Religious people on the net.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

I belong to this website that is a support group for an illness I have. I had to quit it shortly after I joined because of all the religious fervor there.

After a few months I returned and found out from some of the comments, that they had been requested to tone down the religion. I started going there more often because there are several well informed members of the site that keep up with latest research or studies and I find it very helpful.

It's been three years and I've done my best to ignore the religious posts and comments there, but it's been hard. Imagine..sometimes you ask a serious question and all you get are people praying for you! These same arse-holes think America has the best healthcare in the world and hate any form of socialized healthcare, even though people from other parts of the world are telling them how great the healthcare is where they are and that they feel sorry for Americans who can't afford medical care. Many of the site's members have no insurance and really struggle, but it seems to make them pray more and really go off the deep end.

There have been other poster who said they were leaving or very bothered because of the "religious nutcases". It's the more frequent posters who are the trouble makes. It seems the ones who follow doctors orders..no matter what...are the the most religious.

I have wrote to management and they ask people to be more considerate but these people see that as a challenge and step it up a notch.

Stress is something I need to avoid for the sake of my health and can't return to that madhouse anymore. Last week someone mentioned the "sinners" who don't believe there's a better life after this. One idiot was saying that if he thought for one moment that this life was as good as it gets, he would kill himself right away. BTW He's not the one ill, it's his wife and she's not all that ill it seems. I try to avoid this nonsense but it's throughout the threads on the site.

Anyway, after three years I've had enough and I can't go back for the sake of my health...how ironic.

How do others here cope with this kind of thing on line?

[RKP5637]

1. I just don't go to those sites. I find a lot of sites are arrogant, hostile, ignorant and often

filled with fools.

[Warpy]

2. Sometimes it can be tough out there

My own strategy is to look for subgroups of skeptics (like this one on DU) or to zero in on a few fellow cynics and continue discussions privately.

I've also put people on block/ignore/whatever citing just one too many good Christian insults, s/he can find a new punching bag, I'm done. I've been told such people have cleaned up their act, but oh well.

I've also given up on online or offline support groups for people like me with an alphabet soup of loathsome diseases, not because some are revoltingly pious but because too many of them keep on dying while I continue to muddle on. It's depressing.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

3. I hear you

I am also finding it easier to muddle on alone than get caught up in their issues...and deaths.

It's funny but even though they claim to be looking forward to the next really awesome life they expecting in heaven, they are doing all they can to avoid it, lol. I have a more let nature take its course attitude compared to them.

[OriginalGeek]

4. In all of the other forums I'm on

there is either no need for religion to even be discussed or they tolerate me being an atheist or I don't give a rat-fuck if they do because I will be me..I should note, though, that every one of those is for entertainment. I can't imagine being in your shoes and needing advice to deal with something as important as your health and having to wade through all that bullshit. My shit doesn't even come close.

The very most difficult site for me is Facebook though. Mostly because my younger brothers are believers - they never let go of the fundamentalist church we all grew up in. My youngest brother is going through some nasty stuff with his ex and their daughter and I keep trying to explain to him he can't go on public facebook and write these long, semi-coherent rants about the evils of his ex and how god will be punishing her and looking out for him because he is strong in the lord. Even though, by every measure of the words, god is not looking out for him. It's pretty obvious he is gonna get screwed out of ever seeing his kid and it is at least in large part due to the fact that he looks like a lunatic in these rants. I keep telling him he needs to tone that shit down and get a lawyer and stop waiting for jesus to hand him a miracle.

The worst part is if, by some weird chance, he gets his shit together and gets a lawyer and gets a reasonable settlement with her, he will spend the next month crowing about how god saved him from the wiles of this evil woman.

But he's my little brother and it hurts me that he is going through this and all I can do is let him know I love him whether god shows up or not.

[PassingFair]

7. Sounds like the kids will be better off without him.

If you love him, encourage him to see a secular therapist.

[mr blur]

5. I had a similar experience,

though, as the board in question was here in the UK, it was free of the more extreme Fundy types. I got tired of the people who would happily claim that their god had a reason for burdening them with the disease as if that made them something special. Having dropped this disease on them he was, of course, giving them the strength to live with it. What a dick.

Telling them I'm an atheist is invariably seen as an attack on their beliefs, usually countered with a cry of, "Well, I know God exists!" Yeah, whatever...

My feeling as I left was the reminder that just because we all have the same disease, doesn't mean I have to like you.

[PassingFair]

6. I had lunch with an ex co-worker this week.

She was criticizing what everyone was eating and talking about
the power of positive thinking.

She would. not. shut. up.

She was going on and on about "miracles" and how people don't
die from cancer unless they have bad attitudes and don't pray to
Jesus hard enough.

She was spouting ridiculous statistics.

I finally looked her dead in the eye and asked:

"Geri, I hope you don't honestly believe that people who die
from cancer die because they aren't "positive" enough or they
are not beloved by Gawd. Because I hope you never get cancer
and have to believe that you deserve to die because of your
own moral failings."

Really, I was furious at her.

I still am.

[Generic Brad]

8. I just take it all with a big grain of salt

Since I know we will never agree on the topic of religion, I prefer to focus on our commonalities. I cannot control them, but I can control my reactions to them.

[Curmudgeoness]

9. Some support groups are more religious groups than others.

If there are any other discussion/forum sites for your illness, try them out to see if there is more information and less praying for you.

[lindysalsagal]

10. I'm involved with a so-called catholic, although we sleep together unmarried.

To me the hardest part isn't that they believe this or that. The tough part is how they chase their tails trying to avoid their guilt, and their emotional repression.

All of the self-identified zealots break the rules because these rules have gone on for thousands of years and it's not even possible to follow them all.

So it's dealing with someone in a constant state of inner conflict that's a drag. This man is a wonderful man and he really turns me on. But he sees me as the devil, and then just comes back for more dinners and sex.

Religion ruins daily life. I have never lived that way, but now that I'm trying to be involved with a believer, I am reminded daily.