I Am Remorseful Angry, And I Have No One To Talk To About It.

[LukeExChristian]

I am a relaxed guy, I have never been into drama and I usually keep my opinions to myself. My account history tells a different story, but I am not one to vent or rant. But I a bunch of this changed when I discovered that God is man-made and how detrimental and parasitic Christianity is to individuals, societies, governments, education... entire civilizations.

 

My boss, who knows I am an atheist, asked me earlier today if I went to church this morning. I said no. He asked why. I said "I slept straight through it." After a minute I became honest. "Nothing against those who ARE religious, but I am just not really religious." I still have a hard time believing what came out of his mouth.

"You think you are an atheist but you are really not."

My co-worker immediately laughed it off, I wasn't sure if he was kidding or not. It still kind of pissed me off.

 

Regardless of if he was being for real... it makes me livid that there are parents telling this to their children and pastors spewing it from the pulpit. My fellow atheists and I do not believe in God. I could understand FINDING IT DIFFICULT TO BELIEVE that we don't believe in God... but dismissing the idea altogether is ignorant. Any chance for an atheist to plead his or her case on this subject is most likely going to be dismissed on the grounds that an atheist is speaking at all. Which is morally acceptable from their point of view, and only perpetuates this stereo type as well as others. Which personally makes me angry.

 

It makes sad to see my loved ones buried in it. It makes me sad and angry seeing facebook posts and hearing conversations about how "God's Not Dead" was great and about how God should be in the pledge, and other stupid shit. I want so badly to be able to plead a case. To just be able to explain so much that I have learned about history and philosophy, that it is not what you've learned from the pulpit.

 

Fucking Christianity makes me sick. How dare you brainwashed fucks hijack morality, and self esteem and threaten the fate of hell while making stereo types of your opposition without even giving a pass glance to us atheists, what we're actually like.

 

I am not mad at God, and I can say it until I am blue in the face and there will still be these simplistic dismissive blissful assholes who will still dismiss that proposition without second thought. Only perpetuating my rage.

[Orbit]

I hear ya.

[TheBluegrassSkeptic]

That ever aggravating dismissal of " you are not really an atheist" chaps me too. I was told that I didn't know what being an atheist meant. Ha! They learned quickly from my actions, not my words. Often, behavior speaks more than your pleading for them to believe and understand you.

[Brother Jeff]

Movies such as "God is Not Dead" badly misrepresent atheists as all being assholes and jerks. Unfortunately, many ignorant Christians who know little or nothing about atheism or atheists personally will take that portrayal as "gospel truth." All we can do is continue to speak out and continue to educate the public as calmly and as reasonably and as rationally as possible. I myself have recently toned down the anger and other emotion in my public religious posts because I finally realized that the anger and passion with which I wrote was doing nothing for me but feeding the "angry atheist" stereotype that we all dislike so much but which so many religious believers hold to strongly.

 

Anyway, I share your feelings and your outrage... Glory! 

[FreeThinkerNZ]

I hear ya too.  And agree wholeheartedly.  

 

#religionpoisonseverything

[BinkleyBoo]

I too share your feelings. none of our old church friends, or any of our extended family know about my family and our recent deconversion, so we haven't had those kinds of conversations yet. But I can hear them in my mind, and I know how awful they would be. Every time I think about our old church, the people there, the lies, manipulation, cruelty .... I want to scream.

[LukeExChristian]

That ever aggravating dismissal of " you are not really an atheist" chaps me too. I was told that I didn't know what being an atheist meant. Ha! They learned quickly from my actions, not my words. Often, behavior speaks more than your pleading for them to believe and understand you.

if i may ask, what actions and what specifically did who learn?

[Flutters]

Sometimes when people insist they know who and what someone else is really all about, they're just projecting and saying much more about themselves than the other person.

 

Maybe they think there is no such thing as an atheist, and that atheists are really just angry with god ( like in God is Not Dead ) because deep down they have anger and disappointment with their god, and at some point way deep down in their being, they have had an urge to give their god the brush off. Maybe what they are saying is that they cannot allow themselves to feel anger toward god because they might lose their faith altogether, so believing that atheism is a temper tantrum gives them some assurance that their own subconscious feelings are not doubt about god himself.

[florduh]

Yep.

[RenaissanceWoman]

[snip] Every time I think about our old church, the people there, the lies, manipulation, cruelty .... I want to scream.

 

TOTALLY. It's shocking how universal this seems to be. But it's comforting too in a sick sort of way, as in... I'm not the only one -- it's not just me! It's a much larger problem within religion and dogma itself, creating institutions of emotional and spiritual pain for us thinking types.

 

LukeXC... I'm wondering why your boss would ask you if you went to church, but then in the next breath admit that he knows you call yourself an atheist. Weird. Sounds like a setup for an awkward conversation. Maybe next time just chuckle and say, "Nice try!"

 

Intentionally riling up employees on personal/religious matters is generally frowned upon, just sayin'.

[LukeExChristian]

Yep.

Nope.

[Margee]

I can't believe I believed!!    And I believed very strong. My atheist cousin used to get soooo frustrated with me when he tried to talk about the silliness of Genesis and I would not listen to him!! I just kept telling him that this is how 'gawd' set the world up so man could have free will, blah, blah. I was one of those brainwashed people!! It was not through his hassling me that turned me around..it was eventually NOT seeing any evidence of a personal god. Some people could lose their whole family in a fire and they would think that god will bring 'good' out of it. I do not understand how some people can  maintain their faith???? 

 

I hope you feel better soon Luke. Keep posting.

 

hug