You can't preach Christianity, unless you're a Christian?

[novixz]

So, I'm an atheist, never did go to church, I only look in bibles to see how tiny the print can get. Anyway, I'm friends with this Christian girl, who rags about me being atheist pretty often. She has been flunking one of her subjects and reveled to me that she cheated off her neighbor on a recent test we had. I said that cheating is wrong and she can't keep cheating off him forever, and she said it's acceptable to pass if you it's on your own recourse. I then go own to state Commandments 10, (Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.) and 8, (Thou shalt not steal.[in this context, answers]) She then goes on to rag on that I have no right to tell her what to do, since I don't believe in God. What I was trying to say was that cheating of your neighbor isn't the Christian thing to do, and you should quit doing it. She goes on to say I can't judge her for doing that, since I'm not even Christian, and I've done worse things, which I do admit to, I've said some pretty terrible things in my day, but that doesn't excuse hypocritical action that you've done in my opinion.

Overall, I just thought it would be a good topic to discuss. Just because somebody doesn't believe in what you do, doesn't give you the right to point out flaws?

Captcha: face the music.

 

[Calibanbutcher]

So, I'm an atheist, never did go to church, I only look in bibles to see how tiny the print can get. Anyway, I'm friends with this Christian girl, who rags about me being atheist pretty often. She has been flunking one of her subjects and reveled to me that she cheated off her neighbor on a recent test we had. I said that cheating is wrong and she can't keep cheating off him forever, and she said it's acceptable to pass if you it's on your own recourse. I then go own to state Commandments 10, (Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.) and 8, (Thou shalt not steal.[in this context, answers]) She then goes on to rag on that I have no right to tell her what to do, since I don't believe in God. What I was trying to say was that cheating of your neighbor isn't the Christian thing to do, and you should quit doing it. She goes on to say I can't judge her for doing that, since I'm not even Christian, and I've done worse things, which I do admit to, I've said some pretty terrible things in my day, but that doesn't excuse hypocritical action that you've done in my opinion.

Overall, I just thought it would be a good topic to discuss. Just because somebody doesn't believe in what you do, doesn't give you the right to point out flaws?

Captcha: face the music.

Maybe you should not have quoted the bible on her, when you clearly don't believe in it, but rather explained to hear, that, morally speaking, you object to what she is doing, because it will cause him pain and make him suffer, which is never a good thing?
Also, something about honesty, loyalty and maybe her needing some common f*cking sense?
Juust saying.

 

[SciMal]

Well, there are two things I want to say:

1) To be a bit pedantic, Christians eschew the Old Testament in favor of the New Testament. If she was Jewish, the Ten Commandments argument would hold more theological power.

2) Welcome to reality; where 90% of Christians don't give two shits about whatever Jesus said if it doesn't support their personal social/cultural beliefs.

Yes, you are completely correct in that you don't have to subscribe to the beliefs of others to point out their hypocrisy. Logical fallacies do not cease to be logical fallacies because the people involved have different metaphysical beliefs.

Humanity is a bell curve, period. There will always be lazy dimwits who utilize the efforts of others to further their own selfish goals. No single religion or group of people have a monopoly on the behavior. You just encountered one of the people who give lip-service to their religion and haven't found a compelling reason to do the work themselves. That's on the bell curve somewhere, just like world-record sprinters and Al Quaeda.

In the end, be the type of person you want to see, and eventually by virtue of "like-attracts-like" you'll end up with people who mirror your values and beliefs.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

R&P forum, off you go.

 

[Shadowstar38]

RELIGION AND POLITICS FORUMMMMMMMMM!

But to be more on topic, that was kind of a bad move on your part. Typically people of ___ theology dont like to be preached on what they believe by aetheists.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

You expect religious people to actually pay attention to the teachings of their own religions, even when it's not convenient to do so?

Where were you the past... um... all of human history?

 

[aba1]

So, I'm an atheist, never did go to church, I only look in bibles to see how tiny the print can get. Anyway, I'm friends with this Christian girl, who rags about me being atheist pretty often. She has been flunking one of her subjects and reveled to me that she cheated off her neighbor on a recent test we had. I said that cheating is wrong and she can't keep cheating off him forever, and she said it's acceptable to pass if you it's on your own recourse. I then go own to state Commandments 10, (Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.) and 8, (Thou shalt not steal.[in this context, answers]) She then goes on to rag on that I have no right to tell her what to do, since I don't believe in God. What I was trying to say was that cheating of your neighbor isn't the Christian thing to do, and you should quit doing it. She goes on to say I can't judge her for doing that, since I'm not even Christian, and I've done worse things, which I do admit to, I've said some pretty terrible things in my day, but that doesn't excuse hypocritical action that you've done in my opinion.

Overall, I just thought it would be a good topic to discuss. Just because somebody doesn't believe in what you do, doesn't give you the right to point out flaws?

Captcha: face the music.

Maybe you should not have quoted the bible on her, when you clearly don't believe in it, but rather explained to hear, that, morally speaking, you object to what she is doing, because it will cause him pain and make him suffer, which is never a good thing?
Also, something about honesty, loyalty and maybe her needing some common f*cking sense?
Juust saying.

That isn't really fair since the whole point of quoting it wasn't because he believes in it but because she does which means it is directly applicable to her and what she is supposed to believe in.

OT: I think he was fine to quote the bible you don't have to be part of a religion to recognize it or even know all about it. It would be like not being able to study the pyramids since I am not Egyptian. In fact it is good to have people comment on things when they themselves are not involved since they have a non-biased opinion so long as they understand what they are in fact talking about.

 

[DoPo]

You expect religious people to actually pay attention to the teachings of their own religions, even when it's not convenient to do so?

Where were you the past... um... all of human history?

Well, I think that sups it up. It's not really the issue that you're not Christian and you're trying to appeal to Christian values. It's more of...you're trying to appeal to Christian values.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

You were being an ass. You weren't saying "Cheating is wrong because it's bad", you said "Cheating is wrong because someone told you it's wrong". That's not how you teach someone a lesson, that's especially not good to treat a friend.

 

[Scrustle]

You can quote from a book all you like, it doesn't matter if you believe it or not. Your friend is just butthurt because you're calling them out on going against their own code of ethics. It's a knee-jerk response and has zero validity.

 

[Erttheking]

You know people, you're generalizing rather awfully with the whole "oh, Christians never actually follow these beliefs, none of them do" some of us actually TRY to you know.

OT: Eh...I'm really not sure to be honest.

 

[Dangit2019]

Who got their R&P in my off-topic?

OT: Please don't use one example of abusing one's religion to generalize an entire religious community. Yes, OP was in the right, but it wasn't all of Christianity who was in the wrong.

 

[Jonluw]

If you wanted to point out that she was being a dick, good going.
If you wanted to actually convince her to change her ways, you didn't go about it the right way.

People will ignore their ethical beliefs if they feel there's enough in it for them. That's just what people do.

 

[DoPo]

You know people, you're generalizing rather awfully with the whole "oh, Christians never actually follow these beliefs, none of them do" some of us actually TRY to you know.

I think it's more like there have been numerous precedents of religious people not following their religious teachings. That girl displayed similar behaviour. It's likely she's following generally acting similarly, too. So it's not "all Christians are acting un-Christian" but more of "there are some who do, and she is likely one of them".

 

[beastro]

Cheeky way of hitting that point home to her, but I wouldn't go making a habit out it.

Being a Christian I don't see a problem with you doing this, however, while you're free game to preach like this, keep in mind that it's a fine line of self-righteousness you run if you start doing this all the time, even if it's as a joke.

 

[Palademon]

I thought it was reasonable. After all, they rag on you for being atheist, but suddenly when you tell her to believe her own beliefs then suddenly it's too far?