And, just to be the exception that tests the rule, I’ve lived all my adult life in Georgia, and the only comment I’ve ever gotten is from my Baptist cousin, who was distressed that I don’t know the love of God. But she’s a very nice person, much more of a “mercy” than “judgment” Christian, and she’s never mentioned it again, nor does she treat me any the worse.
Most of my current circle of friends are devout Catholics (and Republicans), but they don’t seem to care too much about my being either a freethinker or a liberal. Just not an issue.
Nah, they’re just practical. You put up the plastic tree and they don’t droop and lose needles in the sweltering heat while you’re off BBQ-ing at the beach.
(Mid-summer Christmas… has a slightly sureal edge to it… the decorations with their winter themes… exchanging Christmas cards with sleighs and snow on them while drinking ice cold beer and BBQ-ing steaks…)
It comes up in small ways in my office. We’ll chat about the weekend and a few mention having gone to church, or one girl talks about her past and things that happened ‘before she was saved’, or other things like that.
I’ve been lucky at work in that no one cares if I believe or not. We have a Hindu, a few christians and another that’s nominally christian at this point and agnostic me in my smaller work group of 6.
I don’t really discuss religion although my Facebook page does have non existent listed as my religious view. My mother hates it and thinks I’ll find Jesus eventually (although I’m not looking for him) and several friends kid me about it in a humorous way and I tease them back without hard feelings on either side.
The one person at work who asked me about religion didn’t believe I was atheist and has never mentioned it again.
‘Apatheist’ seems to have become a fairly widely accepted term, at least on the internet. Even if it’s not named as such it’s pretty much the assumed default in the UK in my experience. Like others have said it always seems kind of weird to me just how much of an issue someone’s belief (or lack of) is in other parts of the world.
I created this thread as I was hearing to reactions on the news to a new billboard that went up in our area. It reads “You don’t need God - to hope, to care, to love, to live.” Every moterist interveiwed was angry at or upset by the billboard. It reminded me of the story I told about the old lady that prayed with me.
And I should be worried about an unholy thing? Serious, though, I don’t entirely approve of the practice of raising trees just to cut them down every year and stick them in your living room. I swear to you however, I’ve never ever said anything to anybody, I just enjoy them in other people’s house. I made my old tree last at least six years. Last year I bought a plastic pre-lighted Christmas tree and will probably make that last the same amount. I can’t stand cleaning up pine needles everywhere and it’s bloody cold when it comes time to get rid of it.
Wait! You’re saying it snows in the winter? All those snowflake ornaments are suddenly making a lot more sense. In southern california snow is more of a theoretical concept - much like God.
Which brings me to my next point. I actually came out as an atheist to my parents last week. My dad’s only real objection was that he couldn’t believe that I didn’t see how things in the world were “going that way”. By this, of course, he meant that the apocalypse was imminent and the antichrist was already in his preparation stage. I didn’t have much to say to this as there wasn’t much “there” there.
My mom, on the other hand, was deeply hurt and confused. I did feel bad in as far as I don’t actively desire to cause my parents grief, but I couldn’t lie to them. At several points she told me that I must be under the influence of Satan. She also said that this must be happening because I am angry at God for not having everything I’ve ever wanted. I specifically told her that this was not the case as when I did believe I always thought it was weird that I was never angry with God. Even after saying this to her several times she still insisted that this must be the reason. I mostly expected this as I can understand where she’s coming from so I didn’t really take it too hard. The next day she came to me and old me that she still loves me and I really appreciated that. It wasn’t in any condescending way, more of a nurturing motherly way. I think this was her first step in accepting me and I am happy that she made it.
I told one friend last saturday. He is Orthodox and used to be into the hardcore and punk scenes and he was an atheist himself in high school. His take was to tell me that this is just a phase. I was about to say: “well I don’t think it is but no one knows the future and who knows, maybe I will have a change of heart.” But I only got out: “well I” when he interrupted and said: “NO IT’S JUST A PHASE!”
Lastly I told my really close group of (mostly) Religious friends just a couple of days ago and I was really proud of the way they were very mature about it. They didn’t call me names. They asked me questions about how long I had believed this and such. They were supportive and caring and understanding that it wasn’t easy for me to tell them. My friends are awesome.
And now I’m telling all of you. I really don’t expect any abuse from this crowd.
I’ve been heading in this direction for about six years. I would have periods of “walking away” and then find some reason to come back to faith. In retrospect I usually went back because it was more comfortable and one time for a girl.
About six months ago any vestiges of faith simply disappeared. I tried to hold on to it (because I had always been told that that’s what you had to do) but slowly but surely I realized that I simply didn’t believe the bible or the supernatural or anything that would allow me to remain in the fold.
I was so relieved when I finally admitted it to myself about a month ago. In my whole life I’ve never been happier.
Pink?! Shiny silver! With one of those lights with a color wheel spinning slowly underneath it.
Actually, that was my Grandma’s tree. We always had a regular green one, and the smell of fir is totally linked with Christmas in my mind.
I still remember that color wheel, though. It started humming toward the end.
Oh, and I’ve never gotten any real grief for being/turning atheist, although my Grandma (yes, the one with the aluminum tree) used to send me subscriptions for Guideposts. And I think that my youngest sister has forgotten since she converted to Catholicism. She lives halfway across the country, so I’m not going to go out of my way to remind her.
I have not been an atheist since I was in high school, but I certainly agree with a point some of those posting here have made: some professed Christians have a hypocritical nature and some atheists can be and are of better character indeed.
I get endlessly irritated with fundamentalist and other professed Christians who accost me at inopportune times, perhaps with “hellfire” tracts, perhaps without but just distributing fliers for their church.
I’ve been at the airport a few times when Hare Krishnas (OK, I know nobody mentioned them here) try to hold my attention as I head into a terminal and foist on me a pamphlet titled “Back to Godhead.”
I saw the movie Life with Father, made in the late 40s, in which at one point one of the children of the solid-Catholic family terrifies a neighbor’s child with wild threats about hellfire. This runs counter to my own experience, when I visited the home of a Catholic family during the holiday season after I graduated from high school–the family of a girl named Jo, whom I had had a crush on. Art certainly did not imitate life in this instance.
Religion never entered the workplace with me (and I never worked in Canada :p) even though I was a data-entry operator at TBN, a religious TV facility in Tustin, CA, for fifteen years! I did not agree with the organization’s religion, but never discussed religion there! For all the effect it had, I could have been an atheist…
I had a Facebook debate with a Friend of a Friend the other day. At one point I said “I know you think I’m obviously wrong in my worldview, that’s how this sort of thing works.”
Her response was something along the lines of “Of course you’re wrong!” With no acknowledgment that, you know, there are other points of view than her own. It sounds innocuous, but it was a much more apparent difference in tone when you consider these were multi-paragraph posts.
Interestingly, this was one person who really, truly believed that somehow she was being discriminated against for being a Christian. In America. No, honey, you’re not being discriminated against for believing in Jesus, most of those people who don’t like your political views also believe in him just fine. When I mentioned religious statistics, and the whole “atheists as trusted as rapists” thing with a cite, stating that I have to hide my views from people or it could cost me jobs, potential friends, whatever, her counter was that she’s fat*, so of course she knows what it’s like to have to hide her viewpoints . I might have accepted some convoluted reasoning with her being a woman, and women in some contexts being expected to keep their mouth shut, but by that point I was pretty close to bowing out of the conversation so I let it drop.
And if her profile picture is in any way up to date, she probably weighs less than the national average. Overweight, sure, but not “fat” by any relative metric. Not that I don’t understand body dysmorphic disorders myself, so I grant it could have been that.
Serious, though, I don’t entirely approve of the practice of raising trees just to cut them down every year and stick them in your living room. I swear to you however, I’ve never ever said anything to anybody, I just enjoy them in other people’s house. I made my old tree last at least six years. Last year I bought a plastic pre-lighted Christmas tree and will probably make that last the same amount. I can’t stand cleaning up pine needles everywhere and it’s bloody cold when it comes time to get rid of it.
. I might have accepted some convoluted reasoning with her being a woman, and women in some contexts being expected to keep their mouth shut, but by that point I was pretty close to bowing out of the conversation so I let it drop.