@skado

You are more patient than me.

"Come inside. I will permit you to leave once you have provided falsifiable evidence to support your existence claim of your particular god."

@anglophone Nope. If they cross my threshold, my dog has permission to eat them.

@Organist1 Do you have a Mastiff?

@dalefvictor Haha, no! He is a combination Brittany Spaniel, Australian Shepherd, Labrador Retriever and Dalmation. He's tall and very protective.

@Organist1 I picked Mastiff as they are large and two proselytizers would keep him fed for a while. I will bet he is really pretty also.

@dalefvictor Mastiffs do eat a lot! I had a Shar Pei once, which is like a mini mastiff, and fierce!

It would be interesting to know if that woman would have given paper cups of soup to atheists who came to her door imposing their views on her private space.

When my daughter was kindergarten-age, two of my religious nieces of a similar age came to spend the night with us. I was awakened early the next morning by my daughter bursting into my bedroom in tears, asking if it was true that Daddy was in hell because he wasn't "saved". It was the last time they came to play at our home, and it brought the realization that we would have to maintain a very strict line of division in our lives to keep the religious at bay, because their cruelty is so common as to be almost casually flippant.

I'm sorry these people crossed that line and hurt you, and I'm glad we have this place, where we can - for the most part - be ourselves.

You have posted this in multiple venues, so I assume you want feedback about the event. I'm getting that you appreciate feedback that is supportive of your position, but not if it differs from your view. Have I read this correctly? Or was it just the way they delivered the feedback? Were they rude about it?

@Lauren I heard that kind of cruelty in one of the two Catholic grade schools my father sent his five kids to. I’m glad he rarely spoke; he didn’’t reinforce that cruelty. My Methodist-raised mother also didn’t reinforce it.
In one of those schools, one nun subverted that cruelty by saying faith is a gift that some people don’t receive. Years later her words made my quitting easier.

@skado

I only posted this story on two websites: Agnostic and Facebook. Deleted the Facebook post this morning.

Christians on Facebook criticized me personally. They were highly offended. They said I was unkind, rude, insensitive, uncaring, etc.

"Those boys are someone's child," one woman wrote, completely missing the point. "It was freezing outside."

"I am sick of Christians trying to convert me," I replied. "There's a pandemic raging across America. I don't let strangers into my home, especially unmasked people."

@LiterateHiker
So are you open to feedback that differs from your view as long as it doesn't criticize you personally?

@skado

Exactly. Raising Claire, her dad and I learned how important it was criticize behavior, not her personally.

There's a big difference between calling her "lazy" and telling her what to do instead and why.

@LiterateHiker
I agree that name-calling and shaming are counterproductive. What do you think of your facebook friends’ perspective on your behavior, say, if they had delivered it in a less personally accusatory way?

Just objectively speaking, are there any possible valid philosophical perspectives behind their poor delivery?

Your ""Kathleen, do you believe in kindness?" an attorney asked" is deserving of a considered response. I know you for your kindness. However, any aggressive idiot that seeks to ram their genocidal maniac of a god down your throat and then has the temerity to try to bludge off you deserves to be sent away with a flea in the ear.

@skado

I feel fed up with people trying to convert me after a lifetime of negative experiences with it. As a kid and teen, friends' parents dragged me to their churches. I felt terrified of people screaming, falling down and speaking in tongues. At times, I ran outside and waited for it to end. This continued to age 15, when I learned to stand up for myself.

Amusing highlights and low points:

1. Ten years ago, my dear cousin Sarah flew from Ohio to spend a week with me in July. A Jehovah's Witness, Sarah spent the week pushing religious tracts on me, trying to convert me. I took her on an expensive, guided float trip running rapids in Wenatchee River. She loved it. Took her hiking. I kept insisting I'm an atheist. Since then, Sarah has refused to speak to me. She cut me off. I feel sad.

2. Through online dating, two men met me to try to convert me. Initially they hid they were pastors. "Martin Luther said there are no atheists!" one said triumphantly, as if that settled the matter. I laughed and stood up. "I don't care what a Catholic monk said over 400 years ago. Thanks for lunch. I'm leaving. I don't want to argue with you."

3. Ken, a 66-year-old psychologist from Portland, Oregon. His first message:

I really like your playful, creative, giving being. You're more "spiritual" than most religious people. I'm curious how an "atheist" can live that way.

After two Skype sessions, I sent Ken this kiss-off message:

Ken,
I do not want to spend another minute being grilled by you about why I am an atheist, religion and spirituality.

Yesterday a man I used to date, Rich, dropped by as I was kneading four loaves of bread. With a master degree, Rich is highly intelligent and an atheist. Unlike you, Rich immediately saw the insult in your first message.

I told Rich you could not understand how I can have loving kindness without attending church and believing in a god. "I get asked that by Christians all the time," Rich replied.

I would never corner Christians and demand that they explain themselves. Yet you and your compatriots think this is acceptable behavior. "I enjoyed the couple of conversations we had," you wrote. It was not fun for me.

Christians who don't know me often demand, as you did, that I explain:

1. Why I am an atheist.
2. How the universe began (as if being an atheist automatically makes me an astrophysicist). "Nobody knows," I reply. "Science is advancing every year."
3. What happens when people die. "Nobody knows," I reply.
4. What is "spirituality."

You may think your questions were unique. They were not. Rich and I both find being grilled by Christians rude and tiresome.

I suggest you see a therapist to discuss your bias against atheists.

Yes, I am perfectly capable of "agreeing to disagree." How else do you think I live peacefully in an area dominated by Republicans and Christians?

Kathleen

@anglophone

Thank you.

@LiterateHiker
Thanks for sharing those details. It helps me understand your position better. I can see now why you have no interest in examining it philosophically, which I also might not if I had lived through what you endured as a child. My experience in the Baptist church had a few uncomfortable moments, but nothing as terrifying as I can imagine that was for you.

@yvilletom I'm sorry you had to experience that, but very glad you didn't suffer it from your parents.

I was schooled by nuns as well (and worked for the auxiliary bishop) and the experiences added to my bitterness against the Catholic church. When in the second grade, my cousin's mother divorced and had their names legally changed to her maiden name. She was the only child of divorce in the elementary school. The nuns were frequently vicious in their attacks on a mere child, and refused to allow her to use her legal name. As horrid as all that is, the most horrendous part to me is that everyone accepted that it was happening, whereas I would be in there kicking proverbial ass on behalf of my child.

@Lauren

Thank you, Lauren. I'm sorry you went through that, as well.

My parents were non-religious. They only showed up at church for Christmas and Easter.

"I decided I'm an atheist," I told Mom at 13. "That's fine, honey," she replied. "What do you want for dinner?"

With Irish parents, Mom was raised Catholic and forced to go to Catholic schools through university.

"I became an atheist in nursing school when I realized a woman cannot be turned into salt," Mom said and laughed. I was 35. This was the first time I heard it.

@LiterateHiker

Thank you. I admit I'm still trying to release some of the anger I feel for those early years, particularly the verbal abuse I suffered from the bishop.

It's wild that you were 35 before finding out your mother was an atheist! I'm glad your parents were resistant to religion, and that they allowed you the freedom to decide your beliefs on your own. It was my goal to do that with my daughter, and I'm relieved that she and my faux daughters are all firm atheists. I think it makes them stronger and less likely to be subjugated by anyone.

That sounds a bit wishy washy, if you don't mind me saying. You might want to steroid that up a bit.

@David1955 I do things my way, and you do things your way.

Thank you, Robert. I appreciate your supportive feedback. You're right.

After the people on Facebook were so critical. Saying I was "unkind" and should have fed them soup.