The Family That Prays Together, Separates

Posted by Taizen Chisou on May 6, 2012, 11:55 a.m. 🔒

Attention Catholic mothers: please do not force your atheist 16-year-old son to put everything aside to watch a church programme that is in your native tongue that you didn't bother to teach him- it will be annoying to him on multiple levels. Do not slap, scratch, or repeatedly hit them in an attempt to force them to pay attention. It does not help your case, and it makes your beliefs look crazier in the end.

Attention atheist sons: Do not put up such a good argument as to back your religious mother into a corner, forcing her to call out your father. Make no attempts to explain to her that you cannot go to hell if you don't believe it exists, because her return argument is 100% guaranteed to be that you will go anyway.

Attention fathers of atheist sons who are arguing with their moms: If your stance on the matter is that religion is corrupt and faith is not, explaining why you don't go to church every Sunday, like your wife would like to have happen, find an easier way to break the news than "you're wrong; you can take him to church but you can't literally force him to believe in what you believe, that's his choice," and refrain from explaining exactly why religion is corrupt to the religious wife because you can hear the shattering in their voice when they are in denial about what you say. Especially do not raise your voice in the matter when Religious Wife decides that it's your fault that the child is "broken" because of your infrequent church attendance.

Comments

sirxemic 12 years, 7 months ago

Yes, but agnostics are a subset of atheists … most of the time, at least :P

Castypher 12 years, 7 months ago

Not really. Atheists believe that there is no god. Agnostics don't claim either way.

Think of it this way:

Theism - Pro-god

Atheism - Anti-god

Agnosticism - Neutral

Rez 12 years, 7 months ago

It doesn't matter what school of thought you subscribe to. You can be an idiot no matter what!

flashback 12 years, 7 months ago

Are they? Atheist implies a positive statement of "I believe there is no god," where as Agnostic is a statement of lack of conviction: "I do not know if there is a god."

sirxemic 12 years, 7 months ago

You have strong/gnostic theists, weak/agnostic theists, strong/gnostic atheists and weak/agnostic atheists.

When someone refers to himself as an agnostic, they usually mean agnostic atheist.

Remember, (a)theism refers to BELIEF, whereas (a)gnosticism refers to (NOT) KNOW.

flashback 12 years, 7 months ago

That doesn't mean Atheist is the superset of Agnostic, since one makes a truth claim and one does not.

sirxemic 12 years, 7 months ago

Yeah, given what I just tried to explain, I meant "Yes, but people who call themselves agnostics are a subset of atheists … most of the time, at least :P"

/end semantics

flashback 12 years, 7 months ago

That's completely different than your original statement.

sirxemic 12 years, 7 months ago

I edited my comment :<

flashback 12 years, 7 months ago

Also quantify "most of agnostics are atheist."

I really want to see if you have data for this, or if you're making things up.