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Rude W*nkers I have met - Atheism & Religion in the Social Context 2


Stubby

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Religious people come to my door all the time and try to convert me. Talk about rude and tacky. The only reason that you should be at my door is if you've received a hand-lettered invitation in the mail, with a date and time, and a RSVP card.

What if they need help locating their bra?
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Look, the Pope already decreed that bras are tools of the devil, since they act as a hindrance to unprotected sex, and encourage abortions, so they shouldn't be looking anyway. If they don't understand, I don't know how much simpler the Church can make it.

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Oh, geez. I would never be offended if someone says that they'll pray for me, think about me, send me good thoughts, wish me good karma, or burn sage to clear things for me. They are all facets of the same thing. It is about people offering their version of positive spiritual feelings towards you. If you think that is rude, then it's a you problem, not a them problem.

Regarding door to door religious people, If I'm around, I do answer the door, let the people say hello and give me their literature. I don't let them inside the house as I don't care to hear their proselytizing. They dress well, are often young and want to have a good presence so you will listen and be open to possibly checking out their church. In a sense they are the drug reps of religion. I feel for them. I then close the door and promptly recycle their material.

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Oh, geez. I would never be offended if someone says that they'll pray for me, think about me, send me good thoughts, wish me good karma, or burn sage to clear things for me. They are all facets of the same thing. It is about people offering their version of positive spiritual feelings towards you. If you think that is rude, then it's a you problem, not a them problem.

There are two sorts of praying.

The first type is as you say, "Oh I'm so sorry for your loss. I will keep you in my prayers." That's ok. Still a bit annoying, but it is ok.

The second type is, "Oh, you're an Atheist/Muslim/SomeChristianityFlavorThatIsNotMine. I will pray for your soul and for God to reveal Himself to you." This is not okay.

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Sologdin,

There's a guy at my church, much younger than me, of Serbian decent who is convinced the Bosnian Muslims, Croats, and Kosovar Albanians are servants of the illumanati and the Anti-Christ. We don't associate much.

Ser Scott, in my RC girls' high school, I made friends in grade 9 with Slovenians, Croatians and Serbs who were in my class. After a few months, one by one each one of them came to me, quietly, pulled me aside, and told me they had noticed I was friendly with the Croat/Serb/Slovenian, and I should understand that I needed to be very. very cautious dealing with them because they were untrustworthy and essentially evil people. And we were all RC, the others were not Orthodox. It was rather, um, educational. I discussed it with my parents, who gave me a rundown on what happened in Yugoslavia in the war, and some understanding about ancient rivalries (I'm of Polish descent) but it took me by surprise nonetheless.

/sp

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The second type is, "Oh, you're an Atheist/Muslim/SomeChristianityFlavorThatIsNotMine. I will pray for your soul and for God to reveal Himself to you." This is not okay.

If they leave me alone or drop the subject after saying this, I don't really have a problem. Same with an atheist who simply expresses his belief then stops.

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There are two sorts of praying.

The first type is as you say, "Oh I'm so sorry for your loss. I will keep you in my prayers." That's ok. Still a bit annoying, but it is ok.

The second type is, "Oh, you're an Atheist/Muslim/SomeChristianityFlavorThatIsNotMine. I will pray for your soul and for God to reveal Himself to you." This is not okay.

Absolutely agree. In my life, I've only received the former type and not the latter. I tend to stay away from those types. No one has started talking in tongues, or getting stigmata in front of me, at least not recently.

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This is a head-scratcher. I'm with you through "castigate" for the most part, but you're losing me when you get to "dismiss."

Well I don't confront people about it, interrogating them as to whether they've ever had a dark night of the soul in which they questioned all their assumptions about life.

I think a position reached after long consideration is worth more than one simply received, but I'm not holding people to a standard. (I don't actually care enough for that).

I let people be with whatever their beliefs are.

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FB- political, cultural, and geographic disputes trump religious similarities. That was a horrible, horrible war. We have close Croatian friends who fled the war. I cannot imagine what they went through.

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So this has pretty much run its course.

To sum things up:

People suck.

Don't knock at LooN's door unless you are handing out blowjobs.

And you may only pray for TP if you are praying for a hot guy to "reveal" himself to TP.

/end thread

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This seems like a story for the weird events thread.

I have a friend that used to pray that she'd get stigmata. This was when she was probably 10. We all agreed that was a "unique" wish. I went in the complete opposite direction. I used to pray to the Virgin Mary, asking her to please NOT appear to me as surely I would have a heart attack. I've always been practical that way.

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Religious people come to my door all the time and try to convert me. Talk about rude and tacky. The only reason that you should be at my door is if you've received a hand-lettered invitation in the mail, with a date and time, and a RSVP card.

That why Sciborg2 hides in your bushes and watches you change.

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You can tell people you disagree with them without insulting them.

You can and should certainly tell people that you disagree with them without resorting to personal insults or name calling. But it seems that religion is one of those things where people's beliefs are part of their identity, so that when you tell some people that you don't agree with their beliefs, you're effectively telling them that their self identification is wrong.

Is there a difference between saying that a belief is stupid and a person is stupid? I think that there is. I am sure that I have stupid beliefs (and unexamined false beliefs). I am sure that there are things that I thought I knew that I am wrong about. And I am sure that I judge other people's stupidity on unfair measures sometimes (I was reading a Yelp review yesterday where the person started "I hate to be the decenter" and I immediately dismissed their opinion on the restaurant!) (And later that same day I misspelled xeriscaping as zero-scaping.) (I must stop with the parenthetical comments, they're getting out of control.) But I don't consider everyone a stupid person who holds some stupid or wrong beliefs. I think that belief in the Christian god is stupid. I don't think that everyone who believes that is a stupid person in any other aspect. I accept that other people think that my belief that there is no god is stupid.

But this hurt my feelings on a deeply irrational level. My father used to have a bumper sticker that said "April 1: National atheist's day; the fool says in his heart there is no god". He's never done anything like that since I came out. But it makes me cry a little inside to know that no matter what he might say now about how he thinks I'm a reasonable and rational person with one wrong belief, I know how he really feels when he's uncensored. It would probably be hypocritical to wish I didn't know that.

I always talk to the door to door people. I LOVE talking to the door to door people. I'm disappointed that the Mormons have never come by. I always start by telling them that I'm an atheist, and I always let them take the lead in presenting their case to me. I always directly address what they've said instead of trying to trip them up with Biblical contradictions and so forth.

OMG (maybe it should be OMg though!), thank you guys and whoever started this topic for helping me get my post count up.

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(I must stop with the parenthetical comments, they're getting out of control.)

Are you a LISP programmer by chance?

That why Sciborg2 hides in your bushes and watches you change.

Again, so many jokes, but I worry I'll make people uncomfortable.

eta:

thank you guys and whoever started this topic for helping me get my post count up.

Admittedly, if I had approached this from the other direction complaining about religious proselytizers it wouldn't be as interesting a conversation.

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FB, you've been a member for 7 months and you have half my post count. I need help. Or maybe you need help. Hard to say.

ETA: Sci: C#/C++, so I rarely use parentheses. I have been reading Ajvaz though, so finding it an acceptable writing strategy to start and stop other stories/thoughts in the middle of a paragraph.

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