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Don't get me wrong, most of the time I'm not rude by any means, I just wanted to vent about it because as much as I DO respect everyone's opinions and beliefs, I'm not typically confrontational, but this very last instance, someone I thought was my friend whom I fully respected her beliefs, I opened up and said no I'm not religious, she preceded to attempt to convert me abd when I said no I'm good thanks, we got into a heated debate because of conflicting views sge couldn't let go of when i was like i just wanna enjoy my sandwich that god didnt create,(i didnt actually say that though i was much nicer) she dropped me off back home and she hasn't spoken to me since. We used to talk every day. I guess it was the last wtf straw. Like non religious people are lesser people because we don't find the literal jesus christ as the one and only god or lack there of. I'm only 23 so i have much more of life to learn and explore, but I have been rejected so much because of this. And I don't want to be forced into a bs religion so my daughter won't be shunned because of the parents thinking that I'm horrible because I don't go to church.
Sorry for the rant.
Life is a series of compromises and choices that affect the quality of your life. You have to ask yourself how important being true to yourself and your beliefs ARE when in public using very pragmatic evaluations. Are you the type of person who tells her friend that the very expensive dress she just purchased is hideous because that is your true belief?? If so, your social life will have many bumps and rough spots along the way.
Yeah, it happens a lot. I'm in the deep south so it's something I expect, but it's still quite annoying and sometimes upsetting.
The worst is in government settings. I can't even keep count of how many times god or jesus are brought up and more than half the meetings end with a prayer. It's so disturbing. Most times I just quietly try to step away from the group when they start doing the praying thing, but often they make it into a big deal and question why I'm 'disrupting' their prayer by not joining hands. They've told me I don't have to participate but that it's rude not to at least join. Whatever. Sometimes people grab my hand before I can quietly get away and so I'm forced to go through the motions of pretending to talk to imaginary creatures.
For the most part, though, when asked, I say that I'm atheist. I get asked about Jesus and I'm honest and say that he was a pretty rad mythological character and that I like the fact that I'm a social justice warrior like the stories portray him as. I'll talk about helping the poor or the sick, taking care of the ill, how my voting choices reflect this stance, etc and that I wish actual christians were more into behaving like Jesus because the world might be better. I say this knowing that it will tick people off so their response is my own fault, and it never faults to incite serious anger. I just can't help myself. I despise christians who wrap themselves in their faith and then turn around and spit on gays or Muslims or blame the less fortunate for their plight.
So yeah, when I do that passive aggressive thing, then I guess I probably deserve the anger believers toss my way when I admit to being atheist. Other than that, I'm so over it.
Don't get me wrong, most of the time I'm not rude by any means, I just wanted to vent about it because as much as I DO respect everyone's opinions and beliefs, I'm not typically confrontational, but this very last instance, someone I thought was my friend whom I fully respected her beliefs, I opened up and said no I'm not religious, she preceded to attempt to convert me abd when I said no I'm good thanks, we got into a heated debate because of conflicting views sge couldn't let go of when i was like i just wanna enjoy my sandwich that god didnt create,(i didnt actually say that though i was much nicer) she dropped me off back home and she hasn't spoken to me since. We used to talk every day. I guess it was the last wtf straw. Like non religious people are lesser people because we don't find the literal jesus christ as the one and only god or lack there of. I'm only 23 so i have much more of life to learn and explore, but I have been rejected so much because of this. And I don't want to be forced into a bs religion so my daughter won't be shunned because of the parents thinking that I'm horrible because I don't go to church.
Sorry for the rant.
Perfectly understandable.
Very strange that someone who has allegedly seen the glorious light of the gospel would be hostile to someone who has not, and indeed offended that they aren't presently interested. It certainly gives the lie to their claims to love everybody and care about their eternal souls, when all they can come up with in that situation is to try to punish you for not believing. Oh wait ... that's what their god does! Punish them for not believing! Bingo!
I'm still young, so this might happen less as I finely age, but whenever religion comes about (it always seems to) and my first response is I'd rather not get into this topic, or no I don't want to go to your church, or NO I DON'T JUST LOVE GOD(why people even ask that I don't have a clue). But they must inquire WHY. Whether it be in a family setting, work setting, parent meeting setting, or other supposedly platonic settings. People don't stop until they get down and dirty and I finally say I'm not religious. Then people have the audacity to ask what it MEANS. I don't believe in a Jesus Christ/God. They are SHOCKED and all of a sudden think I'm the devil. Guess we aren't going out to lunch anymore.
Do similar scenarios happen to others here?
Yes it happens to me a lot. It happened this past Saturday night while I was visiting friends. My friend's daughter asked if I was an athiest and I explained that yes I was sort of an atheist/agnostic and that blew their minds because no one knew what an agnostic was. No big deal until my friend (drunk) started blabbing about how I really believed in god I was just being stubborn - a very typical response from these bible-thumpers around here. They cannot fathom non-belief - they just naturally assume that you believe in god - you're just mad at it/him/her/FSM, whatever.
She asks "how can you not believe in god?" there's evidence of a creator all around you." And I respond with "how can you believe in something that you've never seen, heard or have one concrete shred of evidence that this god even exists?" Always explaining myself and it shouldn't be that way. I'm just viewed as being confused, mad and stubborn.
Most of my Christian friends and family are not aware of my atheism and as long as I have to live here completely surrounded by yahoos who think their god is going to sweep them away in some sort of "rapture" - I think I will continue to keep it under my hat that I don't believe. I don't care to talk about it with them, I used to think some of my friends/family were smart but not so much anymore. But then again, I was pretty stupid believing that crap for over 40 years so guess I can't point to stupidity, just ignorance.
I was always taught (brainwashed) that atheists were of the devil and were to be avoided, baaaaad people. After talking with many fellow atheists here at C-D since I don't know any in real life, I found out they are just normal people; intelligent and interesting but realistic. They have morals(go figure) and values - but just like any other group of people there are some bad apples. The way these professing "Christians" behave around here you would think they have no idea what their god expects of them or no instruction book to follow. Most have never even read their "buybull" so guess that explains some of it.
Other than that bible book, which is NOT evidence of any god; simply a compilation of fables and fairy tales written by ancient, ignorant sheep herders trying to make some sense of their lives. Funny how there's a OT god and a NT god/Jesus, one is an evil, murderous madman; the other a loving, kind god. Wouldn't that mean Christians are worshiping more than one god? I mean, if the OT and NT gods are one in the same doesn't that make the sky fairy a bit bipolar or schizophrenic? Even if they are the same god, how about the father, son and holy ghost? Three separate entities, three different gods?
Honestly, I think most religious people live with lots of doubt and cling so hard to their religions because of fear - fear of the unknown/nothingness, fear of an eternity burning in hell and fear of questioning this god. Yep, look out - once you start questioning and thinking logically and rationally you're libel to lose your religion too! Best thing I could have ever done for myself and for my well being.
Many believers get ridiculed by Atheists quite often.
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Last Amalekite 1Sam15
BS. What's the ratio of Christian to atheist in this 'Christian nation'?
Quote:
Originally Posted by GoCardinals
What does this have to do with what I stated? Does it make it untrue?
It has everything to do with what you said and you need to answer the question. You know that is a false statement and makes you sound like a "oh woe is me" persecuted Christian that thinks the devil is out to get them.
Atheists may not have much tolerance of religious people because of the heinous things they do in it's name but I have never seen or heard of any atheist ridiculing believers; that is a made up statement. Believers don't understand atheists and therefore are always trying to convert them, getting all up in their face like I stated in my post and what the OP is talking about.
Challenging one's belief is not ridiculing. Personally, I just want believers, namely Christians, to understand and "think" about what it is they actually believe in and why. If all it takes is faith, why hasn't this god ever showed his face to his true followers? I know, I know people would die immediately if they actually saw god. That's a good one from that bible. But come on people, where's the evidence?
I mean why would anyone want to worship an entity that supposedly killed the entire population except for
7 people? Oh and the "Next" time the earth gets destroyed - it will be by fire! Better hope you get caught up in that there "rapture"! Why, just why?
That's the frustration of atheists, if you're talking about heated arguments between atheists and believers - that's something totally different than ridiculing and I betcha 9 times out of 10 the raving lunatic believer is the one starting the conversation - you know, trying to "save" your soul.
Atheists may not have much tolerance of religious people because of the heinous things they do in it's name but I have never seen or heard of any atheist ridiculing believers; that is a made up statement. Believers don't understand atheists and therefore are always trying to convert them, getting all up in their face like I stated in my post and what the OP is talking about.
Challenging one's belief is not ridiculing. Personally, I just want believers, namely Christians, to understand and "think" about what it is they actually believe in and why. If all it takes is faith, why hasn't this god ever showed his face to his true followers? I know, I know people would die immediately if they actually saw god. That's a good one from that bible. But come on people, where's the evidence?
I agree with this entirely, but I also want to mention that there are atheists who will ridicule believers. I'm quite sure the ratio of this vs theists ridiculing atheists is quite low though; based entirely on the significantly higher amount of theists.
Life is a series of compromises and choices that affect the quality of your life. You have to ask yourself how important being true to yourself and your beliefs ARE when in public using very pragmatic evaluations. Are you the type of person who tells her friend that the very expensive dress she just purchased is hideous because that is your true belief?? If so, your social life will have many bumps and rough spots along the way.
Oh no, I'm not as bold to say that someone's style is horrible if they think it's great. If someone were to say, what do you honestly think of it? I would say it definitely looks expensive, and you've achieved your look. If it was my mom though and she wore red i would remind her that red isn't her best color.
But the person I was referring to, she's my age as well, she went into telling me or convincing me that her god is the ONLY god and she KNOWS this, and i said i understand how you feel thank you for sharing with me your beliefs. She KEPT ON AND ON ABOUT IT so I finally said, well, what about everyone else's gods? Are you trying to tell me that every other religion and deity is wrong/false? Because that's really judgemental. And she said yes because our lord and savior is our only god. Okay, let's agree to disagree. I understand how you feel. But you can't just tell everyone that they're wrong, that their beliefs are false because your and yours alone is the only true one. Anyways, I changed the subject after that and I thought everything else went well. But I guess not.
That degree doesn't normally happen, usually when someone finds out I'm not affiliated to any of their choice religions they make a rude remark about me being damned then they walk away and that's the end of it. Maybe it's just my stroke of luck.
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It happened this past Saturday night while I was visiting friends. My friend's daughter asked if I was an athiest
and I explained that yes I was sort of an atheist/agnostic and that blew their minds because no one knew what an agnostic was. No big deal until my friend (drunk) started blabbing about how I really believed in god I was just being stubborn - a very typical response from these bible-thumpers around here. They cannot fathom non-belief - they just naturally assume that you believe in god - you're just mad at it/him/her/FSM, whatever. 
But then again, I was pretty stupid believing that crap for over 40 years so guess I can't point to stupidity, just ignorance.
go figure) and values - but just like any other group of people there are some bad apples. The way these professing "Christians" behave around here you would think they have no idea what their god expects of them or no instruction book to follow. Most have never even read their "buybull" so guess that explains some of it. 
I mean, if the OT and NT gods are one in the same doesn't that make the sky fairy a bit bipolar or schizophrenic? Even if they are the same god, how about the father, son and holy ghost? Three separate entities, three different gods?
That's a good one from that bible. But come on people, where's the evidence? 
