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 Heather Spoonheim on -
Wow Ryan - you managed to waste an hour of my time. You just had to go fiddling with the settings on your page, making it look cooler than mine, forcing me to spend an hour mucking about to make my page look even cooler! :)
I've added a link to your page on my page. Just scroll down and keep an eye on the right and you'll find an 'other atheists' section. I'll get to reading your transcripts later - I would have had time to do so now if you hadn't gone and made your page look cool.
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Permalink Reply by Donald Pennington on -
Following you, too. But no, really. I'm not a stalker. ;P
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Permalink Reply by Ryan Darden on -
lol im sorry Heather, but I owe it all to you for turning me on to this idea! Thank you again for that! Im still trying to figure out some thing, im gonna work on it again tomorrow night, I still have a few things I want to get up on there pretty soon for everybody to read. Anyway thanks again!
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Permalink Reply by Heather Spoonheim on
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I'm glad to hear you are enjoying blogspot, Ryan. I hope I haven't turned you into a blog-o-maniac!
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Permalink Reply by Ryan Darden on
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well I have ran into a problem now, when I copy from Word and paste it onto my Blog post it shows up with a white blocky background and I cant figure out how to fix that! its driving me nuts!!! but ill figure it out
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Permalink Reply by Donald Pennington on
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Copy it onto Notepad first, then copy it onto your blog.
Word includes word processing commands. -
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Permalink Reply by Donald Pennington on
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I'm following you now, too.
I'm "D."
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Permalink Reply by Ryan Darden on
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hey thanks Dad P!! see I still have a lot to learn
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Permalink Reply by Femia Cools on -
I have blogs too. May be it is a good idea that we link eachother? So, when somebody looks for blogs on religion and atheism, they find all those fine blogs.
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Permalink Reply by Ryan Darden on
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Sounds like a good idea to me
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Permalink Reply by Arcus on -
@Ryan: Thanks for fighting our fight and giving so many good lulz in the prosess. Keep up the excellent work!
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Permalink Reply by Ryan Darden on
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I have a few more conversations that I will be posting on my blog, so check back soon! it just keeps getting better lol thanks for the compliment!
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