Hello everyone, hope you are all holding up well. I have another set of questions for you, which relates to how you discuss and communicate your nonreligious views. I will not post everything at once, so keep your eyes open for the next posts as well – probably there will be another one on the same theme within the following days.
So, my first questions on that theme are the following: Do you have friends who are religious or is most of your social circle nonreligious? Do you discuss with them about your views on religion or religion-related topics in general, or is it something that is not coming up in conversations?
Religion is not something we discuss by itself. Sometimes it becomes a part of discussions, such as child welfare (FGM and circumcision, vaccinations) or politics (religiously motivated terrorism).
Try it. Religion is the believe there is a superhuman controlling power, like a God or Gods, a divine law or something else that exceeds human understanding and perception that guides us.
The only thing I can come up that is something like this is our current state, reality and the universe. So in my eyes, every religion is non-religious in the sense that it is not a entity they worship, it is the universe itself. And this makes all their ruling and dogma`s non religious but just variations of science and the natural law.
Ναι, έχω φίλους που πιστεύουν σε διάφορα πράγματα. Βασική προυπόθεση για να είναι φίλοι μου είναι να μην προσπαθούν να μου επιβάλλουν τα πιστεύω τους. Και φυσικά δε μιλάω μόνο για τους χριστιανούς, αλλά και για τόσους πολλούς που, ενώ απέρριψαν το χριστιανισμό, πιστεύουν στα ζώδια, στο βουδισμό και τη γιόγκα, στο σαμανισμό. στο ρείκι και τις “ενέργειες” κ.ο.κ. Κάποιες φορές συζητάμε για θέματα θρησκείας και δεν κρύβω τις απόψεις μου, αλλά δεν προσπαθώ και να τους προσβάλλω.
We almost never talk about such topics with close friends and family, but from what I can tell most people in my social circle are not strongly affiliated with religion. Some might be more aware of it and be atheists like me, some may believe in some abstract higher power and think that all religions try to capture that in different ways, some might be casual Christians for the sake of tradition and haven’t given it much thought beyond that, some might not label themselves as religious but believe in some other nonesense like astrology, karma etc…
But all in all, there isn’t really any significant difference, enough to cause some hinderance in my relationships with them, or even enough to come up much in discussions for that matter. Most just don’t care much about religion and haven’t given it much thought.
A notable exception is my ex who I was very close to and is very religious, even though I’m strongly against theism. There had been numerous clashes on the topic and even a break up because of that. At the end we made up and decided to stop trying to change each other there and we were able to move on from that topic. Which I think is a very good example of mutual maturity and reconciliation, in an area where such achievements are rare and far between. If the other person is good and kind and caring and has a ton of advantages, then a few disadvantages like such philosophical differences won’t prevail. In the end that doesn’t make me love her any less and it wouldn’t stop me from forming meaningful relationships with people in the future, if those people are worth it overall.
I come from a family that never been atheist, but never too religious either. They were receive religion as a tradition, a social act, never talk about it, they were religiously neutral.
I used to believe in God, Jesus Christ, etc. until I started to read about it (Bible) and became atheist (as christian) an agnostic, in the question “is there a God?”. My answer is “I don’t know” and I will happily accept anything, as long as it comes with reason, logic, evidence.
Sometimes the conversation subject comes to religion.
When talking with my familly it’s ok, they know my beliefs and they don’t have a problem with that, some members are christians (although not too religious) and some don’t know if there is a god or not, they follow some customs and traditions but I think mostly as cultural events.
When it comes to friends, some of them are atheists, some non religious but spiritual or believe in a higher power, but most are christians and very few of them are muslims. When the conversation comes to religion I present my beliefs to them showing respect to theirs and of course expecting equal respect.
When it comes to other people that’s another thing. Living in a country where the vast majority of the population are christians and living in a small community saying publicly that you don’t believe in god could cause some social cosequences. Some people could avoid you, or stop being your customers, or who knows what else… So when a conversation with possible customers or people who know me other than my friends comes to religion I try not to take part in it. I know that I wont change their mind and they wont change mine and I really don’t care so its pointless. I’m not sure if it’s the right thing to do, but it saves money, time and prevents disagreements.
Ο κοινονικός κύκλος μου είναι κατά κύριο λόγο άθεοι, αλλά υπάρχουν και αναρχοχρηστιανοί καθώς και ένας οργανομένως σε παραεκλησιαστικούς κύκλους. Στον καθένα αμαλογα με το μέτρο του και αν έρθει η κουβέντα.
Μαχητικός γίνομαι μόνο σε παραεπιστημονικές ανοησίες: ομοιοπαθητικές, εμβόλια, κλπ..
Seldom comes up in conversations. Most of the people I tend to connect with are non-religious or choose to keep their beliefs to themselves as far as I know. And honestly, I don’t feel the need to discuss it with anyone out of the blue. Only when I feel I am the one being challenged for not believing, I get an urge to react.
Some of my friends are religious, others are militantly non-religious. They are from different social circles that don’t overlap.
With my religious friends, we don’t discuss religion at all. Not Christianity, at least. We went to a Lutheran university so I was around a lot of Christians but they were very low-key and welcoming. We learned about religions around the world and were required to take at least 2 religion classes to graduate. I took one on Judaism in America and the other on Death and the Afterlife in various religions. We talked about these things but not about our beliefs. With the one’s I know believe, I choose not to bring it up. Sometimes someone says they’ll pray for me and it makes me feel a little uncomfortable but I know it is coming from a good place. My one religion scholar friend who is also Catholic shoots me down when I try to talk about my (non)beliefs. He always has a response. I think it isn’t socially acceptable to talk poorly about someone’s religious beliefs but your thoughts are not taken seriously