(August 17, 2013 at 5:52 pm)Red Celt Wrote:(August 17, 2013 at 2:41 pm)mostlysilent Wrote: Mine is because I am mostly silent about the fact that I am an Atheist. It is not a secret really but I just don't discuss it with people that I do not know really really well most of the time. So when religious discussions come up I tend to just not engage in the discussion at all. This is however slowly changing as I get older. I am becoming less and less silent on the topic and less and less willing to listen to religious folks drone on about their religion without rebuttal. So my username is starting to not really fit me all that well. :p
I've found that silence is often taken as agreement. I've been in situations where a FOAF has been spouting some nonsense at me and my diplomatic silence has been taken as a green-light to continue ratcheting-up their originally-stated position. That's when diplomacy crumbles, and a head-nod to my friend happens... letting them know that this particular friend of his isn't a mutual one. The silence is often broken with the words "Look, you racist fuck..."
Yes I agree. People mostly just assume I'm a Christian (most of the people I hang out with and work with are Christian) and when/if I do tell them I'm not they are often quite surprised and sometimes downright shocked.
