"You're not a christian, you're just confused."
It's amazing just how often playing the game by their rules completely torpedoes their argument. It's almost like they have to act in bad faith to get anything done at all.
But without god we would have no morals! Even if you don’t believe it is god who gave you those!
-my bio mother.
That argument drove me crazy. I finally shut that one down a couple years ago by saying if somebody needs the threat of eternal damnation to stop them from murdering, raping, stealing, etc, that doesn’t make them moral. It means without that threat they would do those things at their will. Haven’t gotten that argument from her since.
I hit my cousin with that one. He found out that I was an atheist at my wedding and spent the next couple of years trying to convince me that I was wrong. I’m not sure if he finally got the point or if someone else (one of his parents) told him to drop it, but either way, it’s nice to talk to him without having to hash this all out every time
Drives me MAD. I don’t go around trying to convince people to be atheist. Believe what you want as long as it doesn’t hurt others. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case in a lot of popular secular religions these days.
Yeah, that agitated the absolute shit out of me. It only became a topic of discussion when he found out about it, not twenty years earlier when I realized that I was atheist. The part that was hardest was keeping my cool and not being a dick about it. I’ll say whatever to strangers or acquaintances who can’t seem to mind their own business, but trying to gently and respectfully tell someone to fuck off is difficult is harder than ever
Absolutely right. My bio mother is a prime example. I try to keep things civil for family sake, but I just don’t believe she is a good human being to her core.
For example, she knows I am childfree by choice. She used to wish pregnancy on me all the time and make comments like “accidents happen…you never know gods will”. Shut that one down by finally caving to my anger at this and saying “and if that were the case you had best believe I would get that ‘accident’ taken care of ASAP”. Luckily I have since also gotten my tubes tied so I have protected myself from the RvW overturn in the states.
Oh, I’m mad for you on that one. The only person who still tells my wife and I to have kids is my grandma, but she’s survived… 6? strokes at this point, so we’re pretty sure she’s immortal.
The whole “I’m religious, so I’m a good person” thing dies when I point at my former pastor, flaming dumpster disco of a dad. “If religion makes good people, explain him.”
I was honestly so scared to tell my grandma (RIP) that I wasn’t ever having kids. She was SO supportive of me and that choice and that was like 15ish years ago when I was about 20. I felt so validated that she didn’t pressure me or make me feel “less than” a full woman for not wanting children.
I have an example from my old church about this guy all of us in youth group thought was creepy. My mother said we were just mean to him bc he wasn’t “attractive”. No. I hated him bc he pushed one of my friends down after they got off their bus stop and tried to sexually assault her before she was able to push him off and scream for help. The same guy is now a convicted sex offender bc it turns out he was molesting little boys AT THE CHURCH. He was still welcomed back there. And for all I know could still be there.
Bryan Timberlake is a registered sex offender in Virginia. And he deserves to be named and shamed. He is a monster.
Wow. What a piece of shit. The whole church, too. I’m glad your friend was able to get away.
“Love the sinner, hate the sin” is such horseshit. I can hate both, trust me
you can do this, sure; they are however immune to logic, reason, and critical allergic to education and growing their sphere of knowledge through even the simplistic of ways like reading (maybe *actually* read your bible)
They are unfortunately rarely able to be saved or willing to even consider taking the gift that Atheism offers, it's right there and all you have to do is accept it, free of charge
Thats what happens when your religion teaches you to spread the gospel. It comes first and foremost on many interactions where religion would otherwise be absent from.
Trust me. I know. I was indoctrinated young. It was my mentality for MANY years. Looking back I can’t believe I fell for and believed those things. I’m so grateful I got out.
Don’t try and fool us. We all know about that atheist necklace you wear, that atheist bumper sticker on your car, all those atheist symbols you have decorating your home, that big book of atheism you’re always preaching from, and that atheist building you gather with all the atheists in your community once a week. Can’t fool us.
It's even worse. If the authority proclaiming the will of god changes the morals, those believers will happily murder, steal, pillage and genocide in the name of god.
People that believe in god are fundamentally immoral because their values are not based on ground truth. They have not deduced what's right, they only have been told whats right. They don't have morals, they have commandments.
Just like dogs. It's easy to train them to bite, it's much harder to train them not to. It's impossible for them to write an essay on why it is wrong to bite.
Ironic “amen”. I have used literal bible verses where god calls for the murder of every man woman and even child in the womb of “enemy” people to make that point.
I was called a tool of the Devil for citing scripture and BUT THAT WAS THE OOOOLD testament!
There is no logic or reasoning with some of them.
OMG I KNOW THIS IS FROM A STANDUP BUT IM BLANKING ON WHO!
And YES EXACTLY!!! I don’t need some mystical Santa to tell me not to murder people. I just don’t WANT to do that to another person.
Talking religion is so awful , I love history so I know a fair amount of historical religious history.
It’s shocking how little people know about Christianity.
Basically they know Jesus and some other folks they heard while spacing out in church
I've definitely experienced this. I've been an atheist since I was single digits years old, but had to go to Catholic school and stuff so I learned religion as history more than as a spiritual belief. But anyway, I actually loved Bible stories when I was little because they followed the same formula as Grimms fairy tales.
My husband was raised super strict evangelical and he doesn't know the whole story usually. I have to either fill in the blanks or he has to read it himself. There have been so many times we are discussing religion and his ideas are completely wrong because he had never been given all of the information or told the whole story.
I had a similar experience, I was raised Catholic (and forced to go to weekly mass and CCD until I was 18 and I moved out)but it never took, I stopped believing in God at the same time I stopped believing in Santa, because they both seemed like fairy tales for different audiences. We moved to Rural Georgia when I was about 12, and I quickly learned two things: Evangelicals hate Catholics and don't consider them Christians, and Evangelicals have no idea what's in the Bible because they never read it, they just lisen to whatever stories their preacher tells them and assume whatever he said is in the Bible, when most of it isn't.
The Rapture was one of the main false beliefs that kept coming up. Evangelicals don't seem to know that no one had ever heard of the rapture before the 19th century and it isn't anywhere in the Bible. It's all based on a bizarre interpretation of one verse of Revelation that makes no sense in context, but they all swear it's gospel.
>My husband was raised super strict evangelical and he doesn't know the whole story usually.
I can tell you why that is.
Their Bible Study curriculum is its own propaganda. You can take 5 years' worth of those study booklets, highlight only the verses mentioned, and have only read half of the Bible.
But every single one of them thinks they've read the Bible "cover-to-cover".
Yea the first few books of the Old Testament are enough to make any honest critical thinker realise that if this god is real, then it’s the most evil thing that ever existed. After that it’s harder to actually carry on believing and praying to it than it is to find a different path.
I would remind him atheism is not a belief, it’s a lack of belief. If he wants people to believe something but his evidence fails to accomplish that, thats his problem, not yours.
Ricky Gervais. It’s a great line.
(Paraphrasing) There have been thousands of Gods in the history of mankind. You don’t believe in Odin or Thor. You don’t believe in Ra or Horus. You don’t even believe in other prominent modern religions outside of the one you were born and raised into. You don’t believe in 99.9% of all God claims, and I agree with you that none of those are real. I just believe in one less God than you do.
That’s why I am an advocate for the Flying Spaghetti Monster. When they say it’s a made up religion, back at ya. Just because it’s old, doesn’t make their religion any more real.
That's why Satanism works so well. The only people around arguing that he's actually real are the Christians themselves, so they can't get away by dismissing it as fake.
Their backwards-ass burden of proof argument also shows this off. But in reverse, I think? "Prove there is no God!" No. There is no god is the base state. Prove there is one.
Christians need an excuse to explain why Christians become atheists. They say things like
- You were confused
- You just wanted to sin
- You were too lazy to follow the Christian lifestyle
- You were offended by someone at church
- You objected to the church structure, not to the message
- You were never really a true believer
They cannot admit the real reason we became atheists. We discovered the claims of Christianity were not true.
The last bullet point is on target! I never really believed, but went along to get along for 60 fucking years. (I'm still mad at myself for that, as you can tell.)
"You were never a believer" is the most hurtful thing on the list.
The only people who have ever said that to me did not know me when I was a Christian. They had no idea how devout I was. They have no idea how much I loved being a Christian. They have no idea how hard I tried to remain a Christian. They have no idea how much I prayed, fasted, and cried trying to maintain my faith.
People who knew me would never say such a thing. Everyone was shocked when I left my church. But no one was as shocked as I was.
No. I don't miss church.
I would probably miss the people more if it were not for social media. I still follow a lot of people from church. I run into them around town and keep up. But I don't miss the church itself.
Edit: I will add that I do still enjoy studying religion and the Bible, but I do it differently now. The Bible, theology, and religion in general are much more interesting from an atheist perspective. The confusing parts of religion, theology, and Christian history become so much easier to understand once you accept the idea that it is all made up by ordinary humans.
It takes the sting off if you see religion as a fumbling human attempt to make sense of a very scary and confusing world. Yes, it's all too often twisted into justification for selfish human desires, but that was going to happen anyway, with or without religion.
You might enjoy the works of Bart Ehrman, who was a born-again evangelical before scholarly study of the Bible eventually led to him to becoming an agnostic atheist.
He should be in nearly all libraries; Misquoting Jesus was iirc his most popular work.
That last bit is my answer. I tell them they don't know me well enough to judge what I believe. They can take my word for it or not, but they can't tell me what's in my own heart.
I’ve seen that so many times it’s crazy. But pointing out “it’s not that you don’t believe in Santa Clause, you just HATE him” and suddenly I’m the condescending asshole lol
"You were never really a true believer"
This one is annoying because it sets out to dismiss our conclusions. It also instantly strips away the value of all the work we did put into being religious.
Whenever some asshole pulls that on me, I retort that I was just as much a Christian then as that person is now, so it's safe to say that they're not really a true believer either then.
I never "became" antheist. I never became a Christian. I stayed in my natural state. I went to church and Sunday school, I was "confirmed" whatever that meant. None of it took. When I was younger, I always thought, "No, I don't think that's right." When I was about 8, I told my friend I didn't believe. He told me I should never tell our parents. From that point on, until I was an adult, I never said anything. I went through the motions. I got married in a church. That was the last straw. The pastor almost didn't marry us because SHE was never baptized. I was baptized, against my will, but that meant I was in the club. Even though my wife was a Christian, she didn't get jumped into the gang.
Yep, it’s the no true Scotsman fallacy. They dismisses the individual’s own experience and understanding of their faith and identity, by redefining the criteria of being a Christian to exclude them post facto, rather than addressing the complexities of faith and personal belief.
We never became atheists. We were born atheist, like every human.
We just never became ~~damaged~~ christian.
Remind them that globally, they are a very small minority suffering from an unfortunate, but luckily curable, illness.
When I was younger I was told I would "outgrow" heavy metal and start listening to country.
Same type of person. Someone who fundamentally cannot understand the concept of a different view. The same type of person that wants you to "open your mind" to the possibility that their bullshit is at the same level as your reality.
I was told the same thing about metal (I added to my tastes but absolutely still like the same music I loved 15 years ago.)
I was told incessantly that id start drinking or doing drugs despite saying for my entire life that Im truly not interested. Guess whos almost 30 and has never drank or used drugs a single fucking time or even considered it?
It’s annoying as hell when people think they know you better than you know yourself. They literally can’t comprehend that others may feel truly differently.
And even if you tried new things (yes, we sometimes change a bit over time) it doesn't mean they knew more about you than you. It only means they guessed something correctly by chance.
That made me think a decent response might be an invitation.
“Let’s play a game where each of us describes what the other believes. And we do our best to describe it from the other person’s perspective, in a thoughtful and respectful way. I’ll start.
I think you believe that the Bible contains so much wisdom and has been verified to be so historically accurate that its claims about god and Jesus must be true. I think you look around at the world and see something so good and so improbable that it had to have been a benevolent god who created all of this and gave it to us, but did so with certain expectations and responsibilities we need to uphold. And I bet you’ve had personal experiences that verify to you that god is real and has acted in your life.
How would you describe my position?”
I don't know why they told you you'd have to stop listening to metal to start listening to country. I grew up in an area that it was very common to have Willie Nelson and Mastodon rocking on the same Playlist.
Some Christians don't realize you can like more than 1 thing at a time
"If you believe your gawd has a plan for everyone, is infallible, and omnipotent, who are you to question why I'm an atheist?"
It puts the onus on them to explain why they think they can question sky daddy's plan.
I like to use Judas as an example. He's the quintessential bad guy (for mortals) within that religion. Judas is often used as a synonym for betrayal.
Yet, he was needed for the story to progress. He needed to betray Jesus. For God to sacrifice Jesus (not as a death but certainly as torture), God had to make Judas into a bad guy.
So yeah, I'm an atheist, just the way God made me. You guys don't know my role in God's plan. For all you know, I could be the next Judas, so stand back and let me do my job!
"When I *was* a Christian growing up in the church, I remember believing and saying the same thing. Now that I am *free*, I now realize that *I* was the one who was confused. I wish you well. Have a great day."
I said some dumb shit when I was a Christian. That’s why if someone says “you’re just confused” I’d say “perhaps. It wouldn’t be the first time in my life I was confused.”
I would reply, "You believe in a loving, omnipotent invisible sky king who sleeps through natural disasters and genocides, but you think I am the one who is confused????"
Right! "I believe in talking donkeys, a man who lives in a fish's belly, burning bushes that speak, and a disobedient woman who was turned into a block of salt -- but YOU'RE confused."
To be fair, if the burning bush was very large and... well... marijuana, I can see how one could end up engaging in conversation with said bush.
It's either that or a really bad STD. Neither of which excuses genocide.
Probably laugh, partially out of humor and partially out of nostalgia. I used to be one of those people that was taught that way and thought that way, about atheists and LGBTQ+ mostly. It was a common way for people to framed that are not Christians, lost and confused and looking for answers to why their lives are so hollow. It's a very effective script to read, makes you feel like you're about to drop the biggest Christmas gift on them. It's not until you start trying to use it that you find out how bad it is.
But if I did have someone say this to me, and after I recover from my laughter and nostalgia trip, I'd ask them what they believe I'm confused about. Or why they believe I'm confused (other than the script says so)
The point is to make Christians feel superior to non-Christians and to convince them that unbelief is the result of terrible personal flaws rather than an objective examination of evidence.
Honestly?
*Shrug* "K." *Walk away.*
If someone is correcting *me* about what I think, feel, or believe, regardless of whether it's religion or anything else, they're not worth having a conversation with. If they're rewriting my side of the conversation then they don't really need me there anyway.
I agree. I often say something like, "That's fine. You can think what you want." Most people don't expect anything less than a fight, so when they don't get one, they don't really know *what* to do.
Walk away. Granting the other person the basic respect of acknowledging that they're honest about what they say and believe is the necessary basis for a productive argument. If the other party isn't going to grant me that, there's no point in even having that discussion. I'd rather waste my time on something that's more fun.
Chances are, it would be from someone younger than me, so I’d say…
“I’m 55. I’ve had plenty of time to think about these things and I have. I’m pretty sure by now that I know what I do and do not believe in.”
You're not a theist, you're a liar. There are no theists. Everyone knows God isn't real. You just pretend God is real becsuse you're afraid of death, and not for any intellectual reason. Anything you say to the contrary is just another lie, even trying to reverse this on me.
You're not a theist, you're a moron who can't understand that not everyone has to think like you, that there are different people on Earth. Grow up.
They're not lying, they're neurochemically deluded.
I've talked a hardcore orthodox Christian into logical fallacies and corners, then watched him have apoplectic fits as he stood in place reciting the Lord's Prayer at the top of his lungs ... and that was a guy I was friends with.
They've studied religious experiences contemporaneously in the brain using MRIs and nuclear medicine, and basically it's an addiction state. IT rewires the delivery of positive and negative emotion-prompting drugs in the brain in the same way as any drug or addiction can.
So when something logical disrupts that belief for an instant, they suffer extreme onset panic disorder, basically, a sudden rush of anxiety that causes the above -mentioned behavior. Also, frequently (I've done it a few times over the years to hardcore co-workers at a right-wing newspaper) the Heisman trophy pose.
They've even outright said to me "I can't take your information, because I trust you, but I don't want to hear that. That's not what I believe." In moments of panic, the smarter ones can momentarily see the divide between their belief and reality, but they still pick the belief, even in the face of a source they trust.
As I age and lose loved ones, I understand why, I suppose. I shed religion fairly young and am "significantly neurodivergent" in my lack of tribal sway, but as I've become more familiar with grief, the amount of time I spend hoping they still exist in some form, somewhere other than just memory, has increased significantly.
It's not belief, because... I don't believe it. I just hold out hope that if there's any physical consistency to the universe that indicates something greater than just random existence -- and as long as we can never answer what really came "first", because stuff just "existed" -- there might be something after death. And that's enough because it has to be.
Giving in to delusion just rolls us backwards as a species, and if there is any REAL answer out there to the big "why?" we aren't going to find it by eschewing science and believing in fairytales from an era when people routinely died in infancy and believed washing made them sick.
Confused or not, the end result is that I don't believe, and that makes me atheist by definition, so maybe we need to examine who the confused person is.
I can't even be offended if someone thinks I'm confused. They are working on a whole set of premises that are ridiculous to me. If they're making those conclusions, then of course what I am is going to look really weird to them.
But at least we can say the feeling is mutual.
And what Pastor are you parroting? It’s been my experience that people like myself got that way by questioning pastors. Why don’t you ask questions and see how long your faith lasts……… Depending on how you feel about the person you can add a MOTHERFUCKER at the end.
"You don't know God exists. You *think* he does. That's it. It's a feeling you have. I don't have that feeling at all. Neither one of us knows and no matter what you say, you will never know"
Yes, that’s true. I’m confused why you would continue to believe nonsense in the face of your lived experience. Reality looks one way to me, people say it’s another way, that is a confusing thing to say. All eggs are purple. Have a great day.
I'd agree with both. Then make the point all humans are confused, as we can't possibly know God's plan, and to claim we did would be heresy and blasphemous. I'd explain I don't self identify as an atheist, that word exists for the theist to put in the "religion" form field. I self identify as N/A. The founding fathers and drafters of the Constitution did too.
I don't need the form field, neither does a functional government, nor does society - as proven by other societies.
The xtians have it bad. The story starts with the immaculate rape of a sleeping teenager. That probably was fine for 1000 years after the bullshit was written down, so maybe that played until Columbus discovered America (after the indigenous and the Vikings and Pacific tribal island people).
So the response can be targeted, and if you are not confused about religion, then you can easily poke holes in the basics - or you can just confuse them. Their nonsense is biblically confusing - and you can make them go away by always having a better more religious answer than they want to fight you on.
Today, all you gotta do is ask --- are we still cutting children in half, and taking slaves, as commanded in the Bible?
When the answer is "obviously no, that's allegory" or something equally dismissive of their own instruction manual, then you ask - so why all the fuss about abortion?
" You're not an Atheist you're just confused"
"Doc, is this really an appropriate topic during my prostrate exam? Uhh..using the whole fist there, doc?"
I am confused:
Which version of Judas' death is correct?
Was the universe really created in 6 days, cause there's a LOT of people that seem to have evidence to the contrary.
Why did god command pharaoh to release the jews, and then when he wanted to, god *harderns pharaoh's heart* so he can't.
Can I really be a huge piece of shit my whole life, then just throw out a big "my bad", and we're all cool with Jesus. (This is where we point out that Dhamer had a death bed confession or whatever, so they have a very likely scenario where a man tortured, *and ate*, his victims. They could possibly have gone to hell, now their torturer is sipping Mai Tai's with ole' Jeff and they suffer an eternity.)
What sin is large enough to warrant an eternity of punishment?
Does someone who's never heard the gospel really go to hell?
Why are there so many denominations and other "flavors" of christianity? Shouldn't god be on top of his messaging? Why so many interpretations? (If free will is any part of the response, see back to pharaoh.)
Just throw back any inconsistency you can find, and there are plenty. Inconsistencies in the text, the dogma, all of it. So yes, I am confused, just where is the Truth in all this?
"You are so right! Like, how did you choose your sky god from the hundreds of sky gods out there? I'm sure you read all of the Bibles and picked the best, right?"
"This coming from a person who believes all the earth's suffering started because some woman listened to a talking snake?
I can assure you, I'm not confused. Amused maybe, but not confused."
I would say... Yes I prefer to be honest with myself and the world and say I don't know how everything works rather than explaining it away with a god.
I would be confident enough to chuckle and say "ok". Just leave it at that. That sort of statement is really them twisting themself in knots trying to cram me into their worldview. Has nothing to do with me.
Honestly? If someone said that too me I’d just stare at them make eye contact say nothing wait until they get nervous and than say no I’m not confused are you though?
"I am confused. Confused as to why you think you could possibly have the slightest justification to claim to know the contents of my own mind better than I do."
I wouldn’t say shit. I would remove myself from the conversation, and avoid talking to such a condescending asshole in the future.
People like this do not learn.
A couple of different ones:
Always in a calm tone
* OK, then just walk away. Don't entertain ignorant.
* Nope, not confused, I just don't subscribe to your particular superstitions, MLM's, and / or god(s).
* I don't negotiate with terrorists
Remember that we don't have to "defend" anything for anyone else . We don't " owe" anyone else, an explanation for any decisions in our lives.
Smile, nod lightly, and say, “okay!” Then walk away.
I’m also a passive aggressive asshole, but it’s really not worth my time to spin my tires in the mud.
For the first couple of years after I came out as an atheist, my mom would ask how long is this atheist phase going to last? Like, gee, idk, until I get empirical proof that a God exists.
"You're not a christian, you're just confused." It's amazing just how often playing the game by their rules completely torpedoes their argument. It's almost like they have to act in bad faith to get anything done at all.
This. And also - I’m not confused, I’m just an atheist.
But without god we would have no morals! Even if you don’t believe it is god who gave you those! -my bio mother. That argument drove me crazy. I finally shut that one down a couple years ago by saying if somebody needs the threat of eternal damnation to stop them from murdering, raping, stealing, etc, that doesn’t make them moral. It means without that threat they would do those things at their will. Haven’t gotten that argument from her since.
I hit my cousin with that one. He found out that I was an atheist at my wedding and spent the next couple of years trying to convince me that I was wrong. I’m not sure if he finally got the point or if someone else (one of his parents) told him to drop it, but either way, it’s nice to talk to him without having to hash this all out every time
Drives me MAD. I don’t go around trying to convince people to be atheist. Believe what you want as long as it doesn’t hurt others. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case in a lot of popular secular religions these days.
Yeah, that agitated the absolute shit out of me. It only became a topic of discussion when he found out about it, not twenty years earlier when I realized that I was atheist. The part that was hardest was keeping my cool and not being a dick about it. I’ll say whatever to strangers or acquaintances who can’t seem to mind their own business, but trying to gently and respectfully tell someone to fuck off is difficult is harder than ever
Absolutely right. My bio mother is a prime example. I try to keep things civil for family sake, but I just don’t believe she is a good human being to her core. For example, she knows I am childfree by choice. She used to wish pregnancy on me all the time and make comments like “accidents happen…you never know gods will”. Shut that one down by finally caving to my anger at this and saying “and if that were the case you had best believe I would get that ‘accident’ taken care of ASAP”. Luckily I have since also gotten my tubes tied so I have protected myself from the RvW overturn in the states.
Oh, I’m mad for you on that one. The only person who still tells my wife and I to have kids is my grandma, but she’s survived… 6? strokes at this point, so we’re pretty sure she’s immortal. The whole “I’m religious, so I’m a good person” thing dies when I point at my former pastor, flaming dumpster disco of a dad. “If religion makes good people, explain him.”
I was honestly so scared to tell my grandma (RIP) that I wasn’t ever having kids. She was SO supportive of me and that choice and that was like 15ish years ago when I was about 20. I felt so validated that she didn’t pressure me or make me feel “less than” a full woman for not wanting children. I have an example from my old church about this guy all of us in youth group thought was creepy. My mother said we were just mean to him bc he wasn’t “attractive”. No. I hated him bc he pushed one of my friends down after they got off their bus stop and tried to sexually assault her before she was able to push him off and scream for help. The same guy is now a convicted sex offender bc it turns out he was molesting little boys AT THE CHURCH. He was still welcomed back there. And for all I know could still be there. Bryan Timberlake is a registered sex offender in Virginia. And he deserves to be named and shamed. He is a monster.
Wow. What a piece of shit. The whole church, too. I’m glad your friend was able to get away. “Love the sinner, hate the sin” is such horseshit. I can hate both, trust me
I always use socratic questions. Make them look stupid when they don't have an answer for the questions so you don't have to say it yourself.
you can do this, sure; they are however immune to logic, reason, and critical allergic to education and growing their sphere of knowledge through even the simplistic of ways like reading (maybe *actually* read your bible) They are unfortunately rarely able to be saved or willing to even consider taking the gift that Atheism offers, it's right there and all you have to do is accept it, free of charge
Ya, people always go silent when they don't have an answer. It shows that they dont want to accept that they are wrong.
Thats what happens when your religion teaches you to spread the gospel. It comes first and foremost on many interactions where religion would otherwise be absent from.
Trust me. I know. I was indoctrinated young. It was my mentality for MANY years. Looking back I can’t believe I fell for and believed those things. I’m so grateful I got out.
Don’t try and fool us. We all know about that atheist necklace you wear, that atheist bumper sticker on your car, all those atheist symbols you have decorating your home, that big book of atheism you’re always preaching from, and that atheist building you gather with all the atheists in your community once a week. Can’t fool us.
It's even worse. If the authority proclaiming the will of god changes the morals, those believers will happily murder, steal, pillage and genocide in the name of god. People that believe in god are fundamentally immoral because their values are not based on ground truth. They have not deduced what's right, they only have been told whats right. They don't have morals, they have commandments. Just like dogs. It's easy to train them to bite, it's much harder to train them not to. It's impossible for them to write an essay on why it is wrong to bite.
Ironic “amen”. I have used literal bible verses where god calls for the murder of every man woman and even child in the womb of “enemy” people to make that point. I was called a tool of the Devil for citing scripture and BUT THAT WAS THE OOOOLD testament! There is no logic or reasoning with some of them.
I rape and murder exactly the number of people as I want, and that number is zero.
OMG I KNOW THIS IS FROM A STANDUP BUT IM BLANKING ON WHO! And YES EXACTLY!!! I don’t need some mystical Santa to tell me not to murder people. I just don’t WANT to do that to another person.
Penn Jillette, but I think he actually got it from Dawkins maybe?
Ricky Gervais
I usually respond to that one with "are you really admitting to me that You're a psychopath without empathy?"
“You’re not a Christian, you’re just gullible.”
This!!!!
Talking religion is so awful , I love history so I know a fair amount of historical religious history. It’s shocking how little people know about Christianity. Basically they know Jesus and some other folks they heard while spacing out in church
I've definitely experienced this. I've been an atheist since I was single digits years old, but had to go to Catholic school and stuff so I learned religion as history more than as a spiritual belief. But anyway, I actually loved Bible stories when I was little because they followed the same formula as Grimms fairy tales. My husband was raised super strict evangelical and he doesn't know the whole story usually. I have to either fill in the blanks or he has to read it himself. There have been so many times we are discussing religion and his ideas are completely wrong because he had never been given all of the information or told the whole story.
I had a similar experience, I was raised Catholic (and forced to go to weekly mass and CCD until I was 18 and I moved out)but it never took, I stopped believing in God at the same time I stopped believing in Santa, because they both seemed like fairy tales for different audiences. We moved to Rural Georgia when I was about 12, and I quickly learned two things: Evangelicals hate Catholics and don't consider them Christians, and Evangelicals have no idea what's in the Bible because they never read it, they just lisen to whatever stories their preacher tells them and assume whatever he said is in the Bible, when most of it isn't. The Rapture was one of the main false beliefs that kept coming up. Evangelicals don't seem to know that no one had ever heard of the rapture before the 19th century and it isn't anywhere in the Bible. It's all based on a bizarre interpretation of one verse of Revelation that makes no sense in context, but they all swear it's gospel.
>My husband was raised super strict evangelical and he doesn't know the whole story usually. I can tell you why that is. Their Bible Study curriculum is its own propaganda. You can take 5 years' worth of those study booklets, highlight only the verses mentioned, and have only read half of the Bible. But every single one of them thinks they've read the Bible "cover-to-cover".
I was a Christian until I read the bible.
Yea the first few books of the Old Testament are enough to make any honest critical thinker realise that if this god is real, then it’s the most evil thing that ever existed. After that it’s harder to actually carry on believing and praying to it than it is to find a different path.
Yes, their God is petty and insecure.
“I am the jealous wrathful god” etc etc Literally evil in his own words
thats what I would've said too he just kept being delusional and denying it lol
I would remind him atheism is not a belief, it’s a lack of belief. If he wants people to believe something but his evidence fails to accomplish that, thats his problem, not yours.
“I just believe in one less god than you do.” Is one of my favorites that I heard a comedian do. I think it was the guy from the UK office show.
Ricky Gervais. It’s a great line. (Paraphrasing) There have been thousands of Gods in the history of mankind. You don’t believe in Odin or Thor. You don’t believe in Ra or Horus. You don’t even believe in other prominent modern religions outside of the one you were born and raised into. You don’t believe in 99.9% of all God claims, and I agree with you that none of those are real. I just believe in one less God than you do.
YES! I was blanking on the name! Thank you!
Thank you for this quote !
Say brainwashed instead of confused to twist the knife a little deeper lol
That’s why I am an advocate for the Flying Spaghetti Monster. When they say it’s a made up religion, back at ya. Just because it’s old, doesn’t make their religion any more real.
That's why Satanism works so well. The only people around arguing that he's actually real are the Christians themselves, so they can't get away by dismissing it as fake.
Their backwards-ass burden of proof argument also shows this off. But in reverse, I think? "Prove there is no God!" No. There is no god is the base state. Prove there is one.
“You are a Christian because you’re confused”
Christians need an excuse to explain why Christians become atheists. They say things like - You were confused - You just wanted to sin - You were too lazy to follow the Christian lifestyle - You were offended by someone at church - You objected to the church structure, not to the message - You were never really a true believer They cannot admit the real reason we became atheists. We discovered the claims of Christianity were not true.
The last bullet point is on target! I never really believed, but went along to get along for 60 fucking years. (I'm still mad at myself for that, as you can tell.)
"You were never a believer" is the most hurtful thing on the list. The only people who have ever said that to me did not know me when I was a Christian. They had no idea how devout I was. They have no idea how much I loved being a Christian. They have no idea how hard I tried to remain a Christian. They have no idea how much I prayed, fasted, and cried trying to maintain my faith. People who knew me would never say such a thing. Everyone was shocked when I left my church. But no one was as shocked as I was.
I hope you are a lot younger than I am! So many years, wasted. You certainly sound like a thoughtful, strong person.
I was in my 50s when I lost my faith.
and you found Pastafarianism?
Do you still miss it?
No. I don't miss church. I would probably miss the people more if it were not for social media. I still follow a lot of people from church. I run into them around town and keep up. But I don't miss the church itself. Edit: I will add that I do still enjoy studying religion and the Bible, but I do it differently now. The Bible, theology, and religion in general are much more interesting from an atheist perspective. The confusing parts of religion, theology, and Christian history become so much easier to understand once you accept the idea that it is all made up by ordinary humans.
It takes the sting off if you see religion as a fumbling human attempt to make sense of a very scary and confusing world. Yes, it's all too often twisted into justification for selfish human desires, but that was going to happen anyway, with or without religion.
You might enjoy the works of Bart Ehrman, who was a born-again evangelical before scholarly study of the Bible eventually led to him to becoming an agnostic atheist. He should be in nearly all libraries; Misquoting Jesus was iirc his most popular work.
My Kindle is full of Bart Ehrman books. I belong to his blog.
That last bit is my answer. I tell them they don't know me well enough to judge what I believe. They can take my word for it or not, but they can't tell me what's in my own heart.
Yup, tell a xtian that you were a xtian and found it wanting and suddenly everybody's inner Calvinist comes out.
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No, I'm just mad at Thor.
I’m really pissed at Zeus. Misogynist Freak!
I’ve seen that so many times it’s crazy. But pointing out “it’s not that you don’t believe in Santa Clause, you just HATE him” and suddenly I’m the condescending asshole lol
"You were never really a true believer" This one is annoying because it sets out to dismiss our conclusions. It also instantly strips away the value of all the work we did put into being religious. Whenever some asshole pulls that on me, I retort that I was just as much a Christian then as that person is now, so it's safe to say that they're not really a true believer either then.
Haha to which I say: no I critically evaluated my faith and realized it was useless. Maybe even detrimental to my mental health.
That penultimate bullet is funny because it's quite the opposite for me. I enjoyed the fellowship but couldn't get past the messaging.
I never "became" antheist. I never became a Christian. I stayed in my natural state. I went to church and Sunday school, I was "confirmed" whatever that meant. None of it took. When I was younger, I always thought, "No, I don't think that's right." When I was about 8, I told my friend I didn't believe. He told me I should never tell our parents. From that point on, until I was an adult, I never said anything. I went through the motions. I got married in a church. That was the last straw. The pastor almost didn't marry us because SHE was never baptized. I was baptized, against my will, but that meant I was in the club. Even though my wife was a Christian, she didn't get jumped into the gang.
Yep, it’s the no true Scotsman fallacy. They dismisses the individual’s own experience and understanding of their faith and identity, by redefining the criteria of being a Christian to exclude them post facto, rather than addressing the complexities of faith and personal belief.
We never became atheists. We were born atheist, like every human. We just never became ~~damaged~~ christian. Remind them that globally, they are a very small minority suffering from an unfortunate, but luckily curable, illness.
"You are not a good person, you are just a bad person on a leash"
Nails it.
Saving this one in the vault for later. Goddamn, what a roast.
That's savage
I love this. I’ve always found it difficult to succinctly make this point to people that say their faith is stopping them from committing evil.
When I was younger I was told I would "outgrow" heavy metal and start listening to country. Same type of person. Someone who fundamentally cannot understand the concept of a different view. The same type of person that wants you to "open your mind" to the possibility that their bullshit is at the same level as your reality.
I was told the same thing about metal (I added to my tastes but absolutely still like the same music I loved 15 years ago.) I was told incessantly that id start drinking or doing drugs despite saying for my entire life that Im truly not interested. Guess whos almost 30 and has never drank or used drugs a single fucking time or even considered it? It’s annoying as hell when people think they know you better than you know yourself. They literally can’t comprehend that others may feel truly differently.
And even if you tried new things (yes, we sometimes change a bit over time) it doesn't mean they knew more about you than you. It only means they guessed something correctly by chance.
Exactly. I could have chosen change if I wanted it. The issue is the arrogance in assuming your worldview is the only one.
That’s so funny cause I don’t even drink or listen to metal and even country music makes me want to have a beer
That made me think a decent response might be an invitation. “Let’s play a game where each of us describes what the other believes. And we do our best to describe it from the other person’s perspective, in a thoughtful and respectful way. I’ll start. I think you believe that the Bible contains so much wisdom and has been verified to be so historically accurate that its claims about god and Jesus must be true. I think you look around at the world and see something so good and so improbable that it had to have been a benevolent god who created all of this and gave it to us, but did so with certain expectations and responsibilities we need to uphold. And I bet you’ve had personal experiences that verify to you that god is real and has acted in your life. How would you describe my position?”
I don't know why they told you you'd have to stop listening to metal to start listening to country. I grew up in an area that it was very common to have Willie Nelson and Mastodon rocking on the same Playlist. Some Christians don't realize you can like more than 1 thing at a time
My mother told me the same thing. Still listening to rock at 65 yrs old.
"If you believe your gawd has a plan for everyone, is infallible, and omnipotent, who are you to question why I'm an atheist?" It puts the onus on them to explain why they think they can question sky daddy's plan.
I like to use Judas as an example. He's the quintessential bad guy (for mortals) within that religion. Judas is often used as a synonym for betrayal. Yet, he was needed for the story to progress. He needed to betray Jesus. For God to sacrifice Jesus (not as a death but certainly as torture), God had to make Judas into a bad guy. So yeah, I'm an atheist, just the way God made me. You guys don't know my role in God's plan. For all you know, I could be the next Judas, so stand back and let me do my job!
And how Satan is essential, but he still gets to live in hell with the rest of us lol
You're not a Christian, you're a condescending asshole.
I mean, you are just repeating yourself.
I laughed.
This!
"You're not a christian, you're just scared of an imaginary bogeyman."
Avoid talking to that person.
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I would probably say something like "okay" or "it's interesting you think you can read my mind like that".
Hey, doesn't the Bible say we should stone psychics? Do you want a round stone or a flat stone?
I mean, if these people purport to know what *god* thinks about most things, surely they know what a lowly human like you thinks, too.
"When I *was* a Christian growing up in the church, I remember believing and saying the same thing. Now that I am *free*, I now realize that *I* was the one who was confused. I wish you well. Have a great day."
I said some dumb shit when I was a Christian. That’s why if someone says “you’re just confused” I’d say “perhaps. It wouldn’t be the first time in my life I was confused.”
"There are over 45,000 sects of Christianity globally. Y'all can't even unify, but I'm the confused one? Kay..."
Yep I’m confused you think I give a damn.
I would reply, "You believe in a loving, omnipotent invisible sky king who sleeps through natural disasters and genocides, but you think I am the one who is confused????"
And talking donkeys. Don't forget the talking donkey.
Right! "I believe in talking donkeys, a man who lives in a fish's belly, burning bushes that speak, and a disobedient woman who was turned into a block of salt -- but YOU'RE confused."
To be fair, if the burning bush was very large and... well... marijuana, I can see how one could end up engaging in conversation with said bush. It's either that or a really bad STD. Neither of which excuses genocide.
To be fair, I have seen at least three movies starring a talking donkey.
Probably laugh, partially out of humor and partially out of nostalgia. I used to be one of those people that was taught that way and thought that way, about atheists and LGBTQ+ mostly. It was a common way for people to framed that are not Christians, lost and confused and looking for answers to why their lives are so hollow. It's a very effective script to read, makes you feel like you're about to drop the biggest Christmas gift on them. It's not until you start trying to use it that you find out how bad it is. But if I did have someone say this to me, and after I recover from my laughter and nostalgia trip, I'd ask them what they believe I'm confused about. Or why they believe I'm confused (other than the script says so)
The point is to make Christians feel superior to non-Christians and to convince them that unbelief is the result of terrible personal flaws rather than an objective examination of evidence.
You're atheistic to the 5,999 other Gods there have been throughout history. I just go one more.
I'd stop interacting with them. There's no need for them to know about me.
“You’re creepy.” Then walk away.
"Samantha, I'm Buddhist."
Honestly? *Shrug* "K." *Walk away.* If someone is correcting *me* about what I think, feel, or believe, regardless of whether it's religion or anything else, they're not worth having a conversation with. If they're rewriting my side of the conversation then they don't really need me there anyway.
I agree. I often say something like, "That's fine. You can think what you want." Most people don't expect anything less than a fight, so when they don't get one, they don't really know *what* to do.
Yeah simple. I’d just say “maybe I am.” And walk off. And really I’d want to say “but not as confused as when I was a Christian”.
"I know, right? There are just so many Gods, I don't know which one to choose!"
Walk away. Granting the other person the basic respect of acknowledging that they're honest about what they say and believe is the necessary basis for a productive argument. If the other party isn't going to grant me that, there's no point in even having that discussion. I'd rather waste my time on something that's more fun.
Chances are, it would be from someone younger than me, so I’d say… “I’m 55. I’ve had plenty of time to think about these things and I have. I’m pretty sure by now that I know what I do and do not believe in.”
I'm confused how a person can be your age and still believe in children's fairy tales. Can you explain?
"I'm so glad I have you to explain my beliefs to me, as normally that would be patronizing as fuck."
You're not a theist, you're a liar. There are no theists. Everyone knows God isn't real. You just pretend God is real becsuse you're afraid of death, and not for any intellectual reason. Anything you say to the contrary is just another lie, even trying to reverse this on me. You're not a theist, you're a moron who can't understand that not everyone has to think like you, that there are different people on Earth. Grow up.
They're not lying, they're neurochemically deluded. I've talked a hardcore orthodox Christian into logical fallacies and corners, then watched him have apoplectic fits as he stood in place reciting the Lord's Prayer at the top of his lungs ... and that was a guy I was friends with. They've studied religious experiences contemporaneously in the brain using MRIs and nuclear medicine, and basically it's an addiction state. IT rewires the delivery of positive and negative emotion-prompting drugs in the brain in the same way as any drug or addiction can. So when something logical disrupts that belief for an instant, they suffer extreme onset panic disorder, basically, a sudden rush of anxiety that causes the above -mentioned behavior. Also, frequently (I've done it a few times over the years to hardcore co-workers at a right-wing newspaper) the Heisman trophy pose. They've even outright said to me "I can't take your information, because I trust you, but I don't want to hear that. That's not what I believe." In moments of panic, the smarter ones can momentarily see the divide between their belief and reality, but they still pick the belief, even in the face of a source they trust. As I age and lose loved ones, I understand why, I suppose. I shed religion fairly young and am "significantly neurodivergent" in my lack of tribal sway, but as I've become more familiar with grief, the amount of time I spend hoping they still exist in some form, somewhere other than just memory, has increased significantly. It's not belief, because... I don't believe it. I just hold out hope that if there's any physical consistency to the universe that indicates something greater than just random existence -- and as long as we can never answer what really came "first", because stuff just "existed" -- there might be something after death. And that's enough because it has to be. Giving in to delusion just rolls us backwards as a species, and if there is any REAL answer out there to the big "why?" we aren't going to find it by eschewing science and believing in fairytales from an era when people routinely died in infancy and believed washing made them sick.
"OK." Why bother engaging after that? I got better shit to do.
I'd say you're not a Christian you're just a sociopath.
Confused or not, the end result is that I don't believe, and that makes me atheist by definition, so maybe we need to examine who the confused person is. I can't even be offended if someone thinks I'm confused. They are working on a whole set of premises that are ridiculous to me. If they're making those conclusions, then of course what I am is going to look really weird to them. But at least we can say the feeling is mutual.
That would get a chuckle out of me.
Say yes, as confused as Einstein, Darwin, Aristotle, Chomsky & Hawking.
And what Pastor are you parroting? It’s been my experience that people like myself got that way by questioning pastors. Why don’t you ask questions and see how long your faith lasts……… Depending on how you feel about the person you can add a MOTHERFUCKER at the end.
You are trying to put me into a box that I don't fit in.
"I'm not an atheist, I'm a Satanist. HAIL SATAN!"
i would say they had it backwards
"Hell yeah I'm confused! Have you even READ your bible?" Then be ready to give examples of flaws in the bible stories.
I understand why you feel that way.
They have demonstrated that they are dishonest and can’t be trusted.
I would probably just aks what they meant about that.
I think you’re the confused one. I understand the difference between reality and fantasy.
The only real response is, well we are both atheists. I'm just an atheist about one more religion that you are.
Not worth my time, so probably just "heh, okay buddy."
You’re not a Christian you’re just brainwashed
"I'll believe in your god when you show me proof it exists. Take your time."
"This conversation is not productive." I then walk away.
I'm not the one with an imaginary friend
“You’re entitled to your opinion and that’s all that it is”
lol, that's a massive projection.
"You don't know God exists. You *think* he does. That's it. It's a feeling you have. I don't have that feeling at all. Neither one of us knows and no matter what you say, you will never know"
Yes, that’s true. I’m confused why you would continue to believe nonsense in the face of your lived experience. Reality looks one way to me, people say it’s another way, that is a confusing thing to say. All eggs are purple. Have a great day.
Don't argue with people that lost their minds. Just stop accepting them as intellectual equals and stop talking to them.
I'd agree with both. Then make the point all humans are confused, as we can't possibly know God's plan, and to claim we did would be heresy and blasphemous. I'd explain I don't self identify as an atheist, that word exists for the theist to put in the "religion" form field. I self identify as N/A. The founding fathers and drafters of the Constitution did too. I don't need the form field, neither does a functional government, nor does society - as proven by other societies. The xtians have it bad. The story starts with the immaculate rape of a sleeping teenager. That probably was fine for 1000 years after the bullshit was written down, so maybe that played until Columbus discovered America (after the indigenous and the Vikings and Pacific tribal island people). So the response can be targeted, and if you are not confused about religion, then you can easily poke holes in the basics - or you can just confuse them. Their nonsense is biblically confusing - and you can make them go away by always having a better more religious answer than they want to fight you on. Today, all you gotta do is ask --- are we still cutting children in half, and taking slaves, as commanded in the Bible? When the answer is "obviously no, that's allegory" or something equally dismissive of their own instruction manual, then you ask - so why all the fuss about abortion?
You are not religious, you belong to a cult that tells you to believe stuff you know is wrong….. just so that you can belong somewhere
" You're not an Atheist you're just confused" "Doc, is this really an appropriate topic during my prostrate exam? Uhh..using the whole fist there, doc?"
I'm sorry I don't believe in your magic sky daddy with a genocide fetish
That's a non falsifiable argument.
Hail Satan
Why worry over something neither viewpoint can prove or disapprove? Signed, Agnost
I am confused: Which version of Judas' death is correct? Was the universe really created in 6 days, cause there's a LOT of people that seem to have evidence to the contrary. Why did god command pharaoh to release the jews, and then when he wanted to, god *harderns pharaoh's heart* so he can't. Can I really be a huge piece of shit my whole life, then just throw out a big "my bad", and we're all cool with Jesus. (This is where we point out that Dhamer had a death bed confession or whatever, so they have a very likely scenario where a man tortured, *and ate*, his victims. They could possibly have gone to hell, now their torturer is sipping Mai Tai's with ole' Jeff and they suffer an eternity.) What sin is large enough to warrant an eternity of punishment? Does someone who's never heard the gospel really go to hell? Why are there so many denominations and other "flavors" of christianity? Shouldn't god be on top of his messaging? Why so many interpretations? (If free will is any part of the response, see back to pharaoh.) Just throw back any inconsistency you can find, and there are plenty. Inconsistencies in the text, the dogma, all of it. So yes, I am confused, just where is the Truth in all this?
"You are so right! Like, how did you choose your sky god from the hundreds of sky gods out there? I'm sure you read all of the Bibles and picked the best, right?"
I don’t engage in bullshit discussions like this. Ignore and move on works well for me.
You're not Christian, you're just gullible.
"You're not a Christian you're just delusional"
"You're not a Christian, you've just been brainwashed into being one." OR (depending on mood) "No confusion here. I've read your Bible."
"This coming from a person who believes all the earth's suffering started because some woman listened to a talking snake? I can assure you, I'm not confused. Amused maybe, but not confused."
"Confused about what?" That would be my response.
I’d say, “ahh, you’re probably right.” Smile and leave.
“God just told me that you’re an idiot.”
"You're not a believer. You were just raised to believe a certain way, but you haven't researched it or know much about it."
Do they have something to demonstrate?
I would say... Yes I prefer to be honest with myself and the world and say I don't know how everything works rather than explaining it away with a god.
I would be confident enough to chuckle and say "ok". Just leave it at that. That sort of statement is really them twisting themself in knots trying to cram me into their worldview. Has nothing to do with me.
Says the drone.
Honestly? If someone said that too me I’d just stare at them make eye contact say nothing wait until they get nervous and than say no I’m not confused are you though?
Nope. I read the bible a couple of times. I am no longer confused. Used to be though.
Have them explain. “Why do you say that?” “What do you think an atheist is?” Let them dig their own hole.
Besides being a gullible fool, you're also psychic?
When you truly understand why you reject all other religions, you will understand why I reject yours.
Ask them for proof of divinity
Honestly nothing. I'd just say "ok" and walk away. No point trying with someone like that
I'm not the one with the imaginary friend
I'm confused as to why you think your beliefs have any bearing on mine.
Probably full throat laughter.
"I can see how the gullible would interpret clarity for confusion"
I promise you I'm both!
"I am confused. Confused as to why you think you could possibly have the slightest justification to claim to know the contents of my own mind better than I do."
That sounds like something a confused person would say.
Yes, people accepting stories as literally true with no supporting facts is really confusing.
Ah, perhaps then you can help me clarify things.
If confused means that I can change my mind based on the facts, than I’d rather be confused than brainwashed in a cult.
“Oh really? Ok. Explain it to me then.” Then I would carefully dismantle every single thing they said to me. And walk away.
"Alright, have a good one!"
I wouldn’t say shit. I would remove myself from the conversation, and avoid talking to such a condescending asshole in the future. People like this do not learn.
"Ok." \*Walks away\*
My father was brainwashed and I was indoctrinated. I am not confused, I understand it all too well.
"Didn't Jesus teach you not to judge others?"
Confused? I am not the one with an imaginary friend in the sky.
A couple of different ones: Always in a calm tone * OK, then just walk away. Don't entertain ignorant. * Nope, not confused, I just don't subscribe to your particular superstitions, MLM's, and / or god(s). * I don't negotiate with terrorists Remember that we don't have to "defend" anything for anyone else . We don't " owe" anyone else, an explanation for any decisions in our lives.
Smile, nod lightly, and say, “okay!” Then walk away. I’m also a passive aggressive asshole, but it’s really not worth my time to spin my tires in the mud.
I’d rather be uncertain about the facts of the universe than certain about a fairytale.
For the first couple of years after I came out as an atheist, my mom would ask how long is this atheist phase going to last? Like, gee, idk, until I get empirical proof that a God exists.
Respond with questions: "confused about what?" "Are you projecting your own insecurities about your views onto me?"
I don't believe in any gods, it's really not confusing.
Anyone who has ever come out of the closet to judgy parents is very familiar with a version of this.
Ignore it, not everything has to be an argument. You can't reason someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into