Losing friends
Posted on: July 10, 2007 - 9:28am
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Losing friends
Anyone here ever lose friends over this kind of thing? I know Iruka did from previous posts, but now I did. A woman I was online friends with for a while posted a rant against the ACLU because of their suing to remove a Jesus picture. I said they were right. She then posted some bigoted stuff about atheists and I confronted her on it. She responded by removing me as a yahoo friend. I wound up joining the ACLU.
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I don't have friends anymore. Every once in a while one of them would try to get me to help move things with them.
That was too irritating.
"I am an atheist, thank God." -Oriana Fallaci
I haven't lost friends because of religion persay (most of my friends are atheist agnostic, or extremely liberal theists.) but I have lost a bunch of friends because of my political views. I'm not really liberal, but I'm not really conservative either, I'm right in the middle and so I get flak from both sides.
The worst was a friend was proofreading a short story I wrote that had one single solitary quip about Dubya in it and she stopped talking to me entirely.
Hmm, I really don't see it as losing a friend. More like realizing you weren't friends. Obviously if they knew you, they wouldn't have been your friend if she was so hung up on the Atheism and the ACLU thing.
Sounds made up...
Agnostic Atheist
No, I am not angry at your imaginary friends or enemies.
Not yet... haha. Most of my closer friends know I'm an atheist, and I'll often bring up the subject of religion around them. However, I will shut up if they want me too.
JESUS SAVES!!! .... and takes only half damage!
Nope. I try to base my friendships on the most insignificant similarities; thus, when you find out wildly differing perspectives, no one is surprised.
"Tis better to rule in Hell than to serve in Heaven." -Lucifer
i had a best friend that i met in 4th grade, we did everything together. he had adoptive parents who were strict and religious, i had my biological parents who were casual theists and very open minded and reasonable. we started our first band together, collected comics together, went to local band shows together, etc. in high school he veered off towards the punk scene and more or less assumed the role of the angst ridden loner/artist. i went in the thrash metal direction, a loner as well but very outspoken on politics and religion, etc. i never forgot the bond we had made and i always made time to listen to him vent about his home life, his biological father, his depression, his dreams to run away and start a new life. but anytime his other "punk" friends came around he pushed me away as if i were cramping his style. apparently being a metalhead and having cool parents didn't mix well with his circle of angst ridden groupies. the final straw was when i told him i was an atheist. he insisted i was jumping on a trend, or something along those lines, and more or less insinuated i was some kind of "poseur". i realized then that my unconditional acceptance of our differences wasn't mutual. so i simply stopped trying. that was my first big life lesson about staying true to myself. i was more than willing to overlook our differences for the sake of our close relationship, but i had to draw the line at pretending to be something i'm not and competing for one person's acceptance.
www.derekneibarger.com http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=djneibarger "all postures of submission and surrender should be part of our prehistory." -christopher hitchens
I never realised atheism was a fashion statement. He's got to admit though that it's a pretty hard core statement. Eternal damnation just to be cool.
I've always been amused by teenage 'non-conformity'. Well except briefly when I got into goth I genuninely belived I was being different by going out of my way to fit into a subculture. I only realised the irony of it after I was sitting in a group of people all dressed pretty much the same. When a lone man in a business suit walked past one of my firends called out to him sarcastically "Conforming is fun!". I was so ashamed of myself at that moment.
In my defence I really only got into the subculture because I like wearing black, and makeup.
As far as my friends go, we differ on so many subject that an argument over religion is no big deal. Basically we like most of the same movies and are pretty antisocial outside of the group but that's all that we can be expected to agree on. Oh, and we love to argue.
Oh, a lesson in not changing history from Mr. I'm-My-Own-Grandpa!
She ended up telling me not to contact her anymore because "we don't think alike." She also didn't appreciate some of my blasphemous pictures.
Matt Shizzle has been banned from the Rational Response Squad website. This event shall provide an atmosphere more conducive to social growth. - Majority of the mod team
It's because I lost friends to christianity that I got heavily involved in atheism. They converted and their personality totally changed. And since my friends are everything to me, I declared war on religion
Let's see...
First, I lost a girlfriend in reverse. She was an atheist, and I was still a Christian.
Then, when I became an atheist, I basically lost my mother.
Most of my friends in grad school were atheists/agnostics, but the ones who were Christian quickly disappeared when they found out.
Now, I know better, so I just don't make friends with Christians. There are a lot of atheists where I live, so it's not really that big of a deal anymore.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
I lost a good friend (he was the best man in at my wedding) because i had some how led him down the path of sin. Apparently my heretic lifestyle of going clubbing, bars, strippers and the occasional gangja toke, was leading him to the path of sin, yet i was the only friend who offered to help him when he started smoke weed every day (given to him by his christian friends) and going to the strippers every day, yet i am the bad guy.
Probably didn't help that i saw a priest with his hand on a child's shoulder and told my friend that it was the scariest sight i had ever seen, then proceeded to yell at the child to run for his life, he didn't approve of this and basically said that i was insulting god.
However after many debates, many many many debates about religion, personal views, atheism, and after he joined a the christadelphian church, his ending and final arguement that he put forth, this after an 8 hour debate and discussion as to why i don't and cannot believe in jesus and god, he concluded with, WHY DON'T YOU JUST TRY TO BELIEVE!?!?.
Since he couldn't convert me, he tried to convert my wife, that didn't go well for him, even though she respected my friendship with him (she hadn't realize yet that we basically ended our friendship) she told him that she found it impossible to believe in the bible, god and jesus, that it advocated genocide, infanticide, and various other atrocities against humanity, including blind devotion without questioning to a tyrant. Needless to say that was the last time he called.
However after 4 years of no conversation, he spoke with me (mainly due to the fact that we were going to meet up at his brothers wedding) and we are basically continuing our debate, but without the friendship, i am still the devil incarnated.
I would say that I have lost one "friend" due in part to my Atheism.
She was a childhood friend, we stuck by each other during those angsty pre-teen and teen years. Alas we grew apart. In her words, "it is not right to question or make fun of other people's beleifs". Oh well. We grew apart in other ways as well.
However I also have a friend who is very Jewish. She is very open to my atheism and so we can be totally blunt with each other. I appriciate her openness very much.
Your resident OTD/S, Christina
A good scientist will always change her mind if new evidence is presented which gives her sufficient reason to change it.
www.ziztur.com
I actually find , that If I dont know a person is religious , once i find out they are , i find it very hard to take them seriously....
I know atheism isnt ALL of me , and im sure they are the same , and their religion is not ALL of them , but it taints them in a way i find it hard to see past..
I havent broken friendships specifically on that basis , but it sours things..