What, you don’t worship my one very specific terms and conditions God?
Burn, baby burn!
I find it vastly amusing that the cars that have the fire & brimstone bumperstickers plastered over it are usually POC vehicles. Anyone care to comment on that? Anyone, Buellar?
I get offended by people suggesting that their way is the one and only way, based purely on their beliefs - whether it’s religion or not. Because it is based in belief, religion is one that crops up regularly, but there are other more mundane things that some people will be vehemently against just because it’s not the way they do things.
A strong assertion on the part of someone that they are going to heaven, and me to hell, and that I should be doing things differently, offends me but largely because of the other person’s arrogance and intolerance of other points of view. It’s not so much the assertion that upsets me, but that there’s no room for us to discuss or debate it - there’s normally no willingness on the other person’s part to be receptive to contrary views.
I quiet statement to demonstrate that the speaker believes their chosen religion to be the only truth upsets me, but doesn’t offend me. It upsets me because I don’t like to see someone assuming they are right. As an empirical scientist it hurts to see someone accepting only some of the available evidence and ignoring other bits. However, they’re just telling me that’s what they believe. They’re not trying to convince me they’re right. So I’m not going to try to convince them that I’m right. They’re not being intolerant of my (or anyone else’s) point of view, and of course I must be tolerant of theirs.
End intolerance now!
Other than the in-your-face types already mentioned, I find most of it amusing in the sense that all practitioners of an organized religion are presuming to know the mind of a supreme being. This strikes me as arrogance in the extreme. If God exists, then it would seem that one would become most familiar with his/her/its intent by observing the natural world around us, rather than listening to some blathering fool in a stuffy building one day a week. To reduce the intent of an almighty to a bumper sticker is to demean the very belief one espouses.
Well, yes, but that’s because I can’t stand Thin Mints. But, no, the attitude itself doesn’t bother me. I don’t fullly understand why it should.
I won’t say it makes me mad, but I feel it’s a very arrogant thing to say to start with. Everyone sins according to Christian doctrine. Not everyone will be going to heaven, who are you to say that YOU are good enough? God will do the judging and your opinion on the matter doesn’t mean a thing. He may find you lacking for just the pride of being sure you are heaven-bound. I would much prefer someone telling me that they are trying to lead a good life and hope that God finds them worthy.
[quote=furt]
“Well, as a devout Theorbalist, I of course believe that all who do not bow to the Sacred Yak shall be cast aside into the Outer Flames. Another Thin Mint?”[/furt]
Well, it would get a brief pause, and perhaps a “My, how nice.” (Southern Lady for “fuck you”). Then I’d change the subject and file it away for a story to do a mini-rant/character evaluation on later. Oh, and I’d lose a ton of respect for that person when it comes to such topics.
Funny–I just had a Protestant Christian say just the opposite. Not that I’m Catholic but, as I found out later, he most likely believed I was. And in light of the fact that he basically told me that Catholics wouldn’t make it into Heaven, he could have saved me about 20 minutes of my time left here on earth by simply saying, “You’re going DOWN, Pope-lover!” and moving on to the next topic.
But I wasn’t particularly offended.
It doesn’t offend me, but I do find it kind of annoying. People who “know” that they are right and I am wrong seem to give off a vibe of “I’m better than you”. This is just from my experience. I’m an atheist, and I respect everyone’s right to their own religion. I have never tried to convert someone or tell them that they are wrong.
A lady came up to my friend and I in Wal-Mart a few months ago. Totally random, out-of-the-blue, I had never seen this person in my life. She asked us “Have you found Jesus? Do you go to church? Do you know that following Jesus is the only path to heaven?” yadda yadda yadda. I just calmly said “Yes, we do” and walked off. Rather than start something, I just let it go because I know if I would have said something pertaining to my belief system, I would have been verbally attacked. I have a very strong attitude of “to each his own” and prefer tolerance and understanding to religious conformity.
My friend who was with me at the time said that she was glad I was there with her because she wouldn’t have known what to say to the lady!
To paraphrase David Sedaris
“There are a lot of religions in the world and they all have their own slogans… Oddly enough none of these is ‘we’re number 2’”
The fact is, if someone didn;t think they were right why would they put all their faith in the religion.
And more to the point if a religion thought they all were right then why have your own little “flavor” with changes made to the way things are done. Apparently even in Christianity there are fundamental enough differences that each group sees the other group as being wrong about something.
Actually, It’d be a great zinger to say, “Well isn’t that special”.
I don’t give a crap what god you believe in. Just leave me alone about it and more importantly, don’t ask me for money.
I just try to convert them to the great god Budweiser.
Budweiser. True.
This is most excellent and should be a bumper sticker.
Now that’s offensive. If you’re gonna worship beer (and there are worse choices), pick a decent one.
Thanks to all who have responded (not that I’m asking you to stop).
I’m actually relieved to see that more people are tolerant – as I define it-- than I feared.
Somebody missed the marketing campaign.
In the original quote he was actually referring to countries, meaning that the US are raised to think they’re the best in thw world, but all other countries have their sloagans…
I think it applies to religions as well.
How could anyone miss that?!? :smack:
I haven’t had a chance to read the other replies yet but as a Christian I can sort of see where atheist and other non Christians are coming from when they get upset about basically being told they are headed straight to Hell because I knew a guy who was a Christian that told me that my whole family was headed to Hell because we were not following the God of the Bible and that our church didn’t preach the true nature of Jesus.
The guy basically said we had interpreted the bible so erroneously that we were not saved and he also said that because we didn’t use the King James Version exclusively we were making it easier for us to fall into sin because we didn’t have the whole truth in front of us when we read the other versions of the bible.
I have never been one to tell other people that they are going to Hell regardless of what they believe in or don’t believe in but I believe Hell is as real as anything we can touch here on earth and my belief is my way of cutting down the odds of going to there. I really do hope that all nice people get to Heaven but I personally wouldn’t bet my eternity on trying to be nice enough to go to Heaven.
Saying your’s is the one ‘true’ faith is just a roundabout way of saying my faith isn’t true. That’s why it offends people who hear it.
I have to take exception to the story of the Buddhist student giving you a brochure implying you should become a Buddhist.
I’m not calling you a liar or anything, please don’t misunderstand me.
But as a Buddhist I feel it is important to point out that this action would be entirely contrary to what Buddhist’s believe. They are specifically forbidden from attempting to sway anyone to their faith. There is no place in Buddhism for this, the teachings direct the exactly opposite course. Millions of Buddhists would be very upset to know that this happened to you, it should not have. I just wanted you to know that this would not be acceptable to the larger Buddhist community and is anything but the norm.
Worked up about it? No. By the time the Thin Mint touched my lips, my reaction of “How rude” would have already passed through my brain. I certainly wouldn’t respond in kind. I might try to avoid situations where this person might try again to shoehorn religion into a discussion where it doesn’t naturally fit, because personal experience indicates that they’re likely to try for a more extended investigation into my beliefs that’s only going to result in more awkwardness, but that’s about it. I don’t forget about experiences like these, but there’s no emotional heat attached to them either.
To the extent I think about the motivations of people who feel they must proclaim their religiosity on bumper stickers, I feel a little sorry for them. I’ve never quite understood the point of using a bumper sticker to convey any message, let alone something so personal. I think most religious bumper stickers display poor taste, but they never leave a lasting impression either.
As for the people who feel compelled to approach me at my home, or while shopping, to proselytize - that behavior I find deeply offensive, because it assumes that if I don’t believe what they do, it’s because not only am I ignorant, I’m so ignorant that I need them to intrude on my life to set me straight. I work hard at remaining respectful and composed when I’m approached in this fashion, and I think I succeed. As much as I find the premise behind, say, the Jehovah’s Witness movement offensive, the odds are that the individual person I’m talking to is going to be polite and I intend to meet them with at least an equal degree of politeness. If the person who has approached me has been less than civil in his/her approach, I’ll strive to behave better than they have toward me. I may grumble a bit about the encounter in private with like-minded friends later, but never to the person.