Ever work with people who talk about church all the time?

[Nola009]

Does it get on your nerves? If so, how do you deal with it?? I'm no devil worshipper, and I see my self as being pretty tolerant of others, but I work with some people who seem kind of smug about their church attendance and often find a way to work that into many a conversation. Completely unrelated conversations.

[khminh]

Sigh...it never fails here. Whenever the topic of religion comes up, someone has to say something snarky about my faith. It's too bad this conversation couldn't have continued without someone pointing a finger at a specific faith. Particularly when you only hear one side of the issue.

Well, whenever Christians initiate religious conversations, I know instantly what they really want. They are not interested in knowing what my spirituality is. They just want to preach. No matter how subtle or discreet they may sound, they simply want to discredit other faiths to bolster theirs.

[khminh]

Religion is intrinsically divisive, there's so many and let's face it, they are not all true (any IMHO) so the end result is divisive, even if people accepts and respects other religions, in their heart they will see it as wrong. Why can't we all be just human without labels?

You are correct. When people impose their poetic outlook on life, which is faith or religion, as facts, they deserve to be called out, especially Christians.

[khminh]

I think this discussion has helped me see that people who use religion as an excuse to behave in a haughty, rude way really irritate me. Also, those who say things like "I go to CHURCH" and think that reiterating that enough will distract me from the fact that they are lacking tolerance, compassion, and decency irritate me further. If you are really a ____, you don't need to tell me because the virtues of your faith should show. I wonder why it is so comforting for some to ignore the grace and loveliness that is right in front of them in favor of some distant being. Why can't these people have love for their fellow beings rather than imply they are out of this world because they attend a meeting every month and act like a jerk the rest of the week? Sincerely wondering...

You are not the first one, Nola. It's all about showing off so that they can recruit people like you and me to Jesus.

[khminh]

Well, false gods, anyway.

Yes, I'm poking a stick in your cage. Laugh.

Including yours. Are you telling me that this god, who commanded Joshua to slain Canaanites, is your true god?

[khminh]

Calling human beings imperfect is a fallacy. Alrighty then.....

That's not the same as labeling sin on them.

I don't believe in Yahweh. Neither do my family. Who do we sin against?

[khminh]

Let us look at the concept of sin for a moment. I think the most basic understanding of the word, is that to "sin" means 'to do something bad.' I don't think religion is the best remedy for that, I really don't.

Take killing for instance. I think we can all agree that killing is "something bad," a "sin." So...without a higher power watching over us with a promise of punishment if we ever kill someone, what stops us from killing?

Law? Maybe. The legal system we have where I live, in the United States borrowed heavily from English Common Law, which was (please someone correct me if I am wrong, I am not well versed in British history) loosely based on the bible. With that in mind, one can argue that we need the bible to prevent people from killing or stealing from each other, a basis for a peaceful society. What if we lived in a world without religion though, what would stop people then?

I think the answer is empathy. If there were no laws against killing, and we were reasonably certain there is no higher power watching over us, I would argue that rational human beings (that is those free of significant mental illness) still wouldn't kill people for personal gain--or just because they don't like each other. I honestly believe people wouldn't be able to bring themselves to do it, the weight of the wrongness of taking another life would weigh too heavily on most people.

Personally, I trust human empathy (something we can see) to police our behavior over a supreme being (something we cannot see) promising punishment for crossing the line.

You may point to serial killers, war mongers and other people who wage wonton destruction onto their fellow human beings as evidence that we need religion to prevent this from happening, but I don't think that is an honest argument. Most mass murderers and serial killers have something fundamentally wrong with them which allows them to do the horrific deeds that most of us can't imagine. The only exception I can think of is Heinrech Himmler...of him, one psychiatrist said he was "shockingly normal." But then, then deviations from normal data are pretty common when it comes to human behavior.

I did my best to tone it down as you suggested, duskyjewel. How did I do?

In the case of Christianity, you and I are both condemned for eternity simply because we are not convinced of the claims about Jesus, regardless of our compassion and characters. Christians think this is right and just, and yet they have the audacity to lecture us about morality.

[Bosmer]

My old team that I used to work with would talk about their church and beliefs all the time. Me not being a christian would annoy one of them. I love her to death, but she is heavily baptist and couldn't stand when any of them asked me about my beliefs. She would interrupt and inject a "jesus speech" before I would get three words out. She did that to a hindu coworker of mine as well. She was a nice young lady, but refused to listen to anyone's beliefs that conflicted with her own. I feel sorry for people who are that insecure that they have to shut others down that way. We keep in touch but she filters my fb posts out of her feed because they're not baptist lol.

tldr; At work I'd just smile and let her have her way. Too much to worry about as a cna to care about their private religious conversations. We get interrupted every 5 minutes anyway.