The Christians and other believers you know

[Safe-Keeper]

With all the threads right now condemning the OT and other aspects of Abrahamic faith, I was curious as to how the believers, predominately Christians, you know in your daily life are.

I seem to know three types of believers myself: those who are very openly Christians and keep talking about God and their faith (I know only one of these), those that wear crosses and probably feel pretty religious, but don't talk about their faith much unless the discussion veers that way, and those who don't put much into their faith or otherwise don't really show that they're Christians.

They're all pretty nice people. They get on my nerves sometimes (such as this one guy who seems to take the Flood myth seriously and refers to it as 'God having to drown all the humans' or somesuch), and it gets a bit irritating when the really open girl keeps talking about her faith pretty much every time I'm with her, but none of them seem to harbour irritating 'fundie' tendencies (homophobia, end times hysteria, etc.). or anything like that. I consider myself lucky for knowing the believers I do. Living in ultra-liberal, strongly secular Scandinavia has something to do with it, methinks, but even in Houston it seemed most people, with the exception of only a couple.

 

[quarky]

In my zone, they run the full spectrum, but most are polite and decent people.
The worst part of it, to me, is the political block, and the 'in club' aspect.
Its hard for a non-church goer to get a footing in local politics or the job market.

 

[Hokulele]

All of the ones I know IRL are good people. Mostly due to the fact I am not interested in getting to know any other kind.

 

[Stout]

I'd go for decent folk..

One guy I know who's a Christian and knows I'm an atheist tends to keep his religious views to himself, as I do and on the odd occasion when the topic does come up we just look at each other with that "lets drop it" look and carry on.

The only other christian I know is is now a lapsed christian. He went from being very active in the catholic church to being very active in alternative spirituality ( tarot cards etc) and he's a stand up guy.

Interestingly, I posed the question " In a fight between Samantha of Bewitched and Jeanie of I dream of Jeanie, who would win ? " it was the religious people who seriously considered the outcome while the atheists just laughed at me. The second guy I mentioned spent a good five minutes pondering it.

 

[Dysphemist]

I seem to know three types of believers myself: those who are very openly Christians and keep talking about God and their faith (I know only one of these), those that wear crosses and probably feel pretty religious, but don't talk about their faith much unless the discussion veers that way, and those who don't put much into their faith or otherwise don't really show that they're Christians.

I know people who fit into each of these categories. The first is someone who believes in God so much (you know the kind of people, they really want to let everyone know how much they believe, that they believe so much more strongly than everyone else), and he's a total douchebag. Not to me personally, I think he has a level of respect for me (but he doesn't know me, and if he did I'm sure he wouldn't), but to many other people he's an ass. He's intolerant, against other religions strongly (when we went to a Mosque he refused to go inside, for example), very anti-homosexual, but still arrogant. He told me once, in front of our religion teacher, in a very arrogant tone that he does everything the Bible says, after the teacher told us there in no perfect Christian or any kind of theist.

But he's one of the only people I know IRL who's Christian who acts like that. I have a friend who is also Catholic who isn't anything like the other guy. We only ever bring up his religion when we feel like arguing, and when we do argue it is in a friendly, passive way, we don't hold any grudges, etc.. The kind of debate over religion I have with him I couldn't have with the first guy, or any Christian I have met on this forum.

It seems to me that the stronger the religious faith, the stronger the cocky-ness, aggression and intolerance (I'm sure that isn't always the case, but it is in my experiences).

 

[Safe-Keeper]

I know people who fit into each of these categories. The first is someone who believes in God so much (you know the kind of people, they really want to let everyone know how much they believe, that they believe so much more strongly than everyone else), and he's a total douchebag. Not to me personally, I think he has a level of respect for me (but he doesn't know me, and if he did I'm sure he wouldn't), but to many other people he's an ass. He's intolerant, against other religions strongly (when we went to a Mosque he refused to go inside, for example), very anti-homosexual, but still arrogant. He told me once, in front of our religion teacher, in a very arrogant tone that he does everything the Bible says, after the teacher told us there in no perfect Christian or any kind of theist.

I'm glad my friend who's ultra-Christian is a moderate. She even said she highly respected people of all religions, and people who didn't have a religion, and didn't want to have one. She's friendly, tolerant, slow to anger and she doesn't judge. I wish more Christians would be like her.

There are things I love about living in Scandinavia.

It seems to me that the stronger the religious faith, the stronger the cocky-ness, aggression and intolerance (I'm sure that isn't always the case, but it is in my experiences).

To go out on a limb, it could be because fundamentalists statistically have stronger faith than moderates?

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Mostly good which is the same ratio of non-Christians I know.

 

[Safe-Keeper]

In hindsight, if the poll trend continues this'll be a good thread to refer to whenever fundies claim atheists hate believers.

 

[Tiktaalik]

Percentage-wise, probably most people in general are what I would consider mostly good. Christians don't seem to violate that observation. The people I know run the gamut from really, really deluded, but not necessarily actively evil, through Christian in name only.

I now live around a lot of Mormons, and while I think their religion is bizarre, it's no more bizarre than any other religion I've read about and despite the raking they often get, most of them have been nothing but friendly, generous, and non-obtrusive to me.

 

[Jeff Corey]

I have a friend who is a Buddhist from India with a Ph.D in High Energy Physics. I respect his beliefs and went to a ceremony in Astoria Queens at an ashham when his mother died back in India.
But I want to tell this story. When Subash moved into the garage apartment in back of the apartment we were in, the dirtbag landlord didn't tell him that his hot water was provided by propane gas in a cannister that he had to have replenished. One evening soon after he moved in I was in the back grilling a chicken on the Weber, Subash came out of his place saying, "Oh, golly golly, I am so sweaty and of need of a shower but I have no hot water."
So I said no problem, the landlord didn't tell you, have a shower at our place,welcome to the neighborhood, we have plenty of chicken if you wish to have dinner.
As we were finishing up dinner, our friend Hiro drops by. I introduce , "Hiro, this our new neighbor, Sebash."
"Aah! A Dot head. A dothead stole my grrfreind at Friend Wold Correge!"
"O golly, no. I am a buddhist. My family were untouchables and we became Buddhists. It makes no sense to belong to a religion that oppresses you."

 

[Kittyclaws]

The strongly religious I know tend to be of the "since I'm saved and you're not, I'm better and it's ok the jack over anyone who's not of my faith" sort. These are mostly co-workers and customers as the people I call my friends are mostly non-believers.

 

[RandFan]

They are people. That should be a clue.

It always surprises me that some people can't quite work out the statistical distribution of morality among humans. Of course it's somewhat relative given social pressures and there are anomalies for a number of different variables. However the question really has been rigorously addressed and answered many times over decades ago by social scientists. I would think a common sense analysis of moral reasoning sufficient.

FWIW, Christianity saw a huge leap forward in moral reasoning. It wasn't without its own problems but judged in the light of its times it was quite revolutionary. Not necessarily unique or truly new but it codified and formalized moral precepts such as forgiveness and treating people humanely.

 

[RandFan]

The strongly religious I know tend to be of the "since I'm saved and you're not, I'm better and it's ok the jack over anyone who's not of my faith" sort. These are mostly co-workers and customers as the people I call my friends are mostly non-believers.

Meh~ Hardly a rigorous study. How many Christians are "strongly religious"?

 

[Safe-Keeper]

It always surprises me that some people can't quite work out the statistical distribution of morality among humans.

Oh, I know quite well that most Christians are nice. I started the thread to see how our forum members viewed them. Even though most humans are nice, it's always possible to get unlucky and end up with the 'bad apples'. It's the way life works.

 

[Stout]

Yep...In thinking about it, I can't say I've ever had Christians have a negative effect on my life. I even hung out with this retired couple for a whole day before I found out they were Baptist missionaries.

But then again, I was spared a religious upbringing, so I'm not an angry atheist and I don't do anything that annoys Christians ( read, I'm "boring" ) so I've never been on the receiving end of a Christian morality lecture. Except that time I went to an anti abortion protest, not as a participant, but as a guy whose dentist's office was across the street from the clinic and just happened to have an dental appointment at protest time.

 

[UnrepentantSinner]

Some of my best friends are Christians and other believers. Voted Planet X option. I'm sorry but any poll of this nature that tries to wedge people into anything less than a 100 option poll doesn't take into account the fact that not every human being is a straw man of one characterization or two or three others.

 

[Frozenwolf150]

This thread warrants an explanation, not a vote in a poll.

I've come across all kinds, but I can only get along with the type whom my mere presence does not immediately offend. Of the ones I've gotten along with, one was an Anglican convert from Wicca. She was fairly liberal and felt that she had more in common with the atheists who are willing to challenge all the problematic areas of organized religion than with her fellow Christians. Another is a Catholic who has a very extensive knowledge of history and is a reformed homophobe, so we can talk comfortably about the topic of religion most of the time. At least until I start talking about my views on the afterlife, since one of his greatest fears is that there's nothing after death. I seriously don't know what to say to him to help him with his fears.

Of the ones I didn't get along with were those who believed that faith healing saved their lives, and didn't want to hear otherwise. You can kind of guess how that went down. So excuse me for not wishing to see one of my friends lose their lives to faith healing. I suppose in the end it was a self-fulfilling wish, because they're no longer my friends, thus if anything happens, I won't have to lose any friends to faith healing. This is the only way I can rationalize it without letting it drive me mad.

 

[mikeyx]

Yep...In thinking about it, I can't say I've ever had Christians have a negative effect on my life. I even hung out with this retired couple for a whole day before I found out they were Baptist missionaries.

But then again, I was spared a religious upbringing, so I'm not an angry atheist and I don't do anything that annoys Christians ( read, I'm "boring" ) so I've never been on the receiving end of a Christian morality lecture. Except that time I went to an anti abortion protest, not as a participant, but as a guy whose dentist's office was across the street from the clinic and just happened to have an dental appointment at protest time.

Personally I see as I find pushy christians as annoying as angry, pushy atheists and pushy gay activists all of whom seem happy to force their beliefs on you when you don't want that

 

[westprog]

In hindsight, if the poll trend continues this'll be a good thread to refer to whenever fundies claim atheists hate believers.

Except that there's nothing to stop non-atheists voting.

 

[Stout]

Personally I see as I find pushy christians as annoying as angry, pushy atheists and pushy gay activists all of whom seem happy to force their beliefs on you when you don't want that

I agree

I'm all up for being critical of activists of all stripes with designs on seeing if they themselves can actually live their ideology rather than simply shriek " I'm right, I'm good "

I can understand the gay vs Christian activism seeing as how one group despises the other for reasons that have no basis in rationality. Once rationality is removed from the equation, all we have left is the shouting.

After all, how many people really believe that gay people actually choose to be gay ?