(July 10, 2024 at 11:43 am)Outstanding! Wrote: I get your point but it's not important to me. When I'm with them and they choose to pray before a meal or pray for a person who is sick I participate out of respect. There's noting I can do or say to change their beliefs nor do I want to. So, I put my head down and wait for them to finish their prayers and life goes on. No harm is being done to me or my ego. In my mind it's no different than when I play with my 4 year old niece and her imaginary friends. I'm not camouflaging my identity because it's more important to me to show respect to others unless it's doing harm to myself or someone else. My identity is that of someone who doesn't do or say things to unnecessarily hurt or discredit others and being an Athiest simply means that I don't believe in God. I'm not sure what I expected from posting this but thank you for your feedback and for the welcome.
Welcome Woof.
If your friends (and their beliefs) are so fragile that simply letting them know you don't believe will 'unnecessarily hurt or discredit' them it sounds to me like they're not actually very good friends. I'd coin at as 'conditional' friends. Sounds like very one sided relationships. You may be doing yourself an injustice.
Most of my interactions are with the religious, my wife is a catholic. They all know I'm a non believer/atheist and not an anti-theist. It hasn't hurt any of the relationships.
My thoughts only, you do you.
I don't have an anger problem, I have an idiot problem.
