will ever put a gun to your head and force you to believe. I’m shocked by how angry and hateful atheists get at their fellow pedes who bring up prayer or faith. You are acting exactly like liberals, going in to a post just to hate-reply. It’s sad. All we are doing is praying snd encouraging others to pray. If you don’t want to, that’s fine. There’s no need to harass those who want to. We are all on the same team here.
Where i used to work, a group of people got together by the flagpole every day at lunch. They didn’t demand anyone join them. They didn’t force the company to make prayer mandatory. They just got together and prayed, and everyone else moved on about their day.
There’s no need for the infighting. God bless
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I went through my bitter, angry atheist phase as a teenager, and finally kicked it in my early 20s (thanks, Jordan Peterson!). Still not religious as such, but opening my mind to the boundless wisdom of Judeo-Christian tradition is one of the most important and fulfilling things I’ve ever done. Dennis Prager’s “Rational Bible” series is a treat, and a good place to start.
Jordan saving the American Male through You Tube.
He's got a new book comimg out
Same here. Looking back the angry atheist phase did absolutely nothing for my outlook or peace of mind.
Agreed
Whoa, eternal hell at age 6???? Some people are just off their rockers.
My son got told that by my neighbor. Doesn't help.
I have heard stories like that before, including people of my faith and it is 100% against our doctrine. Where do these people get off?
My grandmothers were like that. You have no idea how many exorcisms I had to endure. smh. Four years old is a little young to put a kid through that. And dropping a bowl of cereal doesn't mean demon possession. It didn't end until I was ten and my mother finally put an end to that shit.
I still remember what provoked the last one. My grandparents took me to a toy store and told me I could pick out any toy I wanted. Well, I wanted a giant stuffed snake. It was purple and pretty. I was told to pick something else. I chose a long ranger action figure with Trigger. That was a 'boy' toy and that was unacceptable for a girl. (Oddly, I wanted the articulated horse more than the cowboy, but they didn't 'see' that perspective.) My grandmother steered me to the doll section. I realized that I wasn't getting what I really wanted, sucked it up, and pointed to a random baby doll.
When we got back to their place I unwrapped the doll and that's when my grandmother realized that the doll was an anatomically correct baby boy doll. Itty bitty little baby dick and balls.
Apparently that was strike three so out came the bibles and the belt. smh
I absolutely do admit that this left an impact on me and had a lot to do with my conversion to Judaism later in life. Never could get into the whole Christ thing after that childhood.
Holy shit, I don't blame you.
Just wanted to say sorry you had to go through that. I can't speak for everyone but as a Christian that behavior was not christ-like. Shameful. Glad you're in a better place and God bless.
Cool. Thanks for the Prager recommendation.
Prayer is super mega legit, soo muc knowledge in that man and his team. Rational Bible is EXCELLENT
My daughter is now 27 and started an angry atheist phase a few years ago when she got together with her atheist boyfriend. 2 years ago she told us we had to give up our faith too in order for her to be comfortable with us. I told her she had crossed a line and we have been out of touch. Any advice? I have been thinking of sending her a holiday card, but for several years before we fell out of touch she was just on me constantly about one thing or another and I got exhausted. She has also at times been a wonderful person and I miss her.
Just keep being an awesome example of Christ's love. I went through an extreme atheist phase (got "Religion is the opiate of the masses" and all the religious symbols tattooed down my back) My Mom was the perfect example of a Christian without hypocrisy and always lived the values without being judgemental. When I was down from my meth addiction she'd suggest going to church with her then eventually I did and got saved. Just keep being an awesome parent and eventually she'll come back to God.
Thank You
Maybe try inviting her to church for Christmas? Don't frame it as a "CONVERT HEATHEN" invitation but a "Hey I miss you and 2020s been a really hard year, a little tradition would be nice"
Sorry about the pickle you’re in, the arrogance of some atheists is mind boggling to me. They seem to be more sure than any other group that others MUST conform to their worldview to be worthy of staying in their lives. My personal experience anyway
Wow. I’m sorry to hear that. Unfortunately, I’m not sure I can help. I was raised by a new agey single mother who never took any interest in my moral or intellectual development, and between her, my dad, and my lousy childhood, there was never any real hope that I would turn out well at all. The adults I grew up around were (and still are) of pretty low character. My experiences at the handful of nondenominational churches we went to (briefly) were enough to underwhelm me. I discovered the “New Atheists” in my mid teens, around 2006-7, right when they were getting popular. All of that coupled with the TV/Hollywood representation of Christians being hateful bigots, led me to be pretty hateful and bigoted myself.
In the end, I sort of just lost interest in the rage and feelings of superiority that I’d had. There wasn’t a great revelation. After discovering Jordan Peterson, I gave myself permission to start exploring Western religious traditions, and came to appreciate them like I never had before.
The thing is, nobody but me could have changed my mind. I’m very hard-headed. A card could be a nice gesture, just to show that you’re thinking of her. Don’t make it overtly religious, though. That kind of thing could set her off. It would have done that to me. It looks like I’m maybe one year older than your daughter, but I never really related well to people my age anyway.
I wish you all the best, though. Just be patient. Don’t let her walk all over you, though.
Thanks, it was when I stopped letting her walk on me that the rage came out. My plan was a generic holiday season card, like a snowflake or something. Anything could set her off, it was like walking on eggshells. I am hoping life experience will mellow her out.
I had a challenging childhood to put it lightly and my husband says I was the pick of the litter because I somehow wound up pretty sane. When my daughter was really going over the edge I saw a therapist who told me this is common with daughters of strong mothers. They somehow feel they need to compete. The therapist told me to just agree with her to keep the peace. I contemplated that and realized I just cannot lie and say I agree with something I do not. It is not who I am.
Hm. Sounds like a crummy therapist. You already seem to know what feels right to do, though. Give your daughter some space to figure herself out, be patient, and let her decide when to reach out. That’s what I’d suggest.
I hope it all works out for you guys.
Never too late to adopt
Funny you say that. There are young adults my kids' age who are like kids to me. They appreciate me as I am, one is an atheist LOL.
It boils down to respect. My husband was an atheist and I'm a religious Jew. In 30 years this has NEVER led to conflict in our relationship. And we've never hid our thoughts on the subject. It's not something we have to tiptoe around. We've had a lot of deep conversations and we've never gotten frustrated or fought over it.
It works because he loves and respects me. My faith is part of me and he loves that too. I love and respect him. Until recently, I've always been in awe that he has the personal strength and resolution to tackle life without faith. (He did find his limit in that area a few years ago. Now he has faith, but he came to that on his own. I didn't nag him or debate him into it.)
And that's your daughter's problem. It's not that she's lost her faith. It's that she's lost respect for you as a person. I can guess that she's lost a lot of respect for her fellow human beings in many other ways. Respect for political differences. Respect for lifestyle choices.
People can grow. They can temper themselves and mellow with time and become respectful.
But respect MUST be a two-way street. If you don't respect her journey, then she won't be able to respect yours.
One of the hardest parts of being a parent for me was learning to respect my own children once they were grown. Gd entrusted me with these two beautiful souls and made me responsible for them... for eighteen years. After that, it became HIS job to teach and guide them. Not MINE. And I had to accept that and not interfere with His parenting.
When we were first married, I was praying for my husband to find faith one night (because in the beginning I didn't have full respect for him and - although I didn't nag - I did hurt that he didn't have faith.) I literally heard a stern, powerful male voice growl into my right ear. "MY relationship with MY son is none of your business!"
I had the distinct feeling that I'd been a very bad girl. After that moment I had total respect for my husband and - once they were grown - my children. (When I think about it, that moment probably saved my entire marriage. That lesson bled over into every aspect of the relationship.) It's my job to live by example. It's my job to love them while they're working it out and to honestly answer questions when they come to me, and to allow them to talk it out when they're feeling the faint call to Him and don't understand it.
It's NOT my job to parent these grown people and to force them to 'see the light.' That is their Father's job. He has a plan for them and I need to truly have faith in that.
We have free will and we can truly jack up His plans when we put our minds to it. I know that others hurt my relationship with Him when I was young by relentlessly pushing and how hard it was to find my way back home because of it.
I never, ever, criticized or directed her adult decisions even if I disagree as for me that is a matter of respect. She moved in with her boyfriend and I sent a housewarming gift. She went full SJW and cut off her older brother. She grandstanded about how awful we were at my mother's funeral. Totally nuts, but when she asked me to change who I am I told her that we raised her to be tolerant and we don't tell other people who to live. I would never do that to her and expect her to not do that to me. She even went to my childhood best friend to try to get her to intervene on her side and my friend told her that unless she could talk to us face to face she didn't want to hear about it. We only ever got nasty emails.
I am, by nature, very live and let live. My prayers have all been that through her experiences she can learn whatever she is meant to in her time on earth.
If she has lost respect for us, it is one way. She would tell me what she thinks I think and not allow me to disagree as if I were a cartoon person. It was so nuts I would ask myself if she had met me. I have enough self doubt and self criticism that I turned to friends I knew would tell me if I was full of shit. All of them told me she was nuts. I don't know if she will stay nuts or not, I miss her.
I believe you. She's lost all sense of respect for her fellow human beings to the cult. smh
This insanity on the left truly is evil. When I read their rantings on Twitter my jaw drops. They have NO grasp of reality.
I kind of get it when a kid is raised by lefty parents and indoctrinated into the lefty cult by the schools, but it does upset the hell out of me when a kid that was raised better falls into it. You think that you can 'bulletproof' your kids by raising them with the truth and it's stunning that they can go completely off the rails like that when they have that foundation. Sadly, you are NOT the only one going through this. I've had many friends who've lost their children to this cult and I'll never comprehend it.
My own children went off the rails in different ways, but they had to go, fight, fail, learn, and come back to us on their own. And I was insane with worry the entire time! I've met enough fucked up 40-60 year olds to know that there's no guarantee that they're going to come out on the other side. smh
I think all we can really do is pray, read and reread the Prodigal Son, hope, and have our arms open when they do decide to walk through the door.
Please know you're NOT alone in this. Not by far.
Dear Lord, we MUST take our educational system back. That's the root of the problem. smh