Tired of re-explaining your de-conversation?

[Guest lugh]

Hi all -- I'm new to this forum, been an ex-xian for 3 years.

 

I don't talk with old christian friends or I try avoid the topic of christianity when I do -- because I don't want ANOTHER four hour conversation about the hows and whys with all of those inevitable mini-debates. It's exhausting. I'm thinking of putting together a press release or bullet pointed list of reason and FAQs for future use. Because it's not like I'm hiding or ashamed, I just get a little bored of repeating myself.

 

Anyone else have this problem? Any solutions?

[Jose]

At one point in time I actually had business cards printed out that said,

 

I'm not interested in...

 

__ your overpriced product.

 

__ your MLM get-rich-quick scheme.

 

__ your stupid religion.

 

__ your children/ grandchildren/ other.

 

__ your problems in general.

 

Thanks, and have a nice day!

 

I would just check the appropriate one and hand it to them.

 

The unspoken message was that anyone who paid to have 5,000 business cards printed out on parchment stock with non-standard graphics and raised ink to avoid talking to you about that subject will probably get violent if you keep bringing it up.

[pandora]

Heh... great idea Jose. I think I should make up a little FAQ... if you make one, send it here so we can all copy it.

I get sick of the debates and people pushing the issue too.

[Purple]

No problem, all my church "friends" stopped talking to me cuz I was an evil apostate. I had a couple women come by to do the "friend" thing, expecting to find me all miserable and unhappy, were going to take me out, I was on my way out the door on a date with my husband, so I coudln't go, both of these ladies were divorced, the look on their faces was priceless. hehehe I havn't seen anyone really since, run into maybe, but they rarely even say hi.

[Dianka]

I am not really tired of it because I have never even told any of my friends or family members about it. But I think it is about time I told my friends that I don't believe in God anymore. Usually when my friends would talk about God I would just wait until they ran out of air, but they usually don't talk about God. And besides I didn't become friends with them because we went to church together, we became friends because we like to drink and verbally harass good looking men together.

 

And I love talking to the Bible thumpers at my school. Of course, I never seek these people out, but it seem that every time I go to the lunch room for a snack there they are. Last week one of them came up to me and asked if I would take a survey. I didn't know this was a religious thing, so I said sure why not. First question: If you could ask God 2 questions, what would they be?

I wrote:

-Why are only 144,000 men allowed into Heaven - this does not give me, a woman, any reason to worship you.

-If non-believers go to Hell, and you know from the beginning what will happen to all of creation, why did you not give me the faith that I needed to get into Heaven - you know I tried believing.

 

 

There were a couple of other questions and before the girl looked at my paper, she smiled at me and said "wow, you finished that fast, you must have really thought about it.'

 

Of course I did.

 

When she looked at my paper the corners of her mouth just dropped - I almost started laughing.

 

"Oh, you shouldn't believe that because it is in the Old Testament." (She was talking about the 144,000 men question)

 

MmmmHmmmm......

 

I gave her my e-mail and told her I would love to talk to her about it more. She told me she would forward a few things to me that night. And, That was a week ago. Don't think I will be hearing from her =(

[Mr. Neil]

Because it's not like I'm hiding or ashamed, I just get a little bored of repeating myself.

 

Anyone else have this problem? Any solutions?

I've steadily whittled my explanation down to Occam's Razor. Illinois is a blue state, so no one really bothers me about Jesus. They just give me the typical questions like, "where did everything come from, then?". Easily fielded and their theistic assumptions are shown for being the special pleading that they are!

 

 

I had a couple women come by to do the "friend" thing,

AAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

 

I'm sorry, I don't mean to laugh. It's just that I've experienced the same thing. Did they do the depressed emo-Christian sigh? Did the rub your hands? Did they give you the heading-down-a-dark-path speech? Did they make it out like an intervention?

 

I love how they think of apostacy as though it's akin to being addicted to heroin or something.

[Dhampir]

Personally, I'm itchin' to be confronted by my family on it ('Cause I don't live at home anymore, and they can't kick me out over it ). Don't have any really religious friends right now.

[All Gods Fail]

It's been awhile since my apostasy, so my friends/family all pretty much know where I stand. Of course, most of my friends are either non-xtian or cool, non-fundy christians who aren't all in your face about it. We agree to disagree.

 

And I rarely get pestered by evangelical types - I don't know why. I'm kind of huge and imposing, so maybe I intimidate them.

 

I wish they would harass me - I've got so many great smart-ass remarks and they're just going to waste.

[Mr. Neil]

My family is afraid of me, I think. If I start making too much sense, they usually back off.

 

They're like, "Ooooookay... I can see that you've been doing a lot of thinking about this. Hmm.... yeah. So, have you seen Revenge Of The Sith?"

 

I come from a strictly non-fundy family, so I don't have to worry about the Jesus lectures.

[godlessgrrl]

I'm kind of weirdly lucky, in a way. The same avoidant habits that led to major dysfunction in my family are the same avoidant habits that make it so that they just don't ever bring religion up at all. Hence, I don't generally get badgered about my rejection of Xianity.

 

On the few occasions that it has come up, I'll admit it's gotten tiring. I'm not very good at debate anyway, so I've never been good at answering with a precise, well-researched argument about why I ditched the faith.

 

It's gotten to a point now where if it seems like the conversation is going the way of a big discussion of my apostacy, I'll just stop the whole thing and say something along the lines of, "Look, if you're really interested in finding this out, email me - but this is a big heavy discussion and this probably isn't the time or place to get into it. If you're just interested in reconverting me, don't bother."

 

So far it's worked okay. Then again, I'm kind of lucky.

[webmdave]

Hi all -- I'm new to this forum, been an ex-xian for 3 years.

 

I don't talk with old christian friends or I try avoid the topic of christianity when I do -- because I don't want ANOTHER four hour conversation about the hows and whys with all of those inevitable mini-debates. It's exhausting. I'm thinking of putting together a press release or bullet pointed list of reason and FAQs for future use. Because it's not like I'm hiding or ashamed, I just get a little bored of repeating myself.

 

Anyone else have this problem? Any solutions?

 

Fortunately most of my mini-debates happen online and I can take a break from them whenever necessary. I've posted my own testimony here, as well as a few articles that thoroughly explain why I no longer believe. Yet all too often Christians don't want to read anything I've already posted, even when I give them the URLs, they just want to engage me one-on-one, going over the same old parroting rhetoric again and again.

 

It does get tiresome.