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Atheist Vs Theist with friends?
Posted on: March 30, 2007 - 9:45pm
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Atheist Vs Theist with friends?
Im curious on how many people here have friends who are theists and if you find yourself debating with them in regards to their theism or if you debate with people you generally don't know but you leave your friends alone? Let me know what others do.
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I have some theists friends, but I don't really debate with them unless they want to. Sometimes I debate with a few relatives that are Christians, it's fun. I don't really like to debate with relatives, but it's tempting.
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Yeah. Just curious if anyone has had issues with debating or talking about religion with other theists and then have their friends so "Go to hell" and they never speak.
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Well, I end up debating up to 7 theists, (all by myself). I've never really had a problem debating with them, though.
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Most of my friends really don't give a damn about religion or politics, but I had one friend who I debated with for a while (I pretty much pwned her) - I haven't really heard from her in a while. Another of my closest friends (deistic, but calls himself catholic) used to be against atheists and once wrote a blog rant about how atheists shouldn't force their beliefs on others. All I had to do to convince him otherwise was tell him about evangelicals, global warming, abortion, gay marriage (which he strongly supports), and he is now against fundies and more supportive of atheist efforts.
I used to be friends with theists. But most of them have converted now. The few that haven't never really talk about their beliefs, so it's a non-issue. Now I just know theists and sometimes hang out with them. Maybe I'll meet another theist friend to convert in time, but for now I'm rather lacking.
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First of all, gizmo, every time I see all those badges on top of your avatar, I nearly bust a gut.
I used to daydream about having meaningful conversations with the theists in my life, but I've decided that for me at least, it's a waste of time to either talk to them or daydream about talking to them about religion.
I just lost another friendship when I brought up my lack of faith a few months ago. Religion is divisive and has brought me nothing but turmoil in my personal relationships.
Have you heard Sapient's take on it? It made sense to me. He doesn't bring it up in his personal relationships. Instead, he's taking on people with whom he doesn't have a relationship, hoping to make the movement grow so that someone else can take on the theist's in his life. It's an interesting way to look at things.
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I've had some friendly debates with my cousin's husband about Catholicism. My cousin, though, who likes to pick up disjointed bits from different religions, simply shuts down the conversation when I ask about the obvious contradiction of adopting other deities, not attending church, but still calling herself a Catholic.
My family is mostly Catholic on both sides, but I haven't had the heart or balls to be confrontational about it. I might win the argument, but I'd probably ruin my already tenuous connection to many of them. Weddings and funerals always include the full church service, with all the standing and kneeling, which I simply ignore.
That is really difficult to happen where I live. People are too busy and too attached to other things than religion, so once a friend becomes a friend, he/she will be your friend for reasons that go beyond religion. Actually, most people never ask what religion you adhere to, if any, and they are never curious to know.
Yes, I've debated some on religion, but all debates amongst friends until now were, well... amongst friends. Most ended up like "Oh my, you're sure gonna' burn in Hell..." / "Yeah, and?" / "Oh, nothing... say, wanna have another round of beer?"
One more thing that I've noticed is that most people around here don't give much regard to dogma and canon. So me arguing with them on the Bible is perfectly pointless, because they agree with me. The only thing to argue about would be God's nature or the path to salvation, but there's too little to argue about here... practically these are simply pure faith items, without much anchoring in reality.
Inquisition - "The flames are all long gone, but the pain lingers on..."
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It is definitly not a secret to anyone whom knows me that i am an atheist... i have a couple theist friends whom openly debate me... a guy at work is attempting to convert me... i think he has given that up... however - we still debate random topics.
Most of my theist friends are liberal theists - so neither of us generally care whatever the hell the other one believes...
Fundamentalists (like my mother) simply agree with me that (for reasons of diplomatic harmony) we're not going to discuss religion with one another - or at least not on the grounds of "converting" anyone.
other fundamentalists simply avoid me like the plague - or refuse to speak to me.
I often debate with my friends who are theists. And I always seem to win every point in the debate... they agree with everything I say (eventually) and then when it comes down to the final point, that therefore logically God doesn't exist, they all say the same thing.
"Well yes if you look at it like that, but I still believe."
BUT WHY!?!?!?!?
I'm hoping that if each time I effectively win the debate I am making them less and less sure, and eventually one day they will realise how dishonest they are being to themselves.
I debate with my friends all the time, although much less agressively than I do with aquantances and strangers. Much like gobaskof, I find myslef making strong points and winning most of these debates, only to be shut down by a completely closed mind. I only hope that by always making good points I'm opening their minds at least a little.
I have a friend who grew up in a ultra-religious Latino family. He went over the deep end and got religious tattoos all over his body. He's one of my best friends and he knows better than to bring up religion around me. A few times he slipped and called me an idiot for being atheist or threw it in my face when he prayed for another friend's sister and she got better.
Both of those times I turned it around on him so hard that I had him beg me to stop because he didnt want to hear anymore. I made it clear to him that I would respect his beliefs, but the second the thought enters his mind that he was smarter or better than me... I gave him a hard reality check.
My other friends are more deists than atheists. Many of them dont know or care about religion, but they have all told me how much they respect me for my knowledge and bravery to stand up to self-righteous theists.
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I have been having dicussions about religion with many of my frineds for a while now. Actually, they are pretty much all atheists now. One of my friends is a deist and I still really am not sure what he believes despite the many hours we've talked about it (I'm not really that sure if he knows what he believes either.
At work about half are christians and about half are atheists. Most of the christians seem to be so due to habit and training rather than any real religiosity. They just seem to think life is easier if they consider themselves to be christian. One guy at work is a total brainwashed fundie. He used to talk to me about religion sometimes until I made him think too much. I got him to admit that he's never read much of the bible yet he still believes it to be completely true. There's just not much point in talking with him I find.
As far as family I don't really find it worth bringing up. I've told my parents I'm an atheist, but I never discuss religion with them. I don't see my relatives enough for these things to ever come up. A lot of them are very catholic and I really don't want to start anything with them. If it ever came up I wouldn't lie about my beliefs, but I'm not going to seek conversations about religion and such with my family.
most of my friends are uber-conservative christians. but we usually leave eachother alone debate-wise
I have debates with many theist friends(one of them actually deconverted), some are easier to talk to than others. I mostly seek discussions with the ones who can hold their own in a debate. There are a few who are completely dogmatic and cannot even think for themselves.