I do. They are really smart. We live in NYC where a stroll in the park might expose them to proselytizing by Jews, Jews for Jesus, Hare Krishnas (they sometimes serve free food), Mormons, LaRouchebots and millenialist Christians. So what?
** I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours." **
…Stephen Roberts
14 Likes
Slight difference between “airing your opinions in a public area where children might hear” and “specifically attempting to target children that they know are likely to have parents in opposition to the views they wish to teach.” While this is hardly illegal, it crosses the line to undesirable and unethical, imo.
9 Likes
Teach your kids: never talk to strangers or Christians.
5 Likes
That 2001 Supreme Court decision sucks. I object to religious groups using public, taxpayer-supported and maintained land to actively proselytize for their religion. I’d feel the same way about Orthodox Jews, Muslims, Hare Krishnas, Presbyterians, and Unitarians.
7 Likes
- Really, dude?
- I just pulled up the Oxford Thesaurus; atheism and agnosticism are in the second group of synonyms for the word, meaning that they are lower in usage than the ‘nonconformist’ definitions. And yes, that’s for the American usage.
- I just pulled up the Merriam-Webster thesaurus; it declines to even give synonyms for the word, and only lists an emphasis on religious dogma as opposed to any religion.
Those are the two foremost English-language dictionaries, but I’m seeing similar results in American Heritage, Wiktionary, and Google. All you seem to have is dictionary.com.
I’m not exactly the president of the theology fan club, but ease it up.
3 Likes
“Hi kids. We’re here to give you the wonderful news that the Earth is less than 10,000 years old, and that Adam and Eve had vegetarian dinosaurs for neighbors in the Garden of Eden 5,000 years ago. And evolution and embryology are lies straight from the pit of Hell! Don’t worry about the fact that if you believe this, you won’t get into anything other than a Christian Bible school, and will have to give up your dreams of being a Stanford-educated engineer or a University of Michigan-educated chemist. And you little girls will have to stay at home and be a brood mare for your Evangelical husband, but Jesus loves you!”
7 Likes
[Bimbo Mom] Mia Marceau, a mother of two in the Portland suburb of Vancouver, Washington, said she was intrigued when the group approached her apartment complex pool last week.
Intrigued, was the Bimbo Mom? By a gaggle of brainless holy rollers trying to take over her child’s thoughts with loopy propaganda about some Middle Eastern religion? Intrigued?
Seriously??
4 Likes
This isn’t about converting the kiddies. Seriously, how many of the kids will stay “converted” if they’re not in an environment that provides continuing support? This is straight-up in-your-face tribalism. They’re marking a territory and claiming it. They’re only one (very small) step away from peeing on a tree.
6 Likes
One word snark–I love it.
Edit: Upon further review…never mind.
If Christian fundamentalists want to proselytize, that’s their right. Just do NOT do it in a park that is a public space. You know, that pesky old First Amendment?
2 Likes
Who allows their young children to be “solicited” or “taught” by strangers on the Internet, in a park or anywhere else?
These fundies are asking for trouble and/or setting up another SCOTUS claim about how persecuted they are.
3 Likes
“Nothing could be further from the truth.”
Ironic words from people who believe the earth is less than 10,000 years old.
2 Likes
Personally, I’ve always seen those “disaster scenarios” as quite bizarre when someone says, upon looking around at the horror and with the rest of the neighborhood decimated and everyone else killed, the survivor says, “The Lord was with ME. Isn’t He good?” WTF??? …I always think: “Instead of sparing exceptional YOU…maybe He just missed?”
4 Likes
Exactly. Faith is a matter of personal belief. If you choose to believe that a guy died in Jerusalem for your sins that’s your right. If you believe a flying spaghetti monster created the universe that’s your right. What is NOT your right is to impose your beliefs on anyone else. That goes for employers, the government, or even nice smiling people in Portland.
5 Likes
She’s a believer. A lot of people are. She was intrigued, which could well mean “politely interested in finding new Christian communities to reach out to.” She rejected them once she saw what, exactly, they were selling – and she’s apparently made sufficient emphasis on critical thinking skills with her child that he rejected it, too.
For this, we are calling her a “Bimbo Mom.” Sorry, I cannot get on board with extending criticism from evangelists to her, and Bimbo in particularly is not something I’m comfortable with.
8 Likes
Just how are these Bible-bangers going to gather the kiddies? Cookies? Juice? If I were a parent of a young kid at a public park and I caught some complete stranger offering cookies to my child, I’d be calling 911 about somebody trying to abduct my kid.
4 Likes
The easiest way to make an atheist is to start the young ones off with fear, stories of hell and demons, and that God is watching at all times, and to fear and be shameful of his sexuality and suspicious of non-believers. Let them fester in this manner for a decade or two. By the early 20s they’ll have significant enough life experience to realize they’ve been shamed and lied to their entire life. Then they become rebellious and put one of those Darwin fish emblems on their car.
Seriously though, the most adamant and vocal atheists I’ve ever known were the kids who grew up in the more religious households.
8 Likes
Exactly, I hope Muslims, Jews, Atheists and Flying Spaghetti Monster in the Sky groups stand in line behind these very people waiting for their turn to try and convert and let’s see what happens then.
4 Likes
it’s not a bug, it’s a feature.