Peaceseeker #fundie

Peaceseeker #fundie rr-bb.com

(In responce to "My son is an atheist)

They hear this garbage at school, other places, and among their peers. It seems to be the cool thing right now for kids to claim to be atheist. Just keep loving your son and praying for him. He belongs to Jesus and no one can snatch him from Jesus's hand.

59 comments

old comment by Swede

I'm sad to say we probably have some of that "anti-religious" peer-pressure here.
Religion is just not something we speak about, it's a personal matter. We'd rather discuss politics. After all, we have 7 different parties in our congress so there are lots to discuss. No black or white here, we have blue and light blue, yellow, green, red and even redder. Oh, on second thought I do think the Christian Democrats use the color white. (That's one of our most right-wing parties, btw.)

Here it can be harder to "come out" as a Christian, than as gay. When we think Christian, we think goody-goody, with slightly otherworldly voice, too polite, too nice - do you know what I mean? Jehovah's witnesses, like?

It's probably not easy for a little religious kid in the school ground, sadly. Kids can be really mean, they don't need a reason to pick on somebody, really.

old comment by misshani

But that's the thing about faith, isn't it? Someone who doesn't believe in God can often be convinced by those who do. Believers of one faith can be swayed to another. But while they are seeing the world through the delusion of faith, it will always prevent the person from acknowledging atheism is a legitimate point of view. Their own perceived experiences leads them to believe some higher power is real, and they'll always trust that more.

In all cases I've ever heard of, it is the individual themselves that take the first step by questioning whether their faith is a real experience or just something they like to believe. Then they take the next step of looking for answers. Which eventually compels them to seek out the furthest extreme, atheism, to test beyond a doubt what's real and what isn't.

TL;DR: The point is that atheists cannot take faith away. De-conversion can only become a possibility once there is a change of mindset within the individual they themselves had to initiate.

Sorry, but if that kid became an atheist, peer pressure had little, if anything, to do with it.

old comment by nichevo

I just want to say, to all those who've told of atheism as a tiny, sometimes taunted, minority in school...

It wasn't like that for me going to school in Australia during the '90s. Mostly, religion wasn't a mentioned thing. It would have been "uncool" to mention that you were part of any faith group, Christian and atheist included. (Excuse my clumsy phrasing, I don't mean to imply that atheism is a faith.)

I can't say for certain, but I think the a lot of people would have identified with atheism during high school. (I think in primary school such issues are a bit hard to comprehend.)

Have hope, it is possible for schools and students to be fairly secular.

old comment by Man Called True

I cannot tell you how sick I was of hearing "You're not atheist, you're agnostic" from most of my relatives after a while. Eventually they came to understand this, but I still get the occasional anti-atheist e-mail from my one bitch aunt.

Back in high school, you could get away with not being religious, though I used to get in fights with the scary-Christian girls in one class.

My brief and abortive stint in college was unmarred by religious fights, aside from my one encounter with a creepy purity-fixitated Christian.

Short version: Can't pass judgment on this one until we know where her son's in school. But I still doubt the atheists have enough leverage to pressure anyone.

Peaceseeker #fundie rr-bb.com

59 comments

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