Ah, my dear mom, so irreligious that she wasn't even an Atheist.
Her parents weren't religious, so it was never an issue.
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I'm not religious enough to call myself...
- Thread starter Gawdzilla Sama
- Start date
Her parents weren't religious, so it was never an issue.
arthwollipot
Limerick Purist Pronouns: He/Him
There's no reason to be rude, in my opinion.
Carrot Flower King
Janitor of Lunacy
I'm not religious, which is why I'm an atheist.
If I was religious then I wouldn't be an atheist, being as I would be believing in some class of god.
Whether anyone knows I'm an atheist depends on how much they start shoving their religion at me, as - outwith this sort of discussion - I would not bring it up otherwise.
If I was religious then I wouldn't be an atheist, being as I would be believing in some class of god.
Whether anyone knows I'm an atheist depends on how much they start shoving their religion at me, as - outwith this sort of discussion - I would not bring it up otherwise.
Gawdzilla Sama
TImeToSweepTheLeg
Religitards like to tell me what *I* believe. They seem desperate to have someone else believe what they believe. Seriously, if Genesis doesn't put you off that ◊◊◊◊ then you're hopeless.
Gawdzilla Sama
TImeToSweepTheLeg
The god-botherers get what they deserve. Otherwise religion just doesn't exist.
Gawdzilla Sama
TImeToSweepTheLeg
Okay, I'll shoot them politely if they get in my face with that ◊◊◊◊.
Thermal
August Member
There are many reasons to be rude, not that there is any need to give a reason. Rudeness, like the rose, need not justify its existence to others.
Gawdzilla Sama
TImeToSweepTheLeg
I'm happy to teach people what happens when they get rude.
Thermal
August Member
See? Rude. And like Mt Everest, it is just there.
Gawdzilla Sama
TImeToSweepTheLeg
What's your issue with what I said?
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Even my computer screen is scared of you.
Manopolus
Metaphorical Anomaly
A man of my own heart.
Any relgious label is a comittment to consistency that I have no desire to make. Also, I need no "sense of belonging" based upon a religious label. The degree to which I "believe" in the "divine" is free to vary quite wildly, depending upon what I'm thinking about.
The only consistent thing is that I refuse to assume that a book or a person knows anything useful about the subject of God or gods or mystic forces that I don't have access to. If I have no way to verify it, then don't bother trying to convince me. I'm okay with wacky ideas, but concrete claims are a different matter.
And no... don't call me a "freethinker" either. I have no desire to join a club that constantly adds to what its members are supposed to think as more and more people claim to speak for the group. I already have a name (and a few psuedonyms like Manopolus on ISF), I don't need a religious label grouping me in with others, including a lot of people I don't know.
Basically, I'm just saying that I can think and speak for myself. I don't need a category to do those things for me.
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Gawdzilla Sama
TImeToSweepTheLeg
Don't call me "late for supper."
theprestige
Penultimate Amazing
I can't remember the last time I encountered a religious person, online or off, who wanted to tell me what I believe.
I think what makes an atheist isn't so much whether they deign to call themselves an atheist, but whether they make a narrative of conflict with theists an outsized part of their identity.
Like, ◊◊◊◊ me, man. I've been in churches that aren't half as pushy as your experience with "religitards". How many of these people are you actually encountering throughout your life? One? Three? Any in the last ten years?
Manopolus
Metaphorical Anomaly
In my experience, there is a bit of a difference between people that identify themselves as atheist online vs offline. In the offline version, most people they know don't even notice that many of them are atheists.
Part of it has to do with the difference in time constraints. In person, you have this tendency to be subjected to both interruptions and emotional blackmail that just isn't available in text (relies on nonverbal cues and timing).
But yes... there is definitely also a tendency to use the label as a shortcut to assumptions that don't necessarily follow... and that goes for all of the labels, not just atheist. Agnostic also gets the same treatement, even from people who call themselves atheists.
Here's the kicker: Even two people sitting in the same pew at a religious ceremony don't necessarily have much more in common with each other than either one does with a random atheist. The main similarities that can be identified are basically just vocabulary and associative baggage.
And yes, there is also a difference between which label one adopts and their motivation to engage with those who adopt other labels. Sometimes people only hear the loudest ones, especially when considering the side they don't identify with. You get the same effect in politics, even without resorting to the news programs that intensify it.
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Thermal
August Member
Isn't a pretty good test of how important this is to you reflected by whether you would even click on this thread?
Like, it *is* kinda important to me. Throwing shade on Christians as a whole based on ... stereotypes?... isn't real slamming skeptical.
I cross paths with Christians pretty regularly, including my CCD teaching wife. They are by and large nice folks, often with the Salad Bar approach to the icky parts of theology. The only actual nasty people I run across in this issue are their anti-theist opposite number.
Like, it *is* kinda important to me. Throwing shade on Christians as a whole based on ... stereotypes?... isn't real slamming skeptical.
I cross paths with Christians pretty regularly, including my CCD teaching wife. They are by and large nice folks, often with the Salad Bar approach to the icky parts of theology. The only actual nasty people I run across in this issue are their anti-theist opposite number.
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Manopolus
Metaphorical Anomaly
Well, at least in my case, don't confuse interest (perhaps fascination or a curiosity about human behavior?) with importance. I don't really give a crap what anyone believes, as long as it doesn't impact me in any way. That doesn't mean it's not interesting, and sometimes admittedly a bit annoying as well.
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You are bang on and we're seeing a small part of that nastiness evolving in this thread.
Helen
Implicitly explicit
Sweden is a very secular society, so it's not really an issue here; most people couldn't care less about the beliefs of others, even if they tried. And the kind of passionate anti-theism that seems to exist in the US, is difficult to find here; as far as I can tell, it's a reaction to an overly religious upbringing, and as such, understandable. That said, I have had people here come up to me to tell me that Jesus loves me, but no one has ever thought it important to approach me with the news that Jesus doesn't love me.
Gawdzilla Sama
TImeToSweepTheLeg
Nope.