New here..need to rant!

[Kiki]

Hi, I just joined this forum to have a community to rant to. I need to explode and get it out in hopes others have feedback from the same experience. My family are atheists. We don't beleive in God or religion. If others find that it works for them than I respect this but will try and avoid discussion with such a conflict of interests. I stopped by my work with my 6 and 7 year old today and my boss who loves Jesus told my kids they should pray all the time. He knows I am very atheist and has never challenged my values. I said to him we do not pray and he was shocked and asked how I could deny them God. I said I wouldn't teach them values that I do not believe in. He was dumbfounded by this. I have run across this before in my past when my children come up. As if I am automatically teach my kids to be Christian at birth, like its a real thing, like I'm denying them water of clothes. I prefer to teach my children and install our values and hope they follow our path. If they grow up and seek out God there is not much I can do but would hope they don't. We don't like football or nascar or wwf and greatly divert this as well. Ugh...just needed to rant. Thanks!

Kiki, That seemed to be a quite gentle rant...

Ha!

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I said to him if he is talking about our hero soldiers protecting our country I would say the same thing.

I'm an active duty Atheist and after 9 years, it gets harder and harder to accept thanks for my service. I can appreciate that some people are afraid of joining the military and that their gratitude translates more accurateky to "Thanks for volunteering so folks like me don't have to" and while I never experienced the same fear, i can sort of understand the sentiment. I also realize that any country with something to lose can needs a military to protect it and even while I don't agree with much of what the government uses us for, I do see our existence as necessary. I think the U.S. would get stormed over night if we decided to cut all military members from the payroll and immediately ceased all forms of military related activity. I want to say that when people thank a military member for protecting their country, they're really just expressing gratitude for being fortunate enough to live in a country that has a military to ward off other countries from doing what we've been doing to them. I don't like being thanked. I didn't join out of the kindness of my heart, I get paid with a pretty decent living and the benefits are damn good. My education and my son's have been paid for and we are 100% covered by medical insurance. Knowing all of this stuff makes it seem hard to accept gratitude, especially since they pay taxes. I don't know where I was going with this, but there is just something about all the propaganda that makes me uneasy as well.

Sorry if I offended you...was not my intent. I just strongly disagree with our government and how they use the military...most for all the wrong reasons in my opinion. What others do in their lives is their business. I wouldn't ever openly vocalize my opinion to someone's choices unless provoked. So I apologize. I should not have made such an off topic bash.

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I said to him if he is talking about our hero soldiers protecting our country I would say the same thing.

I'm an active duty Atheist and after 9 years, it gets harder and harder to accept thanks for my service. I can appreciate that some people are afraid of joining the military and that their gratitude translates more accurateky to "Thanks for volunteering so folks like me don't have to" and while I never experienced the same fear, i can sort of understand the sentiment. I also realize that any country with something to lose can needs a military to protect it and even while I don't agree with much of what the government uses us for, I do see our existence as necessary. I think the U.S. would get stormed over night if we decided to cut all military members from the payroll and immediately ceased all forms of military related activity. I want to say that when people thank a military member for protecting their country, they're really just expressing gratitude for being fortunate enough to live in a country that has a military to ward off other countries from doing what we've been doing to them. I don't like being thanked. I didn't join out of the kindness of my heart, I get paid with a pretty decent living and the benefits are damn good. My education and my son's have been paid for and we are 100% covered by medical insurance. Knowing all of this stuff makes it seem hard to accept gratitude, especially since they pay taxes. I don't know where I was going with this, but there is just something about all the propaganda that makes me uneasy as well.

Sorry if I offended you...was not my intent. I just strongly disagree with our government and how they use the military...most for all the wrong reasons in my opinion. What others do in their lives is their business. I wouldn't ever openly vocalize my opinion to someone's choices unless provoked. So I apologize. I should not have made such an off topic bash.