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#1103831
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.
1/26/2010 12:42:11 PM
#1103843
If they can't snatch him from Jesus's hand, perhaps they could clean and press him?
1/26/2010 12:52:51 PM
#1103845
Tyler
I thought parents were supposed to keep their kids OFF of drugs....
1/26/2010 12:55:54 PM
#1103856
AverageAtheist
Muhahaha you may never take him back, he's one of us now *hisses*
1/26/2010 1:05:42 PM
#1103881
Chimbley_Sweep
Responses in same thread:
"I have had struggles with my almost-14 yr old son too."
Now THAT is good news. Even a 13 yo kid can see that the Raptards are full of shit.
"Thank you to all who prayed for my son, it means so much to know you are willing to do this. I cannot thank you enough. "
Wow, they were willing to close their eyes and think words in their heads. Just remarkable. How did they ever find the inner strength to make such a sacrifice?
1/26/2010 1:39:19 PM
#1103893
aaa
Yoink.
1/26/2010 1:53:41 PM
#1103899
Zimmer
But wait, I'm an atheist and I'm not cool at all.
Dammit, I wish I could have found out about this back in high school.
1/26/2010 1:58:23 PM
#1103927
clockworkgirl21
I was ridiculed for being agnostic in high school, and that was just a few years ago...
1/26/2010 2:28:37 PM
#1103965
David B.
"He belongs to Jesus and no one can snatch him from Jesus's hand."
Except, apparently, Charles Darwin, Harry Potter, Disney, Pixar, Richard Dawkins, Barack Obama, Billary Clinton, Feminists, Gays, the Liberal Media, Muslims, Catholics, Mormons, Pokemon and Tickle-me Elmo...
Do you guys not even read your own site?
1/26/2010 3:12:27 PM
#1103968
Argle Bargle
I'm guessing his crazy mom had something to do with his de-conversion.
1/26/2010 3:15:45 PM
#1103977
Cupcake
Haha, this sounds like my parents. I told my dad I was an atheist, and he said, "No you're not, you're an agnostic, which is a confused Christian." Um yeah, thanks Dad!
1/26/2010 3:28:52 PM
#1103989
Ajax
"no one can snatch him from Jesus's hand."
Of course no one can. Jesus is dead. Dead people don't have hands.
1/26/2010 3:53:00 PM
#1104002
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.
1/26/2010 4:18:52 PM
#1104005
Mike Sihl
Your son can think for himself. You should be celebrating the fact that he has the freedom to do that.
1/26/2010 4:19:19 PM
#1104045
Xotan
How old is your son? Never mind. He'll make up his own mind having informed himself of all the facts, no doubt.
1/26/2010 5:02:43 PM
#1104051
Ime it was the exact opposite. I was one of the few openly atheist people in my high school, and I was frequently confronted by other students who wanted to know "Why don't you believe in God?!", teachers frowned on me for expressing atheist or antitheist opinions, etc. etc. And btw, I graduated high school last year, so it's not like this happened in the '60s or something. Also:
He belongs to Jesus and no one can snatch him from Jesus's hand.
This statement is just... incredibly creepy. Jesus sounds like a slavemaster or something.
1/26/2010 5:11:03 PM
#1104063
Wehpudicabok
David B FTW
1/26/2010 5:34:13 PM
#1104090
yeah, because that 3% of the population that doesnt profess to be some sort of Christian really just peer pressures the fuck out of everyone in the United States.
1/26/2010 7:04:03 PM
#1104095
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.
1/26/2010 7:20:49 PM
#1104118
Hive
I don't know, dumbass. I knew there were people who didn't believe in Jesus when I was younger, but I didn't know what they were called.
I'm pretty sure no one was whispering in my ear that "the Bible is evil", when I decided to become an Atheist.
1/26/2010 8:24:40 PM
#1104131
Patrick
Gee, when I was in High School the few times my teachers find out I was an atheist I was condescend to, and at my HS there was a group of kids that started an after-school prayer club. Said club would meet in the first class room you saw upon entering the school's front doors.
1/26/2010 8:36:37 PM
#1104160
Sagan's Ghost
Yeah, but where is Jesus' OTHER hand?
1/26/2010 9:15:20 PM
#1104191
The Jamo
I'm in my mid 20s so i still remember school reasonably well and as far as I recall, religion never played any part in any interactions between students. Whether you were "cool" or not depended on other, much more superficial things.
1/26/2010 9:36:18 PM
#1104249
Antichrist
Most kids that want to rebel from fundie parents go full fledged Satanist don't they? Damn, they've locked me out again. Is anyone else having this issue? or have they IP banned me?
Why not freak mom out by wearing pentagrams, black clothes and hanging out in the basement?
1/26/2010 10:21:36 PM
#1104271
Sasha
If no one can snatch your son from Jesus' hand, then why do you get so fired up about D&D, Pixar, and atheism? You are so going to Hell for lying.
1/26/2010 10:47:11 PM
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