In a 5 paragraph Facebook status update, I told everyone I know that I haven't believed in the Christian god this entire year. The main gist of it though was basically me asking for acceptance and no judgement because, believe it or not, I was 100% sincere during my 5-6 of serving the Christian god.
Over the past 3 days, I feel like my popularity has doubled. I've received a ton of texts from friends saying "hey, haven't seen you in ages! Let's catch up
". This of course is not related to how much or how little we have seen each other, but an opportunity for them to win over a soul for "the anointed one".
I don't know how to proceed from here. I discussed it with my dad and he reckons that me explaining the "cold truth" is better than me not wanting to engage in conversation because I'm afraid of hurting them. But I'm wondering if it's at all ethical to take away someone's happiness and replace it with the "cold truth". Who am I to decide for them what they deserve? It's 100% true that ignorance is bliss in my opinion, and if they want to believe in that stuff then fine, so be it! Unfortunately, the stuff they believe in has in-built mechanisms that will trigger their apologetic reflexes whenever they see an opportunity to convert someone.
How do I deal with this?!?!
P.s. part of the problem is that I know hands down how fragile some of my friends' faiths are. E.g: my friend at youth group came up to me with a worried look and asked me "um.. could you please explain the god particle (Higgs Boson) to me?". Simple scientific advances threaten to destroy her faith! Imagine what would happen if I brought up even one of the fundamental problems that get discussed on here to my friends, which in my opinion, live under a rock compared to us who are at the very end of the bell curve of exposure to theological, philosophical, scientific, ethical (etc.) arguments and ideas. I feel like I could cause a lot of damage...
Over the past 3 days, I feel like my popularity has doubled. I've received a ton of texts from friends saying "hey, haven't seen you in ages! Let's catch up
". This of course is not related to how much or how little we have seen each other, but an opportunity for them to win over a soul for "the anointed one". I don't know how to proceed from here. I discussed it with my dad and he reckons that me explaining the "cold truth" is better than me not wanting to engage in conversation because I'm afraid of hurting them. But I'm wondering if it's at all ethical to take away someone's happiness and replace it with the "cold truth". Who am I to decide for them what they deserve? It's 100% true that ignorance is bliss in my opinion, and if they want to believe in that stuff then fine, so be it! Unfortunately, the stuff they believe in has in-built mechanisms that will trigger their apologetic reflexes whenever they see an opportunity to convert someone.
How do I deal with this?!?!
P.s. part of the problem is that I know hands down how fragile some of my friends' faiths are. E.g: my friend at youth group came up to me with a worried look and asked me "um.. could you please explain the god particle (Higgs Boson) to me?". Simple scientific advances threaten to destroy her faith! Imagine what would happen if I brought up even one of the fundamental problems that get discussed on here to my friends, which in my opinion, live under a rock compared to us who are at the very end of the bell curve of exposure to theological, philosophical, scientific, ethical (etc.) arguments and ideas. I feel like I could cause a lot of damage...
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it" ~ Aristotle
