Not me. I shared a personal example of a student who had a close example with a religious cult in college and rejected it, which was basically agreeing with what someone else said.
I predict a thread lock in the near future. But I do want to point out that I said no such thing. I was just asking you why you believe that atheists (necessarily) “have a strong sense of cynicism”.
You think too highly of your own religion. I’m pretty sure if I made a similar claim about your beliefs based on the existence of atheists/atheism, that you would be offended.
The woman who wrote this article has adopted the holier than thou attitude she claims to reject. And for someone who has cut off contact with her parents, she needs to re-examine her moral code and perhaps add the concept of forgiveness. Unless they were total monsters of course.
She is imbuing her children with a religion without calling it that. What would have been her reaction if her daughter didn’t want to do the flashmob Pantsuits for Hillary? Would the mother have been disappointed or would she have said it was fine?. What if the daughter wanted to take a personal protection course that included learning how to shoot? Would she be tolerant of that choice? Since her kids are still kids this likely has not yet been tested. If her daughter decides to join a church will she cut off all contact like she did with her own parents?
An aside: The Golden Rule seems ‘golden’ to me. What is the objection to doing unto others as you would have them do unto you?
I know many atheists who were brought up in a religion who spent a lot of time thinking about it, putting much consideration into how they view said religion, and then went on to reject those teachings or beliefs. My own D was an illustration of such consideration. Considering that she spent the time and soul searching to come to that rejection of a religion in which she was raised and schooled, I would find it impossible to believe she would just fall into the clutches of some rando cult. There is NOTHING offensive about that.
And you actually don’t know anything about “my own religion” because I haven’t said how I feel about it.
Then what in the world did you mean by this or feel the need to point that out by virtue of reading my comments?
Of course you can! Who said anything to the contrary?
That’s fine. I’m one of those types myself. And we are actually making very similar arguments about not being judgmental. Going back to my own (lack of) religion, there is no good way to characterize it. Atheism is a big tent, and I take zero responsibility for what anyone else who calls themselves “atheist” says or does.
It’s possible that she has forgiven her parents. That doesn’t necessarily mean it would be healthy to be in contact with them or expose them to her children. It’s possible to forgive someone without continuing the relationship.
You are familiar with the definition of cynicism, correct? No true cynic believes that people are “fundamentally good”, but that belief is perfectly consistent with atheism. Anyway, that was just an example, hence the “or whatever”.
(I wonder where @skieurope is. He seems to be either unusually tolerant today.)
The author no doubt is just as doctrinaire with her own kids as her parents were with her. And though she lacks the self-awareness to realize it, I’d bet dollars to donuts her world view is just as narrow as theirs. Actually, probably narrower.
People who are curious should explore the research on heritability of religiosity. It’s eye-opening, especially in light of the number of posts on here referencing parents’ and grandparents’ views.
First day of classes, so a bit busy with other things. But since I’ve been mentioned: closing thread as it has devolved into debate, and one about religion, no less. So two ToS violations for the price of one.