Facebook and Christians: a rant

[Daffodil the Destroyer]

I am sick and ******** tired of some of the Christians at my "university". Don't get me wrong - they're fairly nice people in general, but I only get along with them at the expense of my own opinions. In order to avoid stirring up a tonne of drama, I have to swallow my opinions during casual conversation at school, and on Facebook where they spew their bigoted filth. One such person has the following quotation on her profile:

“Let us look forward to the time when we can take the flag of our country and nail it below the Cross, and there let it wave as it waved in the olden times, and let us gather around it and inscribed for our motto: ‘Liberty and Union, one and inseparable, now and forever,’ and exclaim, ‘Christ first, our country next!’ ”
– Andrew Johnson

Excuse me? Our country never did this. In fact, wasn't prevention of such things one of the main reasons for the founding of our country? Most, if not all, of the Founding Fathers were Deists, albeit "Christian Deists," who basically believed in the moral principles behind Christianity, but rejected the supernatural aspects along with dogma such as the trinity, miracles, prophecies, and the like. If you want to live in that kind of country, move somewhere else and don't ******** try to change America into one. In case you've forgotten the first amendment, it says "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." That means that "Christ first, our country next" is quite decidedly unconstitutional. Please take this bullshit and put it back in the a*****e from whence it came. This same girl posted the following comment in response to a note another bigoted moron wrote on Facebook:

When you find the right person, you won't be stressing about things like keeping his interest. That comes naturally by having a healthy relationship and being focused on the right things, even after years of marriage. It will not always be easy to be completely unified and have that "in love" feeling, but through Christ, and only through Him, love in a marriage continues to grow through the years. As far as what other people say, it's actually pretty important when you're just getting to know someone. Reputation can be a false misconception, but it can also be very accurate. If everyone you know holds the guy in high esteem, that's a very good indicator of his character. But it also works the other way.

Why, thank you, narrow-minded idiot. According to you, the ever-growing love in the relationship between my hard-atheist boyfriend of nearly two years and my agnostic-atheist self doesn't really exist, as it doesn't involve your deities. No, we aren't married, but that doesn't make our relationship any less valid. Of course, to these sorts of Christians who pride themselves on giving relationship advice, non-marriage relationships aren't worth including.

Apparently this girl's life is very uninteresting, as she has listed nothing about herself except "Galatians 2:20." No, not the Bible verse - apparently the entire empty box she was given for listing information about herself was too small to actually write out the words. "Galatians 2:20." is all it says - yes, with a period, as if this reference counts as a complete sentence. Countless others say almost nothing in their "About Me" sections except some variation of "Without my religion, my life would be absolutely meaningless." Wow, it's nice to see that you people value living so much. Of course someone who follows a religion will consider it to be a major part of his or her life, but allowing it to be the be-all and end-all of everything leads down the road I began travelling in high school. Did I ever mention how glad I am that I realized what I was becoming before it was too late? Yes, I did.

Something that's exclusive to Facebook as far as I know is the option to type in your own religious beliefs. Most people enter something simple and straightforward. "I believe in God." "Christian." "Atheist." "Pagan." "Jewish." These things and others like them are all fine. I get very annoyed, however, by people who try to be cute with it. "All saved all serious." "Christ's extravagant love has captured me!" You're just making yourselves look like asses. Also, those who enter Bible verse references - not the actual verse, but the book, chapter, and verse number - those people also annoy me. What is the point? Why don't you just enter "Christian" and put the actual verse in your quote section or something? Trying to entice me to look through a Bible for it isn't going to make me re-convert... I read the Bible anyway, and probably more often than many Christians I know, because I find a lot of wisdom among the BS. I'm not going to become a Christian again just because you caused me to read it. XP

Speaking of reading the Bible, most of the "Christians" on my Facebook friends list have it listed among their favourite books. I don't believe for one second that everyone who lists this book as a favourite has actually read it. Based on some of their behaviours, I'm inclined to believe that a large number of them have never read it at all. You aren't scoring brownie points with God, whether he exists or not, by pretending you spend all day reading scripture. Also, you aren't getting brownie points by claiming that God wrote it. God didn't write the Bible; a bunch of ancient men did. If God had written the Bible, do you really think it would be full of so many contradictions*? Oh, wait... you probably aren't aware of those, having not actually read it. HA.

Whew. I needed to get this out. I feel like I'm sort of trapped in a fundamentalist playground here at this school - it wasn't like this when I came here, but every year, more and more of these people come in. It's a ******** epidemic. Get me out of here!

*If anyone is interested, I have a copy of an essay I found online in response to a book called I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist. It's called, predictably, I Don't Have Enough Faith to be a Christian, and it's actually well written and factual. The essay addresses certain points in the book in the form of a dialogue between the book and the essay's author. There are numerous references to these contradictions along with explanations. I found it to be very informative.  

[Levis Pennae]

Wow, I've never really had to deal with any of that stuff from most of the people I know. I even have some hardcore Catholics (which really isn't all that hardcore anyway). But under my Facebook "Religion" description I have 'Pastafarian' mrgreen .  

[Daffodil the Destroyer]

Heh, I have "Piraticus 13:7" as mine. XP What do you want to bet they're all patronizingly "praying for my eternal soul" or some such garbage? Earlier today a friend of mine was talking to two of the aforementioned people and relayed to me that they 1. don't believe Catholics are Christians and 2. pray for Jews and Muslims to "see the truth."

The first point makes me laugh. The Catholic church was founded by Peter, the apostle and without Catholicism, these girls' precious religion wouldn't exist today! And without Judaism, Catholicism wouldn't have existed either... Jesus was a Jew, not a Christian. XD You'd think they'd show their elders a little more respect, eh? XP Not to mention the fact that all three of those religions worship the same deity. Damned bigots.  

[JadeDragonSoul]

I'd love to read that/those essay(s).

Where do you go to school? I feel so bad for you. I can't believe that people are actually that 'sickening'. There is one Freshman in my high school who's entire myspace is devoted to his religion. I noticed because my brother has him friended. He wants to be a priest when he grows up. He creeps me out. D:
http://www.myspace.com/borntospreadgodslove

He gave up myspace for lent...go figure. >>'  

[Sanguvixen]

These kind of people, are the kind I deal with in Martial Arts class every Friday. They disturb me because they live in a fantasy land that so dangerous for a person to live in.

It is OK to be pious and to be religious. However, to be this much is to open yourself up to being used, and abused by power hungry religious zealots. That so many of these kinds of people are ok with the notion of never asking questions, it worries me even further.

These are the people you should keep a close eye on, growing up. They are the ones who might be the next Pat Robertsons, Fred Phelps, and Shirley Phelps-Ropers.

That is all I can really say. People who speak as you have described, and who have accounts filled with such words, disturb me to the point where I find it hard to put into words what I feel.

 

[Daffodil the Destroyer]

Sanguvixen

It is OK to be pious and to be religious. However, to be this much is to open yourself up to being used, and abused by power hungry religious zealots. That so many of these kinds of people are ok with the notion of never asking questions, it worries me even further.

I agree. And there's a very fine line between "pious" and "zealous" around here. To answer Jade, I go to school at Columbus State, a public GA university. Most of the students here are fairly well mixed between the religious freakshows and the sane people... but I'm a music major, and the music school contains a great many of these bigots and even more religious people who aren't pushy about it but are easily offended so I have to constantly censor myself. I'm glad that it wasn't this way when I came here in 2003... I'm sure I would have fallen in with that crowd, knowing how I was during my last year of high school. I give most of the credit to my pagan best friend for helping me realize how closed minded I was. Now, I have cautionary messages as well as a brief explanation of why I am not a person of faith on my Facebook in hopes that I might help someone from that group learn how to accept others regardless of their religious beliefs.

I Don't Have Enough Faith to be a Christian is here: http://www.bringyou.to/apologetics/p98.htm The other one is a book which I haven't read because I don't want to support an author who, from reading the response essay, seems to be spewing the same thing I've heard from countless religious people - claims that he doesn't back up, and assumptions of the existence of a deity based simply on the lack of evidence against it.  

[-GS-Sailor Nemesis]

JadeDragonSoul

I'd love to read that/those essay(s).

Where do you go to school? I feel so bad for you. I can't believe that people are actually that 'sickening'. There is one Freshman in my high school who's entire myspace is devoted to his religion. I noticed because my brother has him friended. He wants to be a priest when he grows up. He creeps me out. D:
http://www.myspace.com/borntospreadgodslove

He gave up myspace for lent...go figure. >>'

***** in training.  

[SkeletonPhoenix]

I have to deal with this a little at my school. Worse enough it's the smart people of my class that are something like this. They aren't as bad as yours but they have voiced there ideas by praying around the schools flag and that thing with the red tape. I don't think that people really think it's a new "epidemic" but we just are noticing it because they are getting older and feel that they should do something about the world.  

[Teoka]

Ugh, I posted a pro-atheist twist (I didn't write it) on the "Student to His Professor" thing in my Facebook blog, and this pompous Christian girl I have on my friend's list posted the original story on her's, and she was all "SEE? This proves faith!! The atheist who changed this is t3h svuk!!1" =_= One of her points of argument was "how would [the writers of the bible] know how the world began?!" You could say the same about Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland." It's just a story, you r-tard.

Then this other guy I know started debating me. Now, I wasn't in the mood, 'cause I was sick as a dog, but I didn't turn the opportunity down. About an hour later, I'm mentally exhausted, and the last thing I remember him saying is how "we can't apply our morals to God's actions," which is a bullshit conversation stopper and is completely illogical.

I try to be as civil when in theological discussions with those who have dissenting opinions, but when they start pulling bullshit points out of their precious storybooks and act like they've won, that's where I take out the ******** missiles.

But anyways, I completely agree with your rant. Obviously, they're too full of themselves just to write "Christian," but they have to show all of their little friends how much they love their imaginary friend

[Le Pere Duchesne]

Daff, how can they be 'fairly nice people in general'? I assume they are trying to be propper christians, with the whole 'subservient women, anti-gay, anti-everything non-american' thing going on? Or do you mean that they are generally nice when not[ rolleyes ] advocating the torching of abortion clinics and the killing and sending to hell of homosexuals?

Quote:

first amendment

Well, see, here is the thing: it can be changed. If it couldn't, there would be no way it could be ammended in such a way, so, it can be amended in the opposite direction.  

[Daffodil the Destroyer]

Gracchvs

Daff, how can they be 'fairly nice people in general'? I assume they are trying to be propper christians, with the whole 'subservient women, anti-gay, anti-everything non-american' thing going on? Or do you mean that they are generally nice when not[ rolleyes ] advocating the torching of abortion clinics and the killing and sending to hell of homosexuals?

Dude... are you joking? I honestly can't tell if your sweeping generalizations are serious or not.

Quote:

Quote:

first amendment

Well, see, here is the thing: it can be changed. If it couldn't, there would be no way it could be ammended in such a way, so, it can be amended in the opposite direction.

Really? rolleyes Even so, changing the Bill of Rights in such a manner is an absurd idea - the BoR has always been central to the way the US operates; it's an embodiment of the original ideals on which the country was founded. It's like changing our national identity.. who's going to go for it anyway?  

[PhaedraMcSpiffy]

So, uh, I've been considering joining Facebook for a while, but I guess this goes to show that it's just as bad as Myspace. BUT... Myspace has atheist groups in it. Does Facebook have an atheist population at all?  

[Redem]

I know there are atheists on facebook, but I dunno of any organisations or groups of them.  

[Daffodil the Destroyer]

They're out there. My boyfriend is in one called Atheist Jews, and there's one called something like "Atheists are, in fact, American." I'm sure there are more, and among the Christian groups I see my friends-list joining, I see a lot of atheists countering them in their discussion threads. Some of them actually post intelligently, too. Too many of them sound like the very people they're arguing against. >.>  

[Meirelle]

"All Saved All Serious"?

You're ******** kidding me. rolleyes

In my "about me" section in Facebook, I simply wrote, "Contrary to popular belief, I do NOT exist."

Which is just me being an a**. Also, I check my Facebook maybe twice a month, so... yeah.

But an interesting story-- my mum saw I had "atheist" listed as my religion and she was like, "Why did you put that? Why don't you just put 'none?'" Like it doesn't mean the same thing. No, mum. I am an atheist, and I piss in the face of your god. Get the ******** over it.