Have you encountered disrespect for you beliefs?

[LARA]

I really want to be respectful of others.  Really.  But it makes it difficult because my own beliefs are not respected.  In my daily life, if I venture outside my home too far, I am going to encounter religious messages, some of them threatening hellfire if I don't believe them.  I encounter a bais on a daily basis every day essentially, some days more than others, from religion due to insulting words on church signs, reminders of hellfire and apocalypse from individuals and the bigotry that I can't act in a moral fashion if I don't accept the label of Christian.  People are free to wear clothing and symbols encouraging this standpoint, and I have seen very few responses to the contrary, and most of these tend to be fairly subtle.  (The Darwin Fish joke for example)  This cultural bias extends past daily life into legal practice where people use Christianity and accepting God as proof of their goodness and standing as proper citizens.  This fact is sometimes abused by people who do wrong. I've seen it happen personally, where someone commits a bad or criminal act and uses a new found profession of religion faith as a defense, or I've heard of uses of religion to get away with stealing or cheating on a spouse because the label carries assumed good intentions.  It is very frustrating to deal with, because honestly I do have some unproven theories about life  that I like to entertain at times, and these beliefs have not been respected by others in the past and this disrespect and concurrent favoritism towards the Christian viewpoint has been part of the reason I became an atheist.  I feel that religion is a private thing and it is also an all or none prospect, either all unproven, imaginary beliefs are held as equally plausible or none of them are.  Numbers of believers don't make a thing true, might does not equal right, and reality has to be determined by real evidence.  The Christian viewpoint holds at it's core that people who do not believe what they do are to be converted.  This in itself is a disrespectful standpoint to other viewpoints and religions.  What I am curious to know is if you have encountered similar situations and if you think they are disrespectful.

[Zarathustra]

People are free to wear clothing and symbols encouraging this standpoint, and I have seen very few responses to the contrary, and most of these tend to be fairly subtle.  (The Darwin Fish joke for example).

I just took this pic for you, it's one of my favorite tshirts. Not very subtle, is it?

[attachment=0:g0e76vpm]tshirt1.jpg[/attachment:g0e76vpm]

Getting back to the topic: My mom recently took my son to church with her, without telling me (He's 4). I only found out because all of a sudden all sorts of religious frases were coming out of his mouth.
That is extremely disrespectful of my beliefs, I think. I can't imagine an atheist imposing on a christian kid like that.

[Kyuuketsuki]

Getting back to the topic: My mom recently took my son to church with her, without telling me (He's 4). I only found out because all of a sudden all sorts of religious frases were coming out of his mouth.
That is extremely disrespectful of my beliefs, I think. I can't imagine an atheist imposing on a christian kid like that.

More to the point it disrespects the fact that YOU are his parent and she is not! I would get seriously pissed off with anyone who did that without my permission.

Kyu

[PipeBox]

Getting back to the topic: My mom recently took my son to church with her, without telling me (He's 4). I only found out because all of a sudden all sorts of religious frases were coming out of his mouth.
That is extremely disrespectful of my beliefs, I think. I can't imagine an atheist imposing on a christian kid like that.

Unbelievable.  I don't know if I'd have been able to keep my temper.  Taking your kid anywhere without letting you know is bad (or at least it would be to me), but not letting you know gives me the sickening feeling that you were left out of the loop deliberately and that she thinks she was completely justified in doing it.  If she doesn't know your inclination toward the church, that'd be another thing, but that's probably not the case.  Here's hoping she's more considerate in the future.  But I'd have to have a serious discussion with her.

Oh, but that is a great shirt, if not subtle.

[Zarathustra]

not letting you know gives me the sickening feeling that you were left out of the loop deliberately and that she thinks she was completely justified in doing it.  If she doesn't know your inclination toward the church, that'd be another thing, but that's probably not the case.  Here's hoping she's more considerate in the future.  But I'd have to have a serious discussion with her.

Oh, but that is a great shirt, if not subtle.

Oh, she knows!! Unfortunately you're right, Pipebox. She thinks - as a good christian - that it would be terrible if my kid weren't taught about god...

[Stoicheion]

Oh i've been dragged to church many a times because i like girls. Thankfully they didn't try to drive the ebil th'pirit out of meh.

It's so nonsensical that some christians think that being gay is like the ultimate sin while others are okay with it. Does NOT make sense to me.

[oldschooldoc]

First off, where does someone get off taking another person's child to church when they know how the actual parent feels about religion? That seems like a dirty, underhanded trick to me. Kind of like baptizing a newborn baby. Let them make the choice for THEMSELVES.

Now, as far as encountering disrespect... I have been an atheist for over 10 years now, but only recently did I reveal myself to my loved ones. Interesting reactions, to say the least. My grandfather (actually my stepmother's dad) is a deacon in the Catholic church, AWKWARD. She is convinced that I am only saying that because I lost my mom recently and am "rebelling against god". Fortunately, as it turns out, my father and brother are atheists too!! What a relief that discovery was. My dad and I had the best conversation we had ever engaged in, and I'm 22! Unfortunately for him, he won't tell his views to anybody else. At least now we both have someone to talk to, it has brought us much closer together. (I left my brother out of the "now we have someone to talk to" because he just doesn't like people in general, lol)

P.S. I am really loving this forum, I am a fairly subdued guy so I don't talk much. I feel free to voice my opinion, WITHOUT being ridiculed or called a satanist. News to the world, I DON'T BELIEVE IN GOD which means I DON'T BELIEVE IN SATAN either.

[Kyuuketsuki]

I DON'T BELIEVE IN GOD which means I DON'T BELIEVE IN SATAN either.

Yup ... in the words of Marty Leipzig, "It's YOUR bible, they're YOUR rules ... YOU burn in HELL!"

Interesting of course to point out that Satan was a Christian too

Kyu

[MariaEvri]

not yet
my friend doesnt care, my dad is not religious either,
The rest of my freinds/family, I ahvent told. I dont see it as being their business to know anyway

[Enlightened777]

I wake up every morning to go out into a society that is pure Christian. The funny thing is that now that Christmas is near, everyone decided to be a Christian again. There are always people begging for money, but now that it's Christmas time everyone thinks that it's some kind of sign and they feel they need to donate. i told a Salvation Army guy that i don't believe that I should only give at Christmas time, I also asked him why he gave me the look he did. I donated earlier this year and these people didn't so why is my donation from earlier this year not as appreciated??? he had a dumbfounded look on his face and kept telling more of these mindless people to have a blessed day.

[PipeBox]

I wake up every morning to go out into a society that is pure Christian. The funny thing is that now that Christmas is near, everyone decided to be a Christian again. There are always people begging for money, but now that it's Christmas time everyone thinks that it's some kind of sign and they feel they need to donate. i told a Salvation Army guy that i don't believe that I should only give at Christmas time, I also asked him why he gave me the look he did. I donated earlier this year and these people didn't so why is my donation from earlier this year not as appreciated??? he had a dumbfounded look on his face and kept telling more of these mindless people to have a blessed day.

"It's the most wonderful tiiiiiiiiiiiiime of the yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeear . . ."

[Stoicheion]

I wake up every morning to go out into a society that is pure Christian. The funny thing is that now that Christmas is near, everyone decided to be a Christian again. There are always people begging for money, but now that it's Christmas time everyone thinks that it's some kind of sign and they feel they need to donate. i told a Salvation Army guy that i don't believe that I should only give at Christmas time, I also asked him why he gave me the look he did. I donated earlier this year and these people didn't so why is my donation from earlier this year not as appreciated??? he had a dumbfounded look on his face and kept telling more of these mindless people to have a blessed day.

"It's the most wonderful tiiiiiiiiiiiiime of the yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeear . . ."

 

wow i've heard that song way too much at work but i still love it.

[oldschooldoc]

Yup ... in the words of Marty Leipzig, "It's YOUR bible, they're YOUR rules ... YOU burn in HELL!"

Interesting of course to point out that Satan was a Christian too

Kyu

Nicely stated, and yes that is an interesting point. How is it that I, someone who doesn't believe in fairy tales, can be accused of following Mother Goose (with horns, and a pointy tail, and hooves...and a pitch fork???)

[Elvis Priestly]

Pipebox wrote:

Zarathustra wrote:
Getting back to the topic: My mom recently took my son to church with her, without telling me (He's 4). I only found out because all of a sudden all sorts of religious frases were coming out of his mouth.
That is extremely disrespectful of my beliefs, I think. I can't imagine an atheist imposing on a christian kid like that.

Unbelievable. I don't know if I'd have been able to keep my temper. Taking your kid anywhere without letting you know is bad (or at least it would be to me), but not letting you know gives me the sickening feeling that you were left out of the loop deliberately and that she thinks she was completely justified in doing it. If she doesn't know your inclination toward the church, that'd be another thing, but that's probably not the case. Here's hoping she's more considerate in the future. But I'd have to have a serious discussion with her.

I can certainly understand the issue of taking your child to church without your knowledge, but I on the broader subject of exposing your child to religion, is that really bad? When I was growing up, my parents both went to church, and I was indoctrinated in my mother's (Catholic) church. But they always let me know that I was free to decide for myself what I believed. I went to my father's church (Presbyterian) for a while, and I went to Methodist churches with friends. I also was exposed to scientific ideas, atheism, agnosticism, and even some new age thought.

In the end, I felt that all of this information and experience made me much more comfortable with my decision that I was an atheist. I will always thank my parents for allowing me to be exposed to many different ideas and beliefs. I also think that a child is never too young to be told that they get to choose what to believe.

[Zarathustra]

I can certainly understand the issue of taking your child to church without your knowledge, but I on the broader subject of exposing your child to religion, is that really bad? ...In the end, I felt that all of this information and experience made me much more comfortable with my decision that I was an atheist. I will always thank my parents for allowing me to be exposed to many different ideas and beliefs. I also think that a child is never too young to be told that they get to choose what to believe.

I agree! That's why my next post read the following:

The weird thing is: I don't mind her taking my kid to church, as long as I know about it. But she also knows, that I would talk to my kid about the experience afterwards and (probably) undermine the priests authority. Not deliberately, but because I encourage and try to teach him critical thinking.