Pensee

Hey Rufus! I go to USM (University of Southern Miss.) Nah, I don't have a problem being the atheist on campus. That's probably because that particular professor is the only one who knows that I'm the atheist on campus. The only reason she knows is because we were required to write a reflection about USM's Children's Book Festival. It's this really huge deal. Teachers and librarians and authors and illustrators come from all over the country just to attend. Anyway, it was being dedicated to this old lady who had donated over a million dollars to the festival. The dude doing the dedication asked everybody to stand. At the very end of the dedication, he dedicated it "to the glory of God." BLAH! GAG! PUKE! I was pissed off because I was standing during that part. I wouldn't have stood up if I would have known it was going to end that way. I put that in my reflection. Anyway, the teacher read it and kind of freaked. The day she gave back our reflections, she started talking to me about it at the end of class. We ended up talking for over two hours. I didn't mind talking about it, but she kept interrupting me and going off on nonrelevant tangents. For instance, when I was talking about biblical contradictions, I mentioned several, but one that I mentioned was the lineage of jesus. She started talking about how people don't want to believe that jesus had brothers and sisters. That's not even what I was talking about! Finally, when she finished talking, I told her to look up his lineage in the different gospels and see how they're different. She said she'd look into it for me, but she hasn't given me an answer yet.

It was difficult for me to completely rip her apart. She's a sweet lady and she was using all sorts of antecdotal evidence that's really important and sentimental to her. I didn't want to just tell her I thought those stories were b.s., coincidence, and that she was hallucinating. Y'know?

One thing that did piss me off was she made the foxhole atheist crack. I just told her that I found it offensive and how would she like it if I said there were no foxhole Xians 'cuz when it comes down to it, you really know deep down inside that you believe in Allah. Later on, I e-mailed her a story (I think from infidels) about a foxhole atheist. She replied "Thank you for the e-mail. See you in class Tuesday." She never said anything about the article, so I don't know if she read it or not.

Even though she's the only one who specifically *knows* I'm an atheist, I've been hinting around it in front of others. Maybe not so much that I'm an atheist, but just nonreligious.

Sometimes (okay all the time) it's lonely. There's no one IRL that I can really talk to about my beliefs. It sucks. Everyone around here is Xian. They'd think I was the debil if they knew. For one of my classes, we had to produce a book. It was a collection of photos and writings that we had all done. At the end, we included a couple of pages for everyone to sign (sort of like a yearbook thing). I swear almost everyone made a religious reference or even quoted scripture in their "advice". Sickening.

edited to add: And one more thing, this prof can't get over the fact that nothing traumatic in my life made me lose faith. She doesn't believe me. Every time I tell her, "Nothing major happened to make me quit believing in god. It was just when I started to evaluate my faith that I lost it", she tells me, "But it had to have been something. I don't know what it is. But something had to happened to cause you to lose your faith." I'm like, "Yeah, honest questions!" <img src="graemlins/banghead.gif" border="0" alt="[Bang Head]" />

Maybe I should've started a new thread.

[ May 06, 2002: Message edited by: stardust ]</p>

free12thinker

There is nothing scary about prayer, but there is something scary about the number of people who believe in it's practice, even as they sit and wait for something that never comes.

It's scary.....and funny.

I'm just fortunate that our blessed God gave me the intelligence to laugh at the whole idea of prayer and God.

irishajo

Wow, stardust. Thanks for sharing. Maybe you should put that in a new thread!

I hate it when people try to convince me with anecdotes. I don't mind hearing them, but they're not a way to try to convince a person. Unfortunately, that seems to be all xians can come up with. <img src="graemlins/banghead.gif" border="0" alt="[Bang Head]" />

irishajo

Here was my answer to the question on the other forum.

I think many atheists/agnostics would say that prayer offends them as opposed to scares them. Not the act of prayer in and of itself, but rather assuming that the atheist in question would want to be prayed for and would appreciate the gesture.

Personally, it depends on who's doing the praying and why. I think prayer is more about unloading your inner angst onto god/the divine/the universe rather than trying to change circumstances. If someone 'feels my pain' and wants to communicate that to what they consider the divine, then I am more likely to be grateful than offended. If however they are praying for me to see the light and accept the omniscience of a particular god, of course that's not going to go over well.

Boro Nut

Sneeze on him every time he says it. He'll end up thinking he's psychic.

Boro Nut

...alternatively, ask him for a bigger cock.

Boro Nut

Eudaimonist

Prayer would only scare me if the surgeon says that he'll pray for me instead of using all his medical skills and knowledge.

MikeMcK

I usually just take it in the spirit it's offered and say "thank you".

Mike

<a href="http://www.jimlauderdale.com" target="_blank">http://www.jimlauderdale.com</a>

SharonDee

Yeah, that's what I do. Prayer doesn't offend me and it's a waste of their time, not mine. In many cases, it's what they say when they feel helpless to do anything else.

The only time I'll respond with something like "and I'll think for you" is when they get obnoxious about saying they'll pray for my soul.

Boro Nut

That puts a different complexion on it. I want to retract my original answer and agree with Mike. Nobody told me it was offered in spirits.

Boro Nut