Hey Dunno,
It is unfortunate in the greatest that you were treated poorly and were hurt by it. It is up to you, but instead of dealing with being treated poorly in those situations, I personally dealt with being hurt by it. At least to myself, the assurance that most everyone around me is an idiot leads me to not place much value on their opinions and actions. Some people will always try to treat you badly, and the effort to change too appease them seems impossible and dishonest to me.
I would also try to echo Frodo's point. I don't let the actions or integrity of followers of faiths taint the actual reason for faith. A lot of younger people in 'christian groups' may actually not be very good people (yet?). It could well be, though, that they are poor representatives for the standards and responsibilities of their belief system. I see a pretty even spattering of idiocy in most every belief system I have known, certainly not exlcuding the atheist/agnostic crowd. It seems as a human condition.
In short how the people you knew acted has very, very, very little to do with god. Make sure the horse is in front of the cart.
Hopefully you are able to use your negative experience to grow stronger. We're all just making lemonade here. Thank you for listening.
"I don't trust cats",
-Pip
It is unfortunate in the greatest that you were treated poorly and were hurt by it. It is up to you, but instead of dealing with being treated poorly in those situations, I personally dealt with being hurt by it. At least to myself, the assurance that most everyone around me is an idiot leads me to not place much value on their opinions and actions. Some people will always try to treat you badly, and the effort to change too appease them seems impossible and dishonest to me.
I would also try to echo Frodo's point. I don't let the actions or integrity of followers of faiths taint the actual reason for faith. A lot of younger people in 'christian groups' may actually not be very good people (yet?). It could well be, though, that they are poor representatives for the standards and responsibilities of their belief system. I see a pretty even spattering of idiocy in most every belief system I have known, certainly not exlcuding the atheist/agnostic crowd. It seems as a human condition.
In short how the people you knew acted has very, very, very little to do with god. Make sure the horse is in front of the cart.
Hopefully you are able to use your negative experience to grow stronger. We're all just making lemonade here. Thank you for listening.
"I don't trust cats",
-Pip
