How do you respond to religous people?

[Onkel Neal]

I swear, I am seeing more "prayer" and "blessings" comments in my feed than I care to remember. So, if a friend, acquaintance, or family member starts blathering about the Lord and "God loves us" and "turn your life over to Jesus our personal savior"... does that open the door for me to post my thoughts? I mean, it has to be a 2 way street, yeah? If someone posts about the "blood of the Lamb washing away our sins", isn't it acceptable for a rational person to point out that 2000 Jewish mythology is worn out?

Usually, I ignore religious bleating but god, it starts to get on my nerves. I outgrew that stuff when I was 13.

[Armistead]

My walk through life evolved with religion. Course, I'm 60 now and I grew up in a more religious culture. I can still remember when they took prayer out of school. My family got in church in my teens and I got 'saved' and I embraced that life for years. In my early 20's it was back and forth, but I did make much effort to understand God and faith and a long journey has led me to be an agnostic, tho I'm still fairly conservative. I have many family and friends that are Christians and my wall is filled with their post. Have one friend that does a daily 'how can I pray for you today' post. I am on several social media pages that are agnostic/atheist vs theist where I will state my beliefs with fervor. I am well studied in the bible and have no problem debating it in general, but I seldom chime in when it's more personal. I often think I should, why hide it. You know, not attack them on their post, but not hide for what I think on my page. I did get into one debate on a friend that was pushing people to get saved so they don't face eternal torture. I didn't say I didn't believe in God, but that I didn't believe in hell. I told them my personal moral compass is I couldn't worship a God in heaven for all eternity that was at the same time torturing members of my family and friends, and how could they. When I do approach those situations I tend to pose the questions that I once struggled with as if looking for answers to make my points.

[Skybird]

The stuff is hitting the fan again, either in form of traditional old-fashioned dealing with a deity ("I give you a prayer and you do a deed for me and make me feel well"), or in a more surrogate fetishism format, which is climate and ecology ("if I eat vegan and monitor my CO2 footprint then I gain 2+4 access points per day and when I get 10,000 access points the gates to eco heaven open up for me. Optionally I invest in sales of indulgency and buy only recycled second-hand stuff with a clean track record of not being produced by child labour and in accordance with Western moral demands of right wages, or I bribe the gate keeper by thinking politically correct, morally in conformity with the collective, and become a beacon of woke radiation to enlighten my next as long as he he is not white, male and old, in which I case I helpt to expose his sins to the light of the rightous mindset of ours"). Believing in superstitous stuff like this seems to be a basic human need and imo also is a matter of psychological hygiene, else man feels isolated, confused, disocnnected and froimns polent yof even more unhelathym troublesome thoughs that turn him either depressive or psychopathic.

In any case, fanatism and intoernace are marhcing, and I fera we are moving back into a mindset form the medieval. we also see it in the way science and research now gets socially compelled to censor itself and to no longer seek findings on the basis of empiry, but ideological compliance.

We now see the destruction of science. And the rise of blind believing, with the focus on "blind".

Dark ages behind us dark ages in front of us. We enjoyed a brief enlightened moment in history, covering our lifespan. Enjoy the memory of it. Its now dying like the brightness from the setting sun. The unspeakable things again start to move in the growing shadows.

What to do, you ask. Be mindful that what you say and do today will be remembered in the future and might be used against you - but then maybe under changed legal preconditions no longer protecting free speech. And every record today is being recorded forever, thanks to technology and automatization. - My best advice: hex 36 of the I Ging:


36. Ming Yi


The Judgement

Darkening of the Light. In adversity it furthers one to be persevering.


The Image

The light has sunk into the earth: The image of Darkening of the Light. Thus does the superior man live with the great mass: He veils his light, yet still shines.



They want you to be dumb, Neal, and obedient. Find an inner space that is completely yours and build a refugium in it. Let nobody in.


To me there is just one religous rule that is recommendable to respect, and that is the Golden Rule. Every religous claim beyond that, is no religion, but earthly powerpolitics.

[mapuc]

Since I blocked a religious person some years ago I haven't seen so much religious stuff in my feed.(Every day he posted short notice from the bible on his friends wall)Have even blocked people with other beliefs They were to much

If I should see some religious stuff somewhere I would just ignore it.
Except if it becomes a routine from this person then s/he are blocked

I myself believe in science.

Markus

[em2nought]

I find religious zealots other than the Islamic variety preferable to zealots for all the "new" "religions" and by religions I mean Al Gore / Greta Thunberg type nonsense. I also find them preferable to democrats.



My stern religious sister told my poor salt of the earth mother that my hippy brother, who passed away, wasn't going to heaven. I still haven't forgiven my sister for doing that to my mother, and expect my brother to more likely be there than my sister will. In his heaven they'll be playing "going up to the spirit in the sky", her heaven will be depressing.

I think we see more of the religious "sending blessings" and what not because those folks are starting to feel under attack. Christ, we have college students who have been brainwashed to believe that killing Jews in a most heinous way is fine and dandy.

[ET2SN]

If you're in a hurry to jump on that third rail, by all means go for it.

One of the things I believe in is the US Constitution. We all have the right to believe in what ever we want. The problems start when other folks feel the need to blather about it in a vain attempt to get me to throw money in their collection plate.

So, what do I believe?

A). Its NONE of your freaking business.

B). Maybe get your own house in order before you start yammering at me? Most overly religious folks I meet have more than enough skeletons in their closet.

C). If your God is so perfect, why does he/she/it constantly need money?

D). What's so wrong about not being perfect?

[Jimbuna]

Family first and always has been.

[August]

Originally Posted by ET2SN

C). If your God is so perfect, why does he/she/it constantly need money?

God doesn't need money nor is he the one who is asking for it. What does an omnipotent being have need for funding?

No that comes from humans and why it is constantly needed can be discerned by what they want to do with it. For example, feeding the poor is not a one time expenditure. As long as there are poor and downtrodden people in the world they will need to be fed and clothed and sheltered somehow.

I'm not saying that TV evangelists aren't complete Grifters for the most part (they are) but that doesn't mean all religious charity is a scam either. Some of the money does go to help those in need and i'd argue that religious charity, as flawed and self serving as it is, still does as good or better than any government program that has ever been created for the purpose.

To the thread topic in general: I am a believer in a Supreme Being but I am not a religious person (as in I belong to none of them). I believe that organized religion is mans attempt to explain the unfathomable, like little children trying to explain quantum mechanics. I think we humans just do not have the mental capacity to fully understand the concept of an omnipotent timeless God that has created the universe and everything within it.

On the other hand it seems to me that most non-believers walk around with a huge chip on their shoulders. They just don't seem to be able to communicate their lack of belief without being condescending and insulting. They are less tolerant for the beliefs of others than any religious zealot.

[Skybird]

How to respond to missionising people? By handing them a business card not with your own name, address and telephone number, but a link to this video:




I leave people believing their stuff alone as long as they do not try to actively engage me or try to change the social environment I live in or think they must endlessly demonstrate themselves and their pretended superiority to everybody around. Freedom of religion always implies also: freedom from religion. Keep thy faith to where it belongs: inside your cabin, then all is good and no fight is needed. Die Gedanken sind frei. But the others have no obligation to be interested in them - they have the freedom not to be so.

[Sean C]

If I don't feel like talking about religion, I usually just tell them I'm Buddhist (which is true). Most people know so little about Buddhism that they don't have much, if anything, to say about it. Otherwise, I'll just say "No, thanks. I'm not interested." If they still don't get the message, I make it more clear.

But, to answer your question:

Originally Posted by Onkel Neal

... does that open the door for me to post my thoughts? I mean, it has to be a 2 way street, yeah?

Yes, I certainly think so. If someone offers me their unsolicited opinion on anything, I feel free to give them mine in return. No matter how much I think it may offend them. If they are offended, I remind them that they brought it up, and they should be prepared to hear different viewpoints. Wherever I happen to be is not a church and I didn't ask to listen to any sermons.

However, religion is one of my favorite topics. So, sometimes I just try to mess with their heads. For instance (no offense meant to anyone here): some Mormons once knocked on my door and told me I should read the Book of Mormon. I asked them if there was an "update" in there. Had God changed some of the rules since the Bible was written? Their reply was basically "No. It's more of the same." So, I asked them why I should read it, then. If it's the same message as the Bible, what's the point?

I swear, one of them got this look on his face like "Hey, wait a minute! Why are we pushing this if it's the same?" But he quickly snapped back into his training. Thought I might've actually reached someone there for a second.

Other times I'll just tell them that whatever book they adhere to is allegory and is basically the same as every other religious text in its overarching message. So, I see no need to "pick a side". I believe that, as long as I generally try to be a good person, I will make it to any supposed paradise. I mean, what kind of god would refuse a good person entry to heaven? Not one I'd like to meet, anyway.

If none of that works, I just tell them the truth: that neither they, nor I, nor anyone else really knows if any sort of god exists. I have my own beliefs about our creator, and no one can tell me I'm wrong. That's the thing about faith ... it's not based on proof. Quite the opposite, really.

If I'm really feeling fiendish, I'll tell them that I have just spoken to god and he told me not to listen to them. Argue with that!

[Catfish]

I'd say religion is a personal, private thing.
If you believe in god or some higher being, good for you. If you do not, good for you.
You do not have to demonstrate either to other persons.

A friend of mine does not believe afaik, however he carries an amulet of Thor for whatever reason. When Jehova's witnesses knocked at his door he opened, listened, and invited them to come in saying something like "all gods are welcome here" pointing at this amulet. They were gone in a second.

if there was not so much bad and mayhem initiated by those believers, I would just brush it aside. But you cannot when you know how much wars and killing is done in HIS name. From Houthis to Palestines, to Israel, to all the wars that were and will be.

To answer the OP's question: Try to get rid of them with whatever means you see fit. What YOU think about god has nothing to do with official churches, beliefs or especially this american "televangelism". If you really believe you do not need a church. If not, the point is moot anyway.

[Jeff-Groves]

I just ask them to forgive me for all the bodies I buried out back.
Never goes much further after that for some reason.

[August]

Originally Posted by Catfish

A friend of mine does not believe afaik, however he carries an amulet of Thor for whatever reason. When Jehova's witnesses knocked at his door he opened, listened, and invited them to come in saying something like "all gods are welcome here" pointing at this amulet. They were gone in a second.

Like I have said before evangelists only care about the unaffiliated soul.

[mapuc]

If you ask any of these believers whatever Christianity they belong to

They would all say-God is on our side, some would even say God is only on our side.

Isn't it fantastic what great job Satan do when considering only one religious group have God on their side(So they all claim)

Markus

[Skybird]

No trace of holiness far and wide. Everything divine is dependent on the extend of self-knowledge.