Sometimes its depressing to be an atheist
Offline Last week I attended a conference for military simulations sponsored and paid for by the US Air Force and attended to by industry members and academics in the computer science field from all over the world.
During the opening ceremonies of this conference, an officially sponsored Air Force chaplain gave an invocation prayer in which he slyly replaced the christian centric terminology of "God" and "Jesus" with the deistic terms of "Creator" and "Spirit". Afterwards followed an orgy of mixed political and religious propaganda and a benidiction by the said chaplain. After he was finished with his invocation I mumbled, "so what ever happened to seperation of church and state?"
My teacher, who was standing next to me, said, "apparently not in this state."
Three days after the event I get an urgent and livid call from my mother saying that this teacher had derided my actions in our school's "prayer chain" (a public school, mind you), and had "prayed that her students would understand that seperation of church and state does not mean seperation of church from public life." And that she "prayed that nobody important had overheard what that boy had said." Because "The troops over there in Iraq need all the divine support they can get".
My mother then immediatley called my teacher and screamed (while crying) at her for putting such a thing on the prayer chain. She did this not because she agreed with me, not because she thought my teacher's spreading of rumors via prayer chain was wrong, but because she "didn't want everyone to think we were atheists."
I wish that I could be transported to a parallel world where I can have an opinion and not have everyone go mad around me. Like, Sweden.
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This "teacher" sounds deceptive, passive aggressive and presumptuous. I thought one of the admonishments in the bible clearly says not to judge others. Perhaps your teacher hasn't read up to that part yet.
Too bad stupidity isn't poisonous.
Apparently you haven't read past the "Judge not" part. Here's the whole passage from Matthew 7:1-2 (RSV):
This passage does not forbid making judgments. It is a warning about hypocrisy.
This passage still helps your case. Christians love to cry, "Help! Help! I'm being oppressed!", when secularist complain about prayer at state functions. But the same Christians are quick to complain when a Muslim or Hindu is invited to pray.
Ugh... all the more reason to support sites like this. Your teacher sounds like a real ass.
Ok maybe I'm not quick on the uptake tonight.
I didn't read it that way. I looked to me like your teacher was agree with you. Had she said "not in this state" with an attitude then maybe I'd say she was wrong, meaning disagreeing with you.
Your teacher saying "apparently not in this state" to me meant it was clear and obvious there is no separation of church and state just by the fact that you even had to question it and because it was in an open ceremony of a conference. Was the ceremony or conference mandatory to attend? if so then the prayer shouldn't have been said. I don't know much about the military so that's why I ask.
Its times like this that I didn`t like my family before I became an atheist, now I just don`t have to pretend to be nice to them to get into heaven.
Bastards the lot of 'em.
Morte alla tyrannus et dei
.... I love seeing atheists quoting atheist jesus !
Yes, she said that to my face, but then talked about how horrible I was to the other teachers via the "prayer chain".
This was by no means a mandatory thing. We were invited there to show off a program we made to the military. My only beef with the prayer was the fact that the conference was paid for by the US military, and the person giving the prayer was an employee of the US Airforce.
This reminds me of that one event that really turned me off to the Drama club in my highschool. I was still in my Theist days... not really Christian by that time, but in that bizzare wandering New Ager crap before I went deist in college. The teacher/director gathered the team together before a show to have a prayer for good luck for our production. I attempted to stand out of it, but was forced into at least standing in the circle and "acting like I cared whether or not we had a good show". I got filthy looks from half of the cast and was all but physically forced into joining hands bowing my head and parroting the recited prayer.
It pissed me off royaly, but I shouldered through and did my damned best to run the lighting for the play on a set I almost personally built. We had a great run, the crowed loved it and non of the technical glitches showed up. Afterwords while waiting around after the show, I confronted said teacher about the prayer circle saying that it made me feel very uncomfortable, and that I didn't like being forced into it. I was given some line by her, while flanked by 3 other students, all staring me down unapprovingly, that she "Hoped I'd realize how wrong I was before the end of days, with all the signs I didn't have long."
At the time I didn't take it further than that. I didn't attend the after play celebration dinner with the excuse to my mother that I didn't feel well. I didn't bring this up with my family or any administrators because, at the time, I felt like I was totally alone on the issue. I believed that if I said anything about it, that I'd have even more people hating me for not believing in their myths. Luckily I ended up in an advanced placement program at a nearby university next year and didn't have to deal with that school again. Its been 8 years now, but to this day thinking back on that night puts that pit right back in my stomach.
I really hate to see similar things happening to people. I wasn't an atheist at the time, but I'm pretty sure the hurt is still the same. Feeling like you are alone just because you don't follow a stupid mythology anyone can see is wrong can really mess you up inside for a while.
Just know that you've got support and people that can understand what you're going through. Fight on young freethinking sibling!
The Regular Expressions of Humanistic Jones: Where one software Engineer will show the world that God is nothing more than an undefined pointer.
Christian evangelicals have taken over the U.S. Air Force Academy.
you can fight back!
Old news, but yes, the U.S. military is a bastion of state-sponsored Christianity.
Nobody I know was brainwashed into being an atheist.
Why Believe?
Back to the original subject regarding it being depressing sometimes to be an atheist. My advice during those times is to reflect on how ignorant most people are, sounds like your teacher fits the mold. Personally I would rather know the truth, or something close at least, than live my life blind as xians and other followers. I used to be a xian, but since "waking up" I have felt so much relief and freedom. It is worth that to be out of the "in crowd" which unfortunately composes most of our population.