So far Christians I've ever met or talked to were all the same - from the beginning of the conversation they start babbling about their deity and when you say you don't believe or ask them a logical question they become even more passionate and quite often they become aggressive. And so far I thought the reason for that behaviour of theirs was the brainwashing.
For instance, a few years back on Easter when my mother took me to the church for "walking under a table" Easter tradition I said wouldn't do it because I only went there to accompany my mother (dark hours of the day are not the safest to walk alone) and then several of the people there forced me out of the church yard. Naturally, the most of the hints were about burning in hell which in turn I ignored. Naturally. But there were others who simply cussed me when they realized I couldn't be brainwashed.
Or another time when a priest from our local church visited us at home to beg for donations. I didn't open the door, so we just talked through it. I told him I'm not interested in living in an afterlife place where there are no pretty boys and when heard that he became aggressive and started kicking the door. The door is heavy, made of solid steel, so I didn't care about it but what made me mad was the aggression when he realized he was talking to an atheist. Then I opened the door and went towards him with a knife. I wasn't gonna hurt him, I just wanted to scare him and that's what happened. He ran away like the devil is after him and I couldn't even understand when he managed to run 3 stores down to the exit. Later on the same priest tried to recruit my mother to give constant and large donations to the church but that didn't work either because I payed him a visit at the church in the dark hours of the night. After that we never saw him again.
Normally I'm not an aggressive person but when someone doesn't respect my opinion, threatens my free will or tries to blackmail us, I do become aggressive.
Until now I thought all the believers are the same - all sorts of monsters (literally and figuratively). But from what I was able to find of the posts by @Catholic_Lady she seems to respect our opinions here and doesn't even try to brainwash any of us - for which I'm grateful to her.
So I wonder - what's that thing that makes believers to try to brainwash us?
As I like to say (actually it's a quote from Fringe Season 1) - "There's more than one of everything". So, if Catholic_Lady can respect our opinions and doesn't try to convert us, it means other believers could too but they don't want. So there must be some reason for not wanting to.
I'm fully capable of respecting other people's opinion and for as long as any believer doesn't try to convert me to his ways (and doesn't talk about god, ofc), I'll respect his believes (even if I don't like them or agree with them). I've said that so many times to believers that I've lost count already. But they wouldn't listen.
It's more than obvious the battle between "good" (them) and "evil" (us) will go on forever or at least we won't live to see its end, so do you think there's any way for us to coexist with theists without aggression and what would that way be? What do you usually tell an aggressive theist in order to calm them down?
For instance, a few years back on Easter when my mother took me to the church for "walking under a table" Easter tradition I said wouldn't do it because I only went there to accompany my mother (dark hours of the day are not the safest to walk alone) and then several of the people there forced me out of the church yard. Naturally, the most of the hints were about burning in hell which in turn I ignored. Naturally. But there were others who simply cussed me when they realized I couldn't be brainwashed.
Or another time when a priest from our local church visited us at home to beg for donations. I didn't open the door, so we just talked through it. I told him I'm not interested in living in an afterlife place where there are no pretty boys and when heard that he became aggressive and started kicking the door. The door is heavy, made of solid steel, so I didn't care about it but what made me mad was the aggression when he realized he was talking to an atheist. Then I opened the door and went towards him with a knife. I wasn't gonna hurt him, I just wanted to scare him and that's what happened. He ran away like the devil is after him and I couldn't even understand when he managed to run 3 stores down to the exit. Later on the same priest tried to recruit my mother to give constant and large donations to the church but that didn't work either because I payed him a visit at the church in the dark hours of the night. After that we never saw him again.
Normally I'm not an aggressive person but when someone doesn't respect my opinion, threatens my free will or tries to blackmail us, I do become aggressive.
Until now I thought all the believers are the same - all sorts of monsters (literally and figuratively). But from what I was able to find of the posts by @Catholic_Lady she seems to respect our opinions here and doesn't even try to brainwash any of us - for which I'm grateful to her.
So I wonder - what's that thing that makes believers to try to brainwash us?
As I like to say (actually it's a quote from Fringe Season 1) - "There's more than one of everything". So, if Catholic_Lady can respect our opinions and doesn't try to convert us, it means other believers could too but they don't want. So there must be some reason for not wanting to.
I'm fully capable of respecting other people's opinion and for as long as any believer doesn't try to convert me to his ways (and doesn't talk about god, ofc), I'll respect his believes (even if I don't like them or agree with them). I've said that so many times to believers that I've lost count already. But they wouldn't listen.
It's more than obvious the battle between "good" (them) and "evil" (us) will go on forever or at least we won't live to see its end, so do you think there's any way for us to coexist with theists without aggression and what would that way be? What do you usually tell an aggressive theist in order to calm them down?