# Am I the only person on the Internet who believes in God? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 24, 2010, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-person-on-the-internet-who-believes-in-god/554944 "2010-09-24T23:41:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-person-on-the-internet-who-believes-in-god/554944/221 "2010-09-28T22:47:29Z")
> [@Hold\_Fast](#): > > I’ve always loved when atheists boast so much about this idea. Truth is, atheists really just don’t get **real** religion, and I’ll explain with a little metaphor as to why. > > However, if you took this kid and put him next to the professor, and then asked the two to explain everything there is to know about swimming, the kid would look like a moron and the professor would look like the clear expert. Yet, when it comes down to actual swimming, well..we all know whats up. And thats just it. Athiests don’t get how they can seem so smart in telling religious people about how their wrong, and yet still have such a tough time getting through to the religious. > > Now this isn’t so much an argument going in the direction of why God is real, but just as to why this article you presented is nonsense. Some of the most moral people I’ve ever known are the most simple minded I’ve ever known. The analogy fails since swimming is an actual demonstrable skill that can be observed and is, well, useful. All you’re saying here is essentially "You guys just don’t get how intuitively I believe this delusion. I believe it _SO MUCH_ and you just don’t get it! No, we do get it. This is not a point in your favor. > [@Hold\_Fast](#): > > Ha, well Atheists have no evidence of God because their not **looking** for evidence of God–there looking for evidence of Atheism. You’ll notice when you have loads of people all looking for the same thing–be it there or not–they’ll find it. WTF does that even mean? Does this apply to all subjects where people have to decide for themselves on evidence? Big foot? Tooth fairies? > [@](#): > > People have sometimes asked me why I believe in something that is so clearly wrong. Because–well–I have all the evidence I need. Now I’m not a Christian because my parents were. I’m not a Christian because I read some fancy words in the bible and thought they were cool and so dedicated my life to them. No, you see, I’m a Christian because I prayed to a spiritual being and called him Christ, and he answered me. Not in audible words or a personal messege, but spiritually. Now I know that you think I’m a crazy schizophrenic…but I just don’t care, because I know I’m not. Actual crazy schizophrenics think the same thing, right? I mean, all crazy people think they’re sane. People feel what they want and expect to feel. You’d be amazed at how powerful the placebo effect is. > [@](#): > > And with the majority of the worlds population telling us they also have spiritually talked to another being on some level, I take that as dang good evidence–even if not for Christianity, certainly for the existence of a spiritual presence interacting with our world. So how do you explain the multiple religions then? Why are some “spiritual presences” mutually exclusive with others? Do you think all of the various gods are all out there interacting with their chosen people? The fact that everyone feels that there’s a spiritual presence is actually evidence against a god. It shows that people are scared and need a way to make sense of the world, and so they invent religion. This is why you can get people of completely mutually exclusive faiths all to be so convinced that their god is real. The fact that so many people believe in exclusive gods so sincerely only demonstrates that it’s perfectly plausible that the majority of people will deeply, intuitively accept this delusion even in the absense of any god. It’s a psychological need. > [@](#): > > I think one of the best ways to describe Christianity is applying it to a well known story…Whorton hears a Who. Childish example..yea..but it get the point across quite well. > > Now if you take whorton as the Christian, and the whos as God, you’ll see somewhat the prediciment we’re in. Now you could line up every single animal in Whortons world and have them tell him hes wrong and stupid and crazy…yet he knew he wasn’t..he knew he heard them..and he absolutly **knew** that they were there. They could provide all sorts of evidence that he was wrong, such as the fact that this has never happened, and thats not the way things work, and that their are no little people in flowers, but it would have been the same. He knew he was right. And because we Christians know that this \*\*is \*\*true, you can find all throughout history Christians who absolutly would not recant what they knew to be true, even if they be presented with a torturous and horrible death. Tell me how a person who believes in ghosts, or big foot, or UFOs, or shadow people, or anything you can come up with couldn’t make this same point? ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-person-on-the-internet-who-believes-in-god/554944/222 "2010-09-28T23:48:35Z")
I am an atheist who has looked for evidence of God. I think I could probably drum up a character reference if necessary. I agree with the idea that , generally, people will find what they want to seek out, but being an atheist - or being religious, for that matter - doesn’t imply that one has sought out atheist or religious evidence. In my case, i’d like to think that i’m a searcher for truth, and I certainly wouldn’t say that’s a description that applies only to me or only to atheists. The problem in my eyes is that, no matter what people believe, and I have no doubts whatsoever of people’s professed belief or lack of belief, the existence of disagreement means that we shouldn’t take that sincere opinion and use it as a reason one way or the other to prove anything. Either I am unable to recognise the truth, or religious people are, or we both are; but whichever holds the truth, while we can certainly follow our ideals we can’t trust them in and of themselves. ---
**Author:** ![sisu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@sisu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sisu)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-person-on-the-internet-who-believes-in-god/554944/223 "2010-09-29T00:00:46Z")
Ah how they battle, the loony so called christians and the holier than thou athiests. IMO you are both wrong for the same reason. You are arrogant enough to believe that your view is the only one that is right based on principles that you hold dearly, Bible vs Logic. Maybe there is no God, maybe there is, but if he exits he is not some story book daddy figure or 8 armed shiva monster! We are talking about the energy of the universe, religion is an attempt by our feeble minds to try and comprehend this. Now what happens we die? Who know but I am willing to believe that our life energy lingers on. So what am I? Well I consider my self a Christian, this is my cultural background so it gives me a comfortable place to explore what is means to be more than just a meat bag on this planet. But we must respect all others for thier beliefs, yes even athiests and crazy literalists. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-person-on-the-internet-who-believes-in-god/554944/224 "2010-09-29T00:06:08Z")
> [@sisu](#): > > Ah how they battle, the loony so called christians and the holier than thou athiests … . High horse fail. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-person-on-the-internet-who-believes-in-god/554944/225 "2010-09-29T00:12:01Z")
> [@sisu](#): > > So what am I? Someone who is deluding themselves so as to mitigate the fear of death. You certainly aren’t someone who is using rational thought to make decisions. Again, if it makes you happier, good for you. But don’t think that others should respect such flimsy and self-serving fantasies. ---
**Author:** ![pikey\_pete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pikey\_pete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pikey_pete)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-person-on-the-internet-who-believes-in-god/554944/226 "2010-09-29T00:30:31Z")
the great thing about being atheist is that you don’t have to believe, you can be completely sure. ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-person-on-the-internet-who-believes-in-god/554944/227 "2010-09-29T00:47:35Z")
> [@Lobohan](#): > > You certainly aren’t someone who is using rational thought to make decisions. Sure he is. He has rationally thought that there can’t be angels sitting on clouds as we’d have seen them with binoculars by now, or crashed into them with them in airplanes. So, he has come up with a substitute that moves the goal posts further away and he’s being smug with his ingenuity for confounding the unbelievers. Unfortunately, only those as deluded as him are likely to fall for it. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-person-on-the-internet-who-believes-in-god/554944/228 "2010-09-29T01:32:18Z")
> [@sisu](#): > > Ah how they battle, the loony so called christians and the holier than thou athiests. IMO you are both wrong for the same reason. You are arrogant enough to believe that your view is the only one that is right based on principles that you hold dearly, Bible vs Logic. If you discount the value of logic, then that destroys the worth of all arguments, including whichever ones you are making. It’s more than just conceding the argument; it’s your argument committing the intellectual equivalent of suicide. > [@sisu](#): > > We are talking about the energy of the universe, religion is an attempt by our feeble minds to try and comprehend this. Now what happens we die? Who know but I am willing to believe that our life energy lingers on. There’s no such thing as “life energy”. and if there was, there’s no reason to assume that it would “linger” any longer than body heat does. Nor is there any reason to think it would matter to the dead if it did, any more than a cooling corpse cares that it isn’t room temperature yet. > [@sisu](#): > > But we must respect all others for thier beliefs, yes even athiests and crazy literalists. No, we don’t have to respect others for their beliefs. Some beliefs are stupid, some are dangerous. Tolerance of the beliefs of others means that you don’t go around attacking or imprisoning people for their beliefs as long as they avoid harming others; it doesn’t mean you have to pretend you respect those beliefs. > [@pikey\_pete](#): > > the great thing about being atheist is that you don’t have to believe, you can be completely sure. That kind of comes naturally when the other side has no evidence and makes claims that are logically and physically impossible. I’m also “completely sure” that my home town is safe from an invasion of orcs or rakshasa too. ---
**Author:** ![EVERYNAMEISTAKEN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ac8455/32.png) [@EVERYNAMEISTAKEN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EVERYNAMEISTAKEN)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-person-on-the-internet-who-believes-in-god/554944/229 "2010-09-29T01:34:25Z")
> [@etv78](#): > > This isn’t Pit worthy, but not Mundane. Seems like everytime I mention God in a post (in general, not just SDMB) people make comments with the underlying attitude,“Ain’t that precious, you believe in some Invisible Guy in the Sky.” No, of course you aren’t. There are entire forums just for Christians. ---
**Author:** ![Mozart1220](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Mozart1220](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mozart1220)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-person-on-the-internet-who-believes-in-god/554944/230 "2010-09-29T04:35:46Z")
I was watching Real Time with Bill Maher last Friday, and I found out the Pat Tillman and his family are Atheists. His brother was on and said he was very insulted when John McCain showed up at the funeral and said (paraphrasing) “Pat is with God now, and we will all see him again” The brother stood up in front of several hunderd at the funeral and said “Pat is NOT with God, he’s fucking DEAD”. Why wouldn’t McCain and others who were there with him know how insensitive it was to say to a family of Atheists that their famly member was “with God”. If they presumed to kknow the family enough to speak at the funeral, you’d have thought they would have known. The brother said "I would never have gone into their church and said “God is a myth”. I’m sure the actual quotes are on You tube someplace, it’s a fascinating interview. Quite a family. Here it is… [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VflQyZmHXrs) ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-person-on-the-internet-who-believes-in-god/554944/231 "2010-09-29T05:37:32Z")
That kind of thing is all too common from the poor, downtrodden, Christians. They don’t seem to respect lack of belief. When my PhD adviser, who was an atheist, died suddenly someone had to bring in a damn minister to his memorial event. This guy was not a rabid fundie, in fact he had the decency to be embarrassed, but he still came. On the more wacko scale, when my step-mother’s grandson (who lived with his Christian mother after she and my step-brother got divorced) turned fundie and got married in a fundie church (in California) his father-in-law took it upon himself to lecture all his Jewish relatives about how we were going to hell. I’d love to hear examples of atheists being so rude, aside from our sin of existing, that is. With one part of their mind they are so sure that they can be obnoxious pigs when confronted with the unsaved, with the other they plead faith when asked for evidence. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-person-on-the-internet-who-believes-in-god/554944/232 "2010-09-29T15:19:10Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > My mom has you beat. She was telling me last night how one time she really really needed a tape player with a counter on it for a birthday party, but couldn’t find one in any store she looked at. So, naturally enough, she prayed - and the word “Sears” popped into her mind. She went directly there, and found a tape player with the counter she needed. > > Pretty compelling-sounding, isn’t it? Of course, it’s not like she hadn’t heard of Sears before that moment. And she certainly tucked a way in her brain a list of stores she’d already checked. So methinks maybe my mom has trained her subconscious to kick into gear for her when she meditates. Damn that’s unfortunate. Just at that very moment little Johnny was praying that his mom would be healed of cancer and God was too busy with looking in the Yellow Pages for a tape recorder that he didn’t hear him. ---
**Author:** ![Algher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Algher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algher)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-person-on-the-internet-who-believes-in-god/554944/233 "2010-09-29T16:09:10Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > That kind of thing is all too common from the poor, downtrodden, Christians. They don’t seem to respect lack of belief. When my PhD adviser, who was an atheist, died suddenly someone had to bring in a damn minister to his memorial event. This guy was not a rabid fundie, in fact he had the decency to be embarrassed, but he still came. On the more wacko scale, when my step-mother’s grandson (who lived with his Christian mother after she and my step-brother got divorced) turned fundie and got married in a fundie church (in California) his father-in-law took it upon himself to lecture all his Jewish relatives about how we were going to hell. I’d love to hear examples of atheists being so rude, aside from our sin of existing, that is. > > With one part of their mind they are so sure that they can be obnoxious pigs when confronted with the unsaved, with the other they plead faith when asked for evidence. I don’t see why that minister deserves the appellation of “damned” if he was invited, and especially if he realized the problem after arrival. Similar to McCain at the Tillman funeral - unless the Senator was made aware that Pat was an atheist, I would give him a pass. “He is in a better place” type comments are typical funeral speak, and not meant to offend. Somebody on McCain’s team blew it on the briefing before the event. I don’t think that the faithful have any sort of a monopoly on boorish behavior. I have had several experiences of atheists sounding not much different from some in this thread. I live in an area surrounding by faculty, which seems to attract a slightly higher number of atheists willing to be public about their feelings (tenure perhaps protects them from the anti-atheist bigotry represented in the various polls cited here). Many of them have made these types of statements to me before finding out that I am a Christian (and sometimes after, when they have forgotten). ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-person-on-the-internet-who-believes-in-god/554944/234 "2010-09-29T16:45:27Z")
> [@Algher](#): > > I don’t see why that minister deserves the appellation of “damned” if he was invited, and especially if he realized the problem after arrival. Similar to McCain at the Tillman funeral - unless the Senator was made aware that Pat was an atheist, I would give him a pass. “He is in a better place” type comments are typical funeral speak, and not meant to offend. Somebody on McCain’s team blew it on the briefing before the event. Tillman’s atheism was no secret. If it had happened today I would excuse it due to McCain’s obvious mental decay, but he was still somewhat rational back then. It kind of illustrates the denial of mainstream religious people that atheism actually exists, kind of like asking one of those nice male roommates (so friendly they share a bed) when he is going to find a nice girl and settle down. For the memorial, if the minister was a friend (which was not clear) he could have made non-religious comments. But, like I said, it was inappropriate, not evil. He wasn’t sending anyone to damnation. > [@](#): > > I don’t think that the faithful have any sort of a monopoly on boorish behavior. Hell no. Karl Rove is an atheist. > [@](#): > > I have had several experiences of atheists sounding not much different from some in this thread. I live in an area surrounding by faculty, which seems to attract a slightly higher number of atheists willing to be public about their feelings (tenure perhaps protects them from the anti-atheist bigotry represented in the various polls cited here). Many of them have made these types of statements to me before finding out that I am a Christian (and sometimes after, when they have forgotten). Did they do this in a church? I don’t actually object to Christians being honest about the rest of us being damned - it is the heart of the religion, after all. My examples are of Christians acting inappropriately. My step-nephew’s wedding affair had nothing to do with atheism, that was pure anti-Semitism, but it comes from the same place, the conviction that you know the truth exclusively. ---
**Author:** ![Algher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Algher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algher)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-person-on-the-internet-who-believes-in-god/554944/235 "2010-09-29T17:07:35Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Hell no. Karl Rove is an atheist. Yeek. Can you image how bad it would have been if he were a fundie!?! [shudder] ---
**Author:** ![Trepa\_Mayfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@Trepa\_Mayfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trepa_Mayfield)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-person-on-the-internet-who-believes-in-god/554944/236 "2010-09-29T19:45:08Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > > [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > > > **Mince** ’s argument against atheism (which has to be at least distantly related to Pascal’s Wager): Whether you’re right or wrong, you’ll never get the chance to say, “See, I told you so.” 🙂 > > Right, because that’s why I’m an atheist. So I can taunt theists. I just want to point out that I, a fellow atheist, disagree with the above. And yes, I’m aware that it was almost certainly humor, but you just know that someone will show up using this as evidence that all atheists are evil… ---
**Author:** ![Mozart1220](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Mozart1220](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mozart1220)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-person-on-the-internet-who-believes-in-god/554944/237 "2010-09-29T19:54:11Z")
> [@Algher](#): > > > [@Voyager](#): > > > > That kind of thing is all too common from the poor, downtrodden, Christians. They don’t seem to respect lack of belief. When my PhD adviser, who was an atheist, died suddenly someone had to bring in a damn minister to his memorial event. This guy was not a rabid fundie, in fact he had the decency to be embarrassed, but he still came. On the more wacko scale, when my step-mother’s grandson (who lived with his Christian mother after she and my step-brother got divorced) turned fundie and got married in a fundie church (in California) his father-in-law took it upon himself to lecture all his Jewish relatives about how we were going to hell. I’d love to hear examples of atheists being so rude, aside from our sin of existing, that is. > > > > With one part of their mind they are so sure that they can be obnoxious pigs when confronted with the unsaved, with the other they plead faith when asked for evidence. > > I don’t see why that minister deserves the appellation of “damned” if he was invited, and especially if he realized the problem after arrival. Similar to McCain at the Tillman funeral - unless the Senator was made aware that Pat was an atheist, I would give him a pass. “He is in a better place” type comments are typical funeral speak, and not meant to offend. Somebody on McCain’s team blew it on the briefing before the event. > > I don’t think that the faithful have any sort of a monopoly on boorish behavior. > > I have had several experiences of atheists sounding not much different from some in this thread. I live in an area surrounding by faculty, which seems to attract a slightly higher number of atheists willing to be public about their feelings (tenure perhaps protects them from the anti-atheist bigotry represented in the various polls cited here). Many of them have made these types of statements to me before finding out that I am a Christian (and sometimes after, when they have forgotten). Anyone who didn’t know the family well enough to know that they were Athiests had no business speaking at the funeral in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Mozart1220](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Mozart1220](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mozart1220)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-person-on-the-internet-who-believes-in-god/554944/238 "2010-09-29T20:05:21Z")
Once I was helping a friend install a PA system in his church. We were trying to run a “snake” from the stage to the mixing board at the back of the sanctuary through a 1.5" PVC pipe under the concrete floor. It had to make a 90 degree upward turn under the area where the board was and it just didn’t want to make the bend. I was getting very frustrated and went and sat down in a pew to cool off. I kept asking myself. "How the heck can I make this happen? It was driving me nuts. After a few minutes it occured to me that there was a kitchen in the church with a refrigerator. Maybe there was butter I could use to lube up the cable. Sure enough, after greasing the thing up it slipped through and made the bend. Problem solved! My friend said that God saw my frustration and essentially “gave” me the answer. We were in a church after all. I thought it was probably more a case of me calming down so I could think clearly. ---
**Author:** ![Algher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Algher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algher)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-person-on-the-internet-who-believes-in-god/554944/239 "2010-09-29T20:20:44Z")
> [@Mozart1220](#): > > > [@Algher](#): > > > > I don’t see why that minister deserves the appellation of “damned” if he was invited, and especially if he realized the problem after arrival. Similar to McCain at the Tillman funeral - unless the Senator was made aware that Pat was an atheist, I would give him a pass. “He is in a better place” type comments are typical funeral speak, and not meant to offend. Somebody on McCain’s team blew it on the briefing before the event. > > > > I don’t think that the faithful have any sort of a monopoly on boorish behavior. > > > > I have had several experiences of atheists sounding not much different from some in this thread. I live in an area surrounding by faculty, which seems to attract a slightly higher number of atheists willing to be public about their feelings (tenure perhaps protects them from the anti-atheist bigotry represented in the various polls cited here). Many of them have made these types of statements to me before finding out that I am a Christian (and sometimes after, when they have forgotten). > > Anyone who didn’t know the family well enough to know that they were Athiests had no business speaking at the funeral in the first place. I would lay the blame on the people inviting the speakers then. “Algher, we would like you to speak at Xs funeral. FYI, he was an atheist so we would appreciate it if you would take that into consideration when making your remarks.” ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2010, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-person-on-the-internet-who-believes-in-god/554944/240 "2010-09-29T20:29:24Z")
> [@Algher](#): > > > [@Mozart1220](#): > > > > Anyone who didn’t know the family well enough to know that they were Athiests had no business speaking at the funeral in the first place. > > I would lay the blame on the people inviting the speakers then. “Algher, we would like you to speak at Xs funeral. FYI, he was an atheist so we would appreciate it if you would take that into consideration when making your remarks.” “Minister, we’d like you to speak at X’s funeral. He was an atheist so his satanic family is going to try to damn his already-lost soul even further by excluding even the slightest light of God’s Love from his internment. We need you to come and correct this deliberate evil ‘oversight’.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-person-on-the-internet-who-believes-in-god/554944.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-the-only-person-on-the-internet-who-believes-in-god/554944.md?page=13)