Pretending In Order To Maintain Influence

[2Honest]

Hey I just came across this from Recovering from Religion. I hope the study helps to bring some understanding.

 

 

 

Do you hide your non-belief from any facet of your life? Are you "in the closet" with friends, family, work, school or all of the above? We are working with Daniel Swann, a graduate student at the University of Maryland who has launched a study on closeted atheists. You can participate by emailing your information to theclosetproject@recoveringfromreligion.org ...thank you for helping people better understand the challenges we all face when breaking free from faith!

https://www.facebook.com/RecoveringFromReligion/posts/348551355194737

[dswrites]

The more I read on this site, the more I realize how little I know and how much has already been discussed. It's hugely educational and tremendously humbling. So thank you, everyone, for that.

 

Since we don't have a skin color that calls us out, it is easier for us to just live our beliefs without broadcasting them than it is for other persecuted peoples. But I agree that I don't want the fear of anything, much less the strong, damaging visions of Hell being put in my child without my consent. It's Breaking and Entering. You've gone into my child and planted a bomb in them and I do not appreciate it. So at that point, no — I will not pretend to be subtle or placating. Scare the crap out of your own kids. You have no right to commit an emotional felony upon the children of others.

 

I also agree that it is not my responsibility to convert or win over a believer. If you are not hurting me, go with God. I have lived an entire life having never voted once in a presidential election. How do you feel about that? Does that make you suddenly have to turn me into either a Republican or a Democrat? That's a shame, because a second ago we were getting along fine. Am I now an outcast? I don't care about a system that you are passionate about. If you notice, I never once bashed it. I just said I have never voted. I did not try to get you to stop voting. How does this change our relationship? Do you think less of me? I never pretended to be either a Republican or a Democrat. It just never came up until now. Do you feel I deceived you in some way? Maybe because my views were conservative and I had come to some conclusions about the way I would like society to be that had a lot of common themes to being a Republican, you made an assumption about me and now you are angry that I have made you feel you were wrong? Did you like my views a minute ago, before I outed myself? Am I now a different person? Or do you just see me differently? Do you at least respect me that I had no hesitation in being honest about what I am? Or are you so shocked that I get no credit for honesty and/or courage?

 

I don't tell another parent who has a child, "Dude, have you told your kid there's no Santa yet? 'Cause he's 7 now and you're a horrible person if you let him go to school this year thinking there is one. You haven't? Okay, I'll go tell him right now 'cause obviously you are not fit to raise him properly. By the way, I'm doing this because I am a good person and he obviously needs to be saved, so there's nothing morally you can do to stop me."

 

I don't go on Saturdays to Christian houses and ask, "Have you heard the Good Science?"

 

I will help you move your furniture. I will pick you up from the airport. I will have you over for dinner. And I will answer the question if you ask me,

 

"So what religion are you?"

[sjessen]

TrueFreedom, I haven't read through this whole thread, but after reading your OP, the idea hit me that if you want to have a "mission field", what about working with new ex-Christians. Recovering from Religion has a program where you can set up a small group in your area. They provide some advertising support and a Facebook page linked to their main page. Just a thought. You might feel like you are making more progress with people who either are leaving religion or are thinking about leaving. Just an idea.

[TrueFreedom]

I appreciate the renewed interest in this topic. It's not at all about harvesting a mission field. It's about maintaining influence in areas unrelated to religious beliefs. It's about choosing your battles wisely, and focusing on positive priorities. As a passionate person I have a difficult time with this, but I find it a worthy goal.

[Melancholy]

I think there are so many people who hid how they really felt in the past. We are never going to know who was hiding their "doubt".

 

Somehow, Christianity turned into something you had to be part of, but not necessarily believe. You just didn't tell anyone. I remember reading that back in the early Middle Ages, people like Charlemagne forced the Saxons to convert to Christianity. Alfred the Great forced his Viking opponent Guthrum to convert to Christianity when he surrendered. That happened all the time when Europe was being Christianized! In fact, it was a major reason why Europe was Christianized in the first place! What happened if you didn't convert? Well, they straight up killed you. Is that really the basis for any religion? I would say not.

 

With a basis like that, it's no surprise that people from the earliest of times just decided to hide how they really felt. If you just go back and read history, you find cases over and over again where you see that people probably didn't really believe, but they just took part because that was their culture. (Robert Curthose comes to mind, and many of the early English monarchs...) In fact, I bet you there are a lot more "doubters" than you or I could ever imagine through out history. Again, I read that the majority of people in Europe didn't really start believing in the whole Christian thing until the Crusades started to roll around. Before that, it was common for the peasants to practice things like "white magic" and consult witches.

 

Christians don't seem to realize this. They seem to think that in the past, everyone went to church and everyone was Christian, when they most likely weren't. They think we are living in a sinful age because people are actually coming forward and saying "hey, I don't believe this." People are just more open now, I think. Kierkegaard addresses such things in his Attack on Christendom essays.