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Well I'm right there with you. My sister already thinks I'm a disciple of Satan because I'm not a Bible thumping Jesus freak like her (total scary religious zealot of the Southern Baptist branch). If I told her I was atheist, she'd disowned me for sure. Sad, but true.
Sounds like a lot of hate and intolerance. Maybe you would be better off without her. I know I would not want to be around someone like that.
If anyone, including family members, did not accept me as an atheist then they don't deserve to know me.
I came out as an athiest to my sister a few days ago. She called me a devil worshiper and that I will burn in Hell. I never thought she would have that reaction. My lesson learned, you never know how people will react. I find it much better to keep it to myself.
I hold my head up and state it proudly to anyone. I don't care if they accept it or not.
However, I never bring the subject up.
If my church-going brother ever called me a devil worshipper or said I was going to "burn in hell" it would be the last time he ever saw me.
Lately I've been afraid to mention it due to some comments I've gotten at work which have disturbed me. "You're a lost cause", "atheists are the devils mouth" that kind of thing. I guess we are seen as the work of the underworld. Anyone afraid to tell people you don't believe? Anyone notice a heated climate lately?
I'm seriously thinking of going into hiding.
I think we have all had it. I had a lot of the “you will go to hell”, and an endless list of devil statements, but now just point out the hell and devil they refer to are inventions of the Christians, and I also don’t believe in them. My worst problem has been with door knockers. They seem offended when I tell them I am atheist, and see their views as perpetuating the world’s biggest fraud. They almost always tell me I am going to hell, yet week after week they return to get the same message. They are not the brightest primates on the planet.
With my family it was not a problem. I have one Sister, who is a protestant, and she was not over joyed with my view, but I am sure she expected me to have Atheist views. I rejected religion when only 8. I did what I now call “drawing my line in the sand’ and refused to go to any religious services. I had good parents who let us grow, and learn. If could rationally justify my view they allowed it. I have another Sister who thinks I am too mild in my view. She would be identified as a Strong Atheist, and I think the world of her. In the extended family I think most of the younger members are non-religious, about half the older members are deists, or non-religious. We do have one catholic, but we opt not to talk about it. I personally think it is a mental issue, or she just wants to **** off the family. With this as a background I don’t think any member of my family is afraid to state their religious or lack of religious views. It is not unusual for us to trade books on the different issues and views.
Outside our family base I will only respond if I think the person asking the question is stable enough to hear the answer. Like the person who listed you as a "lost cause", in my view is the loss causes.
I will end this by saying I always try to be myself, but I am only myself to the non-sheep primates who think and don’t just blindly follow.
I swear I wake up on a daily basis wondering what fricking country I live in anymore. America has become such a joke. I never realized how many bat **** crazy brainwashed people there are in this country. And I don't mean spcifically with regard to religion. I mean EVERYTHING from food, to politics, to health, to science, to spriituality/religion,. People are just BRAINWASHED by the status quo with regard to their entire lives and belief system. It's really hard to find people that actually think outside the box and who take a step back and look at how we as human beings are living and have lived. I mean where are the innovated thinkers? Where are our true leaders? Even scientists have been bought and paid for and their lack of thinking outside the box is so evident nowadays. Science for the most part has been bought and paid for by the corporation.
Nothing scares me more than some of these whackjob religious nuts out there. Just look at the Santorum campaign. Then on the left you've got green fascism where people think the world will be better off if we all just kill ourselves. We livei n a very scary time nowadays. I guess fanatical people have always lived but my god it seems harder and harder to escape their presence. I think the world is just too damn crowded nowadays. Trying to find your own little "bubble" to escape to is harder and harder. I really dont' even lik interacting with your average person. Most interactions with people in my life besides family and close friends are pretty trivial and superficial because people are just so dumb, misinformed, and caught up in materialism or bullsheet. How many people actually TALK and DISCUSS the world in which they live. No they are more apt to banter back and forth about which celebrity got plastic surgery, who won dancing with the stars last night or the latest app on their Iphone.
And I dont know who is worse anymore. Men are just as mundane and superfiicial as women. Incessant diarrhea of the mouth about sports. 2/3 of the guys at my work have never even played a sport in their life. But you ask them about Pumu Punku, The Patterson Gimlin video, Sumeria, or how to build a fire and pitch a tent and they look at you like you're from another planet. People are for the most part boring, mindless drones. People are just boring nowadays.
If you're an atheist, there are people out there in America -- sincere, devout Christians -- who want to kill you. They may be your neighbors. They may be your coworkers. They may even be members of your own family.
Is it any wonder that there are probably hundreds of thousands of undeclared atheists in the US?
I'm not afraid. I would not label myself an atheist. Do I believe in GOD, well that depends if you will allow me to define god, for the definition in dictionaries is less than clear.
God - Christian bible definition or lack of definition, NO I do not believe.
GOD - The property of nature, where energy and mass interactions , under the right conditions, eventually self assemble and begin to store information. Some might call this the spark of life. Some want to call it pantheism, but I say its what makes sense to me. I feel the respect for life is the ultimate moral compass.
I swear I wake up on a daily basis wondering what fricking country I live in anymore. America has become such a joke. I never realized how many bat **** crazy brainwashed people there are in this country. And I don't mean spcifically with regard to religion. I mean EVERYTHING from food, to politics, to health, to science, to spriituality/religion,. People are just BRAINWASHED by the status quo with regard to their entire lives and belief system. It's really hard to find people that actually think outside the box and who take a step back and look at how we as human beings are living and have lived. I mean where are the innovated thinkers? Where are our true leaders? Even scientists have been bought and paid for and their lack of thinking outside the box is so evident nowadays. Science for the most part has been bought and paid for by the corporation.
Nothing scares me more than some of these whackjob religious nuts out there. Just look at the Santorum campaign. Then on the left you've got green fascism where people think the world will be better off if we all just kill ourselves. We livei n a very scary time nowadays. I guess fanatical people have always lived but my god it seems harder and harder to escape their presence. I think the world is just too damn crowded nowadays. Trying to find your own little "bubble" to escape to is harder and harder. I really dont' even lik interacting with your average person. Most interactions with people in my life besides family and close friends are pretty trivial and superficial because people are just so dumb, misinformed, and caught up in materialism or bullsheet. How many people actually TALK and DISCUSS the world in which they live. No they are more apt to banter back and forth about which celebrity got plastic surgery, who won dancing with the stars last night or the latest app on their Iphone.
If you seek the negative, you will find it. Do something about it, be the source of inspiration not despair. Present problems, but also offer solutions. This is a great country to live in, but it should always be a work in progress.
I hold my head up and state it proudly to anyone. I don't care if they accept it or not.
However, I never bring the subject up.
If my church-going brother ever called me a devil worshipper or said I was going to "burn in hell" it would be the last time he ever saw me.
Some people call themselves atheist for that very reason, to get a reaction from someone they know will react like that. There is no reason to label yourself an atheist if it is going to divide you from the ones you love. Thats the whole point really, logic over division unless your logic is to divide.
Well I'm right there with you. My sister already thinks I'm a disciple of Satan because I'm not a Bible thumping Jesus freak like her (total scary religious zealot of the Southern Baptist branch). If I told her I was atheist, she'd disowned me for sure. Sad, but true.
So I have told this one before, but I had a or of a Dallas area Christian Church (one of those member churches of the "association of Christian churches and churches of Christ") Flat out tell me that I was worshipping Satan by eating Chinese food.
The way he told it was that if you like Chinese food, then you are saying that you approve of something about their culture, and since China is a communist country and the official religion is atheism, and since Satan is behind atheism, then if you eat Chinese food you are therefore endorsing Satan.
He said he did not eat Chinese food because he would not wanted to be associated with Satan.
And this was a guy who was being paid a salary to pastor a church. And you wonder why I am a Non-Believer !?!?!
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