- Image via Wikipedia
I just got finished posting some snarky comments on Facebook with a couple of my atheist friends who I thought seemed overly concerned with looking for things in the bible or the Quran or other similar books with which to refute them. It’s a matter of individual choice but I thought I would explain why I think the best response to religion is indifference.
1. It avoids allowing people to live for free in your brain. I don’t know many religious people. There are only 2 or 3 religious people among my Facebook friends and we’ve decided we don’t need to debate our respective beliefs. They have theirs, I have mine. I do the same thing with my in-person friendships. I told one of my classmates that her beliefs were not something I was prepared to discuss after she pushed them on me in a brief conversation. The next time we met, she didn’t even bring up the subject. I have a few religious acquaintances in a group that I attend and I keep them at arm’s length, too.
2. Time is precious and the less time you spend countering what you don’t like, the more you can spend on your wonderfully weird obsessions. I’m sitting here on the edge of my seat waiting for another Mock the Dummy video.
3. I used to stand around and argue with classmates in elementary school about religion, so I figured I had settled all of those arguments.
4. I enjoy the time I spend with Unitarian Universalism. The services that I attend provide information on basic questions highlighting the difference between the major faith groups so if I wanted to explore further, I could. Most often I confine my curiosity to understanding why people broke away from the whole trinity thing and the whole “all you folks but us are going to hell” scene.
5. I prefer to think less about what religion says about itself than what they do. I like the Quakers because of their peace testimony. I like the United Church of Christ for their inclusiveness. I like the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America as the more liberal of the Lutheran groups because of the social justice causes they support. I do all of this without feeling compelled to worry about where I disagree with them. I’d rather focus on the narrow range of agreements that we have. So, that’s my take on the subject.
Related articles
- The Relationship Between Religion and Stupidity, Or: Religion is Stupid (anythingbuttheist.blogspot.com)
- Why Do You Need Organized Religion? (prnewswire.com)
- Dream: Horses and Unicorns (psychetymology.wordpress.com)
A Little Local Color 
hi kenyatta, just want to let you know that there are more religious people out there than you think, because not everyone is proseletyzing. for example i am religious, but like most christians, i am accepting of other points of view and beliefs. it’s no problem. there are millions of moderate religious folks, but the media give us little attention. so i’m betting you have far more than 2-3 fb friends who are religious. most are pretty low-key about such a personal experience.
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You’re probably correct that I underestimated the number of religious people following me on Facebook. I imagine they keep quiet about it. I generally have positive feelings about Quakers
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you’re right. i was feeling quite full of myself when i wrote this.
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