godlessgrrl Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 Just a minor rant about something that gets on my pecs. I've noticed that a common tactic by the particularly devout on places such as CF is to dismiss a non-Xian's opinion by making the argument that if you're not Xian, you're not qualified to talk about Xianity, therefore if you do talk about it, you don't know what you're talking about, therefore nobody should listen to anything you have to say. Never mind that a goodly number of non-Xian folks on CF were devout, learned, hardcore Bible-studying Xians in the past... never mind that they might have been, oh, say, pastors... or scholars, or deacons, or Bible study leaders, or otherwise have spent enough time in their life living as Xians and learning about it that, oh, y'know - it might qualify them enough to know what the fuck they're talking about. I find it generally annoying anyway to see people so attached to a belief or opinion that they'll dismiss the far more informed opinion of someone who really is qualified to know what they're talking about. Like YEC's dismissing the opinion of someone who holds a fucking doctorate in macrobiology. Or like some punkass scientologist wacktard who thinks he knows more about psychiatry than docs who've spent their entire lives and educations learning about the subject. I'd say someone with 6 to 10 years of formal education, 20 years of field experience, and multiple papers and published academic works prrrrrrobably knows what they're talking about, as far as their field goes. Similarly, years of Bible study, possibly formal theological education, and a lengthy history of time spent praying, believing, and generally being a Good Christian prrrrrrobably makes a person qualified to talk about Xianity, and know what they're talking about. So it just pisses me off to see someone pull the "You're not a Xian, therefore you can't talk about Xianity because you don't know what you're talking about" card. It's bullshit. And it's stupid. One more way to dismiss something they fear: that you can be a non-Xian and know about Xianity, and you can be a Xian and fall away from it. Anyway that's it. Thanks for reading. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aqua Kitty Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 * Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I Broke Free Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 No wonder Christianity is so popular. Once you become one you have the authority to dismiss any comment made about Christianity by non-Christians. In addition you now become an ‘expert’ in all fields of science. A minor irritant? I think you are being generous. IBF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike D Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 You're right that is very annoying. I think the reason they do this is because many of them can't fathom someone "leaving" Christianity. A "backslider"? Ok that's acceptable. But to actually "reject" it? Impossible! I think they decided that anyone who would consciously leave Christianity must either be mentally ill, insane, stupid, uneducated or otherwise just don't understand Christianity. WHY would anyone leave Christianity and go to hell? It just doesn't make sense! EDIT: Oh and one other possibility: They've been tricked by Satan and we can't listen to what they say because we'll be tricked too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pariah Posted February 26, 2006 Share Posted February 26, 2006 It's funny because you also always hear fundamentalist Christians saying things like "Atheists/non-Christians can't have morals" or "Everyone believes in our God, some people are just in denial". So current non-Christians can't know anything about Christianity but Christians know the deep inner thoughts of everyone else? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
godlessgrrl Posted February 26, 2006 Author Share Posted February 26, 2006 It's funny because you also always hear fundamentalist Christians saying things like "Atheists/non-Christians can't have morals" or "Everyone believes in our God, some people are just in denial". So current non-Christians can't know anything about Christianity but Christians know the deep inner thoughts of everyone else? Oh yeah, gotta love that one. That whole "You don't know anything about how we think, but we know all about how you think." Especially when the Xian in question makes the claim that they "know all about" what it's like to be a non-Xian because they used to be one - but the former Xian doesn't know anything about being a Xian because they either 1) aren't one anymore, or 2) were never a TrueXian in the first place. Ahhh, the wild and wacky world of hypocrisy. You're right, IBF, I think I was being too generous. Truth is that I'm really just getting sick and tired of dogmatic bullshit. The more time passes, the less patience I have for stupid fundie whining about how they have to tolerate gays and abortion and divorce and all kinds of ungodly amorality from everybody... y'know what? It's bullshit. Y'know who's being tolerant? Everybody else. I am. We are. Polite, tolerant types willing to live and let live. And y'know where it's gotten me/us/etc.? It's gotten us to a point where South Dakota has passed a law making abortion a crime. It's gotten us to the point where states like Kans-ass and Tex-ass (funny how they all end in "ass", ain't it?) are replacing full-blown sex ed with lies disguised as "abstinence-only education". It's gotten to the point where there are lawsuits to make sure Intelligent Design is taught as actual fucking science, for chrissakes. Frankly I think the idea that religious conservatives are "tolerating" everything - from gay rights to the fucking War on Xmas - is a whole load of fucking honkass bullshit. I really think everybody else is tolerating them, not the other way around. And I, for one, am fed up with their bitching and whining and plaintive petty whinging about how the world isn't the perfect moral godly place they want it to be. Cry me a fucking river, Bible-thumper! And I'm fed up with the insidious way they seem to be able to create legislation that just assreams the intelligence of the rest of us, using their religion as the justification for it. Dude! WTF??? In fact I think I'll go out and get drunk and stoned, dance naked under the moonlight, fuck my brains out, and eat a baby for good measure. Hell, maybe I'll even get a divorce... Oh wait, I already did that once! And then go openly worship um... I dunno, myself maybe? Or Baal. Yeah, that's it, set up a grove to Ba'al on the nearest street corner. Hey, there's fucking churches everywhere, why not a pagan grove? And I think I'll stop using BC just so I can go out and get as many abortions as possible. And I'll even go to South Dakota and get them so I can flaunt the law, how 'bout that! GRRRRRR!!!! Gawd, I'm so keyed up now I could eat a tree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mnemosyne Posted February 26, 2006 Share Posted February 26, 2006 Many Christians repeatedly make the infuriating argument that belief must come before understanding. This is why they think atheists don't know what they're talking about. Atheism is seen as simply a misunderstanding, not due to any fault in Christianity itself. If the atheist would simply just believe in God (is that so much to ask?!), they would understand the truth of Christian answers to doctrinal issues. And so Christians are mind-boggled by ex-Christians... because ex-Christians have already been through the whole "belief" thing and therefore supposedly understand it, and they still insist that things just don't make sense. So they see you as someone who as intentionally betrayed the truth, betrayed God (possibly because Satan got to you)... or else you never really believed in the first place. The Christians to whom I've spoken about my atheism seem under the impression that I am intentionally turning my back on God, saying "fuck you". They don't understand that for an ex-Christian, there is no-one to turn your back on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lycorth Posted February 26, 2006 Share Posted February 26, 2006 Yes, that whole spiel pisses me off too - it's that insidious arrogance and self-righteousness that Xianity encourages. Makes me think of my ex, and how it was the worst fucking thing in the world to try and understand something about Xianity before you believed in it. God forbid you put reason before faith! God forbid you use that pile of mush between your ears for something other than generating pictures of Jesus to grovel before. God forbid you come down off your high horse and realize there's no "plan" for you and no god who can possibly implement one, so you're no more special than anyone else, regardless of what you believe in. It's that smug, rotten self-righteousness that characterizes good fundy Xianity that drives it, and it stinks worse than any sin ever could. We know better than you do about everything there is to know, because we have a book that has it all, and sometimes we have a church full of "elders" to tell us precisely what to think. Just makes you want to reach out and smack the shit out of each and every one of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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