Are you really that stupid?

[Daffodil the Destroyer]

My friend's husband "found Jesus" in the past couple years. He's really gone off the deep end, and has pretty much dedicated his Facebook to evangelizing. Aside from the occasional demotivator or lame youtube video, his wall is plastered with s**t from godtube and positively stupid drivel. Sometimes I just want to comment to him and say, "You live in the ******** Bible Belt, dude. Are you really stupid enough to think that people around here haven't heard of Christianity?" A sampling:

Quote:

more importantly here is what God has done in this car situation: first he watched over me and let me make it home and to the shop safely. Second he helped my mechanic figure out what most of the problems are. Third he put it on jimbo's heart to let me drive his prized mercedes, so i will be able to get to work. God is good all the time!!

Quote:

hey I just want to invite everyone to come to church tomorrow. Service starts at 1030, fairview baptist church on reese rd. Ya'll come, check it out, and allow us to introduce you to the Jesus that we serve and worship!!

Guy

This guy's pastor

Guy

The time has come when the rubber meets the road. Either get real about Jesus and showing his love through living your life in service to the king, or don't and be like the world!! The choice is yours!!

Heaven or hell?

Amen brother! The choice is black or white no grey area. All or nothing!

Quote:

It is my opinion, and my conviction that Jesus is the answer. Eventhough my life isn't wonderful, and things are by no means perfect, I take great pleasure and joy from the fact that one day I will be made perfect in him! If you don't know Jesus I would love to introduce you to him. He's changed my life and will do the same for you!

I don't ever comment on his posts or tell him I think he's being an irritating prat, but I find it incredibly stupid that he assumes people living in the Bible Belt haven't heard of Jesus or need some kind of introduction. Before he "found Jesus" he used to be really bitter towards religion. It seems like when those sorts of people turn religious they go waaay further than other people. I don't know what those church people said to him to cause such a dramatic change, but I liked him a lot better before he was Mister Jesus-Jesus-All-The-Time. crying

I grew up in the Episcopal church, and in high school I started hanging out with a bunch of Southern Baptists... they quickly turned me into this kind of person too. It makes sense that I was susceptible to their brainwashing because I was already devout, and because I was really depressed and insecure, so they used that self-loathing depression to make me cling to their idea that I was a piece of s**t simply because I was a human being, and that Jesus loved me even though I didn't deserve it. That's their MO; they break people down emotionally and then rebuild them to their own specifications.

I was lucky enough to come to my senses after I got away from those kids. I went to college, stopped hanging with the Southern Baptists, made a friend who was a neo-pagan, joined an internet forum where I was forced to examine my idiotic ideas about non-christians and gays... I slowly transitioned away from belief and eventually realized that I didn't have a good reason to believe at all.

But this guy surrounds himself weekly with people who continue brainwashing each other to make sure it sticks. The whole thing makes me kind of ill. And it makes me ill that he keeps inviting his friends to come be a part of it.

 

[Daffodil the Destroyer]

I work for my mom. She and our coworker are super-special snowflakes. They both think that God talks to them regularly. The coworker, S, thinks that she is psychic and can see people's past lives by looking into their eyes. She once told me that my husband and I were together in another life, and that we were royalty in a castle and my name was Princess Adora. (She tells everyone they used to be royalty, but not everyone used to be She-Ra!) She thinks that "words have power and if you say it, it will come to pass," so she doesn't like any "negative" jokes because she's afraid of bad juju or something. She also thinks the priest at my mom's church is possessed by an entity. He clearly has some kind of mental illness that he needs some kind of help or medication for, but I suppose that's too mundane.

My mom is similar, but less obviously outlandish. She gets in these moods sometimes where she says the most ridiculous things. If she goes to the store and can't find what she wants, then God is telling her not to buy it right now. She says God talks to her sometimes by giving her mental images ("I call them 'images' because they're so vivid," she says, as if it is unique and profound to call a mental picture an image). When she was 5, she asked God what his last name was, and to this day she thinks God told her his last name was Jehovah. She says that a few years ago, he gave her an "image" of him sitting in his God-office going, "STOP EVERYTHING. INCOMING FROM A 5-YEAR-OLD," because nobody had told her yet that sometimes God doesn't answer prayers "in our time." He supposedly gave her another image once where he was tossing out things from a box marked "little s**t." This little s**t is stuff like fender benders, small accidents and annoyances, etc. He indicated that sometimes the little s**t hits and sometimes it misses.

She has these stories that she tells repeatedly, and she's worked them up into really dramatic speeches with bizarre, melodramatic inflections. She pulled one out today that I hadn't heard in a while. "I believe... with awl mah hawrt... that Gawd led me to golf... to TEM-PER me... then he took it away so I would learn to appreciate it." Following from that, she went into this story about the time she was a contestant on a game show. She got caught up in the fun and drama and she had a brain fart. She answered a question too quickly without thinking it through and she left without any money. Easy mistake to make, but super-embarrassing. But I guess she had to give it some divine meaning in order to accept the fact that it had happened, because she says she immediately asked God why he let that happen to her and he responded, "Oh yeah, NOW you talk to me," and she realized that she hadn't asked for his help, prayed about it, blah blah. So "I believe... with awl mah hawrt..." that this was supposed to be a lesson in humility. Not just a stupid, meaningless mistake on her part.

She has no trouble admitting that S is batshit crazy when she says these things, but if it's HER idea, then it's quite sane and believable. Ugh, they drive me ******** crazy.

 

[Yevn]

I have always hated the fanatics. Expecially the ones who demonize Pagans, Wiccans, ect. it is sad to think that in this day of age people can be so foolish. Expecially with the sum of human knowledge at their finger tips. I only hope that people eventually get over god and move on to actually doing things and using their brains.
By the way, did you go to the Reason Rally?  

[Daffodil the Destroyer]

No.. I'm not sure where the reason rally was, but I've never heard of one being held where I live. Of course, I don't really look out for any kind of rally or conference-type events since I usually can't afford to pay for them (even if they're free to get into, I'm almost sure to have to spend at least $50 in gas to get anywhere out of town, and if it's really far or lasts a couple days, then a hotel room too).

And like... I wish people would drop religion, but I have to somewhat grudgingly admit that it does help some people deal with things in a way that realistic coping mechanisms may not. But I wish they'd keep it more to themselves. I find it distasteful and annoying for people to harp on it, especially when they're like my mom and they THINK they're super sensitive to others who don't believe when in fact they're completely oblivious to the way they sound. The other day, my friend came in for a haircut and she was talking about an uncomfortable work situation she had to deal with, so Mom goes up to her and says something like, "Lord, I lift ___ up to you, blah blah yadda yadda... Amen." That sort of thing always leaves a bad taste in my mouth, because not only is it completely ineffective at provoking supernatural assistance, it's also very show-offy. Then, when my friend left, my super-sensitive-to-atheists mom said somewhat self-satisfactorily, "I tried to do that quietly so I didn't offend you." Like what, you want a pat on the back? It doesn't exactly "offend" me; it just makes me roll my eyes in complete exasperation. It's just like if she had been praying to Clifford the Big Red Dog or something. Why is this so hard to grasp?

 

[cabbage3]

Through my studies of Anthropology, I've learned that almost every different culture has a religion or system of beliefs (often containing supernatural entities) to help them explain the world around them and let them feel like they have a bit of control over their lives.

Contrary to the typical atheist path, I've learned through HISTORY, instead of through science, that all of their mythos breaks down and is incongruent with the actually history and development of each region.

I could cite examples, but I'm sure you know the typical ones. The Bible estimates the earth is 6000 years old; geology shows that it's far far older. The Hindu mythos say that Hinduism was created in 3000 BCE when humans collaborated with Lord Krishna; the Aryan nomads didn't migrate to the Indus River Valley and spread their Oral Tradition until after 1500 BCE, etc. Plenty of examples from many walks of life.

I can agree with your sentiment that it is annoying when people shove it in your face and try to force their self-loathing values upon you too. I cannot s**t on my friends and family for believing if it truly helps them be a better person, but when people do what you just described, I have to wonder who is it really helping or is it all just a front?