Do you find it insulting when someone tells you are irrational for believing? [View all]

Posted in interfaith room

Do you find it insulting when they say you are deluded, weak minded, or mentally ill for believing?

I have to say I find it insulting.

Just because I believe does not mean that I check reason at the door, far from it. Part of my Anglican faith tradition is the three-legged stool. Scripture, tradition, and reason make up the fundamentals of my and all Anglican's faith and so many other believers. I wish that posters in the religion room would realize everytime you call us irrational it is an insult, whether meant or not.

Some in the other room also have a hard time realizing not all believers are right wing and not all of us believe the rule book 100 percent.
We are capable of choosing what makes sense to us and what does not. We also as members of this group and board have professed our politics and views as progressive/liberal. We are not right wingers despite some of the back handed comments some of us have to endure in that room. I wish some of our friends in the religion room would remember that we have feelings too and that we are not mindless idiots with a blind faith that have no doubts at all. We are human and we have doubts because it is only natural.

I have had to explain my faith over and over again here but I never question the beliefs of others in that room.

My faith is simple. I believe in the life, work, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I believe in the trinity and this is how I experience the divine. Others experience the divine in other ways and despite efforts to get me and others to say different, I do not believe they are false religions. We experience the divine in different ways. Diversity is a good thing. I do not believe in hell so I condemn no one. I put no limit on the mercy of God.

I pray for strength in this life and I offer others up in prayer to God. I do not believe in a God that desides what goes on in this world but again I put no limits on the divine. And yes I may pray for something to happen even though I know that it will not. I am human.


I write this op because I get very frustrated at how others view believers in the other room. I have no doubt that atheists in this country experience hardship many times over. I suppose because I am from NYC and a non-religious family that I don't encounter this at all but listening to what others here have said I do believe it is hard to come out as an atheist in many places. I am very sympathetic to atheists. We have some disagreements on tax exempt issues but for the most we agree on other separation of church and state issues.

I hope that people in the other room would remember we are not fools and please do not treat us as such.