Is it bad that...
TMLPatrick
Posts: 558 Member
I don't friend people who mention Jesus or God on their Facebook profiles. Is that intolerant? Should I not do that?
Ever since the girl who gave me a lecture about Kent Hovind and how the Earth was 6000 years old, I try to avoid them on here.
Ever since the girl who gave me a lecture about Kent Hovind and how the Earth was 6000 years old, I try to avoid them on here.
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No, I don't think so. It's a matter of preference. If you are the type that likes a lively debate and will engage in those conversations, then friend them, if not, then then you would not benefit from doing so. Personally, I prefer to friend people who are like minded and with whom I share things/ideas in common. Christianity is definitely not one of them.0
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I also don't add them. And if they start posting about their faith or praying, they get the boot. I do have a couple of Christians on my friends list, one is one my best good buds since 4th grade who happens to be a Pentecostal, but believes in live and let live. She was there for me growing up (which included coming to Jehovah's Witness meetings with me so my parents would let her be friends with, talk about a true friend!) , I also have a friend of hers who added me with an unfortunate churchy sounding screenname and I cringe inside everytime she comments on my status.0
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Being a christian alone is not enough to be kicked off my friends list. That said if they are mentioning God or Jesus on their Facebook profiles odds are they are the preachy sort which I tend to stay away from but I tend to let people ride till they earn their way off my friends list. I really only have friends that I know in real life.
To the bigger question, "Is it intolerant?" Well to a certain extent I guess we are being a bit intolerant every time we do this but I would say that it can be a good thing to be intolerant at times.
Right off the bat if you are tolerant of something you are putting up with something you don't like. So if you are intolerant of something you are not putting up with something you don't like.
If the thing in question is something deserving of intolerance then it is good to not tolerate it. We as a society could be said to be intolerant of murder. I think that is great. I would not want to live in a society that is tolerant of murder.
I think making grotesquely inaccurate claims like Kent Hovind (or any other young earth creationist) like the earth is 6,000-10,000 years old is extremely stupid and it should not be tolerated.0 -
I friend Xtians or believers of any stripe. I ditch them when they go on endlessly about how godidit or just post lots of crap science.0
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I have them and keep most of them. But two got the boot for posting things that we need Jesus in our schools to prevent gun violence.0
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I have them and keep most of them. But two got the boot for posting things that we need Jesus in our schools to prevent gun violence.
Well if God is omnipresent that means he was in the school when it happened. It seems to me that proves his presence does not prevent gun violence.0 -
I won't friend people who are overly religious on their pages. I'm more intolerant of Christianity, for some reason.
I have some Christian friends on here, but they're relatively quiet about their religion, with occasional posts of "Bible night! Reading after my workout" etc. That's fine by me, especially because they're awesome people anyways.0 -
That alone probably would not prevent me from adding someone. I'm not a big Facebook user, but i have run into that situation here, where one person in particular was always blowing up their feed with constant mentions of prayers and praise for God. Interestingly enough, it was she who deleted me, though I had never expressed any problem with it, and tried to be supportive of her. Maybe it was a post to an atheist thread or group which caused it.
It is a matter of degree. If I get the feeling that someone might hound or try to convert me for not being religious, then I would shy away from them.0 -
I think you are more intolerant of Christians because of geography. If you were in a country where a different religion was large and in charge you would be more intolerant of that.
I agree that it all comes down to the type of person we are talking about. If they are awesome people anyways then I won't let a thing like religion be the X factor that causes me to remove them. However, I have seen it happen several times where their awesomeness abruptly ends the second they figure out that I am an atheist.0 -
I do not think it is bad.
I have some people on my fb friends list who I know are very religious and I have no problem with that but what I do have a problem with is them preaching their BS all over my newsfeed.
One friend posted "...Do not be surprised if my kids tell your kids that santa is not real..."
This is a girl who I have known for many years, devout pentacost and one year decided they no longer wanted to celebrate christmas because "... it is too pagan..." Okay. That's fine. I mean it sounds ridiculous for a reason but whatever helps her sleep at night lol.
We are an atheist family but we still celebrate christmas just without religion spewing all over it.
I commented on her status and told her that perhaps she should teach her children respect. That not everyone thinks her way and to not teach her children that other people believe different things but to tell them they are outright wrong is rude. I told her that I wouldn't let my daughter go up to her kids, knowing they are crazy religious and tell them that god is not real. Yes that is what my family believes but her does not and I don't expect my child to be rude.
Anyway, in her fog of religion, she said I know people will say that but she will know the difference... Completely ignoring the fact that she is teaching her child intolerance of others and teaching them to be rude. Her sister also had to chime in... It reminded me of the mob mentality frankly, but since her post was rather childish I paid no attention to it and I was not directing my post towards her.
But it put into perspective even more how those whom are absolute with their religion tend to think and act like someone who is brainwashed. I cannot stand it. I want to shake them. She deleted me afterwards. Sorry she couldn't handle the fact that what I said was completely true so she had to get rid of me so I would not call her out on her rudeness and lack of respect for others again.
I had another write a post and someone commented on it asking her if she was in a cult... I laughed because essentially it IS a cult. She deleted the post but I thought it was interesting reading the conversation. She only recently found 'god' so...
Anyway, as long as I don't have to see their BS all over my newsfeed I am good. Once they start spamming with that crap I say buh-bye!0 -
I don't friend people who mention Jesus or God on their Facebook profiles. Is that intolerant? Should I not do that?
Ever since the girl who gave me a lecture about Kent Hovind and how the Earth was 6000 years old, I try to avoid them on here.
Life's too short. Mentioning Jesus or God is often a proxy for stupidity, in my view.0 -
Saw this on Reddit. Search the page for "To all the religious people praying after tragedies".
http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/0 -
I think it pretty much boils down to this, when it comes to prayer in general:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/113785320591441846925/posts/aSHG3Vwy3GE
I also like this quote I read in Atheism for Dummies:
"Pray all you want — heaven can’t hear you. It’s not going to stop the winter because you are cold, and it’s not going to make the Earth smaller because you don’t want to walk so far. You pray for rain and it rains, but your prayer has nothing to do with it. Sometimes you don’t pray for rain and it rains anyway. What do you say then? If you act wisely, good things tend to happen. Act like a fool and bad things tend to happen. Don’t thank or curse heaven — it’s just the natural result of your own actions. If you want to have a better life, educate yourself and think carefully about the consequences of your actions." Xun Zi0 -
Fantastic quote, and that picture is spot on :P0
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I usually don't accept them. I did recently because she had a really particular condition and wanted to message me about it. She sent the request and I felt like I couldn't say no at the moment because of her needs and condition. But, I did tell her up front that I will likely offend her, and if that's the case that I wouldn't be upset if she felt comfortable unfriending me then.0
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That would be impossible for me, since a great percentage of my friends list lives in Texas or Mexico! Religion just seems to go with the territory. Most of my friends list refrains from posting hateful pictures or statuses. I don't mind if they post what their Bible study was about or if they liked church on Sunday or if they're posting some personal closer walk with thee stuff. That's what is going on in their heads and isn't offensive to me. I'll even let some political status I do not agree with at all slide, because nobody can agree most of the time. (I do hide the posts that bother me though because I can choose what I want to see or not)
What will get an unfriend for me is repeated posting of status or pictures (especially pictures) of a religious or political nature that serve to make the poster feel superior for having their ideas or beliefs at the expense of those who do not. Adios, buh bye, don't let the door hit ya where evolution split ya.0 -
It is not intolerant- just prudent. Some people value their sanity and stress levels, and you appear to be reducing potential stressors by not introducing yourself to people who are going to clog your FB feed with creationist BS or "pray for our schools" crap. I don't friend them either, for my own mental health. They meet or exceed my threshold for BS every day, thus I block them (if I can't unfriend for other reasons) or never friend them in the first place.0
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Just joined and no, not bad at all. People who put information like that on their profiles are, it seems to me, making a statement about what you are likely to find on their posts. I appreciate it, since I friended someone and then got some found posts that were bothersome to me--a lot of "I'm Christian and not afraid to say it!" with Bible quotes about converting Jews. Well, i'm Jewish, though an atheist, and that bothered me enough to defriend, and then she was angry that I defriended..... oy! So I like it when people give me the heads up on their profile page.
Some of my friends are kind of heavy with the "Praise God" stuff, but I don't mind that. They're good people and if they're not trying to proselytize all the time, I can just be happy for them.0 -
I no longer have a Facebook page. I've left it for Google Plus and Linkedin, both of which seem to be social media for adults, at least by comparison.
The bulk of people on my friends list were fervently religious and posted some sort of religious something every few minutes, or so it seemed. I didn’t really care what they posted on their walls, since I had the ability to filter how much of their posts showed on my newsfeed. However, I viewed posting religious material on my wall as an invitation to explain the scientific process to them on theirs. I’ve lost a few cyber-friends that way.
My religious friends and family are good people, but I’m not sure what to think about folks who have the capability of believing in anything for which there is no evidence. It disturbs me to see people make decisions based on superstition.
Religious extremism is the source of most of the conflicts of the past few decades; it is the source of the conflict that I am currently involved in. Any religious belief is fertile ground for extremism to thrive; it lends extremism a certain level of acceptability.
So in short, I don’t try to convince others away from their belief, nor do I refuse to associate with the religious, but I do not accept any attempts by them to sway me to their way of thinking, in social media or in person.0
