Do you ever get ridiculed for being a believer or a non-believer?

[hrmjustin]

For the most part people leave me alone about my beliefs. I do get some teasing a bit but nothing I can't handle.

What about you?

[okasha]

1. Only on DU.

n/t

[hrmjustin]

2. Yeah I get that at times here.

[orpupilofnature57]

4. Me too, wouldn't have it any other way .

I trust people that know why they don't believe, more than people that don't know why they do .

[skepticscott]

13. Ridiculed simply for BEING a believer

Or ridiculed when you parade your specific beliefs in public for everyone's comment, automatically expecting them to be respected, even when you yourself admit that they may not make much sense?

[hrmjustin]

14. Yes I have been ridiculed for being a believer.

When I post on DU I expect to be challenged, that does not bother me.

[skepticscott]

15. So when on DU

has someone sought you out and made fun of you personally for being a believer, when it was NOT in response to a post?

[hrmjustin]

16. You mean on DU mail? No

On posts I have responded to or threads I started yes.

Sometimes there are religion posts in GD and I have made a comment saying I am a Christian and have had ugly things said.

[cbayer]

3. +1. And only here do people:

1) want me to take a side

2) assume they know what I believe or don't believe based on which "side" they think I am on (which has happened in both directions)

[hrmjustin]

5. I agree.

People make too many assumptions here.

[cbayer]

10. Because there is too much "with us or against us" mentality.

[trotsky]

23. Which you ironically exhibit in that very statement.

Or when you have made the ridiculous accusation that those who challenge beliefs are somehow "carrying water for the Republicans." With us or against us, but evidently it's OK when you do it, eh cbayer?

No wonder it's so hard to take you seriously. When you start holding yourself to the same standards that you demand in others, people will respond positively.

[Ernesto]

6. Only when I was in the USMC

for having chose "no preference" as my religious choice on my dog tags.

[longship]

7. That's a good question.

Not ridiculed, per se.

However, I find both believers and non-believers questioning my claim to be an atheist.

For the former, it is often shock that someone doesn't actually believe in god(s); for the latter it's usually a silly rhetorical argument of the meaning of "atheist". But IMHO both come from ignorance of what it means to not believe.

After quite a few years of this I find it fairly easy to dispense with both arguments, although I confess that I enjoy far more the discussions with the believers because those are far more richer and nuanced. The rhetorical arguments from fellow non-believers I can dismiss fairly quickly, possibly because our differences are minor.

The most ridicule, if one wants to call it that, are the naive questions often posed by those who are strongly theistic. "Don't you believe in anything?" The Pascal's Wager ploy is also very common. Again, these are easy to defuse but often serve as a beginning to an interesting discussion which can help strong theists understand what it means to not believe in gods.

That's why I would much prefer a discussion with a believer than another non-believer.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. No, just looked at funny sometimes

when I admit my agnosticism. But I try not to be argumentative - people believe what they believe (or not), and I've never found that arguing with someone about religion has done a single thing to change their minds. So as long as religious people don't try to legislate their religion I don't worry about their beliefs. And nobody has tried to convert me in many years (though I do recall once being invaded by Mormons and having to hide from them).

[Sherman A1]

9. Not in a very long time....

My B-I-L was telling my Wife that it wouldn't hurt her to go to church, I simply looked over the top of my glasses at him and the conversation changed rapidly.

[Warren Stupidity]

11. do you mean do "your beliefs" get ridiculed or do "you" get ridiculed?

Last edited Fri Jun 28, 2013, 09:46 PM - Edit history (1)

As in:
"I think that belief is idiotic"

vs:
"wow if you believe that idiotic belief you are an idiot"

I realize the difference may be difficult to understand, but I am frequently amazed here at the things people apparently believe, that is when they are actually willing to admit to believing anything specific at all.

It is difficult to ridicule a non-belief. On the other hand it is of course easy to ridicule non-believers. It is done here all the time.

[hrmjustin]

12. The second one is probably more what I was asking.

[trotsky]

35. Few believers understand the difference.

It's pretty sad.

[Heddi]

17. OH yeah. When I lived in Florida a few years ago

I was told flat out by another RN I worked with that there was NO WAY that I could be a real atheist, that I had to believe SOMETHING about God, that I was delusional to believe there was no God, that I was a self-loathing Christian deep at heart, that no one can just "not believe" in god...

daily harassment by this one RN. Not only about Atheism but about being a democrat as well.

In my face, often following me around from room to room nag nag nag, question question question.

He would follow me into a patient's room and as I'm doing my assessment would blurt out "Hey, can you believe she doesn't believe in God? Doesn't believe in Heaven or Hell or the bible? DOesn't go to Church???" WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING? Nice way to meet your patient, being told in a heavily religious area that your RN is basically a satanist.

I told him one time 'Look, you got enough time to hound me for an hour about this shit, why don't you help me with some of my critical patients instead of worrying about my eternal soul" Nope. No time to help out a co-worker, but enough time to go on and on about this shit.

"OH so you're telling me that, let me guess, we came from Monkeys? Well why weren't my kids born monkeys? Let me guess, you worship 'SCIENCE'....your god is CHARLES DARWIN..."

oy. fucking. vey.

It was unrelenting.

and because I worked at a non-union hospital, voicing complaints would have done nothing but guaranteed my eventual firing from the facility, and I really needed that job at the time.

I was very happy when that RN quit.

Other people were still like "whaddya mean, you don't believe in god..." but not as every day in my face like this guy did .

[rug]

18. Never IRL.

It's easy for people to attempt it on the internet.

[hrmjustin]

19. Yes I have learned that recently.

[Rod Walker]

20. People will cheerfully say things to people on the internet that would get them punched in the face

in real life.

[rug]

24. Very true.

Welcome to DU.

[Inkfreak]

28. That's an apt summary of internet comments.

However, I do find plenty of great discussions here on DU. Ya just gotta weed thru the bullshit here & there.

[Marrah_G]

21. No, not directly

As a Wiccan there is alot of generally accepted bigotry and fear towards our practices, but I live in New England and so I haven't really had to deal with ridicule directly.

[Iggo]

22. Sure.

And they get it right back.

I'm not playing by the old rules anymore.

[mr blur]

25. Lots of ridicule for atheists in this forum -

balanced out by our ridicule for theists. Everybody wins and gets to feel smug.

[cbayer]

31. How about we work together to diminish some of that ridicule?

[bUU]

26. Both!

What I find interesting is how my beliefs get attacked both by non-believers and by believers.

- Some non-believers try to criticize spirituality in all forms, even those forms that explicitly and unequivocally affirm and even promote the guidance of reason and the results of science.

- Many, and perhaps most, believers try to criticize spirituality in any form other than their own personal preference, especially those forms that explicitly and unequivocally affirm and even promote the guidance of reason and the results of science.

Of course, this is most evident online, where people aren't put in the position of offending your religion directly to your face. And living where I live, such self-serving attitudes are in lesser evidence regardless.

[cbayer]

32. Welcome to DU and to the religion group, bUU.

Are you comfortable disclosing your beliefs?

[bUU]

33. bUU is UU

[link:http://www.uua.org/beliefs/principles/|

[cbayer]

34. Got it. Thanks!

[Kolesar]

27. My Catholic boss used the occasion of Christmas to ridicule my skepticism

It may have been that I said happy holidays. The shit had already sussed out that I was a nonbeliever and made some dismissive remark.

Three of his direct reports quit on him with no notice. His boss determined that he was not fit for personnel, so he promoted him to principal scientist. He got promoted and collected a salary that was probably $150,000 /year then a big retirement pension. The shit never wrote anything that was of any use in me applying my job.

Life ain't fair.

In the ensuing decades, Dr. Shit thought that he and I were best buddies. I have a talent for concealing my feelings.

[Inkfreak]

29. Not really. But..

I generally don't put my beliefs out there to be commented on too much. I do see some pretty nasty stuff out here in the internets tho. I just chalk it up to people's need to "shock & awe" with over-the-top comments. I'm more of a non-confrontational kinda guy. I feel no need to shit on others.

[Rod Walker]

30. As a non-believer, only by my closest friends. Keeping in mind that we regularly throw the vilest

of insults at each other during our gaming sessions, so it's all cool.

On the rare occasion that it's come up at work that I'm an atheist, I just get an occasional funny look.