Relations between an individual believer and non-believer

Post Reply New Topic

This is actually quite common. Other than being Aspie, I had the hit against me in school that I wasn't catholic at a catholic french immersion school.

Imight have some details wrong on this next one, but this is the story as I was told it.

Probably the saddest case I've seen in my town though, was a chinese brother and sister. They of course, followed the faith of their home land, and had a picture displayed of one of the goddesses toward the back. If you didn't know what it was, you would have just assumed it was a painting of a pretty chinese girl.

A couple of Bethel Pennacostel(one of the largest member churches in our town) came to the restaurant, saw the idol, and threatened them - they would stop coming to the restaurant as well as everyone in their congregation would boycott them. They made it seem like all the christians in the town would, too, if they didn't convert.

Well Venevus, the way I see it is this:

Yes with your previous experiences it is only natural to feel this way. People that go against christianity as a whole kind of fall into the same thing for the most part.
It's only natural that after being pushed and pushed theres the reaction to push back or push away.
Its an extension of the survival instinct in a way.
Conflict happens.
Thing is as a responsible human being who is capable of higher reason you have the responsibility to yourself to try and keep a conscious eye on your feelings and be open abit.
Now if someones being a jerk or whatever, go ahead and rebuke them and just say "I don't care" and walk away or if their being extra 'special' argue against them till they get caught in one of their circular arguments and look like an idiot.
But you need to keep that eye on yourself so you don't accidently alienate yourself from any potentially cool people.
I myself have several christian friends who I think are verry agreeable and great people.

UnrelentingHorror: Nice avatar, does it use Very Bad Breath to inflict numerous status effects upon everyone?

Me and my friends rarely talk about religion at all. In the rare case that it comes up, it is usually an intelligent and calm conversatoin. I don't feel the need to bother them about what they do and don't believe anymore. We all know eachother's stances on the subject, no reason to repeat yourself until your face turns blue. There way too many fun and productive things to do with friends other than argue religion. The matter as far as a Christian goes, that just has to do with them being judgemental or not (same goes for some Atheists as well). When people start judging eachother and making generalized absolutist decisions based on their beliefs, then they over as friends or even acquaintances.

Well, we Christians are here for the purpose of being the "light of the world", and we're told not to hide that light of Christ. Jesus also told us to share the Gospel, not to only set an example with behaviour, although we should do that too.

You say you and your friends rarely talk about religion -- and you say it as if it's a good thing. Let me ask you, do you believe Christianity is true? If so, shouldn't you be talking about it a little more than "rarely", seeing as how there are unsaved people all around you? I understand what it's like to have friends who aren't saved, and that you may have reached a solid impasse of discussion with them -- in which case it's probably pretty uncomfortable to be around them, since your Christianity seems to be almost taboo to them. But if you don't mind not bringing it up much, then perhaps you don't really believe in the urgency of the message of salvation. The Bible makes clear that Christians are not to simply blend in as friends of the world. James 4:4 is the strongest such mention that comes to mind: "Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God."

Only when it eats mcdonalds or smokes something other than menthols

btw not a smoker here just an avid secondhand smoker and menthols smell all kinds of deliscous.

Yeah I pretty much agree, I was only really giveing the "if someones being a jerk" scenario for just that, if someones being a jerk and trying to shove their stuff down your throat.
If I got mad or offended every time someone offered a different viewpoint i wouldn't have half the friends i have now lol.

I feel that you may have taken that scripture out of context. You almost talk about sharing your faith as if you were hunting people!! ! James 3:17-18 "But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace."

I think there is a great deal of difference between hunting and fishing, don't you?

*update*
We did have a nice conversation about me not believing in god and him spreading the word, but pretty much left the same way we came. I don't think I can handle being around someone who wants to convert me all the time. Still, he's a nice person. The semester is at an end and I don't know if we'll be in contact after that. My step mom is a Jehovah's witness, and there's some more story there that i'm not talking about but it's just too stressful for me to be friends with someone "like that".

IMO, I don't think you should feel bad about not wanting to be around someone who is trying to convert you all the time. I'm sure that it must get old. However, if your friend is just talking about religion, not trying to convert you, maybe you should give them a break. I guess I say that because I have had a very close friendship with a nonbeliever who I care about a great deal and who stopped talking to me recently because I can't help but talk about religion all the F***ing time. I wasn't trying to convert him, in fact I don't think anyone can convert another person, I was just talking about the things that interseted me. Anyway, it hurt quite a lot. I'm sure you can probably tell the difference between someone just talking about something and someone trying to recruit you. Sorry, it was just a thought.

In the sense of theistic religions I think that could actually work as long as both were that close to teetering on agnosticism to where they could relate to each other and find some common ground. As far as a buddhist is concerned though, I think they could date an atheist or agnostic any day of the week as long as they got equal respect.

I'm pretty sure he was trying to convert me, and he did seem to be a fundamentalist (goes against everything I believe, evolution, reason, etc...). It was becoming a thing for him every day to bring up something, to try and show me a dvd, an article, all these things i've seen before from others just like him. So, I feel no loss, just another drone.

Be ruthless - they won't stop in my experience. My primary mode of deposing of fundies is mentioning that I follow some tenants of LaVey Satanism. They instantly think I like to sacrifice goats to their deity of evil and if that doesn't work I pull out my LaVey Satanic Bible and just start reading untill they walk away.