# Just because I TOLERATE you, does NOT mean I don't think you're crazy. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 11, 2011, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-because-i-tolerate-you-does-not-mean-i-dont-think-youre-crazy/567206 "2011-01-11T08:12:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Steampunk\_Willie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f6c823/32.png) [@Steampunk\_Willie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steampunk_Willie)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-because-i-tolerate-you-does-not-mean-i-dont-think-youre-crazy/567206/1 "2011-01-11T08:12:25Z")
More and more lately ‘friends’ of mine on Facebook have been posting Bible quotes, mentioning their connection with God and/or Jesus, and comments that (to me) seem to clearly indicate they wholeheartedly feel that they are better for having Jesus in their lives than someone who doesn’t. I, 98% of the time, don’t make any comment or acknowledge these posts. It is their facebook and their faith, they should have the right to express it. Then when the shooting happened the other day, I made a post that ended with stating that Sarah Palin posting on facebook that her and Todd would be praying for the victims and for justice, was literally the least she could do. This led into over twenty of my friends who have never communicated with each other going off about my post. Any reference to my atheism was taken as an insult against the three born-again Christians defending themselves endlessly. Even my friend Charles, who I respect immensely and is a defender of atheists and gays, went off the deep end and stopped politely and logically talking to me. He declined into a state of accusing me of telling him he was “just another bigoted Christian.” Two of the three have since defriended me. Where does this hypocrisy come from? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-because-i-tolerate-you-does-not-mean-i-dont-think-youre-crazy/567206/2 "2011-01-11T08:26:41Z")
I don’t see it as hypocrisy–just people taking offense needlessly. Palin is the one being a hypocrite, and you have a right to voice your dislike for her because of it. Unless your wording was poor, they have no reason to assume you were calling all Christians hypocrites. Then again, if you said what you did in the title of the thread, I could understand people misunderstanding you. The word _tolerate_ can have some nasty connotations when you direct it at a person. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-because-i-tolerate-you-does-not-mean-i-dont-think-youre-crazy/567206/3 "2011-01-11T13:31:58Z")
Just like with conservative Islam, any denial of their faith by others can be seen as an insult. But then, I’ve seen spouses (usually the wives, but not always) do the same thing to each other. One expresses an opinion, the other disagrees, and world war 3 breaks out in their household because the one with the opinion demands that ALL SUBMIT TO MY OPINION. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-because-i-tolerate-you-does-not-mean-i-dont-think-youre-crazy/567206/4 "2011-01-11T13:59:09Z")
Ah, Facebook. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-because-i-tolerate-you-does-not-mean-i-dont-think-youre-crazy/567206/5 "2011-01-11T14:10:20Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Ah, Facebook. Yes, it’s passing notes in junior-high study hall… for the 21st century. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-because-i-tolerate-you-does-not-mean-i-dont-think-youre-crazy/567206/6 "2011-01-11T15:13:01Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Yes, it’s passing notes in junior-high study hall… for the 21st century. Notes that everyone in the hallway can read, though. It’s like it was deliberately designed to create draaaaaammmaaaaaa… ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-because-i-tolerate-you-does-not-mean-i-dont-think-youre-crazy/567206/7 "2011-01-11T15:23:53Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Yes, it’s passing notes in junior-high study hall… for the 21st century. But every note you get contains Bible verses and nobody thinks your fart jokes are funny anymore. Or at least they \*pretend \*not to. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-because-i-tolerate-you-does-not-mean-i-dont-think-youre-crazy/567206/8 "2011-01-11T16:06:22Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Or at least they \*pretend \*not to. Those people are such phonies. I wish I had a gun. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-because-i-tolerate-you-does-not-mean-i-dont-think-youre-crazy/567206/9 "2011-01-11T16:13:25Z")
Actually, I can understand someone taking offense with your Palin remark. I’ll give Sarah and Todd the benefit of the doubt that they sincerely believe in the efficacy of praying, and presumably your religious friends do too. Sure you can disagree with them, but your snarky comment (if you related it accurately) could easily be construed as an insult to their belief in prayer. Maybe people overreacted, but you weren’t blameless in provoking them. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-because-i-tolerate-you-does-not-mean-i-dont-think-youre-crazy/567206/10 "2011-01-11T16:20:33Z")
I don’t understand anything about why anyone would be upset in the OP. ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-because-i-tolerate-you-does-not-mean-i-dont-think-youre-crazy/567206/11 "2011-01-11T16:29:22Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > Actually, I can understand someone taking offense with your Palin remark. > I’ll give Sarah and Todd the benefit of the doubt that they sincerely believe in the efficacy of praying, and presumably your religious friends do too. . It’s not clear to me at all that she deserves the benefit of the doubt. Palin has no apparent morality, from getting knocked up before marriage, to constant lies about death panels, to quitting her job half-way through the term. She probably just talks about prayer to manipulate her fans so that they continue to vote for her and spend money on her books. ---
**Author:** ![Baboonanza](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f475e1/32.png) [@Baboonanza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baboonanza)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-because-i-tolerate-you-does-not-mean-i-dont-think-youre-crazy/567206/12 "2011-01-11T16:36:11Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > Actually, I can understand someone taking offense with your Palin remark. > I’ll give Sarah and Todd the benefit of the doubt that they sincerely believe in the efficacy of praying, and presumably your religious friends do too. Sure you can disagree with them, but your snarky comment (if you related it accurately) could easily be construed as an insult to their belief in prayer. > > Maybe people overreacted, but you weren’t blameless in provoking them. But how can even devout Christian’s honestly believe in the efficiacy of praying? People pray about everything _all the time_ and bad shit still happens on a constant basis. If it worked why would we even bother with the brain surgeons? Just put the patient in a corner and have everyone pray for her, that’d do it! I would suggest that even Christians (the non-crazy ones anyway) know that praying doesn’t actually achieve anything. It’s something that people do when they either can’t do anything useful or (in this case) can’t be bothered / don’t want to do anything useful. It’s the option of last resort. There are plenty of useful things that Palin could be doing to reduce the vitriol in public discourse, but she doesn’t want to do those. So she’s ‘praying’ instead. ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-because-i-tolerate-you-does-not-mean-i-dont-think-youre-crazy/567206/13 "2011-01-11T16:37:11Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > Actually, I can understand someone taking offense with your Palin remark. > I’ll give Sarah and Todd the benefit of the doubt that they sincerely believe in the efficacy of praying, and presumably your religious friends do too. Sure you can disagree with them, but your snarky comment (if you related it accurately) could easily be construed as an insult to their belief in prayer. > > Maybe people overreacted, but you weren’t blameless in provoking them. And of course expressing a disbelief in payer is provocation, while a belief in prayer is just normal. Can you imagine sending out a Xmas letter saying stuff like: “Bill and I are thankful this year that our lack of belief in God has benefited us. We have more times for walks on Sunday mornings, not tithing has allowed us to donate money to the needy, and our understanding of the world is more profound when we realize it required no creator and came about through natural processes”. But every year Atheists get letters full of tales about how God has blessed families because Billy’s team won their football game, or Aunt Bessie only had one leg amputated instead of both. Should we be up in arms because the letter writers “reject our beliefs”? ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-because-i-tolerate-you-does-not-mean-i-dont-think-youre-crazy/567206/14 "2011-01-11T16:37:55Z")
> [@sh1bu1](#): > > It’s not clear to me at all that she deserves the benefit of the doubt. Palin has no apparent morality, from getting knocked up before marriage, to constant lies about death panels, to quitting her job half-way through the term. She probably just talks about prayer to manipulate her fans so that they continue to vote for her and spend money on her books. Maybe. Maybe not. But whatever you think of the Palins, if somebody says “I’ll pray for you” and you respond “That’s literally the least you can do,” you’re not so much insulting the person doing the praying but the prayer itself. That’s the thing that got folks upset, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-because-i-tolerate-you-does-not-mean-i-dont-think-youre-crazy/567206/15 "2011-01-11T16:40:18Z")
It sounds to me like the Christians got upset because thy thought the OP was denigrating the efficacy of prayer. Well, too bad for them. Others are not ethically obligated to believe in religious superstitious or magical chanting rituals. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-because-i-tolerate-you-does-not-mean-i-dont-think-youre-crazy/567206/16 "2011-01-11T16:43:11Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > Maybe. Maybe not. > > But whatever you think of the Palins, if somebody says “I’ll pray for you” and you respond “That’s literally the least you can do,” you’re not so much insulting the person doing the praying but the prayer itself. That’s the thing that got folks upset, I think. Well, if they said that after targeting me with a gun sight on their facebook page, I wouldn’t be impressed by their completely insincere promises to ritually chant to their sky god for my recovery. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-because-i-tolerate-you-does-not-mean-i-dont-think-youre-crazy/567206/17 "2011-01-11T16:51:39Z")
> [@sh1bu1](#): > > And of course expressing a disbelief in payer is provocation, while a belief in prayer is just normal. Nah, that’s not what I’m saying. **Steampunk Willie** could have stated that he doesn’t believe praying will accomplish anything without mocking those who think otherwise. He chose mocking (and maybe I would have too in his shoes). I happen to agree with **Willie** ’s opinion, and some people deserve a good mocking. But the fact is he _did_ mock, and what I’m calling out is his “who, me?” attitude when people got upset over it. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-because-i-tolerate-you-does-not-mean-i-dont-think-youre-crazy/567206/18 "2011-01-11T16:56:17Z")
He was essentially mocking the Palins for saying they would pray after having previously put out a virtual fatwah on the victim, but these sound like the kind of overbearing bores who could stand a little mocking anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-because-i-tolerate-you-does-not-mean-i-dont-think-youre-crazy/567206/19 "2011-01-11T17:00:49Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > He was essentially mocking the Palins for saying they would pray after having previously put out a virtual fatwah on the victim, but these sound like the kind of overbearing bores who could stand a little mocking anyway. Agreed. It’s just that overbearing bores tend to get upset when you mock them, and I didn’t get why **Willie** was surprised about it. That’s all. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-because-i-tolerate-you-does-not-mean-i-dont-think-youre-crazy/567206/20 "2011-01-11T17:06:00Z")
Well, I agree he shouldn’t have been surprised. It seems like once a week we see people complaining about facebook friends spamming them with unwanted political or religious drivel, yet they never seem to want to drop them as friends. I’d drop them like a hot potato. In fact, I have done just that with people I barely knew in high school sending me “Obama is teh antichrist” crap. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-because-i-tolerate-you-does-not-mean-i-dont-think-youre-crazy/567206.md?page=2)