Does it bother you more when non-Catholics mock Catholicism?

Links234 wrote: »

babies tossed in a septic tank

Bizarre how some people can proclaim facts in advance of an important judgment, let alone speculate on the context (and facts) available to the individuals concerned.

But to present questionable 'facts' such as baby-dumping as being in any way reliable is absurd, and to do so in the middle of a referendum campaign would be worthy of some kind of infraction, or be due national-media attention... if it were on the other side.

I don't mind people having a go at Catholicism, I'm not religious but had the indoctrination, it has plenty to answer for.

But a long time ago I was having dinner with some nice German people and a senile old lady in the group had a go at the Catholics in NI killing the Protestants and it was the perfect troll. I reacted badly, I went full defensive and extolled at length the virtues of a Catholic upbringing I never appreciated much myself, even though it was clear everyone else at the table was embarrassed by the old lady's comment.

I didn't respond with the obvious retort, I'm sure that was what the deranged old hag wanted.

PLL wrote: »

Greatly, yes. I was interrogated at a dinner party by my oh's atheist cousin once. Asking me why I am I getting my child baptised, is it only because churches are pretty??! I just told her that I believed in God. She laughed (she was also drunk).

What I don't understand is that any religious people I know are fairly private about it and don't make speeches about their belief system. Where as people that have no religion are constantly making a point to mock religions and people for believing in them. I just find myself thinking 'shut up!' Why can I believe what I want and you believe what you want and we we'll talk about something else. Sadly no.


Edit: I should note that general jokes about Catholicism don't bother me at all. It is atheists interrogating me, asking me to justify why i believe what I believe to them, so they can mock ME personally that bothers me.

I see no reason why subjects which are patently ridiculous should not be the subject of ridicule.

porsche959 wrote: »

How dreadful!

Can you give some examples?

Maybe 92% of schools being allowed to refuse to hire gay teachers to protect their ethos? And getting state money to indoctrinate children?

I have no issues with any faith being attacked, individuals not so much unless they are the types to try and force us all to live some Catholic version of sharia law. Follow you own faith and its fine but try and force me to live according to your bible and we have a problem.

MakeEmLaugh wrote: »

No, I'm asking if people from a Catholic background are bothered by those who aren't from a Catholic background deriving humour from scandals in the Catholic Church.

OK. No is the answer. I enjoy religious humour which wouldn't work if I was precious about one religion over the others

Are you asking specifically about child abuse jokes? There's plenty of Christian humour in general but the only jokes I hear about catholics are about paedophilia. Transubstantiation jokes are tough to come up with.

pwurple wrote: »

It's usually done by people who are from a Catholic background though, which brings a giant eye roll from me. Multi-generational people of other faiths and non-faiths alike are never as disrespectful/rude to catholics as a newly formed ex-catholic, with their wide-eyed new awakening.

The zeal of the recent convert.

Give them another 50 years to get used to it and they might chill out again.

To be fair I'm sure most recent atheists go through a period of elation when they realise they don't need to figure out how virgin birth or miracles work in relation to reality. I got to see it happen once when a friend asked what I thought happened to the red sea to part it if God wasn't involved. I said it was just all made up and there was no need for a long winded explanation. Same as how the 'devil's bit' formed without the devil or how there never were giants from Irish mythology. Oh... OH it never happened that makes sense.

It's like figuring out that the theory of gravity is nonsense and telling someone and they knew all along! Then they tell you you're not allowed to tell anyone because you'll look like a zealous recent convert. You'd be fit to burst!

It's fairly standard human behaviour I'd say

Believing that a cosmic Jewish zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him that you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magic tree.

What's to mock?

Context is important when deciding whether to take offence.

Jim Davidson or Roy Chubby Brown telling an anti-Muslim joke or Frankie Boyle. Both may be unfunny but I know which one would make me feel more uncomfortable if I were Muslim. At least Frankie Boyle isn't afraid to be self-deprecating and will often mock Catholicism and Scotland mercilessly.

PLL wrote: »

What I don't understand is that any religious people I know are fairly private about it and don't make speeches about their belief system. Where as people that have no religion are constantly making a point to mock religions and people for believing in them. I just find myself thinking 'shut up!' Why can't I believe what I want and you believe what you want and we we'll talk about something else. Sadly no.

[FYP]

When you say 'mock religions and people for believing in them' what is it exactly you mean? Does questioning your beliefs counts as mocking?

In my experience most Irish lay-Catholics do not like to have their faith questioned, in even simple ways. The vast majority of them (that I have encountered) do not actually know what their faith teaches. They cannot distinguish betweens the teachings of old and new testament. They have a mostly a-la-carte version of Catholicism with which they're happy, but they do not translate this into their daily lives in any meaningful way. They are happy to simply ignore the really awful messages contained in scriptures and continue to believe that the bible is a book of good teachings.

They want to be left alone to derive a good feeling from their beliefs, and not to be asked to critically examine those beliefs in the way they might examine any other news story. The author Sam Harris has a lovely analogy about how people should really expect to have any of their ideas and beliefs questioned. I do not consider that it is mocking religious people, but it does suggest in a humorous way that people should expect others to examine their beliefs even if they choose not to examine them themselves.

There may be a god out there but I don't think it would mind me calling fools ....fools.

If there isn't a god, the fools are stills fools but they're a bit less convincing when scamming money from the vulnerable.