Athe-ISM?

Hivemind187

When I was at secondary school I had a particularly nasty run in with a small minded witch. I refused to say a prayer before the begining of a class (I stood out of respect for their beliefs, something I wont be doing again I can assure you) and she demanded that I stand and say it on my own. I refused, at which point she threw me out of the class and shrieked at me for twn minutes in the corridor. I was told, without any reflection on her part, that "If I didnt want to believe in god you shouldnt have come to this school".

I was a bit of a mouth when I was younger (still am really) and I told her exactly what I thought of her attitude as I marched off to the school office to explain why I had been thrown out of a class. I told them I was being disenfranchised and religiously persecuted.

It certainly helped me to realise that I was on the right personal track - anythign that annoyed those people had to be the right thing.

My question, before i ramble on too long, is does anyone else have any stories or examples of times when atheism or agnosticism got them into trouble with overzealous authorities? How about with family members (most of us probably have a story or two about that)? Ever been ostracised in the work place or made fun of by colleagues because you dont believe in a deity or subscribe to the majority religion?

I can honestly say I've never had a problem with it...

Tim Robbins

Hivemind187 wrote:

When I was at secondary school I had a particularly nasty run in with a small minded witch. I refused to say a prayer before the begining of a class (I stood out of respect for their beliefs, something I wont be doing again I can assure you) and she demanded that I stand and say it on my own. I refused, at which point she threw me out of the class and shrieked at me for twn minutes in the corridor. I was told, without any reflection on her part, that "If I didnt want to believe in god you shouldnt have come to this school".

I was a bit of a mouth when I was younger (still am really) and I told her exactly what I thought of her attitude as I marched off to the school office to explain why I had been thrown out of a class. I told them I was being disenfranchised and religiously persecuted.

It certainly helped me to realise that I was on the right personal track - anythign that annoyed those people had to be the right thing.

My question, before i ramble on too long, is does anyone else have any stories or examples of times when atheism or agnosticism got them into trouble with overzealous authorities? How about with family members (most of us probably have a story or two about that)? Ever been ostracised in the work place or made fun of by colleagues because you dont believe in a deity or subscribe to the majority religion?

I went to a non denom school, two incidents spring to mind
1. Irish teacher going mental because few people forgot how to bless themselves
2. Same Irish teacher went mental, in transition year when we took down a crucifix and painted a fist in the wall and never bothered putting the crucifix somewhere special. His lines: "Christ is mutilated as well".

Fallen Seraph

I went to a CBC; was openly atheist and never had a single problem with the authorities over it. I never said the prayer at the start of class but always stood up; the standing was never anything to do with the prayer; it was showing respect to the teachers. We were expected to stand whenever someone came in to teach us regardless of if they intended us to say prayers or not. No one had a problem with it.

Your teacher certainly was out of line saying you shouldn't have gone to that school and demanding you say it in front of class.

But frankly, this paragraph makes it sound like she might have had other reasons to be getting pissed

I was a bit of a mouth when I was younger (still am really) and I told her exactly what I thought of her attitude as I marched off to the school office to explain why I had been thrown out of a class. I told them I was being disenfranchised and religiously persecuted.

It certainly helped me to realise that I was on the right personal track - anythign that annoyed those people had to be the right thing.

It's hardly wise to be choosing a philosophy on the basis of opposition to authority...

Crucifix

I didn't go to our school masses, and generally had a note. But one time I forgot the note, and so I just snuck off. The next day four teachers (seperately) approached me and gave me a big hullabullo about how I couldn't go off without a note regardless of my religious beliefs. Which is completely understandable of course, it's more the irony that I never got any trouble over just mitching off from actual classes.
Overall the "establishment" never really reacted with hostility to my beliefs, generally just with gentle patronisation.

Hivemind187

You have to be kidding me?

I cant be that few people who suffered crazy nut ball fundamentalist authority figure???!!!???

Oh and Seraph, normally I dont feel the need to justify myself but their was a reason that the paragraphs are ordered the way they are - to give a sense of the order things happened in.

I mouthed off AFTER she went mental at me. Its childish, but she started it

dan719

Ah religion teachers, what a joy. But miss that is a blatent contradiction.Miss the universe is much older then that! And so on.
My favourite story comes from the beginning of this school year.(sixth year)
We had a new r.e teacher(fresh meat:D ) who began criticising the use of stem cell research and I.V.F while blatently ignorant of the technology used. I pointed out her mistakes, in as nice a manner as possible(miss you have not got a clue). She brought me to the corridor, and explained she 'had done a msters just last year'. Yes miss but I can bet it wasn't in genetics!;)

Hivemind187

dan719 wrote:

Ah religion teachers, what a joy. But miss that is a blatent contradiction.Miss the universe is much older then that! And so on.
My favourite story comes from the beginning of this school year.(sixth year)
We had a new r.e teacher(fresh meat:D ) who began criticising the use of stem cell research and I.V.F while blatently ignorant of the technology used. I pointed out her mistakes, in as nice a manner as possible(miss you have not got a clue). She brought me to the corridor, and explained she 'had done a msters just last year'. Yes miss but I can bet it wasn't in genetics!;)

lol ... I like it.

I recall another situation where I came to blows with a teacher once.

A religion teacher once gathered all the boys into a group and brought them in to an empty classroom. I asked him if it was a religious thing and he said no.

The next thing I knew the door was locked and I was face to face with a priest.

You can stop laughing right now :P Turns out the priest was a missionary and was trying to harvest more people to go abroad and damage the traditions of indigenous people.

I admit I gave the priest a really hard time about the history of missionary work and the suspect missionary work that was going on at the time. He honestly didnt have an answer other than "I don't agree with you" - which didnt sit to well with me or any one of a number of other boys.

I was so angry about it I walked out of the school and went home. It was that or I might have just taken a swing at that religion teacher. I wasnt so po'd about the fact I had been put in a room with a priest but it was the lie that it was a non-religious thing and the fact he locked the sodding door, which aside from showing a serious contempt for the students, was a fire hazard.

This was brought to the attention of the vice principal and as you can probably guess, was dismissed as the ramblings of a disgruntled, long haired, f*ck-the-system 6th year.

JC 2K3

I never had any problems with religion teachers. Not many schools have Catholic RE anymore and if they do it's likely not with a strong willed teacher.

Hivemind187

JC 2K3 wrote:

I never had any problems with religion teachers. Not many schools have Catholic RE anymore and if they do it's likely not with a strong willed teacher.

Dont kid yourself, they are out there.

JC 2K3

Of course, but it's rare these days.