My grandma is very devoutly Catholic, and always has been. I don't think she knew I was an atheist until a month or so ago; we don't see each other very often, but we do get along well (as long as we don't talk politics or religion, haha).
Out of the blue, she's been sending me these emails. They were a lot of chain emails with "cute" or "inspirational" stories, all of which centered around god or Jesus. But just recently, they've become anti-atheist emails. Mostly, I just ignore them. The chain emails always go to me and several other people, but the anti-atheist emails are coming to just me. She sent me one this morning with a "funny" story about how all atheists are dumb assholes, and made a comment about how I probably wouldn't believe the story anyway. It felt pretty directly insulting, but I haven't said anything yet.
I'm debating on if/what I should say to my grandma. I love her dearly, but I've never challenged or criticized religion (let alone hers directly) in front of her, and when she's criticized atheism or my political or social beliefs I've always just let it go without a counterargument because I don't want to start something. But I'm getting really tired of it, especially since the emails are becoming more insulting towards atheists. I guarantee I've done more soul searching and more seeking answers from god that she has; I've done more searching for god than almost anyone else I know. (And, of course, my searching led me to atheism.)
My knee-jerk reaction this morning over the latest anti-atheist email was to fire back with criticisms on Catholicism and how, in my opinion, it's willful ignorance to ignore the laws of science in favor of beliefs that have been around since before mankind even understood that the moon wasn't a deity and the world was indeed round. I wanted to send her all sorts of quotes and articles and evidence of evolution (which was a theme of this morning's email) and how it's just as true as gravity, but I bit my tongue because I know she would not likely read any of it anyway.
What would you say to your grandma? Would you stand up to her and tell her to knock it off? I feel pretty certain that she views attacking my beliefs as her religious duty, but if I defend myself it'll just be seen as an evil attack and further fuel the idea of a war on religion she has in her head; she strongly feels Christians are more persecuted in America than minorities, non-heterosexuals, and transgenders combined.
How do I get her to back off without it being seen as me attacking her?
Out of the blue, she's been sending me these emails. They were a lot of chain emails with "cute" or "inspirational" stories, all of which centered around god or Jesus. But just recently, they've become anti-atheist emails. Mostly, I just ignore them. The chain emails always go to me and several other people, but the anti-atheist emails are coming to just me. She sent me one this morning with a "funny" story about how all atheists are dumb assholes, and made a comment about how I probably wouldn't believe the story anyway. It felt pretty directly insulting, but I haven't said anything yet.
I'm debating on if/what I should say to my grandma. I love her dearly, but I've never challenged or criticized religion (let alone hers directly) in front of her, and when she's criticized atheism or my political or social beliefs I've always just let it go without a counterargument because I don't want to start something. But I'm getting really tired of it, especially since the emails are becoming more insulting towards atheists. I guarantee I've done more soul searching and more seeking answers from god that she has; I've done more searching for god than almost anyone else I know. (And, of course, my searching led me to atheism.)
My knee-jerk reaction this morning over the latest anti-atheist email was to fire back with criticisms on Catholicism and how, in my opinion, it's willful ignorance to ignore the laws of science in favor of beliefs that have been around since before mankind even understood that the moon wasn't a deity and the world was indeed round. I wanted to send her all sorts of quotes and articles and evidence of evolution (which was a theme of this morning's email) and how it's just as true as gravity, but I bit my tongue because I know she would not likely read any of it anyway.
What would you say to your grandma? Would you stand up to her and tell her to knock it off? I feel pretty certain that she views attacking my beliefs as her religious duty, but if I defend myself it'll just be seen as an evil attack and further fuel the idea of a war on religion she has in her head; she strongly feels Christians are more persecuted in America than minorities, non-heterosexuals, and transgenders combined.
How do I get her to back off without it being seen as me attacking her?
