.....I feel bad now. *sad smile*

Zeeboe
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.....I feel bad now. *sad smile*

I had a debate tonight with my sister over the phone about religion. She knows about my new life style and I told her several times I didn't wanna get into it and that I didn't want to make her question her faith, but she kept pushing for it so we ended up debating about it for a while.

.....And I feel bad. I think I made her question her faith a little bit. I've had debates with my Mother about it as well and they both started taking in that same tone of voice when they began losing......

It's hard to describe the tone but it's a tone of being unsure and a little angry, and their whole argument is..."No, God is real...I know he is....".

I felt so bad for her that I brought up a few good points that the Way of the Master has brought up before just to make her feel better about her faith...things she didn't know about, and to let her know I hadn't given up on Jesus.

.....But I really feel bad. I feel like I need to hug my sister now. lol. I feel like a jerk. I don't wanna take away my family's comfort.

When you're an agnostic atheist I know you're gonna get challenged by Christians and they really shouldn't ask for it if they're not prepared and really shouldn't be so cocky.

But still, I think next time, I need to just either refuse or not ask so many hard questions or not make so many harsh statements. Of course, if I do that, the Christians will think they won and will wanna convert me.

So I dunno...but I feel really bad.


Nero
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It is easier if your first

It is easier if your first convert is not family.  My first convert was a college roommate.  Now, he replaced his Catholic God with me, which is probably closer to the truth than he had been before.  You asked your sister to think after she forced the conversation on you.

Had you ended up praising a non-existant deity, would she have felt bad?  No!

So, you shouldn't feel bad until you debate her and then touch her inappropriately.  That's a reason to feel bad.

"Tis better to rule in Hell than to serve in Heaven." -Lucifer


latincanuck
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    why is it that when

    why is it that when the real hard questions get asked, that need to be asked to get to the truth, people feel sad, you made someone question their beliefs? I doubt it, they realized it themselves, for sure. You merely posed the question. If they didn't have any doubts they wouldn't have any doubts in their faith.

    The one problem i see as a society is the utter respect to religion and to ideas that we have, there are certain beliefs and "ideas" that are off limits, and i am sorry, nothing is off limits. Of course timing is everything, however every idea every belief should be questioned, without it you have blind belief and in blind belief, you have the muslim suicide bombers, you have christian crusades, you have gulage (sp?), nazi concentration camps and all the evils of the world that happen when people stop asking questions and start obeying blindly.


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This same thing happened to

Zeeboe,

Something similar happened to me when some Christians came to my door a couple of weeks ago to "save me." After about twenty minutes of debate with them on my front porch I started feeling kind of bad because I think they knew their answers were begining to sound a little weak.

Finally as they began to walk away I said, "At least you are knowledgeable about the Bible." I'm not sure that helped but at least I tried.

I don't like to make people feel bad. Maybe next time a group of Christians come to my door, I'll just tell them that aliens have planted a computer chip in my brain and are controlling my thoughts.

They won't stick around long.

 

 

Frosty's coming back someday. Will you be ready?


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Nero wrote: So, you

Nero wrote:
So, you shouldn't feel bad until you debate her and then touch her inappropriately.  That's a reason to feel bad.

Laughing my ass off! 

Frosty's coming back someday. Will you be ready?


Susan
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Zeeboe, why do you feel

Zeeboe, why do you feel badly about showing reason to your family?  You know they're questioning you in hopes of bringing you "back into the fold".

Yes, if they begin to question and understand they might be sad for awhile.  Weren't you?  However, just think about the heavy yoke of mythology that rules their lives that might be lifted.

Don't you think that if they're questioning things after such a short time that they may have been silently questioning for a long while?

Of course, this doesn't mean you should be disrespectful or nasty to them.  But if they insist on questioning you, just give them thoughtful, truthful and respectful replies.  Really, your only other choice is to out-and-out decline to discuss religion with them.

Maybe, if you don't want to discuss it and they continue to insist, you could give them Sam Harris' Letter to a Christian Nation

 

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Zeeboe
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*sigh* Thanks guys. The

*sigh* Thanks guys. The truth is, I'm still not over losing my faith.

During my debate with my sister, she brought up that our cousin had a baby when doctors told her it couldn't happen and everyone in the family prayed and then she just got pregnant and everyone thinks it's the work of God.

I KNOW there's some scientific reason behind it, but that's not my field of expertise, so I let my sister have that one...especially since she was already losing pretty badly.

Sure, there were some bad things about being Christian, but it did give me hope.

I've said it before, but I wish I could go back in time and edit the bible to my liking. I wish I could get rid of the evil bible quotes, the contradictions, the fariy tales (except for the stuff Jesus did) and make God into the God most Christians think he is (loving and very forgiving) and get rid of the idea of hell and replace it with limbo or something, and I'd make the bible not have so many rules.

 It'd be so much easier to be a Christian then. Smiling


Wonderist
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Zeeboe wrote: *sigh*

Zeeboe wrote:

*sigh* Thanks guys. The truth is, I'm still not over losing my faith.

You haven't lost anything. You've gained something - reality. 

Quote:
During my debate with my sister, she brought up that our cousin had a baby when doctors told her it couldn't happen and everyone in the family prayed and then she just got pregnant and everyone thinks it's the work of God.

I KNOW there's some scientific reason behind it, but that's not my field of expertise, so I let my sister have that one...especially since she was already losing pretty badly.

You are aware of the fallacy here, right? Counting hits and ignoring misses. The inherent confirmation bias in human perception. Correlation does not prove causation.

Quote:
Sure, there were some bad things about being Christian, but it did give me hope.

Being atheist does NOT mean being without hope. Would you like help in seeing things to be hopeful for? I can offer some insights. 

Quote:
I've said it before, but I wish I could go back in time and edit the bible to my liking. I wish I could get rid of the evil bible quotes, the contradictions, the fariy tales (except for the stuff Jesus did) and make God into the God most Christians think he is (loving and very forgiving) and get rid of the idea of hell and replace it with limbo or something, and I'd make the bible not have so many rules.

I personally would like to see someone do this as well. Modernize the Bible. Give it a foundation of reason rather than faith. Take all the good and dump all the bad. Why not? Anything would be better than that 2000 year old book.

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