Hello,
I am a very tolerant person; even when it comes to religious people. I respect them, and I always listen to what they have to say. However, I don't understand why religious people are remarkably intolerant of us atheists.
Here is the story:
I live next to a really nice lady. She is in her 80's and she is Muslim. She is very kind and I try to take care of her as much as I can. I like to think we are pretty good friends. She lives by herself, and her relatives live very far away so I from time to time, I cook her food, pick up her medicine and such. As a thanks, she even invited me over for a few iftars.(I may have spelled that wrong) and she takes care of my daughter sometimes. I am a single father with a two year old daughter and I'm also in graduate school, (I'm getting my P.H.D in Psychology) so taking care of her can get stressful sometimes.
Last night, I went to visit my neighbor because I was invited to a dinner. The occasion was that her nephew came to visit her. I'm naturally an extrovert person so her nephew and I got along great......or so I thought we did.
The conversation started off talking about psychology. The conversation started off great but then quickly escalated to the topic of God.
I knew at this point I was on thin ice, because such topics is usually pretty controversial. He asked me what I believed in. I answered that I was an atheist.
He didn't like that very much.
He started to get a tone with me and started to ask very personal questions, such as how I can possibly be a good father, when I have no faith.
Of course I didn't like THAT very much.
So I calmly explained to him my reasons and presented my arguments, but he really didn't want to hear it. Instead he resorted to call me "Dajjal," which I believe is the Islamic version of an anti-christ? I'm not sure, but it doesn't matter.
You can probably imagine the night didn't exactly last a long time. Which was a good thing I guess, I had class the next morning, and my daughter needed to sleep.
Though I have a positive and an accurate view on Islam from my past research, which most Americans lack, I must say, I was pretty dissapointed with his intolerance, but it did give me a good laugh. I mean I've experienced this sort of behaviors before from all theists. It's not anything new, but I still don't really understand as to why it is the way it is.
Can anyone shed some light on this?
I am a very tolerant person; even when it comes to religious people. I respect them, and I always listen to what they have to say. However, I don't understand why religious people are remarkably intolerant of us atheists.
Here is the story:
I live next to a really nice lady. She is in her 80's and she is Muslim. She is very kind and I try to take care of her as much as I can. I like to think we are pretty good friends. She lives by herself, and her relatives live very far away so I from time to time, I cook her food, pick up her medicine and such. As a thanks, she even invited me over for a few iftars.(I may have spelled that wrong) and she takes care of my daughter sometimes. I am a single father with a two year old daughter and I'm also in graduate school, (I'm getting my P.H.D in Psychology) so taking care of her can get stressful sometimes.
Last night, I went to visit my neighbor because I was invited to a dinner. The occasion was that her nephew came to visit her. I'm naturally an extrovert person so her nephew and I got along great......or so I thought we did.
The conversation started off talking about psychology. The conversation started off great but then quickly escalated to the topic of God.
I knew at this point I was on thin ice, because such topics is usually pretty controversial. He asked me what I believed in. I answered that I was an atheist.
He didn't like that very much.
He started to get a tone with me and started to ask very personal questions, such as how I can possibly be a good father, when I have no faith.
Of course I didn't like THAT very much.
So I calmly explained to him my reasons and presented my arguments, but he really didn't want to hear it. Instead he resorted to call me "Dajjal," which I believe is the Islamic version of an anti-christ? I'm not sure, but it doesn't matter.
You can probably imagine the night didn't exactly last a long time. Which was a good thing I guess, I had class the next morning, and my daughter needed to sleep.
Though I have a positive and an accurate view on Islam from my past research, which most Americans lack, I must say, I was pretty dissapointed with his intolerance, but it did give me a good laugh. I mean I've experienced this sort of behaviors before from all theists. It's not anything new, but I still don't really understand as to why it is the way it is.
Can anyone shed some light on this?