Something that ticks me off a bit.
Offline Sorry if this shouldn't be in the AvT thread, its a personal narrative, but I think I can glean a discussable point.
My uncle is an atheist. He is the only other atheist in my family (and the only open one, I haven't "come out of the closet" yet, just made sarcastic comments whenever religion is brought up). His father is also an atheist. This ticks off the rest of my family, who call him a "godless bastard" who "worships computers" (whatever that means), but that's not the point. His father is dying of cancer; painful, horrible prostate cancer. Every week I am forced to go to chuch with my parents and grandparents, and every single week they bring up my uncle's father.
I thought the first time they brought him up that they were going to talk about how sorry they were for his pain and suffering, and sympathize with my uncle. But they don't do that. Instead, the first and only thing they can talk about is how he has been "a heathen" all his life, and they are downright gleeful that he's dying so that he "might come to the lord".They think its a "very good thing" that he got such an "opportunity". My grandfather was especially proud that he told the man "I will pray for your soul" and he "didn't protest". They don't give a damn about his suffering, or his life, all they can do to the man in his last agonizing, terrible moments of life is to annoy him with fairy tales and push him until he converts, to "save his soul".
I don't know what to do. Today I just wanted to burst out and say "you horrible, senseless people!', but instead I sat like a coward as they tore apart a poor old dying man with thier ignorant words of hate, and heard how downright proud they were of "witnessing" to "heathens". Now my atheism feels alot closer to home; its no longer theological musings, its the knowledge that if I reveal myself, I will die in ignominy, with my family gleefully taking the opportunity to spout nonsense at me, all the while dying in agony with nobody around me that understands.
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One of the drawbacks of believing in an afterlife is that it causes the person in question to de-value the current life.
*EDIT*
Upon posting, I realized that not only was I terribly curt, I was also came off as fairly indifferent to your situation. In an attempt to rectify that, I shall add this corollary:
Do not worry yourself with your family. They take everything in front of them for granted. Every pain, every joy, every tear shed, and every friendship, is merely a game... a null in existence. Everything in this life, to them, is meaningless. They have no purpose here. Should you lie on your deathbed, all the while being mocked by those senseless people, you can take comfort in knowing that because of your beliefs, you lived your life much more fully and with more vigor than any of them ever will. Never, ever give that up.
Are these people xians?
Nothing like a good xian attitude of love and kindness for someone who is suffering.
I'm sorry your uncle's father is going through this with jerks like that making his last moments miserable.
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aye, they are xians, but you see, to them this is the nicest possible thing they could do for him. They really are deluded to beleive that when he dies he will be tortured for eternity in a pit of fire. They are just pulling him out of that fire. To them, this suffering does not equal the suffering in the next life, so they consider themselves quite nice.
But that's where it all falls apart. Knowing that there is no afterlife, that these are the last moments of this man's life...it just makes it like living in a terrible stepford wive's world of plastic people behaving in exactley the wrong way to someone who is about to die. It just makes me nauseous.
In my opinion you should politely speak up and point out all their cruel and un-just statements...
Slimm,
Hey Guy... I'm really really sorry about what you are being exposed to and what you are seeing. The disillusionment of the whole christian mentality of being loving people is hard. They just don't get it, simple concepts about respecting wishes is too hard to understand.
My family is very similar however i've come "out of the closet" in this last year. I remember the first time i did it was over facebook. That part where you write your religion... i wrote atheist... then cried for 3 days knowing how hurt i was going make everyone. My brother in law took it REALLY hard as did many others. I STILL get people messaging me telling me how hard they are praying for me now. I told them it hasn't worked for 15 years and it's a not a great use of time but... it's SOOOO liberating not hiding anymore. I remember my mother said that she would rather me be gay... at least then it's not a spiritual death. Anyhow... i hope you find the courage to stand out some day. And to be honest, one of the greatest reasons to not believe in God is to know you won't spend the rest of eternity with hypocites. I don't want to be in a heaven of people who think that sort of action is ok, even if it is my own family, i'll go down to hell with all the other respectful people with integrity if that's what it takes. But... meh, i don't really believe all that anyhow, but that's what i tell my mom.
Mark Twain
What bothers me about theists, is the fact that they act like atheist just don't get it. They somehow think that they have the only 'truth', as if referencing a single book is proof of anything. As if atheists have never heard of the 'Story of Jesus', we have, we just DO NOT buy it.
"I contend we are both atheists, I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."--Stephen F. Roberts
It is ironic that theists claim superior moral standards over atheists and than act like this. When behaving like this they don't seem very morally superior to me. They may be afraid for your Uncle's father soul, but if that were the case, I think they would speak more lovingly of him. I think they just want to be right. They probably think they know the truth and if he is an Atheist he challenges that truth and in turn they see that as a threat to their truth. If they can convert him on his deathbed, they will probably see that as further proof of the wrongness of atheists. Than they can say that when at the gates of death, nobody is an atheist. When he does convert, I doubt that they would applaud him or think better of him, but instead be gleeful that that he gave up his convictions! I am a bit cynical, but I have seen this thing happen more than once in different churches.