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I am an ex-christian, now atheist and it drives me crazy when they insist "its not a religion, its a relationship." I tell them to look up the word, "religion" in a dictionary but it doesn't do any good.
My family no longer talks to me and my old classmates don't talk to me and if I find myself in a possible friendship situation with a religious gal, I keep my distance. I have had it pushed on me so much. I feel very hurt over what their "not a religion" has done to my life.
I have looked at a lot of YouTube debates and it has really turned me against religion even more. I think there is nothing worse than to cut off people you love because of the "not a religion." How can a thinking person subscribe to this denial? How can a so called intelligent adult be so cruel because of it?
P.S. My local Skeptics club consists of a handful of male college students and I'm female and 59. I don't think I will ever meet another atheist my age. I need to move so that I can find some friends who are not caught up in this abusive religion.
It is hard to find other atheists, especially when one lives in a place where you don't go around announcing it. I don't know a single atheist around here. I know that probably a lot are and a lot more are sorta religious but don't bother with it.
Because atheists don't talk about religion, unless they get a militant or 'New atheist' need to do something about the pervasive influence of religion.
Thus the Internet has been the single most important social tool since parliamentary democracy. It allows atheists to get together to talk in a way that doesn't happen in society. I have been waiting for a local forum of religions so I can go along and represent the atheist alternative, but it doesn't happen. The religions are more interesting in selling their product than in attending discussions about whether it is any good.
It is hard to find other atheists, especially when one lives in a place where you don't go around announcing it. I don't know a single atheist around here. I know that probably a lot are and a lot more are sorta religious but don't bother with it.
Because atheists don't talk about religion, unless they get a militant or 'New atheist' need to do something about the pervasive influence of religion.
Thus the Internet has been the single most important social tool since parliamentary democracy. It allows atheists to get together to talk in a way that doesn't happen in society. I have been waiting for a local forum of religions so I can go along and represent the atheist alternative, but it doesn't happen. The religions are more interesting in selling their product than in attending discussions about whether it is any good.
Same here.
I only know of one atheist and we are in a LDR.
I hear god talk sometimes here at work and have experienced that in other places as well. But never pro-science and/or anti-god (idea) intelligent conversation that I can relate to.
I am an ex-christian, now atheist and it drives me crazy when they insist "its not a religion, its a relationship." I tell them to look up the word, "religion" in a dictionary but it doesn't do any good.
My family no longer talks to me and my old classmates don't talk to me and if I find myself in a possible friendship situation with a religious gal, I keep my distance. I have had it pushed on me so much. I feel very hurt over what their "not a religion" has done to my life.
I have looked at a lot of YouTube debates and it has really turned me against religion even more. I think there is nothing worse than to cut off people you love because of the "not a religion." How can a thinking person subscribe to this denial? How can a so called intelligent adult be so cruel because of it?
P.S. My local Skeptics club consists of a handful of male college students and I'm female and 59. I don't think I will ever meet another atheist my age. I need to move so that I can find some friends who are not caught up in this abusive religion.
Good luck with that.
I think we only make up 2% of the population but add agnostics who are living without the god brainwashing and the number probably jumps to close to 15%.
When I turned atheist at age 19 I did not meet another atheist until I turned 40.
I don't think I will ever meet another atheist my age. I need to move so that I can find some friends who are not caught up in this abusive religion.
You are meeting us right now on these boards. You listed your location as "Gold Country, Nor Cal", well, I'm in "Nor Cal" as well, Humboldt County. For quite some time all of my immediate neighbors were religious folks to one degree or another, a year ago I got a new next door neighbor who is a Unitarian with whom I can have perfectly rational conversations.
In addition, not all religious people are the sort of bigots you describe. I've managed to get along quite nicely with all of my neighbors despite their awareness that I am not religious in any manner. In fact the only time I can recall religion ever coming up at all was the Christmas before last when the couple across the street had me over for Christmas dinner. Before digging in, he said grace, a rather long and complicated grace where god was thanked for everything in sight, including "...sending us such a wonderful neighbor." How could I be upset with that?
I am an ex-christian, now atheist and it drives me crazy when they insist "its not a religion, its a relationship." I tell them to look up the word, "religion" in a dictionary but it doesn't do any good.
My family no longer talks to me and my old classmates don't talk to me and if I find myself in a possible friendship situation with a religious gal, I keep my distance. I have had it pushed on me so much. I feel very hurt over what their "not a religion" has done to my life.
I have looked at a lot of YouTube debates and it has really turned me against religion even more. I think there is nothing worse than to cut off people you love because of the "not a religion." How can a thinking person subscribe to this denial? How can a so called intelligent adult be so cruel because of it?
P.S. My local Skeptics club consists of a handful of male college students and I'm female and 59. I don't think I will ever meet another atheist my age. I need to move so that I can find some friends who are not caught up in this abusive religion.
You just did. I'm a male, 53 and PROUD as hell to say to anyone I'm an atheist. Whether it's your family, or co-workers making the choice to believe in only yourself and accepting the fact that nothing will be there when your life is done requires some guts and moxy on your part. STAND UP for what you know is the real truth, no matter what others think of you.
It's a relationship with an imaginary friend. lol Did you know that they make an exception for religious delusions in medical protocols for treating mental illnesses? Because it's mass delusion, it's not considered a psychiatric condition. Now for most it's just cognitive dissonance. But considering Jim Jones, David Koresh, the Hall Bopp comet crew to name a few - there's definitely some mental illness going on there. It's just a matter of degree for some.
I live in the bible belt, but I'm lucky to work at a university where I have a lot of friends that don't believe. It's a sheltered little island of sanity in a sea of delusion.
Yeah, I have the same problem, though I don't care what age they are - I'd just be happy to meet another atheist out here in the real world!
I haven't touched my Facebook account in over a year because just about all of my old high school friends have run off and found God in a big way. They haven't pushed their religion onto me personally, but they won't shut up about religion. Everything is God this, God that, church, church, church. Yeah I know living in a small town is boring and church is a big draw (as is the local bar), but these people are maddening. In truth, it isn't even that they talk about God - it's that they're always talking about God. That kind of single-minded repetition would annoy me no matter what they were talking about. Hey! Change the damn subject once in awhile!
But I suppose because it's God talk, it just seems even more annoying because it IS fundamentalist in nature. It's interesting being a fly on the wall among fundie Christians who have forgotten that I can lurk on Facebook and see what they post to each other. So much of it involves a "I'm Christian but I hate the poor (even though I'm poor myself) because they're all lazy!" kind of mentality. Not only are they fundamentalist, they are also fanatically conservative in their political leanings.
What I find so - I don't know what the word for it is - what I find so sad (depressing? melancholy?) is that these are the same friends I used to pal around with, people I have a history with and with whom I have created a lot of fond memories. And now look at them. Now they are people I couldn't stomach being around for any length of time. And in the grand scheme of life, our high school days were NOT all that long ago. What on earth happened?
If it is the term for my feelings about old friends who have changed so much that we now have no point of social contact on which we can meet, the term you are groping for is perhaps 'regrettable'.
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