Hi everyone,
While I've been an atheist for the past 3 years, I'm brand new to the forums. I'm wondering if anyone has any thoughts on what I'm about to explain...I recently told my parents for the first time that I'm an atheist. My parents are both Christian, my mom more so than my dad. The issue of my atheism came up because my mom, who is a Facebook friend of mine, was upset by my 'likes' of atheist pages, as well as some sharing of atheist photos, appearing in her newsfeed. Upon talking to her about my atheism, I have learned that she is a very closeminded individual who lacks some basic critical thinking skills. Now, she has adjusted her Facebook settings so that she can no longer see my atheist likes and photos in her newsfeed.
My question is, is this behaviour any better than something like homophobia? Does this constitute discrimination? After asking her point blank whether she accepts that I'm an atheist, she said that she does. To draw out the analogy with homophobia, this situation seems very similar to one where I come out to her as gay, and she claims to 'accept' that, but then she adjusts her Facebook settings so that she doesn't have to see me 'liking' and sharing gay rights photos and pages. The only salient difference I can see is that being atheist is a choice while being gay is not, but then again most homophobes think that being gay is a choice anyway. I've been thinking about asking her straight up how her behaviour differs from something like homophobia, but I wanted to get others' opinions first. This behaviour doesn't bother me that much (at least right now), but I don't want to let her carry on with this behaviour if it is truly discriminatory. Any thoughts are appreciated.
Thanks!
While I've been an atheist for the past 3 years, I'm brand new to the forums. I'm wondering if anyone has any thoughts on what I'm about to explain...I recently told my parents for the first time that I'm an atheist. My parents are both Christian, my mom more so than my dad. The issue of my atheism came up because my mom, who is a Facebook friend of mine, was upset by my 'likes' of atheist pages, as well as some sharing of atheist photos, appearing in her newsfeed. Upon talking to her about my atheism, I have learned that she is a very closeminded individual who lacks some basic critical thinking skills. Now, she has adjusted her Facebook settings so that she can no longer see my atheist likes and photos in her newsfeed.
My question is, is this behaviour any better than something like homophobia? Does this constitute discrimination? After asking her point blank whether she accepts that I'm an atheist, she said that she does. To draw out the analogy with homophobia, this situation seems very similar to one where I come out to her as gay, and she claims to 'accept' that, but then she adjusts her Facebook settings so that she doesn't have to see me 'liking' and sharing gay rights photos and pages. The only salient difference I can see is that being atheist is a choice while being gay is not, but then again most homophobes think that being gay is a choice anyway. I've been thinking about asking her straight up how her behaviour differs from something like homophobia, but I wanted to get others' opinions first. This behaviour doesn't bother me that much (at least right now), but I don't want to let her carry on with this behaviour if it is truly discriminatory. Any thoughts are appreciated.
Thanks!
