How hard do you push your atheism on Facebook?
Lately, I've been increasingly vocal on Facebook about news that I feel warrants an atheist response. Most of those posts are largely ignored. I was raised Roman Catholic, and went to Catholic schools from 3rd grade all the way through college, so a majority of my friends on Facebook are Catholics. As such, my wall is often littered with bible quotes, links to religious articles, and all the pro-life/anti-abortion propaganda you can imagine. I am in a serious relationship with my girlfriend and we have spoken of marriage; she and her family are all Christians of various degrees. I generally don't shy away from letting my opinion of how ridiculous religious beliefs are, and probably lean towards what is currently (and errantly, imho) referred to as "militant" atheism.
I feel very strongly about raising objections when people make religious posts (if you can imagine what my wall was like after the quake in Japan, and all the "let's pray" responses, you can feel my pain) and I feel that in as much as people are free to give their faith lip-service, I should be able to offer opinions from the other side of the fence.
I'm at a point now where I feel like my outspoken criticism of religion is beginning to alienate people who I value as friends, and is in danger of causing a rift between me and my girlfriend (many of her friends and family are also friends on Facebook). While I have no qualms about losing friends who are of the "if you don't believe what I believe, we can't be friends" variety, I feel it goes deeper than that. I feel like my friends are feeling a more personal sting when I criticize their beliefs, which is often an unavoidable side-effect of being critical of religion.
As passionate as I am about remaining vocal and offering some balance to all the religiosity, and standing up for what I believe in, it is not worth losing those I hold dear to me. I hope to one day marry my girlfriend, and while she can accept the way I feel, I think she struggles with how outspoken I am about it. I intend to back off considerably, only responding when absolutely necessary. I feel a little weak and cowardly for letting others dictate my behaviour, but I have to be selfish and ignore it for the sake of keeping those close to me from getting fed up and walking away.
I guess my question is this: If you're "open" on Facebook with your atheism, how hard do you push it? Are you vocal, or more reserved? Do you think posting atheist articles and news stories about religious wrongdoings is going too far?
I've made up my mind, but I guess I'm looking to get some sense of how you guys feel.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Tammy on -
I am pretty mild about it. Mainly because of my dad. Last thing I want is another verbal badgering about the "end of days". That speech was a total joy... After awhile I finally just said dad I read it like twice now and it's still as about as convincing as say the Never Ending Story being reality and at least that had an awesome flying dog dragon in it!
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Permalink Reply by Mike Haynes on -
I want a flying dog dragon...
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Permalink Reply by Shane Code on -
I had one of those "Never ending" discussions with a family member recently, and you do have to weigh the damage to the relationship against the % that you will facilitate their epiphany by sharing the facts; not that they often play any role in changing one's beliefs.
In the 'useless--and-unsolicited-trivia-from-a-stranger-on-the-net category', that bookstore from the movie NES is a fave bookstore of mine and where I buy a lot of my hard to find books.
Anyway, back on point, the care and caution with uncompromising conviction is the path best trodden on this stuff.
Cheers.
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Permalink Reply by Donald Pennington on -
It's your right to be a UU if you want.
But my experience with UU's is they seem like they're really just "slippery." No matter the point made, they're always "Oh no. Weeee're not like thaaaaat. Try our church." It's still the delusion of religion, which is unrealistic, and therefore harmful, because someone wants me to make a donation out of some mythical, undeserved guilt.BUT, I do agree with your statement that some ties must be cut. It's just, once that tie is cut, the rumors fly.
Religionoids and godlings are so god-damned unreasonable and spiteful, whenever it comes to their imaginary sky fairies. I just can not be truly respectful to the unrespectable.
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Permalink Reply by Lawrence on -
This is a great thread. The article and many of the responses are excellent.
I've listed "atheist" as my religion on Facebook, and I've gotten a few comments about that. The comments express divergent reactions including shock, disbelief, admiration, and disgust.
I used to respond to all of the "faith" and "prayer" postings by either suggesting alternative approaches (science, medicine, research), but after getting criticized, I've backed off and now I just ignore them.
A while back, I posted a video that I found on ThinkAtheist.com which had a parody of religion. I got de-friended by a few people, and received a scorching diatribe essentially saying "you should be ashamed of yourself" from one person who now hates me. So I'm staying away from these type of postings from now on.
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Permalink Reply by idcollapse Ra on -
I lost a dear friend and was going to lose another one recently ; although she didn't criticize me directly , her stand was clear...sometimes we would chat for hours ... but now she avoids that ... I decided to create a fake FB account and add it to my friends list in order to post all that I want about religion ...
At first I didn't care about expressing my opinion on religion , but some friends keep on posting some stupid videos about the ''scientific miracles in Islam'' , and I decided to do something about that .
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Permalink Reply by Ava Wilson on -
I used to be more vocal than I currently am. I don't share too many links anymore but I am very active on my friend's pages who are Atheist, or groups who are Atheist. The difference is that it doesn't force those things into peoples' newsfeeds all the time, so they don't feel bombarded with it. I don't ever bite my tongue but sometimes I find roundabout ways to address peoples' retarded posts. Like a person on my Facebook said that moms are a gift from God, a guarantee of friendship to their child for the rest of that child's life, etc etc. My real offense was claiming God was real, but I round-about attacked it by saying it was offensive she would imply a mother is some divine guarantee from a higher power when so many mothers are drug addicts, pieces of crap, neglectful, abusive, or murderous toward their children. It's a shitty promise, or a lie, one of the two. She became very complacent after that and several people backed up my point who were Theists. Very funny.
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Permalink Reply by Pætur Weihe SImonsen on -
Ever since I became sure of my stance, I have been a "loud" atheist on facebook and in real life.
Of course some of my friends don't like that someone is challenging their beliefs, but I've grown to feel some sort of apathy towards their feelings when it comes to faith. Every now and then I'll put an atheistic quote as my status. I also, as the thread starter mentioned, comment whenever I see something that has to do with religion on facebook. Be it a debate, a video or one comment. Some of my friends like it, and some don't.
What made me ease up with my negative comments about religion, was when my mom asked me to stop. Why? Because it hurt her feelings. I didn't really mind when my friends were annoyed with my input on facebook, because I knew that they were about as much a christian as I was. But when it was my mother, who is a 'true believer', I eased up. She is a peaceful christian, she has nothing against homosexuals, she's a doctor (which isn't exactly a job for the stupid), she's pretty much an idol, and I didn't want to hurt her.
Don't get me wrong though, I'm still a militant atheist, just not so much on facebook.
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Permalink Reply by 3equ3cp1fsw0n on -
I am totally in the closet on Facebook but one of my Facebook friends who is 18 put a caption under her profile that said "fuck your religion". But I don't think you can have captions under your profile any longer and I don't think it gets any more offensive then that.
That's kind of like having a sign on your front door that instead of saying "no solicitation" it says "fuck your religion" lol. That's just too much but she is a funny one (the good kind of funny).
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Permalink Reply by Donald Pennington on
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Not only am I an atheist living in the US, I live in Louisiana (lowest atheist percentage in the US). Also, I live in a little town which claims (whether true or not I don't know) to have more churches per square mile than any other town in America. My girlfriend is a "Christian," though I've never seen her go to church. We live together, and yes, I truly love her. She's an otherwise great gal. I'm very fortunate. But still, I won't delude myself into believing anyone religious and I could ever have a satisfying marriage.
I've learned to be very careful who I'm open and honest with, about my lack of religious beliefs. Most of the folks 'round here are deeply brain-washed, and their religious leaders call folks like me "devils." On the job, I'll never discuss religion again, since the hard-core religionoids are extremely vicious. (I must make those child-support payments, y'know.) Due to the brain-washing these folks have been subjected to from infancy, these otherwise sweet, friendly, and loving people are scared near-to-death of folks like me.Also, with such a deep brain-washing, what we say "threatens them." Somehow, a statement from us like "there is no God," translates as "Your dearly departed are really dead and gone." As true as that statement is, it hurts them. It's a great big bite of shit sandwich for them to swallow all at once, and no milk to wash it down.
Somehow, I'm surrounded by people most of the time, but I'm so alone. I've noone to talk to about anything rational, outside of this blog. It's like trying to talk about sobriety in the middle of the world's biggest tavern, and everyone's a raging alcoholic.
As for "being honest about our beliefs," who are we trying to impress with our honesty? Ourselves? We know the truth about our beliefs, already. Is it "God®?" Because he's not there to be impressed, anyway. Or, are we afraid that if we don't speak out against the bullshit, we'll somehow get brain-washed into the cult? That can only happen to those who are atheist "because it's cool," and not as a product of deduction and reason.
I guess, what I'm saying is: Lie like a fothermucker, whenever it's convenient. You can even let them hear the occasional "Oh my God!" It's not like you'll go to hell for it, or anything. It's called "politics," my friend. Learn to negotiate the waters, as the currents run, and as the wind takes you.
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Permalink Reply by Ryan Darden on -
So you live in Louisiana? I feel sorry for you because I know how you feel, I live in Louisiana too!
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Permalink Reply by Donald Pennington on
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Ah, so, you know what happens to those who openly admit to being an atheist then?
It's odd to me, how folks can be so friendly, and yet so intolerant, all at once like this.
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