Where in Florida? I’m going to be in Jacksonville for a week in late December.
Interestingly enough, I’m stopping in DC on my way there. I’m meeting a friend from a different message board. She’s an even bigger flirt than you. 
And she’s single these days.
Just as friends, you understand.
She’s an agnostic, by the way.
In retrospect, I realize I could have handled it better. It was a situation where you kind of had to be there. They were arrogant pains in the ass to begin with, and that day they were even worse, assuming that I would be happy to participate. I also think that they would have left if I had politely refused to pray with them. After my little tirade, I left the room and related what had happened to the receptionist. She was polite to them, explaining how they could go about getting their records faxed to their new veterinarian. On the way out, they suggested to her that she should pray for me. She told them that she did not go there either.
My little brother told me that I should have played along, but charged them more. He is very bottom line oriented. 
Gainesville, but I think late December’s still several years too soon for me.
Hmmm…she sounds good so far.
lucky girl
If she plays her cards right.
My brother-in-law’s parents live in Gainesville. I don’t know if I’ll see them this year or not.
For me it’s the fairly pervasive attitude that I should keep my mouth shut and keep my atheism a secret if I want things to go smoothly. My wife is Catholic and has told her that I was “raised Baptist” and that I don’t attend services very often any more. Not quite a lie, but not the truth.
It’s really bizarre to me. Around here, Baptists lump Catholics in with baby-eating atheists such as myself. Before I freed myself from religion, I was told all sorts of lies about Catholics. Wouldn’t it be better that they think of me as a non-believer who’s got no particular problems with Catholics rather than a fundamentalist who sees them as evil pretend Christians? Hell, Catholics are my favorite type of Christian.
I guess another problem would be dealing with the horrible double standard that exists with respect to respecting personal beliefs or lack thereof. I’m supposed to sit quietly during prayers, keep my atheism to myself, and not complain about “under god” in the pledge. And I do all of that for the most part. But if my beliefs ever do come up, it’s not unusual for the other person to try to save my soul or even act like I’ve just disrespected them for daring voice a differing opinion. I even had one person tell me, “You can’t be an atheist, you’re too good of a person.” Where’s the respect for me?
That should say “has told her family”. I missed the edit window and that’s a fairly big ‘oops’.
The free Charlie Daniels and Frank Sinatra shows are a nice benefit, too.
I only ever saw it once, with a classmate in 11th grade. An even-more-Catholic teacher said he was doing it wrong and you’re not really supposed to parade around in public with it on your face, but some people use it as a high horse. ETA: I could be misremembering that, but the general gist of it was that the kid was being a douchebag, and that was not out-of-character in the least.
Well Easter is really a solstice celebration too lol. The whole egg thing is a fertility deal that harks back to way before Christianity. Of course if you are an atheist, it might equally bother you celebrating a pagan holiday as a Christian one… But I don’t see a big deal with being an atheist and celebrating the secular form of religious holidays. I have friends who are Jewish and I’ve been to several of their varying holiday celebrations and I’m pretty sure they only expect me to appreciate the secular/cultural aspects and not the religious parts. As an atheist (maybe technically agnostic) I can appreciate the cultural heritage and contributions of various religions (art, architecture, music, literature, activism) without feeling like a hypocrite for not accepting the related dogma.
Not quite the same. Until the pagans form a voting bloc (unlikely, since two pagans in the same room is a schism) to push their moral agenda on the rest of us, I will have no problem celebrating Yule, Ostern or Samhain.
Biggest challenge for me is trying to get a table at IHOP on Sunday morning.
I find it helps if you bring candles and an unwilling Christian child and conduct a seance. Usually the place clears out pretty fast.
None. None at all.
I knew it! Actually, aside from being a hilarious post, you make a strong statement. I am a Christian, and I actually want to share this with Christian friends because I know that people make accusations (or at least imply them) like this. I don’t like how that widens the gap of human understanding.
I don’t wear my beliefs on my sleeve and only really bring them up when there is a discussion such as this. I went through a phase where I “witnessed” (UGH!) to people in college. I’m embarrassed that I did that because of how I made Christianity appear, and because I had to be a bit of an ass in order to do it. I’m a Christian because I dig Jesus’ philosophy. I also learned a lot from studying Buddha. That gets me into a bit of trouble with other Christians sometimes, but I look at it as a philosophy. No harm in that, and no two people will agree 100% of the time.
So, I apologize on behalf of my fellow Christians. But if anyone out there is trying to emulate Stalin or Hitler, please knock it off.
Around here in the Bible Belt, it comes up more often than I would like. I get the occasional client who asks (I am a psychologist) and once I had a doctor who was going to be a prime referral source ask me where my “church home” was (for the non-initiated, that is just where you go to church). I committed the sin of lying in that case; I told him I hadn’t found one yet. I didn’t say I wasn’t looking.
The biggest problems I’ve had are with family.
DH’s family are of the “Preacher Bob said it, so I believe it” variety, so they’re actually fun to mess with. Like the time they very earnestly told me that it was “against the Bible” to not change my last name to DH’s when we got married. Sometimes it’s just too easy.
My parents have been pretty middle-of-the-road Episcopalians all my life, but the last couple of years my mom has gone a little loopy about it. She knows my feelings, has known them since I was in college and seemed OK with it, knows better than to ask me to say grace, etc., but every week now when she emails she wants to know if I went to church, and acts like I’ve done something horrible to her when I say no, stuff like that. When I reiterate that I’m not a believer, she sulks and my dad tries to lecture me about “not upsetting your mother” like I’m a rebellious 16-year-old dying my hair green for shock value or something (I’m 39). I can’t figure out what precipitated it - nothing major or life-changing happened before it started (that I know of - no family deaths or anything), so I dunno. I need to ask my brother if she badgers him, too. I know he and his family don’t have a “church home” but I don’t know what his actual beliefs or lack thereof are these days, either.
How much credibility are you going to give a religion that can’t even properly pronounce the name of their god?
Send her to me. I love the ones that have fight in them. I got your back.
The least tolerance I’ve found was from the fundamentalists and the Unitarian Universalists.
The mainstream churchfolk make the allowance of “we understand this is a big thing to accept, but it’s ultimately a good thing, and not really a compromise; since disbelief is based as much on egotism as it is on empiricism. When you’re ready to get on your knees, we’ll be here on ours waiting for you.”
The fundamentalists see it as “How much simpler could it be? God exists. The Bible is Truth. What more do you need?”
The Unitarian Universalists are essential the same as the Fundies; “Aw c’mon, you can believe in God in whatever form you feel like. But not believing in anything at all? That’s just wrong!”
This seems to be the prevailing opinion among atheists, but I really don’t like Christmas, the religious or the secular aspects. I don’t like shopping, crowds, or getting presents. I’d much prefer to opt out of the whole holiday, but it’s pretty much impossible (in my family anyway). I’ve tried to tell my family in the past I’d like to spend the holidays with them but not exchange presents, but they just wave it off like I don’t really mean it. My only options seem to be to look like an asshole opening a bunch of presents I don’t want while everyone pretends not to mind that I didn’t get them anything in return, or suck it up and be a good little Christmas soldier. Which is obviously what I do.
Not to mention that every Christmas movie, from A Christmas Carol to It’s A Wonderful Life to How the Grinch Stole Christmas seems to follow the basic premise that those of us who don’t see the glory of the season will be tormented by ghosts and little girls until we submit.
If you’ve got my back, I’d rather unleash you on someone I hate!
Frankly, I can crush Grandma in these arguments. She has never put thought one into her beliefs as far as I can tell. I’m just afraid she’ll die and then I’ll feel bad about being so mean to her.