Does religion offend you?

[elliebean]

Tonight I went with my brother and his wife, who have taken me in since I fell on hard times and was left without a home or access to much-needed medical care, to a Christian concert, held at a very large Baptist church, featuring two recently signed female singers who are currently on tour throughout the country, before heading to Brazil. One of the two young ladies who performed happens to be the daughter of the former pastor of the (very evangelical, fundamentalist, pentecostal) church where I used to, and my brother and sister inlaw still attend (and are very actively involved). Many of her old acquaintances from there showed up to support her and her great talent. At one point during the show she was almost in tears as she acknowledged our presence, and the fact that we had seen her very first solo performances in school and church, to the rest of the audience. It was a special moment for her, as well as for us. The music was interesting and well written and her voice was amazing and powerful. I received a very warm hug from someone I have not seen in 20 years, and after the show, another from the singer, who also remembered me, even though she had been but a child the last ime I saw her. It was very nice.

I didn't notice that all their songs were about Jesus or anything, because all during the performance I was thinking about the woman I love, whom I have not yet met in person, and of whose identity and declarations I've yet to recieve much in the way of verification, and vice-versa - a person whose relationship with me is founded entirely, if you get right down to it, on faith, our faith in the love each of us has for the other. I'm sure I was moved by many of the same emotions as the rest of the audience.

I wasn't offended by one thing the entire evening.


I have many other stories like this.

And some not so much like it.

[Fininho]

In general, I avoid being offended by religious people.
I am offended by religion because religion has a dormant venomous sting to apply to dissenters or conscientious objectors when the opportunity arrives.
It is only a matter of number of followers - I said that already.
Big churches hide big problems.
You go to a nice meeting, but you will never be aware of internal struggles with personalities and finances!
Churches exploit their members - always!

[Asmodean]

I'd suggest that measuring harm(/injustice), no matter how you define it, is too complex of a business to be able to make such an absolute statement.

And my statement was not intended to be absolute, but rather a statement of personal perspective.

[fazFwQo83]

I was raised in a Christian household and so my conversion to atheism went through many phases.

At first I wanted to believe that science/history could be compatible with Christianity. Then I started questioning the bible itself. And the more I questioned, the more questions I had. At some point, I discarded the bible. But something in me was still hanging on. I wanted to believe that god exists, even if he's not the god of the Jews/Christians. I see now that without religion, all he would be is a god of my own imagining. Pure fiction.

Now that I am an atheist, religion is starting to offend me more and more. It seems to me that this tremendous fraud is being perpetrated by people who just don't know any better. The biggest issue I have with religion is it's omission of fact. Just keep quite about anything that makes us look bad. I thought the church was a house of god and as such would expect the truth instead of the dogmatic, biased view they have of information. Anything to protect their reputation (such as it is).

I feel like I have wasted 15 years of my life trying to "prove" or "disprove" something that so easily could have been shown for what it is with a little honest information. And I'm pissed off! You can take your religion and shove it!

And thats not to mention the larger issues surrounding education, persecution, bigotry, fraud, tax exemptions, terrorists, genocide, suicide cults, authoritarians (telling everyone how to live their lives), the guilt and condemnation that comes with religion, the abuse of which leads to some of the most heinous crimes committed against humanity in recorded history. Not to mention that you're living your life according to a delusion that was invented by people because they just didn't know any better.

I think it's high time we abolished this childish practice and start having more "faith" in our own abilities and reason.

[Fininho]

Bless you, fazFwQo83!
Well put.
Perhaps the worst is religion cheating children with religious stories of gods, prophets, popes, father christmas, and more crap!
I say: down with religion - peacefully, of course, not to emulate its heinous crimes throughout history.
Peacefully, by educating people not to support it with cash!
I say: more bakeries than churches in my town!

[Asmodean]

Good post, faz.  :hmm:

Something to ponder.

[The Magic Pudding]

I wonder, could the amount of offence one takes from religion, measured against one's own thick-skin threshhold be corelated to the process of becoming an atheist... For instance, would we who never were religious generally tend to be more, less or equally offended by it than someone who has just newly abandoned a faith..?  

Something to ponder.

Yes I think so, someone trusted has been lying to them, it's kind of like they have been mentally abused.

[Persimmon Hamster]

I'd suggest that measuring harm(/injustice), no matter how you define it, is too complex of a business to be able to make such an absolute statement.

And my statement was not intended to be absolute, but rather a statement of personal perspective.

I realize that.  Perhaps I chose a bad word in "absolute" and should have removed it altogether.  What I really meant was that it would be difficult for anyone to make such a statement, even subjectively from their own perspective.  Given the difficulty of it, mightn't others find legitimate value in a description (even brief) of how you arrived at stating it?

[Thumpalumpacus]

Religion doesn't offend me; it's not a personal affront aimed at me.  On occasion, people do, not because they're religious, but because they're goddamned douches.  I don't care what anyone believes or doesn't believe, so long as they keep it out of my face.

[Fininho]

Atheism might not be the direct result of religion's BAD FRUIT throughout the ages, but it is certainly helping many thinking people to become disenfranchised with this human disgrace.

[Thumpalumpacus]

... I know people find peace in religion and maybe some good things do come from it ( although I cant think of any) ....

I live in a rough neighborhood, with a thick population of homeless people.  Catholic Charities operates a complex here which provides a hot breakfast daily, shower facilities, an address for those still looking for work, assistance with rent and bills for those who still have homes, public computers to provide Internet access for job searches, holiday meals with gifts for the kids, assistance in finding and affording substance-abuse programs, and I'm perhaps missing some more programs they offer.

There's a food bank in Oxnard which is run by a coalition of Protestant churches that organizes the rescue of nearly-expired food from local supermarkets and disburses it from its warehouse at no charge.

There are many more I can't think of right now, but it's 6:15 AM and I'm barely awake.

[fazFwQo83]

Bless you, fazFwQo83!
Well put.
Perhaps the worst is religion cheating children with religious stories of gods, prophets, popes, father christmas, and more crap!
I say: down with religion - peacefully, of course, not to emulate its heinous crimes throughout history.
Peacefully, by educating people not to support it with cash!
I say: more bakeries than churches in my town!

Completely agree. Indoctrinating innocent children would go in the heinous crimes against humanity category, in my opinion. And I love bakeries. More bread for the people I say!

[trexshinigami]

There's a food bank in Oxnard which is run by a coalition of Protestant churches that organizes the rescue of nearly-expired food from local supermarkets and disburses it from its warehouse at no charge.

Yes I agree that is a good thing, , I knew when I was saying 'I couldn't think of any', someone would have a few examples.  I would never disagree feeding hungry people or helping children would be a negative thing.

[fazFwQo83]

Charity is all well and good, but why does god get the credit when it is people who work hard for their money and people who donate and people who run the charity and people who distribute the food? Seems like this god character gets more credit than he's due?

[Fininho]

Thump, the downside of Catholic charities is that it does it in the name of a dogma that in the past was used to kill innocent people.
You can see this war-god in the hands of every priest every morning: the Sacred Wafer, made of cheap wheat flour, with no salt, raised in the air and subjected to an occult litany in old Latin to convert it into the body of an obscure Jewish youngster who they say lived a parasitical life in Galilee 2000 years ago!!
NO!
Charity done in the name of that prefabricated christ is not good!
Yes, let other men do charity but WITHOUT failed Jewish messiahs.
"Give us today our daily bread" was a prayer that Jesus taught but NEVER produced results!
TWO THOUSAND YEARS of praying the same request while there is more and more famine & poverty in the world is enough proof that the pope is a religious charlatan like his priests-agents in my town!