How do you feel when people talk religion?

[cvfd1399 0]

How do you feel when people talk religion in public, or try to preach to you? For the record if you want to call me anything I am of the Naturalistic Evolution type(does not believe in god) and I do not hate other religions. People can believe in what they want it does not bother me. It's when they try to convert me that I get aggrivated.

I personally hate to hear people talk religion in public, esp if the people are with me. My wife and mom started that crap in a restauraunt and it drove me crazy. I hate all the looks that other people give you like you are invading their religious privacy if there is such a thing.

I also hate it when people say things like "yea he is going to hell, not like you and me chad" Including me on something I don't even believe in.

The worst is when my friend tries to tell me I am mistaken and lost for not believing in god. When I ask him what kind of scientific proof that he has that god exists, he refers me to the fact that we have the bible. I tell him it is going to be funny one day when we find out that thousands of years ago the bible was wrote as a joke by a bunch of guys messing around and ever since then people have put all that time and money in religion for something that did not even happen.

[Skyrad 0]

It depends how people talk about their faith. If they talk about it without ramming it down your throat then I have no problem with that. It alsodepends where they talk about it. the last thing I want is to be stuck on a hot tube train in rush hour only to have someone get on and start screaming and shouting about eternal salvation and hell fire. Nor do I want some Seventh day adventist (Or anyone else for that matter) Screamming at me through a bull horn as I'm trying to do a bit of saterday shopping.
However, I quite like to discuss God and religion in a respectful way and in a appropriate surrounding at a time of mutual choosing.

When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

[Botellines 0]

I personally hate when people try to make a point and they quote the bible as since it is in the bible it has to be true.

Thou shall not rely upon the 45 degree rule, for evil temptation falls around you awaiting. Botellines 5:87

[cvfd1399 0]

Yep I agree

[pajarito 0]

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How do you feel when people talk religion in public, or try to preach to you?

No offense intended.
You're doing that very thing youself.
You even started your own thread.

[lawrocket 3]

Ever end up with a house call from one fo the chaps in shrit and tie riding mountain bikes? Door to door salesmen of God?

They can be fun. Sometimes interesting discussions are prevalent.

What is a shame to me is how many "non-religious" people lead holier lives than the "religious." My old boss was good at proselytizing, praying, and having sex with anything that moved or did not. Meanwhile, me and the other attorney, who were not religious, loved our significant others, didn't cheat and led good moral lives.

Of course, there are many (like chuteless) who DO lead solid moral lives. I actually don't mind those who preach if they practice it. It is the many who do not practice what they preach that sadden and upset me.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[DrunkMonkey 0]

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Ever end up with a house call from one fo the chaps in shrit and tie riding mountain bikes? Door to door salesmen of God?

Mormons? I usually offer them a beer and a cuban cigar, and invite them to watch me bone my 19-y.o. girfriend. That usually gets them to leave, and gets me onto their "Do not call" list.

[wmw999 2,382]

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How do you feel when people talk religion in public, or try to preach to you?

It's not worth the time of worrying about. If I can't talk politely with them and divert the conversation, or listen for a few and then leave, then it's OK to be rude and simply walk away.

Or talk with them and learn something if what they say is interesting, or debate them if that's what turns you on.

But letting it bother me is generally the same as letting phone salesmen bother me. I just say no thanks and hang up the phone.

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[freeflybella 0]

For me, what I don't like about religious discussion is purely an issue of those who believe what's best for them is best for everyone. Whether it's religion, child-rearing, the kind of music or television you like or don't like.

I love discussing religion with optimistic, faithful people - whatever that faith might be. I love hearing what your faith is about, and what you've learned and the beauty of living within your own spirituality. I'm fascinated, really.

But sometimes people use religion either as a weapon or a sheild - and I'd prefer to walk away from that.

Action expresses priority. - Mahatma Ghandi

[storm1977 0]

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For me, what I don't like about religious discussion is purely an issue of those who believe what's best for them is best for everyone. Whether it's religion, child-rearing, the kind of music or television you like or don't like.

Well said, I feel the same way. It is not the actual topic of Jesus or GOD that bothers me, it is the fact that these people have basically told me I am wrong, they are right and I need to change my ways.

Chris

-----------------------------------------------------
Sometimes it is more important to protect LIFE than Liberty

[smiles 0]

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How do you feel when people talk religion in public, or try to preach to you?

I do know some people feel honestly in their heart that they are spreading the "word" and their main purpose is to "save" others...or "save" the Earth, or the environment....

I do not think that the Bible was written to all people and that anyone, anywhere who just had a Bible, and no other literature could -understand it and be saved.

I like how the following is written by Errol:

"I do know that we are living in what is known as the Pleistocene Ice Age and this event has been going on for roughly 1.75 million years. So far this earth has been through about 20-30 'glacials' or ice sheet advances and the same number of 'interglacials' or ice sheet recessions. Right now the Earth is in about the midpoint of an interglacial that started roughly 11,000 years ago. If one thinks about it for about a nanosecond one can figure out for ones self that it has been constantly getting warmer and colder.

Humans are entirely too arrogant and insecure if they think for a second that they have any more influence over global warming or cooling than a gerbal might. No, humans can't really do global warming or cooling- humans are nowhere near capable of affecting global warming or cooling to any great extent by their day to day activities--unless you count creating a nuclear winter which isn't going to happen anyway.

What we are doing is making this planet incapable of supporting human life. What you will see after humans have done their absolute worse to pooched the place and have killed themselves off as a species is: the earth will simply do its recycle thing and in a short 750,000 years or so the sum total of human existence will be nothing more than a thin black, and slightly smelly, line in the coral reefs and soil strata. Our remains should skootch down nicely and become a dandy non-renewable energy sorce. Especially the methane that's left over from skydivers eating bad food at boogies.

We are the Borg. Nature as we found it is irrelevant. We will consume it's biological distinctiveness to maintain our existence regardless of the cost and what remains will be adapted to service us. Resistance is futile."

SMiles

[Michele 1]

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My old boss was good at proselytizing, praying, and having sex with anything that moved or did not.

Yup....I had the "same" boss.

He had a statue of Moses on his desk, and various other religious "momentos" around. On Rosh Hashana, he's make a big deal of donating literally tons of food to the homeless shelters around our area (literally tons). Then he'd come back to the office, and cheat his investors out of their lifesavings. I left when the SEC decided they were going to investigate him, and subtly suggested I find a better job.

People who don't allow room for other's opinions, positions, and views are people I don't want around me. If one wants to share -share, not shove their opinions and views, be it biblically, or politically, or any other...then fine, I'll listen. If not, then likely I'll just walk away. Mostly I'll do it politely, but I will just leave.

And proselytizing can be done with any position, not just religious.

Ciels-
Michele

~Do Angels keep the dreams we seek
While our hearts lie bleeding?~

[cvfd1399 0]

I am not preaching to anyone. We are discussing the discussion of religion in public, using a public forum designed to discuss religion. So therefore it is a double or triple negative(how..I dont know) and does not count. I had to read that a few times.

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[cvfd1399 0]

I have a boss that is super religious. Once a year he puts on a "prayer breakfast" for his LARGE church. How nice of him to suggestively force us to help out, setting up decorating, cooking, and cleaning up by dropping hints the week before the function. He even uses public resources to get it done. I.E. the week prior to the event the department secretary spends most of her time calling around getting things set up, invitations ect. He then uses public vehicles to bring tables and stuff to his church. If you don't go you are pretty much on his crap list for a few months. He never out right says it, but you know how that goes.

[StevePhelps 0]

When the discussion is a natural by-product of a relationship, I enjoy it. When it is forced or coerced, I don't. I have almost completed my Masters in Theology (lack one class) so I can converse with most anyone intelligently. But what experience has taught me in 20 years in the ministry, is few people want to discuss religion with any tolerance to beliefs apart from their own. That is why typically, I'd rather talk about skydiving, cartooning, or Harleys.

Don't get me wrong. I love Jesus, and he is helping me love others as he would have, but I prefer not to "discuss" religion.

[cvfd1399 0]

Harleys hmm, why does gas leak out overnight if I keep the cut off on? It seems like it comes out of the carb? A stuck float? or bad cut off valve? I hijacked my own thread woo hoo.

[Gawain 0]

I don't mind talking about it, or when others "talk" about religion. I don't mind when someone describes to me what they find attractive about their faith and/or religion. I do mind when someone preaches to me though, regardless of their intention -- that will shut my mind down and silently pray for that person to disappear.

So I try and I scream and I beg and I sigh
Just to prove I'm alive, and it's alright
'Cause tonight there's a way I'll make light of my treacherous life
Make light!

[peacefuljeffrey 0]

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How do you feel when people talk religion in public, or try to preach to you? For the record if you want to call me anything I am of the Naturalistic Evolution type(does not believe in god) and I do not hate other religions. People can believe in what they want it does not bother me. It's when they try to convert me that I get aggrivated.

The worst is when my friend tries to tell me I am mistaken and lost for not believing in god. When I ask him what kind of scientific proof that he has that god exists, he refers me to the fact that we have the bible. I tell him it is going to be funny one day when we find out that thousands of years ago the bible was wrote as a joke by a bunch of guys messing around and ever since then people have put all that time and money in religion for something that did not even happen.

I agree with much of what you say, particularly that theory about the bible not having been meant to be taken seriously. There is NOTHING to prove that the bible is actual "word of god." When was the last time anyone you know handled a bible that dates from around the time god supposedly dictated it? No, you have bibles printed in this decade, this century, but nothing that hasn't been filtered through a thousand different minds, mouths, and pens. The chances of that being the real word of god are astronomically against. Shit, you ever try to play that game "Telephone," where one person says something and then on down the line it gets repeated person-to-person, and then they compare what the last guy "heard" with what the first guy actually said? That's the bible, I'm sure of it.

You say you don't hate religion, but I DO. I see it as a cause of harm, of hatred, of divisiveness. People can be good people, and live lives that are free of strife and evil, even if they don't have a "god" who supposedly told them to act that way.

I don't believe in god. I DO treat people nicely, I don't steal, I don't like, etc. I think it is more noble of a person to behave the way I do simply because it is GOOD to be GOOD to other people, than because he has been threatened with agony and punishment for all eternity by a god.

An intrinsic part of most religions is the mandate to turn other people to that religion, and to insist that theirs is the only true outlook of how god created the machinery of the universe. But since the adherents of NO religion can possibly prove their beliefs are correct and true, it's asinine for any of them to belittle any other religion.

For instance, some primitive peoples believe that god formed humans out of earth/clay, and baked them and gave them life. We say pish-posh, that's ridiculous. How silly. But is it much less silly than saying god made two humans and two humans alone, and from them we are all descended. Or that they were punished for eating fruit they were told not to eat? Or that all the animals in the world were rounded up onto a single boat to protect them from a rainstorm that completely covered up all land? Maybe the "we were baked from clay" people think that's ridiculous.

I think that the only way human kind is going to pull itself out of this sewer of mutual destruction is to give up the silly pathetic crutch that is religion.

If I've offended anyone, too bad. I'm offended that religions and the strife between them, at this point, are the MAIN REASON we're fucking at war at this moment. I'm offended that MILLIONS of people have been killed because they didn't belong to the right religion. I'm offended that people tell me that just because I don't believe as they do, I'm going to suffer for eternity while they'll be in "heaven." (That's balls: if you're so fucking loyal to your religion, where is the part that says you should denigrate others who don't believe, or taunt them with the idea that they're going to hell?)

[/rant]

-

-Jeffrey
"With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

[WrongWay 0]

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I personally hate when people try to make a point and they quote the bible as since it is in the bible it has to be true.

I agree. I can't stand it when people do that, and frankly, it's happened to me so many times with people trying to "save my soul" that it gets my blood boiling just thinking about it. I don't believe a word the bible says. I don't believe Jesus was the son of God. I don't want to put faith in any God who would be cruel enough to send good, decent, honest people to hell because they didn't read his book and go to his house every Sunday. Sorry for being a jerk about this, but really, if I knew a person with that attitude, I'd tell them to piss off.

If people discuss religion calmly, in a cool manner, accept the fact that I don't believe what they do without cramming it down my throat that I need to be "saved", it's cool. I can sit there and be alright with it. That's your beliefs, and I'll respect that, but one word about "you need to go to church" or "how could you not believe this" and I blow a fuse. I can hold a discussion, but I'm very short tempered when it comes to religious "pushers".

Wrong Way
D #27371 Mal Manera Rodriguez Cajun Chicken Ø Hellfish #451
The wiser wolf prevails.

[WrongWay 0]

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You say you don't hate religion, but I DO. I see it as a cause of harm, of hatred, of divisiveness.

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!! You hit the nail on the head.

Nearly every war and major conflict in human history has been because of religion. It's been the greatest cause of death and violence since the dawn of time. The holocaust, the crusades, 9-11, the Spanish Inquisition......the list goes on and on. If there were no religion, the world would be a much happier and peaceful place.

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I think that the only way human kind is going to pull itself out of this sewer of mutual destruction is to give up the silly pathetic crutch that is religion.

I feel that most people that believe in a deity such as Jesus for example, do so out of a desperate need to be unconditionally loved. People's actions have consequences, one of which always being that others will look down on them. In an ideal world, one could do whatever they wanted and still have someone who will love them "just the way they are", no matter what they do. A belief in "Jesus is love" and "Jesus loves you" gives them that false sense of security. As you said, it is indeed a crutch. It's a person's easiest way of handling situations they are too psychologically weak to handle alone. If you trick your mind into thinking you have someone there that loves you unconditionally, then you do, and the support is there even if the person is not. Hence, the perfect invisible crutch.

Wrong Way
D #27371 Mal Manera Rodriguez Cajun Chicken Ø Hellfish #451
The wiser wolf prevails.

[pajarito 0]

This is not directed at any one person. It’s just how I feel about the topic. I believe God has been made known to everyone through his creation and, therefore, they have no excuse. The Bible is his word. It was written by men inspired by God and is the source for truth. I think, since everyone knows in their heart of hearts that there is a God and because of the sin of man, that some have rejected this belief. I believe some have rejected for so long that God has given them up to their own wickedness and hardened their hearts. Therefore, they truly think that they don’t believe in God anymore and are hostile towards the idea. Only God can initiate the “spark” in someone’s heart to follow him. Nothing can happen, in reference to evangelism and conversion, without God having his hand in it. That doesn’t mean, however, that Christians should not. It is a directive from Jesus himself through “The Great Commission” that we do so. Every person is different, however, and some have to be approached carefully so as not to turn them away. We shouldn’t do anything that might cause someone to stumble. In some cases, that might mean that we don’t take an active approach to evangelism because it might cause more harm than good.

[kmcguffee 0]

I don't have a problem talking with people about their faith or my faith. I enjoy learning about other religions and their beliefs. The main people who try to preach to me are aetheists and agnostics. Many seem to feel some mental superiority to us "simple minded Christians" and they need to show us how stupid we are. That seems to happen more than the preaching from religious people. Try to state your opinion based on a religious belief in this forum and see how many will rush to save you from your well of stupidity.

"Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do." Ben Franklin

[cvfd1399 0]

already happened how true

[sdgregory 0]

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Many seem to feel some mental superiority to us "simple minded Christians" and they need to show us how stupid we are.

I wholeheartedly agree hear. It is part of the human condition for someone to rant about what I might do being bad, while in the proccess doing the very same thing through the rant.

People who do not believe can only accept that we who do, believe from a position of weakness and that is sad. You may not want to be preached to about the bible, but I do not want to be "preached" to about how stupid and pathetic I must be to, "want" or "need" God in my life.

I believe, because I believe. I believe because somewhere in my life somehow I saw something that made my faith make sense. Whether it be a word, or a miracle, or just soemthing I saw, matters not. All that matters is that I believe, that in and of itself makes me neither stupid nor week.

What I do with my life and how I treat others and how I live. Those things matter. You may be un-Christian, Un-Religious, Un-believing. That is fine with me. Many of my friends are. And they all know where I stand on certain issues.

If you can accept me, and hang with me, even though we disagree on religion, faith, biblical or social issue, then that is all that matters. Because I can certainly do the same. I do not have to agree with someone just to be friends with them.


You want to hang out with me, jump, enjoy the sky, the weather and God's creation (even if you say it is not God's) I am cool with that. Let's jump, eat, be merry and enjoy the times we can together. I won't push my beliefs on you if you do not push your un-beliefs on me.

[lawrocket 3]

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You say you don't hate religion, but I DO. I see it as a cause of harm, of hatred, of divisiveness.

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THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!! You hit the nail on the head.

Hmm. Imagine you two dudes walking through a darkened alley in the middle of the night in a bad neighborhood. A few youths are walking behind you. Of course, your natural instinct would be to go into protection mode, be careful, be prepared, etc.

Now imagine you overhear them talking and figure out those male juveniles are coming from a bible study. My guess is that you would not be afraid of the harm, hatred and divisiveness that they will bring upon you. My guess is you'll feel a bit better about the situation.

Meanwhile, I view your beliefs as religious. You choose, like I do, to accept it on faith that Jesus is not your personal savior. Whether you like it or not, secularism is a religion, though undefined by any rules.

Many do view secularism with a certain degree of religious fervor. For example, those blasting religions sound a lot like Christians blasting Jews, Muslims blasting Christians, etc. One belief system blasting another. Think about it - you have just argued on behalf of one belief system over another.

Sound religious, doen't it?

My wife is hotter than your wife.