Hostile to atheists

by d 281 Replies latest members politics

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  NewChapter

  Yeah, they really have nothing to recommend religion when you think about it. They are asking that we pick up a mantle of guilt and intolerance, to let go of reason and evidence, and they say that will make us happy. They have the idea that perhaps our lives are empty and sterile, and they have something that is so special and so 'happifying' that if only they could convince us to give it a try, we'd be hooked.

  But we know we have peace and more balance than religion ever offered. It's hard to tell a believer how wonderful and freeing it is to give up god belief. How bright the colors get and how free we are to enjoy the good things----how much better we sleep at night. It's not that things don't get rough, it's just that belief does not exacerbate things. For a believer, they may not know how anyone could find peace without being able to talk to a god through prayer. For us, it's hard to explain that we don't really need prayer when we don't have illogical guilt to make things worse.

  I don't know. It's hard to express. I look on the days that I was a believer as dark days indeed. Everything feels so much lighter and brighter now. So much more significant and important. I am living the real life now, and have the freedom to construct my moral code. How am I doing with it? Well I measure it by the joy I bring to other people and by the quality of my relationships---not on some invisible, unprovable, diety's opinion of me. It's just wonderful.

  NC
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  FlyingHighNow

  Any extreme is not a good thing.
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  sizemik

  Most atheists I know used to be religious at some time . . . I've never met a religious person who was once atheist.

  I've felt more hostility from believers as an atheist . . . than I ever felt from atheists as a believer.
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  Berengaria

  I've felt more hostility from believers as an atheist . . . than I ever felt from atheists as a believer.

  I agree!! Except for that incredibly nasty woman who yelled at me when I was 9. Told my friend and I we should be ashamed!! Ashamed of being on her doorstep peddling the WT&AW!

  Hell, now I am!
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  FlyingHighNow

  Different strokes for different folks. Live and let live.
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  NewChapter

  I've felt more hostility from believers as an atheist . . . than I ever felt from atheists as a believer.

  That's been very true for me too. And oddly, when I was a believer, I felt a great deal more hostility from other believers than I felt from atheists---cuz I didn't believe like THEM. It's crazy. So often, with belief, seems to come hostility. But still, I feel a great deal more hostility directed at me as an atheist than I did even as a JW on doorsteps.

  NC
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  iCeltic

  NC - your last post sums up exactly how I feel, the way you expressed it makes perfect, logical sense.
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  FlyingHighNow

  On this board, there is hostility both ways. In real life, atheists don't tend to be pushy about their beliefs. Unless it's the occasional lawsuit over nativity scenes or ten commandments.
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  Low-Key Lysmith

  Different strokes for different folks. Live and let live.

  If you ask me, that should be the ONLY commandment.
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  FlyingHighNow

  I've never met a religious person who was once atheist.

  The new associate priest at St. Andrews was an atheist. Then she found literature for the Unitarians in her parent's attic. She said she thought, "Hey, people who don't really believe in anything. I can do this." She went on to become a Unitarian minister and then was ordained as an Episcopal priest last summer. When I talked to her about Julian, who is an atheist, that is when she said, "Yes, I was too as a child, teen and young adult. We love Julian. He's a good kid."

  Nurya told us that her parents left Europe during the 2nd world war. She only realized as an adult that her father was Jewish. He never spoke of it though because of rampant anti-semitism.

  She's a beautiful, sparkling, accepting, highly educated person who would not make ANYone uncomfortable.

  http://www.standrewsgr.org/welcome.htm

  Associate Priest The Rev. Nurya Love Parish Nurya Love Parish has lived in West Michigan since 2001. Previously ordained in another tradition, she received a Master of Divinity degree from Harvard University in 1996 and a Certificate of Anglican Studies from Seabury-Western Theological School in 2011. After serving St. Andrew’s as Director of Children’s Ministries and Seminarian, she was ordained a transitional deacon and became our associate clergy. Nurya was ordained a priest on December 3, 2011 and continues as associate at St. Andrew's. She currently leads the church’s ministries to families with newborns through fifth grade, preaches regularly, and provides pastoral care in the absence of our Rector. She and her husband David, a firefighter with the City of Grand Rapids, have two children, Claire and Nathan.