Undercurrent

Mods: Feel free to move this somewhere else if it gets too classy.

I have a running group that I participate in every thursday, and today I was asked by the organizer to be the "sweeper", that is, the person who runs with the slowest group to make sure nobody gets lost along the route.

Today's slowest group was a middle-aged mother and her daughter. The mother and I were having a nice conversation; Canadian opinion of Dumbya's policies, where she used to live, &c, when all of the sudden, th daughter, who hadn't said much, chimed in with, "Are you a christian?" "No," I answered. "Why not?" "Because I'm an atheist."

All of the sudden I got to hear about great things like how the reason I'm an atheist is because I was raised catholic, and how Jehovah's witnesses aren't christian because they worship "Jehovah", not God. And to top it all off, the daughter asked, "You don't have to answer this if you don't want to, but what do you live for? Yourself?"

Suffice it to say, she got an answer, and a good one at that. And yes, it was polite -- Drawn from the works of Bertrand Russel, Samuel Clemens, and Kent Hovind.

The mother, to her credit, I believe realized that this was turning into an iterrogation and changed the subject back to something sensible, while the daughter went back to not contributing much to it.

I don't know whether I'm amused or annoyed. Of course we're used to trolls around here, but in real life, most of the time people tend to insert a "Hi, how are you," before the "defend your belief system." I can see people wanting to go out and convert people to their belief system, but the point of the running group is running, and "religion" is not a topic one brings up in polite small-talk.

But mostly I'm pleased with myself. A few years ago I wouldn't have been able to intelligently defend my beliefs, and probably would have mumbled something irrelevant and changed the subject. That is something that years of IIDBing has produced.

m.

Amie

Hi undercurrent

I think you handled yourself wonderfully...

they were actually telling you the reasons that you are an atheist? Did I read that right? very odd...

well I would have definitely been in that slow running group, I suck at running. Give me a pool over a track any day...

That must not give you very good feelings about people when you are asked to defend why you don't believe in God. The "why are you not a Christian" always makes me wonder...what do they expect everyone to believe the same thing?...

I don't think I'll ever fully understand why there is a negative stigma attached to atheism...

winstonjen

People fear what they don't understand. That fear can easily turn to hate.

Reverend Ruin

What exactly did you say? A paraphrase is fine, I'm just curious.

beoba

And about how old was the daughter? At first, I was thinking someone around the age of 8, kinda threw me off when you started on her questions.

Undercurrent

I can't really remember that much actually, something about the value of adding to this world rather than wasting valuable time hoping for an afterlife instead of using it to help other people. The Kent Hovind part was, of course, a bit about deluded christians and what led to my deconversion. Some talk about how even if God is the only thing that could make life meaningful, even the combined power of several billion people's meaningless lives could not conjure up a God.

It was more than she was expecting (which, i believe, would have been reminicent of the second to last page of a Chick tract .)

m.

Stephen T-B

I was at a party, consisting mostly of retired midwives and their spouses, when this very large lady, sitting in a corner who had insisted on being addressed as Mrs Cooper - she didn’t like the familiarity of first names - announced, apropos nothing at all: “You do realise that God died for you.”
There was a moment’s stoney silence and someone said tersely: “I didn’t know we were in church,” and the former conversation continued.
Afterwards I wished I’d said: “So it’s true: god’s dead,” but then I always think of the smart rejoinder when it’s way too late.
One of the other husbands does happen to be a Christian, and he was appaled by this stupid woman. He happens to be one of those Christians who uses his beliefs to justify all his kindest, most generous impulses; he spends his life running errands for people who can’t get about too well, and he keeps their gardens tidy, plus he’s mischievous. At another “do” he surprised someone he’d not met him before with the announcement that his religion allows him to have more than one wife (he’s a big black guy) and that he’s got three of them. I’ve a lot of time for Maurice.

Wyz_sub10

Undercurrent,

I'm glad you said something in your defense rather than just nodding along and saying, "huh, yeah I'll think about that."

I went to a wedding with a Christian friend one time, and on the way there we started discussing "Noah's Ark" (she claimed they 'found it', I was familiar with that particular hoax, so we talked about that).

When we got to the wedding, she joked that her aunt and uncle (who we'd be sitting with) were hard core, and that I should talk about it with them. I told her not to bring religion up because I didn't want to spend the whole night trying to be polite while I was being summarily judged.

In any case, the aunt brought something up on her own and followed it with "did you know they found Noah's Ark?" Of course I refuted that, and then the whole rest of the night was spent on a fruitless discussion of Christianity, with me holding my tongue because I was a guest, and them telling Julie that I wasn't a "real" Christian (which I could have told them myself).

lunatic.retired

Undercurrent..."Mods: Feel free to move this somewhere else if it gets too classy."

No risk of any debate I enter into being classified as "classy"

You handled your self very well...BUT.. I would have put in a good sprint and hoped that they got well and truly lost

Eudaimonist

If I was quick-witted enough at the time, I would have said:

Do you mean Mithras? Yes, I have heard how this ancient Babylonian deity became popular in the Roman Empire, and how the faithful referred to Mithras as "the Light of the World", and considered him a member of a Holy Trinity. I've also heard how he was born of a virgin. Can you imagine that? According to myth, Mithras died for the sins of mankind, and preached brotherhood to unite against the forces of evil.

But I'm sure you must be referring to something more rational than this.

Here is a reference with even more similarities, if you decide to try this approach.

<a href="http://www.innvista.com/scriptures/religion/mithra.htm" target="_blank">http://www.innvista.com/scriptures/religion/mithra.htm</a>

[ December 13, 2002: Message edited by: Eudaimonist ]</p>