Funny About Facebook
The Thinking Atheist Oct 6, 2011 3:43 PM | Date Modified: Oct 17, 2011 2:46 PM
Arguing with theists on Facebook is usually like telling your grandmother how to set the digital clock on her microwave oven. No matter how carefully you give the directions, she ignores you and blathers on about the good ol’ days of wind-up watches and wood-burning stoves.
I try to resist those kinds of Facebook exchanges. I try to remember that I’m a solitary atheist surrounded by devoutly religious family and friends, remembering that their posts will naturally reflect the allegiance they pledge to God. I try to hang back and keep the peace.
I try. But every few weeks, the bubble bursts, and I snap.
Perhaps it's the constant messages on Facebook filled with syrupy bible-babble that goes completely and utterly unchallenged. I'm sure you see dozens of such messages every week, and you barely blink. And when someone like me holds up a finger with a fact-checkable example that there's a problem, I'm the angry one. I'm the troublemaker. Why can't we all just get along?
People keep the bible around like a decorative tchotchke with almost zero idea of what's in its pages. They thank God for meals planted and prepared by human hands. They pray for healing before paying thousands to trained (human) medical personnel. They indoctrinate their children to eschew scientific data in favor of the primitive writings of anonymous Bronze Age peasants. And especially in this part of the country, they're much more vocal than a single voice like mine could ever be.
So every once in awhile, amidst the rampant posts about God making pretty rainbows and prayers for Uncle Joe's chemotherapy and politicians who violate their own constitution by legislating prayer, I raise an inconvenient voice of protest.
This is no doubt why my personal friends list is in the mere double-digits. I've come out of childhood indoctrination and 30-years inside The Faith to become increasingly frustrated at religions which demand carte blanche and expect the skeptic to sit in the corner. And I post, verbatim, the inconvenient scriptures which endorse rape, describe giants and unicorns, condone slavery and infanticide, butcher history and sell tall tales of floating zoos and chariots of fire.
For this, I am called angry. A malcontent. A hater. They say, "What's your problem?" After all, my religious family and friends are simply celebrating their faith, and my interjections are poisoning the well. Why can't I just shut up?
It seems odd that the scrutiny falls upon me instead of the (instantly verifiable) scriptures I reference. But for the majority of the faithful, the bible is like a software license. They read the first few lines, scan the rest and click "I Agree." And then they bullhorn some cherry-picked, happy-clappy bible verses and insist that, if others truly love Jesus, they’ll “LIKE THIS PAGE AND HELP GET 1 MILLION LIKES BY THE END OF THE YEAR!!!”
(sigh)
By being the fly in the holy water, are my infidel posts part of the solution, or are they part of the problem? I’ve wrestled with this, and I’ve decided that my rare interjections should be tolerated if I am to abide the superstitious psychobabble regurgitated by the Bible Belt crowd. I do love my friends and family and appreciate their companionship, but if they’re allowed to pulpit preach from the Facebook podium, they must prepare themselves for the occasional salvo of opposing opinion, and when appropriate, have their poorly-researched claims held up to the white hot light of scientific scrutiny, hard data and common sense.
Will they listen? Will they receive and respect a counter-viewpoint? Will grandmother ever learn to program the digital clock? Probably not. But someone has to say something, or that damned LCD display will surely never advance, forever flashing 12:00…12:00…12:00…
Comments
Website: https://www.facebook.com/wayne.r.thoreson
Comment: I often wonder if I should just shut up about my non-belief. I prefer a world based on logic and reason, with scientific inquiry as to the amazing world around me. And when I see bronze age myths being strewn about I can't help but ask, "Why do you believe this, when you normally live your life based on what you see and can interact with?" I will never get a real answer to that question but at least I asked 'the question'.
Website: http://facebook.com/arturley
Comment: I couldn't have said it better myself. I am also losing a few friends on facebook, and it's not even for attacking anyone. I might post an interesting article or video from Dawkins, or once I posted a link to receive a free kindle version of "The Logic of Chance" by Eugene Koonin and I was defriended for these things. Not that I care all that much, but I find it funny that my atheism and few related posts threatens them and their belief so much that they cannot bare to have me as a friend.
Website: http://nonplussedbyreligion.tumblr.com/
Comment: This is brilliant. I've resolved to never ever argue religion via facebook. Most of my friends and family members are theist and the headache from banging my head against the wall is very similar to you clock flashing 12:00...12:000...12:00...
Website:
Comment: Seth: I share your frustration at having to tolerate the quotations and bible verses that are thrown up all over Facebook. I have chosen not to fight with people I consider to mostly be handicapped by the brain-washing they've suffered their whole lives. I take solice that most of the polls I have seen have the number of atheists and non-believers in this country steadily increasing.
Website: http://www.facebook.com/loisgh
Comment: I recently discovered your podcasts and here's what I think. You are remarkably tolerant for an Atheist. Having said all of that, I think that your occasional challenge is okay. I also think its time we rationalists start spreading the idea that all ideas (even religious ones) are fair game for investigation. Lois
Website: http://www.thethinkingatheist.com
Comment: "To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead." -Thomas Paine
Website:
Comment: I have experienced the exact same situations described. If I were a more superstitious person, I would ascribe it to "an outside influence" rather than the ubiquitous and coinciding mental malaise of the initiated, caused by constant mutual delusional reinforcement.
Website: http://valuablevalues.blogspot.com/
Comment: Ever feel the futility becoming too much? There's only so much effort you can put into explaining something simple. It feels like trying to teach a 3 year old quantum theories. My native country of England doesn't seem to be overly fanatical about religion like our transatlantic cousins but the brainwashed are still numerous and it's wearing to say the least. Keep up the essential work and thankyou for your persistence.
Website:
Comment: I thorougly enjoyed that; it was like a rare cuban cigar;a well oiled scalp; a warm bath; a cool breeze in the midst of summer.
Website:
Comment: Well, I think there shouldn't be this giant double standard that religious people can post whatever they want, but when a atheist interjects that he is seen as the militant one, the one who is in the wrong. Under our first amendment, we have our right to freely express our disagreement just the same as they have the right to express their faith, and if they resort to calling you angry or militant, this merely covers up for the fact that they have nothing to say, that there is no counter argument.
Post a comment!
Advertisement
