply wrong all through. If you are an atheist you do have to believe that the main point in all the religions of the whole world is simply one huge mistake. If you are a Christian, you are free to think that all these religions, even the queerest ones, contain at least some hint of the truth. When I was an atheist I had to try to persuade myself that most of the human race have always been wrong about the question that mattered to them most; when I became a Christian I was able to take a more liberal view. But, of course, being a Christian does mean thinking that where Christianity differs from other religions, Christianity is right and they are wrong. As in arithmetic-there is only one right answer to a sum, and all other answers are wrong: but some of the wrong answers are much nearer being right than others."

That presumes that the question is right or even is sensical.

 

[nickqt]

Well that wasn't biased at all.....

Observable reality is just that - observable.

You don't have to like it, and you can label it biased if you want, but it doesn't change observable reality.