this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2023
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Atheism
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i think i was too subtle in my statement.
let me put it this way - it seemed to me that you were interested in explaining your perspective, as if simply offering information to contribute to a greater understanding. when someone expressed their disinterest in your explanation or indicated they did not find it sufficient, it seemed to me as if you were quickly negative. i was left with the impression that you are fundamentally less interested in dialogue and understanding, and more interested in convincing.
this is very typical of conversation with christians in a my 40+ year experience as a non-christian living in the bible belt. i tire of the efforts to explain christianity, when i have, in fact, heard it so extensively for so long. i tire of the conversations that are not REALLY intended to explain, but to solicit agreement and convert.
in other words - i wish more christians recognized that it may not be that non-christians don't understand your faith, they may simply not agree and not want to hear about it again. and approaching them as if you are interested in dialogue when you really want to convince them feels disingenuous.
these were my thoughts when i read your conversation with the other user above.
I don't know what part of "death-cultsplainin'" and me replying with "copium" makes you think there was a "conversation" going on
Let me explain my thoughts. I have taken time to write up something for someone else and someone- an unrelated party, barges in and pretty rudely replies with no intention to say anything, just to write a snide one word comment as if it's supposed to be anything other than a disrespectful comment.
Does it seem like when I said "thanks for contributing nothing to our discussion" I was trying to convert someone? I don't know where you got that idea. I was expressing that one word replies aren't good conversation at all. It's just annoying. My thoughts here are that it's pretty rude to come into a conversation just to go "haha cultist". I think people who look down on religion need to stop finding every opportunity to disrespect and be condescending to others who are invested in the topic.
Someone asked questions and I was just answering them. And for some reason you think I am in the wrong here when someone is clearly replying to me without an interest in actually talking to me. You know that person could have easily said nothing. If someone "may not want to hear it again" there are numerous solutions to this: close the thread, collapse the comment, reply with "sorry I really don't like this". Snarkily replying with "cultist" is not one of them. It's just rude and disrespectful. Maybe you guys should stop conflating disrespect with actual expression of disinterest, because it's not.
In no circumstance do I find one word snarky replies a sufficient or respectful way to reply to someone engaging in an actual discussion. Like ever. Religious discussion context or not, it's just a terrible reply. Idk why you think me replying with "yes whatever you want" is somehow me trying to convince him into a religion, like what. You are projecting and inserting things into this situation that are not there
look, i don't think you're a bad person or something, and honestly i regret saying anything.
i'm just letting you know that, you may sometimes get snarky one-word replies because people tire of hearing about it. i would bet money the greatest majority of non-christians in the us, who are open about their non-christianity, have heard all this before.
again - it's not that most of us don't understand your faith, it's that many of us are not interested in having it explained again and are unlikely to agree with your beliefs. there are people you simply will not convince of your correctness, no matter how many explanations you provide.
Yes, I know all of this and get it. I get that you're tired of it. But all I see is someone being unnecessarily snarky in someone else's conversation and you defending and justifying it with "we're tired of it". I didn't make a big deal of it at all, if someone's going to disrespect me like that I'm not giving it the time of day, but you're here justifying it so now I have to reply why it's not an ok response and have to justify my own reply because you projected that I am trying to convert this random drive by commenter when I was clearly not
Why don't we just accept that you two are being unnecessarily disrespectful? I do not enter other people's conversations and reply with "I don't want to hear this". That's all there is to it
no, i don't agree that i was being disrespectful - and i think it's interesting that someone trying to explain a non-christian pov to you is received that way.
i think i wasted my time. this is why i typically nod politely when christians talk to me, it's just easier.
So when you say "whatever you say" it's just easier, but when I say it in reply to a one word comment that's just disrespectful it's me trying to convert someone to Christianity... ok. Do you not see your hypocrisy? You are the one who is accusing me of something and when I justify myself and disagree you're just like "I'm wasting my time". I did not come into your conversation to tell you about Christianity, you came into mine to tell me I'm trying to convert someone when i wasn't at all. I was literally just equally replying snarkily
I understand non Christian povs. I'm just saying, Christian discussion or not, "death-cultsplainin'" was never appropriate and is an unwarranted response. That's all there is to it. There's nothing more to explain there. I don't come into a soccer team discussion and say "cultist" to a person who is a fan of one team. Christian or not it's disrespectful and non contributive. You're just trying to justify rude behaviour because you're personally tired of theological discussions.
Do you agree that the original "death-cultsplainin'" comment is unwarranted or do you think their comment was necessary and justified? Like be objective about it. If you think it's the latter, then we can just agree to disagree on how we engage in online discourse. In any context, I prefer not to call people cultists without explanation and think that's inappropriate, and you can prefer to think that's fine, sure. But such comments objectively lead to lower quality conversations and negative vitriol so I choose to say it's not appropriate and adds nothing to these threads aside from raising negative emotions. You don't have to be Christian to understand my sentiment. I understand yours fine. I'm just telling you why its not appropriate.