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Question 78

Do you ever receive pressure to stop being an atheist and join some kind of religion?

• No ... not for a long time now. Anyone who knows me knows where I stand, and those who don't quickly learn if and when the subject comes up. Even the Jehovah's Witnesses have stopped coming around. Oh, happy day. :-) (George Ricker #146)

• None whatsoever, if you mean pressure from individuals in real life as opposed to folks on the Internet or on tv/radio.

  My best friends from college all but stopped communicating with me after I announced my atheism. (We were all serious Catholics then.) So they haven't tried to reconvert me. I think they're afraid that I might influence *them*. (Tim Mulligan)

• Not that often. Often enough to be annoying though. Especially from my sister, who can't stand that I can demolish her sad mismash of newagism, and who can't take "I don't know" as an answer. (Elf Sternberg #1493)

• Outside of the occasional streetcorner screacher (which I actually enjoy), no. I'm not an evengelical atheist, after all--most people I meet never know my religion, or I theirs. Happily, my family doesn't make an issue of it. (Perhaps because of out four kids raised fundy christians we all turned out religious non-believers. :-) (jude)

• On average, I get minor requests to go to one Christian church service or another once every severial months. I even had a budhist ask more than a couple times at work. No other religous groups -- so far. Simply saying 'not interested' or 'not religous' works most of the time.

  In rare situations (but not reciently) some people have gotten pushy -- or simply curious why I'm not interested. Depending on the person and the situation I either give them a short justification or just let them know how silly they are for asking. (Andy Longton #168)

• Only from my parents. My father gets real pushy sometimes. This past xmas, he refused to come for a visit unless I and my family went to church with him. He also refused to allow us to visit thme for the same reason.

  The last few visits, he's tried another tactic: "Hey, why don't you let Mom and I take Adrienne to church with us?"

  No way, folks.

  Other people I know are either atheists themselves, or else they know me well enough to not bother me with such nonsense (Paul J. Koeck #360)

• Had great pressure put on me by my mother to first become religious and then stay when I wanted to leave. The pressure got so great that we managed such a falling out that we did not speak to each other for over two years. A lovely quote from my sister "what is your f***ing problem, she is only asking you to be sensible. How can you be such a ba*****d, God probably wouldn't want you anyway". You just have to love those Christian sentiments, damn wonder how I managed to resist. (Alan Ferris -Xalan- #1211)

• > Yes from my mother. I love and respect most every other thing about her but this constantly asking me to ask god for guidance gets old. I finally told her about a month ago that I had tried to do that on more than one occasion and that it had not helped. She hasn't tried again. Then again she lives about 1500 miles away. Other than her it's the idiots who keep knocking on my door. They are pretty easy to discourage at least. (Clint)

• Pressured, threatened, harassed; just about anything to which those Xtians could possibly stoop, they do. In school last year I had no name as far as everybody was concerned, I was simply known by "atheist" (that is until I kicked some little shit's ass for fucking with me one too many times). This year I've been approached almost on a weekly or semi-weekly basis by Xtians trying to convert me. The other day I had some girl hand me some magazine article that clumsily attempted to prove the existence of the Xtian God and the validity of Xtianity through the First Cause, Watchmaker and Entrophy (Newtons 2nd Law of Thermodynamics) arguments, as if I hadn't heard them all a million times before. After reading the piece of tripe, I then proceed to tell the girl why it was bullshit, why she has no right trying trying to convert me, and why she has no basis for her own belief other than blind faith. And of course an entire classroom got into it. Fortunately, I can hold my own against any number of bi-neuroned morons. But I get tired of it. It's as if just being an atheist invites these shit heads to try to tell me why I'm going to hell unless I convert to their particular form of Xtianity. (SarceN #1174)

• Yes and no. Agnostic friends agree with my many doubts regarding religious faiths but disagree that I should express those doubts to Christers. Christian family and friends prefer to treat my views as an aberration with my true destiny determined by my childhood belief choices. My ex-wife treats her Catholicism as the admirable high ground for morality and life choices; other choices (such as mine) are to be looked down upon and considered immoral.

  The real pressure comes at Christmas-time as the "baby Jesus myth" manifests itself on lawns throughout the city, and people treat Christmas/Jesus/Christianity/Santa Claus as the be-all end-all validation of goodness and holiness. Yech!!! No wonder suicides are at their highest at that time of year.

  As for actual hands-on pressure, no, I don't get much of that any more because I don't go to church any more. It s rather strange when I go to lunch with my parents (my Dad is a preacher) and they insist on bowing their heads to pray but Dad never overtly pressures me, he just talks about religion as if it's the default right thing to do (we've never discussed other views one-on-one although I did email him last year with a strong series of doubts and questions regarding Christian belief systems; I never heard back on that and I'm not sure I'll ever bring it up in person with him as he's lived his entire adult life in the pro-Christian motif). (Dan Fake #1468)