As an atheist, you face an insurmountable amount of chritian intrusion. Everything in your daily life has something "christian" about it. That is a given. We all deal with it in different ways. Usually, we just ignore it because we are busy and can't be bothered. And if we were to confront every injustice by the obtrusive christian invasion we wouldn't do anything else.
BUUUUUT there is always something that makes us stop in our tracks and say "wait just a minute" (Could I have been any more mayonnaise white with that last expression...I don't think so). An event that just grates on your nerve so severely that you just have to say something.
This happens to me at least once a week.
What I am interested in is what it is that makes you stop and say something, what it is that really ticks you off that a christian did to you just because you don't believe in their myth.
This last week I was playing Spades at a neighbor's house. In walks another neighbor. She is about 70 or so. She saw us playing cards and said. "You should play at my church. We play Bunko every Wednesday night." One of the guys playing with us said: "Myke won't go he's an atheist." The elderly lady was shocked. She looked at me and said "No you're not! No one is an atheist! You can't be an atheist unless you're a communist!"
I just looked at her and shook my head.
Well, I didn't think anything about it until exactly two days later my doorbell rang. I answered it and standing there with 4 of her friends was that elderly lady with a bible in her hand. I said: "What do you want?" She said: "We've come to save you!"
That really ticked me off. They didn't ask if I wanted to be saved or anything. They just decided that they were going to save me. I stood there stunned for quite awhile. Then I said: "I am saved. I am saved from the myth that is your god. No go away and never come here again." Now when I walk my dog I have to pass her house. If she is outside she goes in. So a little old lady shuns me and I guess it is my fault for not being a christian.
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You face so much more crap then I do. I guess it is about where you end up living. All my neighbors mostly ignore each other.
For me, probably the most common anger moment fr me is, when I end up driving through an intersection that holds an abortion clinic on occasion when my travels take me through there.
There are people holding up signs there all day every day, and I can not help but to look at the parking lot. Where I see a group of religious nuts ready to pounce on any car that drives into that lot, yelling and harassing anybody that drives into that parking lot. (They are thankfully not allowed near the actual building, so they instead hang out on the sidewalk on the entrance to the buildings parking lot.)
I feel inclined to take their signs and tell them to go find something better to do then harrassing women on potentially one of the worst days of their lives.
What an awkward situation, Mykcob, It could be called harrassment.
I used to sit next to a colleague at work for a year and one day we found out that we both were atheists so we got so excited (it was unusual to meet one there) that we raised our voices a little bit. When my boss listened to my "I'm an atheist" part, she came very anxiously and blutered out something similar to what your neighbor said: "No, you're not. You're joking, right? No, it cannot be. Say you're not, say it". Half joke, half threat.
I really didn't know what to say... She held my hands and began to pray... Luckily in a few seconds, I was saved by the bell (a phone call). When I hung up I came to her desk, and she was praying out loud... She got so nervous that she got stuck and I finished the last verses of the prayer for her. I smiled and said "What are the odds? I know the prayer better than you do". She smiled with relief I was not Damien, I got back to my desk and kept my job.
The national day of prayer
I'm with you MCD I don't like "god bless America" at games that I pay to watch.