When you work with a ton of people a day at your job it is literally unavoidable. I have always had forward-facing positions with the public and internal positions with the public but a specific type. I have no option to work for myself. So some of us through our occupations in America are stuck. Trying to reason with magical thinking doesn't work, so I ignore mentions of gods. Until I cannot. Then I say, I am not religious. I am also not the type to work from home as I would go insane. I did it for a year and HATED IT. I need to have a day and go and be in the world not live in a chair and on a laptop. Not for me. I can ignore about 80% of the magical thinking, get fed up with 10% and am baffled by the other 10% of people's inability to understand some of us don't care about religion.

@ClareCK The preachy Christian’s don’t seem to be as aggressive in upstate NY. During my working years as a scientist, I didn’t encounter missionary Christians. As a secular Jew, I had a different perspective on religion. But those annoying religious encounters are more frequent now. Times have changed and the zealots seem to have permission to be missionaries.

@ADKSparky welcome to politics mixed with religion as a weaponized spear of hate. I see it so much at work and in public now. I often stop people trying to get me into political or religious conversation by asking them what their hobbies are or what their favorite food is. It mostly works.

@ClareCK I socialize with a few running clubs. I never talk politics, vaccination, or religion. I can always turn a conversation to our latest running injury.

Funny!!!!

Coffee is disgusting. I prefer hot chocolate or Turkish tea with rock sugar from Belgium. Sorry. Never will drink nasty coffee. Not my vibe.

I never understood the term roast when it comes to coffee. Wth does that even mean? Lol
Medium roasted over a spit?
I never go into Starbucks or coffee places so have 0 familiarity with coffee talk.. I think coffee is a religion in America too. Lol

If you mean by religion any belief that is not based in scientifically verifiable facts, then there are certainly many religions to which people unwittingly adhere and parrot as though they were referring to some universal truth. As with all beliefs and those who hold them it proves to be invariably a waste of time engaging in conversation as the believer, whatever the belief held, will use the situation and your remarks to reinforce their beliefs. I have found that many people express their belief(s) in an attempt to seek confirmation and very rarely do they express their beliefs as topic of enquiry.

The number of believers in a religion or any belief for that matter does not constitute a fact(s) by any stretch of the imagination and all the world’s religions merely serve as a case in point.

Historically, it was heretics (branded heretics) who paved the way for freedom of thought and enquiry and many of them were horrendously tortured and burned alive at the stake as a warning to anyone who would dare question the established authority of the Catholic Church. I wonder what would be deemed contemporary heresies.

I never discuss religion with anyone. It's foisted on me usually by people who seek control over their own lives or others.

I will never put up with religious terrorism on me. Nope. They bring it up, I dress it down. No thank you! I am weary of placating magical thinkers.

Like Carlin said, when someone tells you what kind of day to have, tell em I have other plans! Ahaha

@ClareCK
I absolutely love it when someone tells me to have a nice/blessed/great/etc. Day! I typically respond with 'Dont tell me what the hell to do!'

@BOBdammit or as Carlin also said, fuck you very much, I have other plans! Ahaha his voice is missed, especially now post Rona with all the batshittery afoot.

I think she's getting talked to first about religion.

@Beowulfsfriend she distinctly states She tries to talk to others and gets jargon back......

Shoppers? Get help? Who are you talking to and about what? If it's my post, you are responding to, I said at work people do not stop talking about religion. I don't deal with "shoppers" as I work a professional job. So my statement was about wanting to keep things professional at work.

Lol fun but i don't believe productive.

@Bigwavedave When you reflect back to people their own behavior, it actually CAN be productive, because it gives them a window into their own behavior, which is so obvious to everyone except them.
But as for insisting that everything you do is "productive" . . . . Can you imagine analyzing every second of your day, to assure it is "productive"? That is insane. Maybe you also suppose humor has no value whatsoever too . . . . If that's the case, it's got to be one hell of a boring life.

Hahaha love it!

Truth!