"heaven" meme on facebook

[drfuzzy]

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You have no need of my forgiveness.  I'm a stranger.  
But my forgiveness in this arena is given after observation of behavior.  There are theists here who are well-loved, welcome members of this group.  They have earned that respect by not preaching.  This is not to say that they are in any way silenced.  If a relevant question is posed, they state their stance on the issue clearly.  Sometimes there is even quite a bit of debate.  You could join their ranks.  Just grow a thicker skin and do not respond to two insults with twenty - that's all it would take. You seem quite bright. 
Who knows, we might even end up being friends.

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I thank you for your kind words, but I am a indeed confused. I am not a person who insults, that is not my style, and I truly do not see when, in this brief conversation we had, when did I insulted. Of course, it is not relevant, if I insulted someone I apologize, but I am sincere when I say I do not know where did I insult anyone. Also, I do not have the feeling that I proselytized anyone, actually. I am here to give my opinion about the OP and I did it, I am not a person who proselytizes, and God knows (and history) that the Orthodox Church does not have proselytizing in her behavior.

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I'm going to offer you a little advice for life: Don't be an asshole.

As a sub-clause to "Don't be an asshole", I'd include, "When people tell you what they are or what they think, it's an asshole move to tell them what they really think."

When we tell you that most of us are former Believers, raised in the church family (usually because of our own families, of course), and that we understand your claims about the Bible and the religion that springs from it, we mean it. We have chosen to reject the claims as invalid. It's really that simple.

I'll also note that you're playing a very dishonest game, here, by focusing only on the people who swear at you and show no interest in debating or discussing with you, while ignoring those who attempt to engage you on a more human level. You sling labels our way, en masse, like "angry" and "aggressive" and "compulsive", as if they apply to the group.

I have been nothing but polite, until calling you an asshole (technically, I said what you did was the action of an asshole, and that you shouldn't do that), and yet I think the same things they do.

You and I disbelieve in every god that was ever invented by humans... except you've held on to one. How you feel about the Greeks inventing Zeus, and then the Romans borrowing it and "inventing" Jupiter, we feel about what Christians did to the beliefs of the Iron-Age Hebrews. We think exactly what you think about Hinduism. But your pet religion is so precious to you that you have to pretend to yourself that others reject it for unsound reasons, since it just can't possibly occur to you that we know about your religion and simply choose to treat it the way you treat Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Zoroastrians, Sikhs, Shintoists, Baha'i, etc.

You are so arrogant and self-absorbed in your belief set that you can't even fathom how insulting and enraging it is to come talk to us the way you have. But I assure you, if a Muslim came to a Christian forum and said that you "really" worshiped Allah and "really knew in your heart" that Muhammad was his final Prophet, you'd be furious. And rightfully so.

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I find two things that begs an answer from me in your post: "I'll also note that you're playing a very dishonest game, here, by focusing only on the people who swear at you and show no interest in debating or discussing with you, while ignoring those who attempt to engage you on a more human level. You sling labels our way, en masse, like "angry" and "aggressive" and "compulsive", as if they apply to the group.", if this is the case, I beg them pardon. Understand that it is difficult for me to answer or see their messagges when there are three or four talking to me and asking me multiple questions that need answering. I invite everyone that wants to ask me certain questions to ask them via private messagging, where no one can "interrupt" (for the lack of a better term).

"But I assure you, if a Muslim came to a Christian forum and said that you "really" worshiped Allah and "really knew in your heart" that Muhammad was his final Prophet, you'd be furious. And rightfully so.", if I am sincere, I would not, and since this actually happened a few times, trust me, I would not. I would do this: How do you know I really worshipped Allah, what are the causes and the nature of this statement? The same with the second question. I find fury unnecessary and unproductive, but I can know where your fury come from. From the little psychology I know, fury usually comes from unjustice. I have produced an unjustice to you when I "claimed" that "you are actually a liar and that you really hate God inside of you" (this is what you understood, but my statement was not that black and white), you considered this an unjustice since you do not believe this and I wrongfully attributed it to you. It is a natural response, however, natural responses are not always productive, and we have to focus on the potentiality of our debate, not on the actuality of it.

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I'm the original poster.  The OP shared a reaction to a meme - - people living their lives here for the sole purpose of getting into heaven.  (Most of us here don't believe an afterlife exists.)  The OP shared personal experience.  Your first post in this thread bolded parts of them and declared them to be theologically wrong.  Then you accused someone who was raised Protestant, and called herself a xtian for 46 years, of having the wrong idea about christianity.  Not an auspicious beginning, since the OP clearly was not about "correct theology".   

We told you what we believe, and you dismissed those posts.  If you say that we lack understanding, that is an insult.  If you say that we hate god, just because you can't fathom not "knowing" god is there (despite claiming to convert to orthodoxy from atheism) that is not only an insult, that is a lie, and that is calling everyone who tried to explain our position to you a liar.  If you declare that no debate is possible here, you are insulting our intellect.  -- Many folks here are brilliant debaters, and well-versed in logical fallacies.  (Some would even cheerfully debate points of theology with you - some have studied it at length.  Even though I think many here would agree with me that theology is trying to study something that doesn't exist.)  If you take the stance that you have the "truth" and post walls of texts for us to read, you are being disrespectful and arrogant.  You seem to think that we need to be taught.  We don't.  And this "teaching" stance is proselytizing.