What Do Christians Do That Frustrates You?

Giving credit to god for every good thing that happens, and accepting every bad thing as part of his “plan”.

1) sneaking their beliefs into supposedly neutral conversations; using neutral platforms to espouse their religion (like facebook, et al.)

2) automatically “assume” that everyone shares their beliefs

Christians that say things like what my friend set as her Facebook status:

“Jesus has taken over-joy’d delight in constantly telling me about my future over the next year! How much he loves me and cares for me! He truly gives hope to my heart! Refreshing! Exciting! Yhiew!”

Sometimes I would like to tell her that her imaginary friend is just that… an imaginary friend.

How their brains let them spew faith instead of using it for thought.

I don’t find the Christians in my predominantly Catholic community frustrating, possibly because it’s considered inappropriate/taboo to press religious views in polite company.

But these rules don’t seen to apply to kids. They don’t seem to hesitate to tell my daughter that they are going to hell or pass on other hateful ideas.

Keep your crazy ideas away from children who haven’t yet learned to stand up for themselves!

Christians who don’t “get it” when you say you’re an atheist. I had this one friend (we are no longer friends now, but for different reasons,) who kept including me on prayer chain e-mails. Mostly it’d be “pray for me!” requests because she was going through tough times. I told her straight out, “Look, I feel bad for you and I can be there for you as a supportive friend, but please don’t include me on these prayer chains. I’ve told you I’m an atheist.” She finally relented when I reminded her, several chain e-mails later, that my e-mail address shows up to these other people she includes on the chain and I didn’t want her giving out my e-mail address to everyone else she may know. I didn’t know these people at all.

Oh, but it’s okay to breach someone’s privacy, not to mention their personal boundaries, so long as we’re doing “The Lard’s Work!”

Christians who say that if god provided proof of his existence we wouldn’t need Faith™, implying that Faith™ is more important in actual knowledge.

Those Christians who, when pulled from a burning car by a complete stranger, thank god for a miracle instead of the stranger for saving their life. It, as usual, implies that god is the source of all good, but doesn’t credit him for allowing them to be trapped in a burning vehicle in the first place.

Someone mentioned facebook status updates. Some people are so prolific, I have to unfriend them just because I get annoyed by constant “PRAISE JAYZUS!” status updates. Also stuff like “Please pray for X, he really needs some help right now.” Those are really just minor annoyances though. After all, I don’t -have- to read facebook updates.

What really bothers me, is when I’m a captive audience. I had a coworker a couple years back who was constantly proselytizing to me, and telling me I was going to go back to church someday. To me, this was like telling a recovering addict “don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll get back on the heroin someday.” He wouldn’t drop it, wouldn’t take no for an answer. He did this with everybody that worked in the store. Even his fellow christians found it irritating. He backed off somewhat when one of the managers had a talk with him about harrassing coworkers, but he never stopped entirely. The thing is, he was a genuinely nice guy. If he hadn’t been so aggressively evangelical, we would have probably been good friends. Instead, he was just an annoying douchebag.

“Love the Sinner, hate the Sin.”

How convenient! For you.
How convenient that you can make such a neat separation, keep your love and hate in tidy little compartments!
But it doesn’t work like that. Especially when what they call your “sin” is part of your identity.
If you love me and hate who I am or the choices I make, then you hate me. Maybe you see the difference, but trust me, from the receiving end it’s all hate.

This is what makes wackos like Westboro refreshingly ironic: they are, for what it’s worth, more honest about their hatred than the “nice” Christians.

-Drew

I have a friend who never passes up a chance to proselytize. When I met him on the street the other day and asked how he was doing (he’s an older man whose health is iffy), he said, not well, but he wasn’t worried because he was going to heaven, etc. etc. Then he started spouting Bible verses at me, hoping to worry me into converting (lest I die in my sins and wind up in hell.)

I tolerate him–I just say “‘bye” and walk away when the god babble starts–because he’s a little bit nuts and can’t help himself. But, years ago, I actually had two different Xtians tell me that my parents (who died when I was in my teens) were in hell. That, however, did not elicit frustration, but something closer to blind rage.

Their insincere, patronizing or sighing replies when I mention my atheism.

“I don’t believe in God.”
“Well, God believes in you!”

“I don’t believe in God.”
*sigh* “I see. You must have a very sad life.”

“I don’t believe in God.”
“Do you believe in…HELL?”

You get the picture. It’s very irritating.

How can you be frustrated by Christians being Christians? If they didn’t take all of their sky daddy mythology seriously, and didn’t praise their god, think he was the best thing since sliced bread, and try to convince everyone else of that “fact”, they wouldn’t really be Christians now would they.

Basically your saying that you’re frustrated by the way they define themselves, which in fact seems to be what frustrates them most about atheists. I sense a vicious circle forming.

The thing that bothers me the most, and this has been going on for a long time, even Herman Melville talked about it in his books, saying that the cannibals were more christian than the christans were, is when christians are hypocrites. They talk about being good to their fellow men and acting as christ would, but they don’t. In one breath they say that you shouldn’t get an abortion because it is murder, and then in the next they say they support the death penalty, things like that. They don’t practice what they preach. Inconsistencies like that drive me nuts. And of course the overzealous types are also a bit much to handle.

To that list I would add:

4. They assume the very existence of non-believers (i.e. atheists, agnostics, etc.) are a personal insult to them.

5. Less-extreme members of a religion tend to side with its more extreme members, against outsiders, even when those extremists are wrong and/or detrimental to the religion or society as a whole.

6. They refuse to accept that their religion might have faults, either philosophically or historically.

The single most annoying thing to me is how they don’t actually read their own bible in its historical context, and yet they claim they aren’t applying their own interpretations on the things it says.

When I was a born again christian, I pretty much worshiped the bible, and I wanted to know it better, and understand it better. So I *gasp* actually read it. I bothered to learn about the historical context of the things it presents because I had a hard time swallowing some of it, and I didn’t understand how the christians around me could possibly claim they weren’t interpreting (“That’s just what it SAYS there’s no room for INTERPRETATION!”)when they so obviously were. As a result of my reading and understanding of the historical context, I was one of the most liberal christians pretty much anyone in my circle knew. I believed that Paul’s teachings (PAUL’S not JESUS’s) about the roles of women were flat out wrong and that he clearly indicated these were HIS words, NOT GOD’S (for crying out loud, how the heck could they NOT see this was historically/societally driven?). I believed that abortion was solely a matter for a woman and her doctor to decide, and NOT murder because the ONLY passage in the bible that treats in ANY way on harm to the fetus treats the fetus as PROPERTY with the penalties applied for PROPERTY damage, not harm to humans. And that homosexuality as understood at the time of the writing of the bible was NOT the same thing at all as what the loving relationship between consenting adults we have today (the issues being the sexual practices during the worship of various pagan gods and the relationship of older roman men who used “power over” the young men around them to demonstrate their dominance). Sorry, now I’m ranting…

@ Sally: “… never even READ the Bible …”

Or, rather, they have. They’re just selectively remembering those parts that fit neatly in with their prejudices and ignoring that which runs counter to it. It’s the same mentality that fuels the whole Creation v. Evolution ‘controversy.’

After quoting Scripture in one forum, I had an evangelical Christian rage, “How DARE you quote Scripture to ME!?!?!?!?!” You could almost imagine veins throbbing on his forehead.

To echo PsiCop’s #6, their constant use of the No True Scotsman fallacy is what annoys me the most. It’s one of the tools they use to enable them to ignore the philosophical and historical faults with their religion.

Also, along the same lines, when they acknowledge that “religion is bad” but then claim that True Christianity is not a “religion” is very annoying as well.

The hypocracy drives me insane. “No special rights for gays, but damn it, I want MY religious views to be taught in schools, and I want you all to accomodate my religious practices.”

@Greg:

“I mean, at least my statement isn’t telling you I think you deserve to be tortured for eternity.”

It’s not what you’re saying, it’s what they’re hearing.

If there is no God, then everything they’ve held to be true is cast into doubt. So instead of riding off to heaven and eternal reward, there’s …. nothing. That scares them to no end. (You might recall one of the criticisms levelled at Pat Tillman’s family was that they were Atheist.)

It’s projecting their frailties onto you.

Dang – forgot to add that those three items cover all religions, not just christians…

Thanking god for all that happens while ignoring the people that actually do the work.

I recently spent the weekend in a hospital waiting room with a close friend of mine. His 18 year old son drank himself blind (.29 BAC) passed out, hit his head causing a bleed between the 2 lobes of his brain. Long story short he spent a couple days in the hospital and will be fine. Everyone thanked god for saving him. Not once did I hear a thank you directed toward the EMTs, doctors or nurses that actually saved his life. Nor did a thank you come the way of his brother who really got the ball rolling by biting the bullet and calling 911 within minutes of him hitting the floor. Anyone else would have rolled his drunk ass into the corner and left him there.

The confidant assumption you’ll turn to god when things get hard.

The way they can smile while agreeing that yes, nonbelievers go to hell.

Both make me incredibly uncomfortable, since both ideas assume that great suffering is in store for you and this appears to cause them not the slightest bit of concern. It would be like someone smiling at a smoker and cheerfully saying “You’ll die a horrible death of cancer someday”.

Upon hearing I’m an atheist, insisting that I’m actually agnostic.

Jesus laden facebook updates.
Constant religious propaganda-laden emails.
The “of course everyone agrees with me” attitude.
The assumption that everyone is also a christian who is just WAITING for someone to pray with them.

Christian who has been confronted with ideas contradicting their own: *patronisingly* “I’ll pray for you”

Me: *To angry and confused at their stupidity to respond*

Another vote for giving God credit for everything. Don’t tell me to thank God because I got my degree. It wasn’t God’s plan, it was mine. I worked hard for years for this and God had nothing to do with it. Why can’t I get credit for my own hard work?
Now maybe if my PhD came floating down on a beam of light with a chorus of angels singing in the background I might consider thanking God, but I don’t think that is going to happen.

Recently a guy who identified as Lutheran handed me a small pamphlet called the “atheist test,” wherein it totally got everything about atheism and evolution wrong. It also had this little quiz about how the banana was the atheist’s worst nightmare because its conveniently shaped for the hand, it has an easy-open tab, a biodegradable wrapper, and its color lets you know if it’s ready to eat (therefore it was designed). Pure nonsense, I tell you.

The older I get the less I get frustrated by Christians and the more I just think they are silly. I guess one thing that does still frustrate me is the attitude that “Christian” is synonymous with “good” and non-Christian is synonymous with “bad”. (and atheists are particularly bad). I do get concerned when they try to pass laws to encode their religious beliefs but other than that, I don’t care about their “silly knees-bent running around advancing behavior”. (from Monty Python and the Holy Grail)

Behaving like the first dudes that came upon the guy in trouble in their good Samaritan story rather than the Samaritan. The other week, on the bus, guy actually sitting there reading the bible. Pregnant lady gets on with 3 kids and shopping, having real problems especially as there were no seats available. He was on the side facing seats, right by her, taking up two of them. I’m on the inside of a pair at the back with someone next to me. Only I got up to help and give her a seat. (Yes he wasn’t the only one that could have helped, but considering he was in the best position and was reading the bible one would have hoped he showed those “Christian Values” they talk about…)

Hmm upon further reflection I should add two arguments I’ve never had directed at me but drive me crazy (“annoy” is really not the word though):

– Affirming that people who didn’t believe in god in life are now in hell, even the relatives or loved ones of the person they’re talking to “My grandmother was an atheist, is she in hell?” “Yes”. This is beyond enraging, and it makes it even worse when the person saying it refuses to acknowledge how callous and cruel their words are, and how there’s nothing “loving” about them.

– The position that horrible things happening to innoccents is for a reason. “Babies born without limbs are there to teach us compassion”. The position that god causes terrible suffering on purpose as an object lesson disgusts me.

I’m so sorry. These all piss me off too, & I am a United Methodist Pastor. Again. I’m sorry.

I don’t have any really religious friends. One Muslim who actually believes but we are good enough friends that I can insult her god and she can insult my lack of one. We generally don’t go there. But all my other close friends are atheists. I love that I am Canadian where my atheism won’t prevent me from being a politician. My step-mother just says she is sorry for my (atheist) brother and I that we have nothing when times are hard. I roll my eyes and run. Do I wish I could delude myself? Sure, ignorance is bliss. But enlightenment is fulfilling.

Personal one-

“God gave you this special child because you are a special person” or some variant thereof.

My middle child has Down syndrome. She is a beautiful, bright happy teen but she is not one of “god’s special angels” or whatnot. If there was some kind of deity, why would he/she/it create people with disabilities to begin with, and why the hell would they give said child to someone with major depression and limited financial resources?

My personal favorite is when they think they need to “save” you and then compound their arrogance by assuming you don’t know you need to be saved.

“If you were heading towards a cliff at full speed in a car, it would be my moral duty to warn you! This is the same thing!”

Barf.

Conversion! Why do Christians in general feel the need to convert atheists? I’m not knocking on their door trying to make them see the light.

Supremacy. What makes their religion better than any other? That high and mighty attitude deserves a b-slap.

Hypocrisy, and many mentioned already: How they conveniently adapt bible quotes to fit their needs. People who donate money to their churches for salvation and are shitty human beings at home and in the rest of society. The fact that you can “repent” on your deathbed and all is forgiven? F-that.

Creationism in schools, be it private or public, makes me want to vomit!

Killing in the name of God.

“Just knowing, feeling or believing… X exists”

And the list goes on and on…

A few things really irritate me, in particular because most of the people I work with are super-Christian.

1) Injecting Christianity into any conversation. e.g. anything that happens or didn’t happen is “just god’s plan for you,” almost everything is a “miracle,” and I particularly resent being told to “have a blessed day.”

2) Lack of critical thinking skills. As someone here already mentioned, they’re willing to accept completely crazy things, but say something about global warming and you get an “I don’t know about that.”

3) Hypocrisy. It’s always the people proclaiming their love for Jesus the loudest who are the biggest assholes. I have yet to encounter an exception.

Oh and 4) Not taking responsibility for the horrendous shit their religion does.

I got so tired of the condescending crap from them that i hardly associate with religionists anymore, or at the very least we don’t talk about it. What frustrates me the most:

1. Try to pass laws that infringe upon my rights on the basis of their religion.

2. Claim that I’m the one who doesn’t understand that this is a christian nation.

3. Conclude that I am not an ethical person because i do not have a religious text to refer to, to derive my morality from.

4. Unify the concepts of patriotism and religiousness

Quoting bible verses at you in lieu of actual debate or discussion, as though you accept their inerrance as much as they do.

Alternately, posting bible verses without having read them in their entirety. A frien of mine recently posted “psalm 139” as her facebook status. When I quoted two verses of psalm 139 as a comment that were about being the enemy of non-believers, she replied, “what are you talking about???” I told her they were a direct quote from her psalm, she said that she meant the last 2 verses of the psalm, about love, and they were very humbling, and I wouldn’t understand because I’m an atheist. Grrrrrrr.

They assume that everyone else operates from the same basic assumptions that they do: that 1. God exists 2. The Bible is the Word of God 3. Hell exists 4. Original Sin is real 5. Jesus is the Savior etc. They never ever take time to check these assumptions out – I doubt they are even aware that in fact, other people DON’T operate from those same assumptions. When they run into someone who thinks differently, they can’t understand it at all. They think we really do believe what they believe and know it’s “true,” but for some reason are just PRETENDING not to. Like gay people are just pretending to be gay but could be straight if they “chose” to be. Then, of course, they get angry with us. I’ve yet to have a conversation with a proselytizer who ever asked me what MY beliefs were, or that didn’t end with them screaming at me.

They can turn idle chit-chat into preaching.

I was at an awards ceremony at my college, and was talking to the girl sitting next to me until it began. We chatted about the usual stuff, where we came from and what we were majoring in, and then she started talking about her church and how “Christian” she is and how she wishes our college would be more “Christian”. She talked about her church community and asked about mine. I told her I was an atheist and her response was to tell me I was missing out on a chance of finding true friends and community and a place in heaven, and that she will pray I find happiness one day.

I would say their complete lack of understanding about what atheism means. “Oh, you’re an atheist, you must believe in Satan.” “You can’t have any morals because you’re an atheist.” “Atheists don’t believe in anything.” They completely make up what the word means, and don’t get that I’m essentially like them, except that I don’t believe in an imaginary friend.

Though I have to admit, I’ve had fun being extra polite to Christian colleagues after they found out I was an atheist and watching their assumptions spin their wheels–and having nuanced conversations about morality and family issues with an ardent Catholic buddy. They’re always so surprised.

Other than when they try to pass laws based on their religious views, the only thing that truly annoys me is this one christian friend who sends me drive-by emails with a christian theme. The worst thing though is that they are usually something he has forwarded to me, making me wonder if he even reads the drivel he sends.

In the UK, where religion is less of an issue, I haven’t found Christians particularly frustrating, but I can think of a few things.

At university, the Christian Union had a tendency to assume that anyone who wasn’t part of their group wasn’t really a Christian and was in need of urgent education about Jesus. My church-going Christian housemate came home annoyed one day after one of them attempted to convert him to Christianity. They were an interesting contrast to the Catholic Society and the Methodist Society, who were quite happy to leave others’ beliefs alone and got on well with each other.

I find Catholics who take any criticism of the RCC’s past behaviour regarding child abuse as a personal insult particularly frustrating.

Most of the Christians I actually interact with on a regular basis aren’t frustrating at all and treat my lack of religion with total respect. The only frustrating thing they do is occasionally assume that because I’m not a Christian, I don’t celebrate Christmas. I’m British! I love Christmas!

What annoys me about Christians?

When they say something along the lines of, “Your atheism is just a phase. You’ll see things my way.” Maybe you’re right. Maybe this IS just a phase…Phase 1 of 1. As for seeing things YOUR way: I’m not a fan of narcotics. They make my tummy feel funny.

The whole ‘god has a plan for us all’ bit. If this were true (I just threw up a little), god must be a fucking chess MASTER.

When they preach that anyone who is not a Christian, or even anyone who is not in their sect (I’m looking at YOU, Mormons and Pentecosts), is lost or incomplete in some way without the ‘love of god’ (Or THEIR version of the ‘love of god’). As if their fictitious construct is in any way more legitimate than the fictitious constructs of other religions, or is a replacement for reality. No. No I will NOT enter your fucking Matrix.

When they get all bent out of shape when we refer to religions (particularly theirs) as mythologies. Oh the irony (Wait, is this ironic?).

The unnecessary allocation of funds. Do you NEED a church every square mile (This is virtually literal where I live)? Do you find it difficult to further your mass psychosis without millions or even billions of dollars in financial aid? What are you even doing with all that dough? Using the wads as a cash suppository? Do you think it’s ethical to run for public office so that you can push for more funding towards your particular religious (Deluded) community? Obviously you DO. Can you tell me with a straight face that your religion’s tax exempt status is in any way beneficial to society?

When they, as the majority, ultimately decide (Or attempt to push the notion) that others who differ are undeserving of the same rights that they enjoy, simply because their copy of Aesop’s Fables or Mother Goose Tales says so. Douglas Adams tells me I should put a small fish in my ear, but do I?…OK OK, you got me there.

The ‘America is a Christian nation’ argument. Shutup. Just…just shutup. You’re upsetting my prostate. How are you still arguing this?

It’s OK to trust that fellow with the bad hair and poor fashion sense who lacks a degree or professional experience, but scientists? Pssh, those nerdy fuckers are ALWAYS wrong. What did scientists ever do for US? (I wonder what drowning feels like)

Let’s praise Jesus and thy lord for this meal we are about to partake…because we can’t trust ourselves to get the vittles from the plate to our mouths. That shit requires a miracle (Ooo miracles. Don’t fret. That’s coming up).

Miracles (Did I or did I not tell you?). You must have pretty low standards to dub a bearded face on toast or a hallucinatory 14 year old as miracles. What’s that? Your portrait of the Virgin (Yeah right. She’s been around the block. I guarantee it) Mary is bleeding? Fuggin gross man! Don’t tell me about it! Just get her a Tampax Pearl or something! “Holy hell! Look! There’s what appears to be a…a…a spaghetti monster shaped cloud in the sky! M!r@c13z!!!!1!!”

This, that, and those are the works of SATAN!!! *dun dun dunnnnn* I’m sure JK Rowling and JRR Tolkien had every intention of producing converts for the Dark One. You can tell by the way they…write shit not pertaining to baby Jesus. Sinners. If they REALLY sought to indoctrinate souls for the Prince of Darkness, they’d just recite works by Theodor Geisel (it’s obvious this guy lights the black candle).

I, like everyone else here, could continue, but I have to use the restroom and make breakfast, so I’ll just stop here. Just let me know though if you ache for more.

I really despise it when Christians say that atheists have no moral guide or compass in their lives. As if the Bible is any kind of moral compass! Makes me wonder if any of them have actually read that nutty book.

(Some of them) Butcher science on a regular basis.

ie… Evolution specifically, but the tendency seems to spill over to other issues such as global warming and medicine (though I’m not sure the medicine thing is Christian related).

Babies are not miracles.

Just because I am a Caucasian American male, doesn’t mean I am a Christian. A religion is in no way a racial status.

It really gets to me that so many give up rational thought for blind belief, allowing someone else to tell them what is acceptable behavior rather than making the decisions for themselves.

Getting a gift from other people and then publicly thanking god for the gift and not the person who gave it. (this includes medical procedures, money donations, etc)

Telling me that it is really depressing that I dont believe what they believe is obviously because something bad happened.

Trying to convince me that what I believe is the more illogical position.

Nothing really frustrates me about Christians. I just find it awkward when they insert God into conversations, unexpectedly. I never know quite what to say. As a rejoinder, and just to keep the conversation flowing, I’ll talk about my favorite scene from Superman where he freezes a pond to use as a fire suppressant.

As much as I dislike Christianity, I still believe in “playing fair”. I’m seeing a lot of stereotypical behavior mentioned in this thread and I’m having a difficult time believing that many of these accusations are anything more than something regurgitated from other sources and not really experienced first hand. Christianity is irritating enough on its own without having to embellish to the point of absurdity.
In addition, I think the question could be phrased differently. Perhaps make a differentiation between stupid acts of Christians as a group and individual acts of Christian idiocy. There are things that Christians as a group may (or may not) be guilty of, and there are individual acts of stupidity that are committed as well.
If I had to point out one type of behavior that eats the lining out of my stomach, it would be the typical, “I’ll pray for you”, when (and only when) it comes from a close friend or family member AND only when it is NOT accompanied by a legitimate offer of real, tangible assistance or support.

One line pisses me off more than anything else:

“The Truth is out there and I hope you find it some day.”

The idea that the United States is a Christian Nation also pisses me off pretty easily. They’ll back separation of church and state so long as it benefits them, but they’ll deny it as soon as it means they can’t force their religion down my throat.

Pray that misfortune will fall upon someone else. Especially bad is prayer in the hopes that someone else will die.

Go on mission trips to severely impoverished areas and make the people there trade proclamations of faith for the food, water, clothing, and medicine they offer.

Working against legal rights for gay, lesbian, bi and trans people and for women who need abortions. That is the most frustrating thing ever.

(purposely not reading any other comments so as not to affect my responses)

FWIW I’m agnostic, not atheist (yeah, small difference but worth mentioning)

– Throwing hints wherever they can. For example it wasn’t “merry christmas” but “happy christ mass”
– Trying to force their beliefs on others. I have one coworker that is very religious but also doesn’t try to force people to convert. I’ve talk to others that basically say if you’re not christian you’re going to hell.
– Try to spread word of their religion but deny others the same right. Just look at all the posts you’ve done about religious groups complaining when atheist billboards are put up.

How about what do Atheists do that frustrate you?

Always trying to prove that a God that doesn’t exist, doesn’t exist? If the tooth fairy doesn’t exist, no one has to prove that he doesn’t! To me the mere fact that atheists try to prove that God doesn’t exist points to His existence!!

Atheists always pointing to science and the “theory”, yes theory of evolution to support their non-belief. Well, for starters there are scientists that do believe in a Creator God, do Atheists discredit them? Christians believe by “faith”, the same “faith” it might take to believe that human beings exist because nothing spontaneously turned into something or that we are descendants of frogs or apes!!! Good one.
Atheists always pointing to Christians who misrepresent Christ or calling them hypocrites or backbiters, gossipers, etc. Are there not atheists misrepresenting Atheism? Come on people. Not all atheists are faithful to the cause either!!

Bob, I appreciate your efforts. Don’t give up. I won’t.

How about what do Atheists do that frustrate you?

Always trying to prove that a God that doesn’t exist, doesn’t exist? If the tooth fairy doesn’t exist, no one has to prove that he doesn’t! To me the mere fact that atheists try to prove that God doesn’t exist points to His existence!!

Atheists always pointing to science and the “theory”, yes theory of evolution to support their non-belief. Well, for starters there are scientists that do believe in a Creator God, do Atheists discredit them? Christians believe by “faith”, the same “faith” it might take to believe that human beings exist because nothing spontaneously turned into something or that we are descendants of frogs or apes!!! Good one.

Atheists always pointing to Christians who misrepresent Christ or calling them hypocrites or backbiters, gossipers, etc. Are there not atheists misrepresenting Atheism? Come on people. Not all atheists are faithful to the cause either!!

I can’t stand their self-righteousness and hypocrisy. They say they’re so tolerant and loving and moral, then turn around and spew hate against gays, try to restrict their right to marry, spew hate against anyone who doesn’t believe as they do, try to force others (via laws and teaching in school) to uphold their “values” and views (barf), cherry-pick the bible to uphold whatever view they’re currently espousing, and generally act in decidely intolerant, hateful, and immoral ways. And they don’t see the hypocrisy of it. Unbelievable.

I think atheists are way more “Christian” (loving, tolerant, moral) than Christians.

@medussa:

I can only gather that your friend is thinking of the Gospel of Matthew, wherein Jesus provides the words to the Our Father, prefacing it with, “When you pray, do not pray in public like the hypocrites do … but go to your room and pray in secret. Your Father, hearing you in secret, shall reward you openly.”

That certainly suggests humility/being humble … but what she’s leaving out is the bit, ‘give us this day our daily bread’ – not what we WANT, but more correctly, what God determines we NEED. And that, in my opinion, is not praying for someone’s demise. Nor is it praying for material goods or success or social trappings – but the enlightenment, the spiritual (or intellectual) strength to face the day’s challenges as best one can.

That is, I can pray for a million dollars, and doubtless, that will make things a lot easier … but perhaps my real challenge is not to flip my lid when the world doesn’t seem to be lining up with how *I* think it should behave, and a cool million won’t help at all.

The arrogance. Because they ‘walk with god’, they are privy to the ‘truth’ and everyone else is lost and to be pitied. The way they condescendingly give me a sad smile and proverbial pat on the head whenever I question them about their beliefs, and then keep talking over me like I’m not there.

The only time I got upset with these christians was the time my 5 year old daughter told me I was a liar for telling her that God wasn’t real. I went storming into the headmasters office at her school and told him that NO-ONE tells my children to get on their knees and close their eyes, that’s too close to submissive slavery for my taste, and could they educate her, not indoctrinate her. I personally think it should be illegal to talk to anyone under 18 about religion, at least then they aren’t just going to blindly accept the utter bollocks that these fools spout! (sorry for the language, I get quite angry about people indoctrinating my children with bullshit)

To me it’s the notion that human interaction is nothing more than a medium for proselytization, as if those are the only ideas in the marketplace. I know precisely one Christian who will answer direct questions, who will genuinely weigh arguments, and who will tell you “I don’t know but I intend to find out.” most often they will ask a leading question, then remain quiet just long enough to decide it’s their turn to talk, generally never addressing the topic at hand. At this point, they adopt the defensive “help help! I’m being repressed!” demeanor, and in the next breath pass judgment on me. In short, a very serious glass house near a rock garden scenario.

condescension; assumed belief in things that not everyone believes, and some of us actually find offensive (like that the word “christian” is synonymous with “good” or “moral”); belief that god will make everything clear to us poor atheists one day; belief that i take comfort in the fact that they’re praying for me; belief that as an atheist i simply spend all my time meditating on how their god doesn’t exist, which in turn proves to them that he DOES exist…i could go on and on.

some choice quotations from coworkers just this past week:
“oh, you’ll come around, you know the TRUTH in your heart.”

“oh yes, the earthquakes that are going on right now are so scriptural. it’s exciting, you know, that the lord is going to return soon.”

“the immorality in hollywood is just appalling. i won’t watch tv or movies, they just think they have such a stronghold on real life and they don’t.”

Three words- “I’ll pray for you.”

I find it a bit annoying to hear people say that we must do the “Lord’s agenda” and not our own. For this statement to have any meaning at all, there must be some way to determine what the Lord’s agenda is. When I’ve asked this question, I’ve only been told to look to scripture. The 2000 year old (and older) scripture then must be interpreted for meaning in today’s world. Who does this interpretation? Religious authorities (who have their own agenda)… but ultimately we must interpret it ourselves which takes us back to our agenda.

P.S. of course the 2000 year old scripture is just some stuff written down by some people 2000 years ago and should not be used as some kind of ultimate truth or anything.

Being a soon-to-be-RN (31 days and counting) I have some very specific gripes about Christians in the medical setting
1) The idea that nursing is a “calling” and that we are “angels of mercy.” It makes me throw up a little bit in my mouth. Especially since it is a scientifically based career.

2) I know it has been said before, but I can’t stand people thanking God for the recovery of their loved one. How about thanking the doctor who made the diagnosis, or the nurse that administered treatment or the respiratory therapist who managed the ventilator settings. Or how about you thank Alexander Fleming for discovering penicillin.

3)People who use pseudo-scientific misinformation to argue for their particular moral cause (“abortion causes breast cancer”).

4)Other nurses who assume all medical professionals are “doing God’s work” and leave “inspirational” nonsense in mailboxes and other nonsense things. I actually talked with one nurse who said that atheists shouldn’t be allowed in nursing because they will “let people die because of natural selection.” I don’t even know where to start with that one.

A couple of non- nursing gripes
5) My mother in law, who has a weird blend of religions, crying because it is so sad that we don’t have Jesus in our lives.
6) The idea that their beliefs are inherently sacred and deserving of respect and awe. I always ask if they respect Osama Bin Laden’s beliefs. They don’t seem to get my point

On a petty, everyday level, there are plenty of things that bug me about many Christians, but those are all nothing compared to the concerted efforts of many churches and groups to:

– Curtail or prevent civil rights for gays and lesbians
– Restrict access to planned parenthood services and abortion
– Push abstinence-only sex ed when it’s known to be worse
– Lie blatantly about condom effectiveness and AIDS
– Indoctrinate children and scare them with threats of Hell
– Consider themselves above the law & protect criminals
– Fight against science funding, stem cell research, etc.
– Generally encourage people to distrust science & education.

And more…

1) Disavowing other Christians who do horrific shit in a very public way, as not real Christians (no true Scotsman) people like let’s just say…David Keresh, Adolf Hitler, Jim Jones, Joseph Smith, Wesley Swift, Fred Phelps, etc.

2) Thanking God for the acts of men, (you know, not thanking the EMT who patched ’em up or the fireman who drug them out of a burning building, but thanking God instead… on the news. I think this is the #1 answer so far).

3) Setting up fake universities, and attempts to load certain professions with shills for Jesus, i.e. medical professions, teaching, the media, science, psychology, etc. specifically to undermine the profession. Using these Christian university degrees as the entry vehicles to the professions they seek to undermine.

4) Their tireless work to deny civil rights to those with different world views than their own.

5) That they will not acknowledge that the statement “I will prey for you” when directed towards a non believer is an act of aggression, a verbal assault intended to belittle the person to whom it is directed.

6) Continuing to donate money to organized rings of pedophiles and their protectors even though it is no secret what the perpetrators are doing with the money, namely protecting pedophiles in their midst.
5) Quest for world domination

That is just a start.

Bob – just like to add my thanks for your comments here! Adds a bit of balance. 🙂

(Especially in a thread like this, which seems to be working a bit like a therapy session for us… hehe 😉 Obviously not all Christians conform to all or any of them!)

Whilst I can understand why they get scared by the possibility of heaven being taken away etc., I think that was more of an addendum to the major irritant. (I mean, you become inured to the ‘you’re going to hell’ attitude after a while). What really irritates me is claiming to get offended if you say you don’t agree with them, and so say you should be quiet, whilst continuing to talk about their own one of the diametrically opposed beliefs. My mind just struggles to grasp with the self-centredness and hypocrisy needed to do that. Here in the UK, I find it is only a problem with a certain kind of Christian, however – inevitably a Tory (Conservative for those not familiar with UK parties), although perhaps that is a little unfair… 😉

@TheGodlessMonster and the playing fair comment – I really think it depends upon whether you are talking about real life or internet with some of these things. (Or maybe that depends upon the country you are here). Face to face with people, I find the comments tend (as a rule) to be less (obviously) offensive. (That’s what really annoys me about the people who get offended if you mention you don’t believe in god – its only when you think about what it means when combined with the rest of their behaviour that you see how offensive it is.)

I know that of the four things I mentioned, 2 would happen on the net but not IRL. But then, that might just be because I live in the UK.

Funny, I’ve seen a lot or repeats of “I’ll pray for you”. Granted that no one has ever said that, but by itself I can’t see it getting on my list of “most annoying things”. I could maybe see it in context. Responding to “I’m an atheist” with “I’ll pray for you” would be annoying as hell, but responding to “My mother is in the hospital” “I’ll pray for you” just strikes me as the religious version of “I hope she gets better soon” politeness.

People generally leave me alone about religion, but I have an interaction between my grandmother and my aunt. My cousin, a fit 30-year-old, well-educated guy, died in a whitewater rafting accident in 2008. My grandmother is a very outspoken Christian. At one point, my aunt, whom I’d never really known to be especially religious nor irreligious, had to tell my grandmother, “Mom, if you say this this is all God’s plan one more time, I swear I will punch you in the mouth.”

My aunt is possibly one of the least likely people to perform violent acts that I’ve ever met.

1)Being paranoid.

This has to be my number one beef. If it isn’t promoting Christianity, then whatever it was, was created solely for undermining Christianity. I mean, what?

Example: I was watching a show on Ancient Egypt, and when they explained about the Gods, my mother said they had made it up to make Christianity seem false. ?!?!

Another example: I don’t know where they got this, but I was told by more than one Christian that they feared the US because Obama was going to take over the Vatican and eradicate the RCC. Again, what?!?!

2) Changing their story to suite their needs.

Or, cherry-picking. I mean, really, if you’re trying to convince me your beliefs are right, they need to have one version.

Example: Abortion. The Bible is pro-abortion, but I have yet to meet one Christian that isn’t against abortion.

3)Praying. Or you just need faith.

How useless. If you want something, sitting on your butt isn’t going to help you.

Example: Cancer runs in our family. Instead of eating right, or exercising, they pray that they’ll stay healthy. I’m no doctor, but I’m pretty sure cancer runs in our family because no-one takes care of themselves. Oh, and they smoke. Boy, do the people I’m related to smoke.

4) Ignoring shit that was/is caused by their own religion.

I’m told time and again by Christians that you can’t look at the past and use it to say their religion is bad.

Examples of what they say:

“It was a different culture then.” Uh, right, so explain why you are trying to bring that culture here then?

“They weren’t real Christians.” Riiight. And I’m not a real woman.

5) Giving God credit for their hard work, or as more often than not, the hard work of professionals.

Doctors, anyone? Doctor work so hard, and for so long to get to where they are, but it is all God that helps people that end up in the hospital.

6) They won’t give to charities but they’ll give tons to churches.

Every single Christian I know will not give to charities because ‘they lie and support abortions.’ All I have to say is . . . Eh?

7) God loves you exactly they way you are, he created you after all….but change, or he’s going to torture you for all eternity.

Self-explanatory.

8) Forcing their children into shit.

Example: My sisters were forced into baptism when they were nine and ten, respectively. They said no, they tried to get out of it…but they had to.

Example: I was forced into Confession, and even though I was a baby when I was baptized, I count that as forced.

9) This one may be restricted to Catholics, I’m not sure.

You cannot say anything bad about the Church or the Priests. It is a sin. Period.

10) Sexism. O at least, my sisters and I receive it from our family. The woman as well as the men. Its sad, really.

Example: marriage, how the woman is expected to be a servant to her husband. Ick. It’s 2010, people!

11) Animals are here for our use. They have no emotions, nor can they think for themselves. They act purely on instinct.

12) Same as 11 except it is the Earth, and all its resources.

13) Anti-vegetarian. Eh?!

Um, please note we were not saying the Earth has feelings or can think.

I (Canadiannalberta) didn’t catch that when I wrote it. We just meant Christians think we can use everything with no regards to anything. Yeah.

I’m rarely comfortable discussing religion with strangers (or total strangers at least) But the thing that I noticed once was (paraphrased) ‘Well Jews are OK, as they are God’s people too.’ That struck a nerve.

Morally, I’m opposed to several positions of certain Christians. (Or official positions of their leaders) As an example, I don’t support the Boy Scouts of America, and were I brought up as a UU I’d like to think I’d choose not to join them, but that is perhaps idealistic.

As an atheist, I use non-theistic terminology: gesundheit, not ‘god bless you’ I hope xyz, rather than I’ll pray for xyz. But I understand the intended meaning when used by the religious.

Christians claim that atheism is a religion, too. Other christians claim that they just don’t believe that I don’t believe in their god, and decide my beliefs for me.

“Giving credit to god for every good thing that happens, and accepting every bad thing as part of his “plan”.”

Yes. I cannot stand that.

Their desire to change laws and elect politicians based upon their religion. They act as if their belief in the God myth is enough reason and they shouldn’t have to defend their ideas on others grounds.

@Sarah:

“I used to complain about how unfair the universe was, and then I thought, ‘What if the universe was entirely fair, and all the bad things that happened to us were because we deserved it?’ So, now, I take great comfort in the general unfairness of the universe.”

– Marcus Cole, Babylon 5

@Bob
Thanks. Its not present in my library though :(. I will have to wait till my amazon wishlist is smaller!

I just CAN’T STAND it when some asshole warns me that I’m going to burn in hell, then says that they’re “just warning me” or “saying it out of love” and that I shouldn’t be angry.

Usually, these are the same people who act as if I’ve stabbed them if I dare mention that I disagree, or think their beliefs re: Hell are cruel and evil.

–

On a similar topic, I can’t stand it when, as we see many times in this thread, nonbelievers attack the victims of religious belief for still being religious, e.g. “Those dumb gays/women! Why do they still belief when their religion hates them?”

Well, it couldn’t possibly be that they believe what it says, and hate or devalue themselves, and are stuck in a system that’s designed to leave people emotionally/socially dependent on said system… nooo… they must just be DUMB, yeah, that’s it.
It’s the same disgusting victim-blaming attitude that gets slapped on people in abusive relationships – “Well, why don’t you just LEAVE?” – by outsiders who haven’t thought about why it isn’t that simple.

The top two things that make me crazy are:

1) Trying to convince me I should convert by using Bible quotes. ARGH. Or honestly, just quoting the crap out of the Bible to begin with. I really don’t care what your Bible quote of the day is. I don’t find it interesting or profound. Unless you want me to trade you for my William Gibson quote of the day, just keep it to yourself.

2) If one more Christian tells me, “It’s okay if you don’t believe in God, He believes in you,” I may have to poke him or her in the eye with a fork. I have to assume that they have no idea how condescending they sound, because otherwise the resulting rage would just make me incoherent.

Calling atheism a religion and claiming that “not believing in god” is the same as “believing there is no god.”

And the way they’ll come up with all kinds of wacky, unsubstantiated, and misguided explanations about why you’re an atheist, rather than accepting the honest reason we usually give: that we don’t believe because we have no good reason to do so.

Claiming that the bible is the divine word of any god. This book is clearly the work of men; writers, kings, popes, who sculpted it into the book it was today. It was NOT printed at Heavenly Publishers and delivered to the local Christian bookstore by flaming angels. Everything they believe comes from this book, but they are only believing the claims of men who say they speak for god.

It’s not the biggest complaint but they leave their laughable literature everywhere, even at the toilet stalls where I work. I am tempted to print a sign that says, “WHEN LEAVING RELIGIOUS TRACTS IN THE TOILETS, PLEASE PRINT ON SOFTER PAPER!”

How about when a missing child gets found alive, and they say, “God must have been looking out for him/her”? What about all the other missing children who are never found, or are found murdered? He must not have given a s*** about them, I guess.

(This also goes for other survivors of crimes, disease, or disasters that kill/injure many others.)

BST (bumper sticker theoloy)

“I broke the rules. I prayed in school. I’m such a menace to society.”

“April 1st: National Atheists’ Day.”

“Rapture… separation of church & state!”

“If you’re living like there is no God, YOU BETTER BE RIGHT!”

“No Jesus, no peace. Know Jesus, know peace.”

I don’t know about you, but I take that last one as a threat…

When I say I’m not a Christian and I’m instantly kicked down from the level of “human” to “heathen”

Assume with absolute certainty that the bible is correct and go from there; every story they tell you of a “miracle” you debunk, they bring out another one… until you cannot explain it or get tired of explaining; try to call you “agnostic” and that there is hope that you might except Jesus into your heart because you seem open to possibilities.

@ Bob,
Quoting Babylon 5 !?!
Maybe the end really is near, maybe the Christians are right about there being a hell, maybe the universe does hate me. Everybody gets exactly what they deserve… I feel sick. I deserve to be fed Babylon 5 quotes, and I hate that fact so much. I hate sci fi so much and yet… I feed the machine, I’m sick I tell you sick. Now to make the universe hate me even more I’m designing a courtyard for some phony bologna Christian church with an outdoor baptistery no less, I deserve to be beat over the head with scripture now. Fuck my life, I hate you all so very much.

My absolute biggest pet peeve about christians is how they don’t acknowledge themselves when they work hard to accomplish something. Nor do they really take the blame when they are at fault.

Also, not acknowledging the role other people play in improving their lives.

Case in point, my sister in law is fairly religious and very active in her church. A while back they were having trouble with their new computer controlled sound system. I am a computer science major and as such fairly handy with electronics, so she asked if I would come down one saturday to look at it. The problem was that an idiot set up their system by what appeared to be trial and error (surely some member of the church) and I was able to fix it after pretty much unplugging and resetting everything and building it back up from scratch. It took me four hours(on the plus side I played ‘Chop Suey’ as my test track to see if everything was working, take a wild stab at who it’s referring to when it says “trust in my/ self righteous suicide”). After I was done and the others had finished their work they had a group prayer in which they thanked god for sending me to fix the sound system. No! Thank Charity for sending me to fix the sound system! Thank me, an atheist, for volunteering my time at your monument to ignorance and fixing the sound system! The pastor took me to lunch afterwards in what I thought was an act of appreciation, but turned into a proselytizing mission. I tried to defend myself without offending him but have you tried to NOT offend a christian? Especially when your mere EXISTENCE as an atheist is offensive. Good luck.

Probably been said, but I don’t have time to read the entire comment section. . .

The most frustrating thing to me is the attitude that if you disagree with or don’t follow their religion than you are somehow discriminating against them, while at the same time they are attempting to pass legislation that actually does discriminate against people.

@Will
“On a similar topic, I can’t stand it when, as we see many times in this thread, nonbelievers attack the victims of religious belief for still being religious, e.g. “Those dumb gays/women! Why do they still belief when their religion hates them?””
The topic was things Christians do that frustrate you. I don’t think anyone has said that they hate women or gays for not leaving. They are saying they are frustrated that they don’t. And it’s usually from a perspective of being a person formerly in their situation who DID leave. It’s like watching someone trying to solve a puzzle and missing the solution over and over.
The victims of religion do deserve pity, to a point. When you join the other side and actively try to spread your misery to others that pity quickly turns to contempt.

Bob I spent too many years of my life cooped in in that goofy space station, what a waste, and Joe is a weirdo supreme and a socially award Lurch. I just hate it so much. But Hey I did it to myself, so now I deserve to have it quoted to me. Again fuck my life.

One thing that frustrates me is that everyone assumes that I’m a Christian. This is a bit silly of me, I realize, but I’ve never been a Christian and never will be. In the US, people just assume that nice white people are going to be Christian. I feel if they realized how many “others” they were around they would be more kind to “others.” Gah, I don’t know if I’m making sense.

The other thing that annoys me is when they are offended by my mere existence. Too many Christians feel that it is their duty to share their beliefs, but if I share mine I am repressing them. And I’m not even someone who cares to argue about religion.

So, those are my frustrations. I’m leaving off things I consider more serious, such as church/government issues, because those do more than frustrate me.

Wow. I could write an entire book about this. But let’s keep it it one, one which 187 people haven’t already mentioned (or if they did, I missed it):

Saying that they want to debate atheists, that they’re not afraid to have their beliefs questioned and challenged, that they welcome the free and respectful exchange of ideas… and then, when I take them up on it and seriously question/ challenge their beliefs, getting upset and hurt and pissy. And then blaming me for their hurt feelings, because I’m somehow being disrespectful and intolerant for engaging in the debate that THEY FREAKING WELL SAID THEY WANTED TO ENGAGE IN.

Deep breath. Calm blue ocean, calm blue ocean…

(I should be fair and clarify: This isn’t limited to Christians. Woo/ New Age believers do it, too. As, I’m sure, do believers of all stripes.)

It’s gotten to the point where I don’t want to discuss religion with believing friends at all anymore. Not if I want to keep the friendship. It makes me really sad sometimes.

Hubris.

If their God is amazing enough to create this Universe and everything in it, how DARE they claim to speak for Him? How dare they claim to know what He wants, what He is thinking, and what I must do to please Him?
I suspect it is a similar arrogance that lets them believe they can own the meaning of a word.

@DG, Cheryl, and the others: Thank you for participating.

To be fair, I wonder if there should also be a thread concerning what non-believers do that most annoy the believers.

Assume that because atheism isn’t a religion, it makes no sense whatsoever, and that slamming your beliefs is different from an atheist slamming Christianity. They also assume that because they claim to be able to disprove one kind of scientific theory, that they are ultimatly right, I am ultimatly wrong, and I should therefore become a Christian again.

Hmm, where to start…
– blind faith
– arrogance of believers; assumption that I, too, am automatically a believer since I appear to be a nice moral person
– belief in the rapture; leads to total disinterest in the future of this planet
– the pope & his power
– “USA is a christian nation” 🙁
– senseless fear of the separation of church and state
– focus on prayer rather than action
– creationists (you’ve got to be kidding, right?)
– “where do you get your morals?”

Don’t get me started…

I have a friend that has a fossil of a trilobyte on his desk, and still arrogently scoffs at anyone who suggests the earth is more than 6000 years old. It’s like the fossil validates his position and I’m a fool for not seeing it.

“We don’t”?

Call it veneration all you want but if it quacks like a duck…

@Trace — it’s thinly-veiled polytheism, really. With a heaping helping of goddess worship.

Ever notice how so many of the saints are poorly-disguised gods and goddesses of older religions? (St. Brigid, for one…)

My personal favorite is the assumption that everyone around them believes as they do. You can be standing in the supermarket engaged in light conversation with someone you don’t even know and they will thank god for something good that you mentioned happened to you. If you mention that you are shopping for your mother who just had surgery they will say that they will pray for her.

Hell – for all they know your mother is a con artist who makes her living bilking people out of their life savings…but they’re gonna pray for her because that’s what they do.

I’m annoyed when people choose a bible verse as the answer to a morally challenging question, as if that ends all discussion on the issue.

Evolution and/or the Big Bang are still very much “just a theory” >_<

Breathe…………

“Michael Says:

Breathe…………”

That’s funny.

When they assume that I’m an atheist because I’m simply “angry with god” and that I’ll “eventually come to see the error of my ways.” Those both came from my mom, after she stopped crying

I didn’t read all the entries, but of the ones I did read I saw very superficial complaints that, when you get down to it, can be seen in a different form (same basic complaint) being said about some atheists. Everyone has their own thought process (not even all atheists think alike) and everyone makes logical errors (maybe especially when in heated discussion re: core belief systems) , this is not special among religious people so I won’t list anything that I have also seen an atheist do.

My one complaint -> many Christians make policy decision that effect a broad spectrum of people based on their own religious views.

However, this could be remedied by requiring evidence to support legal decisions.

I empathize with everyone elses complaints that their friends and familymembers made them feel bad because of their lack of religion, but that’s honestly not exclusive to chistianity. You can find irreligious people who will employ the same core tactics during a debate when they cannot prove their point, but are not willing to admit defeat.

Lots of men, living among men, no woman alowed, wearing colorful things all over those dresses, saying that homosexuals are bad and deserve to go to hell.

what irritates me is when the ONLY THING they will EVER talk about is jeeeeezusss!!

I get really frustrated when Christians tell me that they too were “once atheists” and that they didn’t believe but were converted by the truth. I don’t think this is a fair comparison to why I am an atheist and why they “were” atheists. They were atheists because they didn’t know anything about Christianity. Therefore, when they were told by their fellow Christians why Christianity was the “truth”, they automatically believed the myth. I on the other hand came to the conclusion of atheism AFTER I researched Christianity. Just because you didn’t believe in God before you were brainwashed by your friendly Christian neighbors, does not mean that you are an informed skeptic and that you ‘chose’ Christianity after logically reasoning the support and objections to following it.

“You are the devil”

“You know you’ll go to hell anyway”

“I don’t know how you became such a bad person. God still loves you and I hope you don’t die before you regret all you’ve said and done”

…my mother’s kind words to me…

“I get really frustrated when Christians tell me that they too were “once atheists” and that they didn’t believe but were converted by the truth … Just because you didn’t believe in God before you were brainwashed by your friendly Christian neighbors, does not mean that you are an informed skeptic and that you ‘chose’ Christianity after logically reasoning the support and objections to following it.” — Kait

Good observation, Kait. A friend of mine observed that Christians he’s met who claim to be ex-atheists weren’t really atheists (as we understand the term). Rather, they were non-religious people who hadn’t really thought about religious issues before they became Christians. As you said, this is different than consciously embracing atheism through logic.

@Deepak Shetty
I definitely meant we don’t. You’re right we do ask her to pray for us, we do the same with saints, and dead friends/relatives. We do see her as a a holy person but we do not worship her as God. Believe me it is not the same thing, I would know. I would recommend reading some Catholic literature on the subject if you want some more context. Side note I am not trying to convert you or anything like that. Just hoping to give you some perspective the same way I try to get perspective by reading this blog and talking to people on it.

Christian: “You’re a SATANIST!”

Me: “Yeah… so?”

I think that the biggest thing that irritates me about some Christians is that they defer their own opinions to that of an imaginary being. I have a friend who converted to the Jehovah’s Witness cult and I obviously quizzed him quite extensively on the obvious things like blood donation, birthdays and why the fuck he believed in that nonsense. He had no answers but still claimed to believe in the tenets of his faith. WTF? How can anyone believe in something without understanding even the most basic arguments of the topic?

The same argument applies when some Christians reject ideas (atheism, evolution, evidence based thinking) without knowing what these things are. I’m sick of explaining that atheism is a lack of belief in gods and not a personal attack and rejection of their god. I’m sick of explaining what evolution is and how it is entirely and completely supported by a vast amount of evidence when they reject it because some Iron Age shepherds invented a story. I’m sick of asking “How have you arrived at that conclusion?” and not getting an answer because they don’t have an answer.

Thankfully not all Christians are like this.

This always took the cake for me:

Mormons who won’t drink coffee or tea, but will drink alcohol and smoke pot.

Wha wha WHAT?!

This happened to me actually — I was at a party (consisting of all Mormons and a Presbyterian) I really didn’t want to be at where the apartment was littered with pictures of the temple but they were smoking and drinking like fishes (while one guy invites me into his bedroom.)

And they had the nerve to consider ME the heathen!

When the fundy sects lump together all Xtians (and Jews these days) for one big “group-hug; now let’s all sing Kumbayah” when they need a 97% Xtian majority to to claim the right to political power – then assert that Catholics and trad Protestants as not true Xtians who are going to Hell when the get back behind the closed doors of their McChurches.
“I’m not Perfect; Just Saved!” Fine. And when you become perfect, I might consider letting you pass all those laws telling me how to live my life.

@Deepak Shetty
Fair enough. Some Catholics can’t really explain the difference. It’s really very nuanced and the official doctrine is what I said.

As for being defensive: Since this is a thread about what Christians do to annoy you I figured it would be better to error on the side of caution. 🙂

I love reading comments but just don’t have the time to read 242!!!

So, hopefully, I’m not repeating. (As far as I got before giving up, all of the above btw.)

My top three:

1. Saying bless you instead of thank you when I do something kind. Way to return favor with insult!

2. The Christian Nation bullshit.

3. Not recognizing the importance of church and state to them.

2 & 3 most particularly because they threaten my freedom. That’s when their disease is truly killing me instead of merely just annoying the crap out of me.

I feel that a lot of the responces here have been venturing into the realm of generalizing to the whole from some specific anecdote and the opininions that form out of that kind of thinking is very dangerous. I want to caution all of my fellow athiests in this because generalizing from the specific is a logical fallacy. If I had to pick from amongst the things that annoy me, and not just with Christians but all people, this sort of error in thinking would be at the top of my list. It is very difficult to avoid this error in thinking because in a way we are evolutionarily pre-disposed to these kind of judgements, but every time we do, we hurt ourselves and others by not demonstrating the kind of rational thinking we try to promote in others.

I like the idea of people who turned Christian in prison. It’s great that God has helped them. However, I find it truly annoying that these x=cons and x- drug addicts find the need to tell you how your messing up and they are acting on god’s behalf or Jesus’s behalf to save you, pray for you like you have never heard about God or Jesus before! I like the stories they have about they talked to either diety and was told that their messing up. I find most Christians most irritating. That includes my own mother and a lot of others in my family!

I’m a Christian :]

Yet, it annoys me when other Christians use the word of God as an excuse to hate anyone who isn’t Christian…matter of fact .it annoys me beyond belief when ANY religion does that…Condescending Christians are the worst…when presented with an intellectually good question that counters something in the bible, instead of saying they don’t know (which is true, us Christians can’t prove the resurrection scientifically) they ignore it, or say mean things to offend the person who asked..That is SOO NOT what a Christian should do…Beware of false Christians also!! They’re annoying..these are people who say they are Christian yet constantly promote hate, vanity, and other evils. A Christian is never too proud not to apologize for the wrongs they personally do to others :]

<3 Love <3

I hate it when christians flat out don’t believe that you’re an atheist. My girlfriends mother told me “I know that deep down, you still believe in God.” It’s like they can’t even respect the fact that you have an opinion that differs from theirs.

I work in close quarters with the worst kind of Christian – the kind who professes to be most holy, but is in reality full of hate and disdain. Items in quotes are actual quotes. Things that irritate me:

1) Going on and on about Bible study and and how cleansing and peace-giving it is, then frankly discussing “dykes” and “ragheads” and how much she hates her gay son.

2) Teasing me about my religion (I’m Jewish, but really in name only). “I got the best honey-baked ham the other day! Oh. But that’s pork. I probably shouldn’t talk about that around YOOOOU, should I?”

3) Displaying outright disdain for anyone not just like her. “My daughter’s friend and her whole family died in a house fire. We went to the funeral and everything. But they weren’t Christians, so they were just trash.”

4) Not being able to discuss other people without making a point of their Christian or non-Christian status. Who cares?? “I went to pick up a prescription the other day and was talking to the pharmacist – he’s Christian, he’s a good Christian guy – and he was saying that his tomatoes came in really good this year.” “Oh, So-and-so is coming to speak about nutrition at Such-and-such place. … He’s Jewish. *smirk* That should be…interesting. Might be a match for you, haha.” Huh?? I’m married! To a Catholic! Good grief!

5) Trying to give me mini Bibles and cards with Scripture on them. “I thought you might want this.” Huh??

That’s just a few. I’m getting all irritated writing this, but those are the main offenders. Too bad I found this post MONTHS after you had initially asked for replies!

Katie: “My point is, I hear the whole “shoving religion down my throat” speech just as much, if not more then the Christians giving the hell speech. My opinion is that Atheists use it way too much, and a lot of the time it isn’t true. I think they get way too ofended yet expect Christians not to be offended when they say God is imaginary.”

Very poignant observation Katie, but I do think that many Christians treat atheists like cheap dirt and I don’t think many of them are exaggerating. I bet there are 95% of sincere, even evangelical Christians who are extremely opposed and even mortified of the possibility of “shoving religion down anyone’s throat”. Because we know that only Christ can draw people’s hearts. I, for one, am heartbroken over what so many people have experienced at the hands of Christians, but I would never intentionally do these things to anyone, and I don’t know any Christian who would. But I’ve experienced this type of ignorance/intolerance myself from Christians, so I know it’s not far-fetched that these things would be happening on such a large scale. It’s pretty humbling, I should say.

To the atheists, the gays, the wiccans, the agnostics, the non-Christian religious people, the scientists who have had such horrific experiences with my fellow Christians – please accept my humblest, most sincere apologies on behalf of all of us…I notice that nobody is using this as a referendum on the actual message of Christ, which is what Christianity is supposed to be about. That’s a good thing; it’s only fairminded to make the distinction. Please don’t let Jesus’s infallible followers influence the way you think about Jesus. Truth be told, if people came to Jesus based on what they observed in his followers alone, NOBODY would become a Christian. Forget about the Christians, consider Christ. I’m not trying to proselityze, just saying that I think everybody has dealt with intolerant/hypocritical Christians at one point or another, and their (our?) existence is neither here nor there when it comes to the relevance of the message of Christ.

Thanks for allowing me to share, and again I’m sorry.

Not sure how to reply to people so sorry. I agree with you Lania. That’s exactly how I feel.

And hoverfrong, I can’t speak for Lania, but to me the sentence “Don’t consider Christians, consider Christ” means that as humans, we arn’t perfect. And there will be some people who say they are Christian but don’t follow Jesus’s example. Don’t consider “will being Christian make me a better person”, consider instead “will following Jesus make me a better person”. Christianity has been turned into a religion, that’s not what it’s supposed to be about. It’s not about coming to church with nice clothes on, singing hymns and leaving a couple bucks in the offering plate. It’s about receiving Jesus and then showing his love to the world.(I know, I know…I said I wouldn’t preach lol)

Anyways, people in general frustrate me haha

I was born and raised on the East coast, raised with Jews, Protestants, Muslims, and Atheists. Flash forward to age 41, I find myself living in Cincinnati, Ohio. I work for a reputable firm with 150 employees. The owners are fundamentalist Christians. It is assumed that all employees are Christian. Don’t know how or why these folks are comfortable with this practice, as I do not recall anyone asking me about my faith when I joined. Anyway, each Christmas, everyone, and I mean everyone, MUST decorate their department with Christian messages, all the Christmas stuff you can imagine. It is mandatory. (We are, mind you, not in a religious line of work). I declined to decorate the Xmas tree last year, and my boss told me to “just do it.” It enraged me even more (yes, I WAS a Christian, but this shit is ridiculous!) being told to decorate (not even my area), that I am tempted to tell this supervisor where she can go this year. I know I won’t but I just may call in sick. You would think that these religious overtones would be frowned upon for a myriad of reasons, but no, not in Cincinnati. I HATE THIS!

# Street-preaching. As I’m sure we can agree, Christians must be allowed to give their non-violent opinions, however daft or inflammatory on television, over the Internet, in letters etc, without fear of the law. However, I really do draw line at them turning public areas into pulpits, sometimes at the top of their lungs. Very worst example? Sitting on a bench with college friends for sandwiches and chat when four Christians lined up only about fifteen feet behind us against the bank we were outside, then took turns stepping forward and YELLING about Christ. So awkward. An elderly member then pressed leaflets on us called ‘The Wanderer Welcomed’ with a picture of a sheep on the front and ‘a lake of fire’ mentioned on the very first page. Lovely introduction. I found them nothing but a quartet of rude, inconsiderate and scaremongering recruiters.
Incidentally, down that same street in Egham a man once asked me if I had “been saved yet” as nonchalantly as one might ask for the time.

# Door-to-door religious propagandists. Sanctimony personified. Last week the doorbell to our flat rang from outside the block. A woman told me over the phone that she and her group were discussing the Six Most Commonly Asked Questions (according to whom?!) and what the Bible’s answers to them were. She had as much success at getting through the door as the lady who called last year offering a free talk about why God allows suffering. Presumably then if I had slammed down the receiver so hard that it perforated her eardrum she would have smilingly shrugged it off as being part of the Big Cheese’s grand plan.

 Hi AJ.  If you are a Christian why are you sorry?  We are meant to do these things for the Kingdom.  The bible says that we will have trouble with non Christians.  If we have the fear of the Lord more than fear of man we will just keep on working for the Lord.  Re the part about becoming someones friend and because we want to convert them is true, that’s why Jesus became our friend.  It’s because He loves us and has compassion on us.  It’s the same with us don’t you think? 

 HI Ben,  It’s more complicated than blaming God for letting someone be in a car crash.  Humans have choices.  God doesn’t force us to de anything.  He is our Father  and like most parents,  He can only lead us a guide us in the way we should go.  He can’t make us do anything. His grace and protection only goes so far and if we push and push to do our own thing like our own kids, then he lets us do it and suffer the consequences.  So in a car crash there is usually a human that has something to do with the cause, whether it be from driving too fast or someone not fixing the traffice lights  or fixing the drains so the road doesn’t get flooded.  Even going out driving in a storm where a tree can fall on the car or whatever.  There are many senarios.   Do you get my drift?  It’s true though about faith.  Faith connects us to God so if he fixed everthing up for us there would be no faith and we wouldn’t have relationship with him. 

We are saved through faith in Jesus (an avenue) by grace (God’s undeserved favour/pardon)

Jesus said:  “Jesus is the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except by Me”

John 14:6  The Bible

 are you genuinely happy?
do you have peace inside your heart?  or do you numb it with something?
what will happen to you when you die?

think apon such things 🙂

If you need answers ask God?