Am I the only one...?

[Eldora]

Am I the only one who gets hideously frustrated when religious people practically call me stupid and blind?


Yeah. I'm looking at everyone who tries to convince me that Christianity is the only right way. Why? Because they're the ones that I'm surrounded with right now. If it was other religions that were bothering me, then I'd talk about them, too, but it's not.

My boyfriend's a Christian. My best friend's a Christian. The cousin who has been there for me from the time I was born, literally, is a Christian. Everyone reckons that my little brother, who I love most in the entire world, is going to grow up to be a preacher, because he loves God so much. And I love them all. So don't think I'm ranting on all Christians, here, 'cause I'm not.

And I can't count the times that I've helped Christians find their way again, when it was obvious that that was what they wanted; I even bought a little kid a Bible once when he couldn't afford one. If you're a Christian reading this, then please don't take offense, 'cause odds are, I'm not talking about you, 'cause I don't hate most Christians.



It's just a minority of them (like 45% out of 55% minority), who go around acting all snooty and snobby with their nose up in their air. Throwing it in your face that they think they're better than you, because they've got Christ on their side. Telling you you're wrong, looking at you like you're stupid. Trying to preach to you: "Oh, God loves you, Jesus tried to save you."


What especially annoys me is when they something like this:

Come to church. Maybe you'll find Jesus.

Or some bullcrap like that. Can't they see that I don't want to find Jesus? I grew up in a Christian household, but I became an atheist, despite everyone hating it. Can't they see that if I didn't listen to them I won't listen to some random person? I hate it when I'm simply talking to them about something off the wall, and somehow they jump around to religion, and I'm sitting there shrugging my shoulders at them, obviously trying to ignore them, and they still won't shut up.



I especially hate it when they start trying to testimony to deaf ears, like mine. When they're sitting there saying how they came to God, how God saved them from some terrible thing. How they found faith. Okay, I don't mind that. They found their way, they found their guide in life. Why is it so damned hard for them to understand that I do not want to go the same way?



Most of the time, I either or ignore it, or I tell them about how I became an atheist. What problems I had with Christianity that forced me to leave it. I'm never disrespectful to their God, because I know that many of them believe in him very firmly, and I don't want to be disrespectful to Him for their sake.



To get down to the point, what I need to know is this:

How do I learn to bear with these people? They're frustrating as hell, and they seem to be everywhere I turn, and the more open I am about being an atheist, the more of them I have hounding at my door, trying to convert me.


Half of them are either snobby idiots who will only talk to certain types of people (and try to make everyone else feel inferior), dumb people who I know will not make it very far in life, or are continually getting into trouble. Whereas I talk to anyone and everyone, am a straight A student, and have a completely clean record, both in school and out of school. That's the really crappy thing about it: Most of those who attempt to tell me about God, who testify at my face and try to make me feel like they're the only ones listening and seeing and I'm blind and deaf, they're dumb, snobby, stupid people who don't even know how to practice what they're preaching.


Me? I have news for them: Last time I checked, my vision is crystal clear. They're the ones who aren't seeing anything.




My apologies to anyone I may have offended. This is just a whole hell of a lot of emotional buildup from a damned lot of things that have been happening (religiously) in my life lately. And I need help dealing with this shit before I end up going off on a good friend of mine. Who also happens to be over six feet tall and rather violent, which I don't think would be good for my health at all.

[JKmadu619]

I agree with you. It's your life, your opinions. As long as you aren't preaching how much you hate Jesus in the streets it's none of my buisness.

Once you do start preaching Christian hate, then it is my buisness. In the meantime fellow Christians need shut up, sit down and leave athesists be athesits until it directly affects us.

- Justin

[Bubbles37]

I know exactly how you feel. It's totally fine to believe what you want (or don't want) to, just don't shove your beliefs down other peoples' throats!!

[Seebeyondthesurface]

Yeah I am Christian and I completely agree with you. I understand why your mad I would be too if someone was trying to shove their beliefs down my throat. To me religion is a choice so telling someone how they should believe doesn't help them want to believe in it. I don't like Christians who do that because it gives us a bad name. Just so you know we are not all like that. Some people just take things too far. Im sure they think they are just thinking of you because they want you to go to Heaven but even still thats not a good enough reason for them to make you this angry.

I know its really frustrating and maybe try telling them to back off sometimes when it gets to the point where you get really angry. Tell them that "its your decision to make and them doing this isn't helping and if anything its taking you even farther away from religion". Im sure that will get them to stop!

[Gymnophoria]

I can definitely relate to you there. I don't believe in God but my whole family is catholic. My mum has a strict "as long as you live under this roof, you'll go to church every Sunday whether you like it or not" rule and both my parents are against gay marriage. Which is obviously great for me, my wedding will be fun.

Honestly, I've just learned to suck it up and get on with it. I know it won't last forever because I'll move out soon and then I can do and believe in what I like without worrying. Until then, I just have to deal with it.

[Marguerite]

I agree that it is very annoying, but, and maybe this is just because I don't come from a super religious area, but I find it's usually the other way around. For every crazy religious person who is going to tell you to believe or go to hell I bet I could find you 10 atheists who will laugh at the religious for being 'naive' or 'gullible' or 'stupid'.

Just take a quick look around this forum to see the crazy Christian to arrogant atheist ratio.

[Magic.]

I get just as frustrated and angry when religious people throw their beliefs at me and call me stupid/blind etc. But I also get frustrated when non believers do the same thing.
Noone has any firm proof that any one religion either does or does not exist. People should just keep their beliefs to themselves and be happy.
As for getting rid of them, at home there's a lot of people handing out Bibles etc on the street, I say "I have my own beliefs, I won't share them with you because they're private, just as yours should be" usually makes them leave me alone :P

[dr2005]

As Marguerite and Bryden point out, atheists can be (and are) just as guilty of this as well - I've seen a fair bit of that myself. That said, I share your frustration with the more over-zealous Christians who completely miss the point of their faith by being as you say. The best approach is probably not to cause a confrontation, because that's probably what they're looking for in the first place, but to smile, acknowledge what they are saying and move swiftly on. Either that or do what one of my friends did to a fundraiser who kept pestering him and say "This is bordering on harassment" - that also seems to work.

[Eldora]

Originally Posted by Seebeyondthesurface

Yeah I am Christian and I completely agree with you. I understand why your mad I would be too if someone was trying to shove their beliefs down my throat. To me religion is a choice so telling someone how they should believe doesn't help them want to believe in it. I don't like Christians who do that because it gives us a bad name. Just so you know we are not all like that. Some people just take things too far. Im sure they think they are just thinking of you because they want you to go to Heaven but even still thats not a good enough reason for them to make you this angry.

I know its really frustrating and maybe try telling them to back off sometimes when it gets to the point where you get really angry. Tell them that "its your decision to make and them doing this isn't helping and if anything its taking you even farther away from religion". Im sure that will get them to stop!

Heh, I know. A lot of my friends are Christians, and we get along just fine... Mainly 'cause they leave me alone about the way I believe, haha. But even when we do talk about religion, it's more casual, and we pretty much just share ideas.


I know atheists can be the same way. When atheists do it, it makes me just as angry. I'm the type of person that believes everyone should be free to choose what they want without being talked down to, regardless of who is doing the talking down.

The main reason it annoys me is because I try as hard as I can to be a good person, and I'm still told things like this.




I think I should've explained before that one of these guys also happens to be one of my better friends (who my boyfriend hates, but that's another story). We were talking the other day, and he just... Somehow slipped it in. He asked me why I was an atheist, how I could stand believing in nothing, how I could come to church with my mom and still be an unbeliever. It could have gone unnoticed, but it hurt me. And it frustrates me that people could think so little of me because of the way I choose to believe.

[ronymajani]

Well here's the fact: Most religious people (and religion) around the world have false info., not that the religion is wrong but the people teaching them religion or the (priest-pasta-preacher) give out wrong info. (not always and a little) not on purpose or on purpose???
especially Islam and that's one reason arab countries are very behind when it comes to technology and evolution (as a country NOT monkey to human!!!) or people miss understand the meaning of things said in the holy books, and one main thing in all religions are don't discriminate people based on their religion or there believes cause religion is basically a very long list of words that tell you what's right and what's wrong and it's one of the reasons there is so much free will in this world, so just ignore them, and do you know what's ironic? it's that sometimes a non religious person might have a better chance of going to heaven (in a religious point of view) than a religious person. Hope this helps.
Sincerely RNY.M the new teenhelp.org unemployed mentor.

[Of Mike and Men]

I am going to tell you two things, one of them may seem offensive, but I don't intend it to be.

First of all, I believe many of us misunderstand what a Christian is. Christ said Christians.will be known by their love, fruits, and those who follow Christ. If you read Matthew and Acts, I am convinced very few Christians exist, if any. I consider myself someone who tries.to follow God, but I'm far away from being a Christian. In fact, if you believe the Christian God to be the God of modern churches, well, I consider myself an athiest to that.god.

Secondly, the way I've found to deal with others is humility. You seem to be very prideful. And I believe pride to be the root of anger. If you consider yourself lower than those you hate, you will have no anger towards them.

[LostAngels]

I agree entirely, in every way, shape and form.

I am a very open-minded person, and I hate vocalizing judgments that I make in my head because I realize everybody thinks/ feels differently, and everybody is entitled to their own opinion.. EXCEPT when those people are elitists regarding their opinions, which a LOT of religious people are.
When I feel opposed to a certain idea, I ensure to educate myself on the topic to the extent that my opinions are justified. That way, I am not ignorant and have enough knowledge to support my opinions. Sometimes, after a bit of studying, I may even learn to agree with said topics.

This is a topic that I could rant on for hours and hours about, giving infinite reasons behind why I roll my eyes at the sheer thought of religion.


In my opinion, religion is merely the world's largest and oldest scheme, created by power-hungry people who realized convincing large amounts of people to believe in false hope and faith, is indeed more powerful than money itself.

The Bible is hypocritical, contradicting, irrational, and has been re-written over and over to suit the present 'era' more conveniently.

Religion is used by people who are incapable of living their daily lives without some higher power directing their every thought.
It baffles me, the amount of religionists who dedicate themselves so fully and surely to their religion, and try to 'spread' the disease that they call joy, who are completely incapable of sitting down for 5 minutes to think RATIONALLY about their fate.
Less than half of the beliefs held by most religions have been proven, and are not hypocritical or contradicting to another.

I know human kind as a whole are vulnerable, dependant people, but it thoroughly disgusts me how many people belief such obvious, apparent lies.

Following are a few of my favorite quotes regarding religion, that really make a person think.

- "Willful Ignorance is Surrendering Control"
- "I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours" - Stephen Roberts
- Two hands working will always accomplish more than two clasped in prayer.
- All knowledgable men are atheists.
- It takes evil men to do evil things, but for a good man to do evil things- now that, takes religion
- When one man suffers from a delusion, it's called insanity. When multiple people suffer from delusion, it's called religion.
- Faith means not wanting to know what is true.
And my absolute favorite, spoken (or sang) by non-other than Geddy Lee from RUSH:
You can choose a ready guide, in some celestial voice. If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice. You can choose from phantom fears, and kindness that can kill. I will choose a path that's clear. I will choose Freewill

[Snufkin]

Originally Posted by Marguerite

I agree that it is very annoying, but, and maybe this is just because I don't come from a super religious area, but I find it's usually the other way around. For every crazy religious person who is going to tell you to believe or go to hell I bet I could find you 10 atheists who will laugh at the religious for being 'naive' or 'gullible' or 'stupid'.

Just take a quick look around this forum to see the crazy Christian to arrogant atheist ratio.

This, completely. These days I'm finding myself more offended by militant athiests than by preachers of any religion. It totally works both ways. I wouldn't call myself religious or an athiest, it's just the attitude that preachers have on both sides that bothers me.

[Lugez]

Don't have those issues around here. My mom is Christian, my brother is Agnostic, I'm Atheist....I don't even know what my sister and dad are, I just know they're not Atheist..Point is, we still love each other and can live under the same roof without slamming doors.

But I know what you mean because I pretty much lost a friend this way. I've known him since 3rd grade, he's always been there. To cut this story short, he just can't accept that I'm an Atheist and we've gotten into stupid arguments about it. He has called me stupid, and it pretty much ended after that. Now we don't talk much. It's a shame, really.

You shouldn't take offense when people try to convert you, because in the end all they're trying to do is help you. This preacher could Atheist or Christian. But the problem comes when you start belittling another person over their beliefs. If someone is doing this to you, then perhaps its time to find other friends.

[dr2005]

LostAngels: Unfortunately, I feel obliged to point out that accusing religious people of ignorant, deluded and incapable of conducting their own lives without calling upon a fantasy is not particularly open minded and is actually quite offensive. I am a Christian; I also graduated with a 1st class degree in Law, studied Philosophy of Religion as part of my A-levels and am generally regarded as a rational, intelligent human being. I have spent quite a considerable portion of my life studying religion, and have made my choice to remain a Christian based on evaluating the evidence (including quotes like those you mention) and reaching a sound conclusion on it. It may well differ from those reached by persons such as yourself, but it is a sound one nonetheless. As such, it would be prudent not to engage in such broad-brush tactics in future. I respect your beliefs and rationale for holding them; I ask only that you do so in return.

[LostAngels]

I completely agree with where you're coming from, but as mentioned in the original post, my feelings (and that rant) are also due to a lot of emotional build up.
These are my opinions, and I agree they'll often be perceived as offensive.
However, I do not hate religion in itself, I dislike a lot of the people who follow it in an elitist manner.

And it is also very true that there are equally as many arrogant atheists, of course. I may just be one of them, but I can admit that.
Almost every morning at a certain bus stop I am approached by people of different religion who sit down, preach, and as hard as it is to do, of course I bite my tongue. I don't directly attack anyone for their beliefs, I just have a strong opinion on the general concept.

[Snufkin]

I'm not going to be as well spoken as Dave, and will just point out that your post is the exact type of militant athiesm that offends me, LostAngels, even as someone who is not religious. You are preaching much the same way people accuse Christianity of doing so.

[Kate*]

I know what you mean, people are entitled to believe as they wish, but that also means that everyone should respect those who believe differently and stop trying to convert them.

[Marguerite]

Originally Posted by LostAngels

These are my opinions, and I agree they'll often be perceived as offensive.
However, I do not hate religion in itself, I dislike a lot of the people who follow it in an elitist manner.

And it is also very true that there are equally as many arrogant atheists, of course. I may just be one of them, but I can admit that.

To be honest I don't understand how you have any room to complain about people who push their beliefs onto others when you admit to doing the same. I don't see any difference between a crazy religious person ranting at you to follow the 'right path' and an atheist yelling at a religious person to stop being so 'stupid'. I don't often post these 'if we all came together the world would be a better place PUPPIES RAINBOWS SUGARCANE' type statements but maybe if everyone took a chill pill, realised what other people believe is none of their business and stopped trying to push their own beliefs onto everyone else, the world would be a slightly less crappy place to live.

You're only part of the problem LostAngeles so really I don't know why you are so offended by something that you yourself do.

[Eldora]

See.... LostAngels, this is exactly what I'm saying. Not what you said, no, not by a far stretch.


I can't stand seeing anyone pressing their beliefs on an other person, whether they be religious or not hardly matters. If someone doesn't believe in something, they shouldn't be forced to believe in something... And if they do believe in something, they shouldn't always have someone trying to convince them they're wrong. People should just go their own way.


Lugez: I know, and I try not to take offense at it... It's just that sometimes it takes a lot more than what I feel I have to remain calm and tell them who I am and what I believe in -- different people, but the same story over and over. And the thing is, when I'm sitting in school and talking to one Christian friend about it, even more people crowd around us and start talking to me.

While it really should be nothing... It doesn't necessarily offend me. It just... Makes me feel a bit upset, haha.

[Eldora]

Originally Posted by Of Mike and Men

I am going to tell you two things, one of them may seem offensive, but I don't intend it to be.

First of all, I believe many of us misunderstand what a Christian is. Christ said Christians.will be known by their love, fruits, and those who follow Christ. If you read Matthew and Acts, I am convinced very few Christians exist, if any. I consider myself someone who tries.to follow God, but I'm far away from being a Christian. In fact, if you believe the Christian God to be the God of modern churches, well, I consider myself an athiest to that.god.

Secondly, the way I've found to deal with others is humility. You seem to be very prideful. And I believe pride to be the root of anger. If you consider yourself lower than those you hate, you will have no anger towards them.

Sorry, I didn't see this until I'd already posted. My apologies.


If I come across as a proud person... I'm not as proud as I seem on here in real life, or at least I don't think I am. Even if I was, however, I can't consider myself lower than others. It's took years to get me to crawl out of my shell and be confident in myself and in what I believe. I'm not going back to that. I used to be easy to bend and shape to others' will, but I am no longer.

And yeah, I guess I'm proud of that, haha.

Just saying, also, you sound like you believe a lot like my mom. She says stuff like that all the time.

[Dream]

People who try to push their religion on others do so because, to them, religion is like a drug. They are not secure in their faith (in spite of what they may say), so they feel the need to try and get others to follow their religion because it validates them.

Of course, the point of religion is to be free from that kind of insecurity (and many religious people do quite well in this regard), but it is a sentiment prevalent even among the non-religious.

So really, all you need to say to someone who is trying to push Christ or Christianity on you is this: "Don't tell me you are a Christian. Show me you a Christian by living your life as Jesus intends you too (because I, as a non-Christian, do not know what that is), and I'll decide whether or not to become Christian based on your example"- because there are a lot of people who think that being Christian automatically makes them a good person, but they don't understand the difference between being a good person in word versus being a good person in deed. In other words, a lot of religious people can talk the talk, but they can't walk the walk. If the truly were concerned with doing good deeds, then they wouldn't care whether or not others decided to label themselves Christian or not, and they especially wouldn't care if someone didn't believe in their God.

Or if you want to be argumentative, you should read philosophy. Epicurus comes to mind.