I notice more and more online and in the media many christians are trying to call for sympathy for "persecution".
Has anyone else noticed the up-stepping of this irony? People making art about feeling "isolated, alienated and suppressed by the non-religious people", and portray themselves as lost, sad puppies of the faith.
When a christian feels oppressed, they cry out and a crowd generally follows them into any debate to back them up.
When an atheist, agnostic, freethinker, skeptic, scientist, Buddhist, or an otherwise non-christian person stands up for their own beliefs in the United States however... They face real isolation, criticism, and prejudice from the religious folks and their families, friends, coworkers and church cohorts.
People can claim extreme viewpoints, bias and so forth from religious backgrounds, they can rant on about conspiracy theories and even claim UFO's and Elvis roam around America... And yet they keep job opportunities, school degrees, and acquaintances.
But when someone openly states that they don't believe in god, the hoopla about christ or any other sort of thing, they often lose almost all of those opportunities at times. Not for being mean, offensive or pig-headed, just for being honest about the lack of faith.
Has anyone else (other than myself, I mean) come across situations where your lack of belief, or non-willingness to join a religion/cult/conspiracy cost you a relationship,friendship, job, school degree or anything else?
I'm tired of seeing people complaining about the prejudices they exhibit. Just felt like sharing here, see who else has run across this sort of thing lately!
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"Has anyone else (other than myself, I mean) come across situations where your lack of belief, or non-willingness to join a religion/cult/conspiracy cost you a relationship,friendship, job, school degree or anything else?"
I think everybody here falls in that category.
How about the suffering that sane people have to endure in not being able to reason with most people around them because of theism?
Whoever has a parent that is a theist, knows what I am talking about.
Very true!
I find that religous people tend to project everything negitive about their beliefs and themselves personaly onto the nonbeliever who they are arguing with.
I think it's because they really don't have a leg to stand on and know it, but their belief won't allow them to admit it.
The belief has a life of it's own and protects itself agenst any and all percieved attacks.
Also very true, an interesting perspective!
Well, I was little different. I have been an atheist since I was very young(12) so I generally had religious people trying to hang around me to convert me, I had to ask a few of them to leave me alone about religion, so purposely ran most of them off. I can't really say I "lost friends" but that I gained a very good metric to determine who really where my friends, so I didn't really lose anyone who was really a friend.
That's actually a much better way to look at it... Thanks for the input! I'll keep that in mind!
What we have to understand here, is that theists are brought up having this stuff shoved down their throats by their parents for the most part. The generation that really brainwashed their kids, and messed them up ( giving them all kinds of phobias, complexes, and paranoia) were the parents, and grandparents born in the 20's and 30's... the're the ones that harbored the crazy rules, ideas, and traditions, and had a closed mind to any other possibilities that made sense. What else can a kid think if they have been brainwashed with these things, especially without being told another side of the story...they had no choice!! So, unless that person, as an adult, is a strong minded person, can stand up to these teachings, and opens it up to other possibilities that make sense, they will just keep going on believing the same crap they were taught when they were little kids.
Very true... Many people find it hard to disagree with parents' viewpoints, for example. A good thing to remember, I suppose!
in my experience, the majority always conflated loss of power with "persecution"
Yes and no, I think it really depends on the specific context of what's going on at the time, and who the group is that feels persecuted...
Yes and no, I think it really depends on the specific context of what's going on at the time, and who the group is that feels persecuted...