Have you ever been dismissed by someone because of your beliefs (or lack of)?

I’ve never had that happen. She really missed out on getting information from you regarding the school and just having a great conversation with you on all levels. Her loss.

@chyna always beats me to the punch!

No I personally have never had that happen,but her loss.

There is nothing you can do with people like that who are sure-fire true-blue believers. Very sad.

A few times like your own story, and maybe more that I’m not aware of. It’s what happens when you say what you really think.

But actually I love disapproval – Especially from assholes ;)

I’m not sure, but I’ve done the dismissing myself in the past. Like when you’re talking to someone and they insert comments like, “Praise the lord” or “I’ll pray for you” or “Before I was saved”. Sorry, but unless I’m feeling like being proselytized to, I just give up on conversation attempts and slink quietly away.

In your situation, I probably would have been relieved that they turned away because I wouldn’t have wanted to discuss the merits of religion. People like that don’t want to have open, honest discussions; they just want to be right.

As a Christian, that was one of my first experiences here. It didn’t keep me away though. ;D

I’ve never had that happen, not so blatantly anyway. All it boils down to is bad manners. I hope the school teaches her daughter better than that.

Happens all the time to conservatives on these pages. Also happens to Christians on these pages. Go back and look at some of the do-you-believe type questions that have been asked. Anyone that says they believe are pretty much written off as being an idiot and they are treated like that. @smudges confirmed that with his response. If someone says “I’ll pray for you” he immediately dismisses them and anything else they might be saying. He isn’t catching that to the believer they are actually saying they care about you and are offering what they can.

But as you found out, when someone dismisses you or your views without any discussion, it tells you more about that person than it does about you or your beliefs.

@seawulf575 I have to say I find the “I’ll pray for you” line patronising and mildly offensive and frankly a cop out. Offer me your sympathy if you feel sympathetic, offer to help if you feel you can help or just walk on by. Don’t offer to pray for me. God acts through man; man doesn’t act through God.

One of my best friends from HS not only unfriend me when it dawned on her that my beliefs had changed (I’d gone to the “Dark Side, as she put it) she BLOCKED me! We hadn’t had a disagreement or anything..
Mustn’t let my Satanism stick on her I guess.

I think it’s a cop out too @flutherother. No thought required. Just a knee jerk reaction.

@flutherother (and @Dutchess_III) have you ever considered how that person believes? There are those that say “I’ll pray for you” just to give lip service. And THAT is hypocritical. No argument there. But there are plenty out there that truly believe in the power of prayer, that offering to add you to their prayers is an important thing. To them, they are offering something very important for you.
Because you don’t see it that way, you dismiss them…because of their beliefs.

I dismiss them for their knee jerk reaction because it’s identical to the exact same knee jerk reaction as so many others. Same words, parroted over and over..
I don’t dismiss people who actually put some thought into their response.

@seawulf575 said it. I also find it interesting that nobody even acknowledged what I said. Maybe it was overlooked, or maybe it was just dismissed. Could be either one, or both!

Edit: however as I look deeper, I noticed that I got 4 lurve for that comment. It appears that some people do notice. Thanks for that.

I think it completely works both ways. Hence why I phrased the question the way I did.

@seawulf575 I’m referring specifically to people who just want to convert me to their way of thinking. The topic could be religion, politics, abortion, trophy-hunting, gun control, or what have you. They don’t want to have a dialogue about the pros and cons of the subject because they’ve closed off their minds to any view except theirs. It’s not even a matter of who’s right and who’s wrong because there is no right or wrong. There’s just differing opinions.

Also, in the example I gave, I realize now that I didn’t make it clear that the hypothetical person was interspersing quite a few of those types of comments – not just “I’ll pray for you”.

and not that it’s relevant, but @smudges is a she ;)

Don’t fret @smudges it took ole Wolfie quite awhile to realize that @SQUEEKY2 is guy.
Unless he purposely does it to try and piss people off.

LOL The only reason I knew is that you sometimes mention Mrs. @SQUEEKY2

@SQUEEKY2 is a GUY!?!?

Just kidding ;-)

@smudges Sorry for the gender confusion. Not being able to see people does that to me sometimes. I understand about those that proselytize. It CAN be quite annoying. But I will put forth the idea that even then it can come from a point of concern. My brother, when we were teens, turned into a rabid born-again Christian. He immediately seemed dead set on converting me. But he wasn’t doing it solely for himself (there was a part of him that felt it was his duty), he was doing it because he truly believed I was in mortal danger if I didn’t get saved. We had some interesting conversations that, interestingly, brought us back to this topic, or at least the topic of hypocrisy.

He was ignoring that I hadn’t heard the same calling that he did. He was, in effect, dismissing my views because of his beliefs. I pointed out that I appreciated his caring for me enough to want me to change, but that since I had not been moved into believing the way he did, if I went through some “ritual” to claim something I didn’t truly feel, it would be extremely hypocritical. And I pointed out it would likely be offensive to God for me to “use” him like that. That made him stop, made him think. He always left the door open for me to join him, if/when I felt that motion, but he really stopped trying to convert me.

@seawulf575 Great post! Thanks for the explanation of your experience. Yes, there certainly are people who genuinely want to save our souls; can you imagine dissing Mother Teresa?

Squeaky is also an OTR truck driver. Not very many women choose that profession

”... Mother Teresa’s clinics received millions of dollars in donations but lacked medical care, systematic diagnosis, necessary nutrition and sufficient analgesics for those in pain;[118] in the opinion of the three academics, “Mother Teresa believed the sick must suffer like Christ on the cross”.[119] It was said that the additional money might have transformed the health of the city’s poor by creating advanced palliative care facilities.[120][121.”

She just let people suffer,in agony, because of her beliefs.

Wikipedia.

^ Wow! I had NO idea!

“Dis dis dis!!” ;)

Yes. I was so distressed when I learned of it, too.

I “dissed” her based on my previous post. hehehe

I got that. :)