Responding to "They're So Stupid."

[Cheyenne K]

Excuse the title.

In school recently there seems to be more and more conversations putting down God or Christians in general. Some of them have been said friends of mine who know I'm a Christian and it is really beginning to annoy me. Whenever they say this, all I can do is just stand there. I don't know what to say, or do, or anything. And yet, later, I think to myself "I should have explained this" or "I should have said that." But when it comes to the actual event I just feel cold, sad for the speaker, and a bit offended. But never do I think of anything to say and never do I say anything. And I hate not doing so. In the Bible, Jesus says "If you are ashamed of me, I shall be ashamed of you before my Father." I don't feel necessarily ashamed, but a a loss for what to say or how to say it. It just seems so overwhelming to defend Christ before a sea of people who don't even care if there is a God. Or how to at least plant a seed that humans don't have all the answers to everything or that God isn't stupid. Do any teens know how this feels and how to defend the Lord to their peers?

 

[bigllama]

A lot of people who put Christianity down don't know anything about Christianity. They think that we are boring, self-righteous people who follow a set of rules and look down on those different from us.

Kindly inform that they are ignorant, stereotyping dummies and that they should get a clue about Christianity before ranting on it.

 

[7ruth]

Yeah I know how it feels sort of.


I got into this huge arguement with this one girl because I was defending christianity. Its sfe to say that she lost, and she has hated me ever since :bigfrown . She would mess around with my gf and spread rumors about me, she even got her bf to make an attempt to beat me up. People like this are extremely closed minded, its really hard to get to them. The only tihng I'm concerned about is the bystanders, becuase it makes christianity look extremely bad if you get silenced.

Just read the bible a lot. Ask any questions you have at all here or someone else. You just need knowledge.

Also this verse sort of encourages me, it sort of explains why we don't fit in sometimes.

JOHN 15: 18

"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you

 

[ChattyMute]

A lot of people who put Christianity down don't know anything about Christianity. They think that we are boring, self-righteous people who follow a set of rules and look down on those different from us.

Kindly inform that they are ignorant, stereotyping dummies and that they should get a clue about Christianity before ranting on it.

Excuse me, but you're the one who is ignorant on this point. Those people are a minority. I've never met anyone 'putting down' Christianity who wasn't a Christian at some point or at least read the Bible, which rules out the ignorant part. Yes, there are some people out there like that, but there are much, much more who aren't.

By the way, name-calling accomplishes nothing but starting a verbal, immature fight.

OP, what exactly are they saying? Things similar to what bigllama was saying or pointing out things about the Bible that they don't agree with (might say is stupid), etc?

Also, you can defend all you want against your peers, but I doubt it is going to change any of their views or accomplish much. Especially if they are so ignorant as to be saying things similar to what bigllama mentioned.

Or how to at least plant a seed that humans don't have all the answers to everything or that God isn't stupid.

Honestly, the only people I've met who think we have all the answers are theists (of a variety of religions). I'm sure there are some non-theists out there who think it as well though.
If someone thinks the idea of God is stupid, the only person who can change their belief is said person. Nothing much you can do about it.

 

[Cheyenne K]

OP, what exactly are they saying? Things similar to what bigllama was saying or pointing out things about the Bible that they don't agree with (might say is stupid), etc?

Basically that both Christianity and Christians are stupid is the general point. It's most of what I hear, but different people have gone into different depths, most of which have gone away from question to downright bashing my beliefs and its followers, which includes myself. It will go from different points such as homosexuality, the actual need of belief, the Bible being to constricting, abortion, evolution, etc. A lot of political issues get dragged in. I wouldn't mind explaining if it was a debate and the other person was interested in an explanation, but they aren't and are basically just freely bashing my beliefs.

Excuse me, but you're the one who is ignorant on this point. Those people are a minority. I've never met anyone 'putting down' Christianity who wasn't a Christian at some point or at least read the Bible, which rules out the ignorant part. Yes, there are some people out there like that, but there are much, much more who aren't.

I do realize this wasn't directed specifically at me and excuse me if I am butting in, but most of the people that I met guilty of bashing Christianity/Christians were only Christian at one point in a ver loose sense of the word. And they have little to no knowledge of the Bible other than the basic story of Adam and Eve. While I'm not stating that all non-theists are like this, in this particular case, the ones I am referring to are.

 

[bigllama]

The second part of my post was a joke lol.

But the people I know that do put down Christianity are pretty clueless. My friend thought that we go listen to sermons from priests who are old men wearing long white robes and sing hymns written from 1743 every week for service. Another time I mentioned that I went on a week-long missions trip to Mexico, and some guy accused Christians of "using people's donations so that they can go on expensive vacations".

 

[ChattyMute]

bigllama, didn't look like a joke.

What part of the country are you two from? I'm from the bible belt, so I guess I assume most people are Christan or those who aren't in America were at one point. I guess if you lived in a place like New York or in the UK it would be different.

Well, are they bashing or mocking? From what I've seen, most people can't tell the difference between the two if it is their own beliefs getting mocked/bashed. And I'm guilty of this as well. If they really are bashing stand up for yourself. If they are mocking just to have fun, there really isn't anything you can do about it.

 

[Cheyenne K]

Well that explains it. Heh. I'm from New York. Most people here are Catholics who knowvery little about Christianity due to foreign priests with heavy accents and lack of biblical explanation. And given I live in the suburbs/city area, you don't exactly have a surplus of people wanting to read the Bible.

But I'd say it is most definitely bashing for the most part. I do acknowledge getting mocked on occasion. But I generally don't consider it mockery if Christianity is point blank referred to as "a stupid, old-fashioned belief" and all Christians are referred to as "idiots" with elaborate complaints and (mostly uneducated) explanations about why.

 

[Nick]

Excuse the title.

In school recently there seems to be more and more conversations putting down God or Christians in general. Some of them have been said friends of mine who know I'm a Christian and it is really beginning to annoy me. Whenever they say this, all I can do is just stand there. I don't know what to say, or do, or anything. And yet, later, I think to myself "I should have explained this" or "I should have said that." But when it comes to the actual event I just feel cold, sad for the speaker, and a bit offended. But never do I think of anything to say and never do I say anything. And I hate not doing so. In the Bible, Jesus says "If you are ashamed of me, I shall be ashamed of you before my Father." I don't feel necessarily ashamed, but a a loss for what to say or how to say it. It just seems so overwhelming to defend Christ before a sea of people who don't even care if there is a God. Or how to at least plant a seed that humans don't have all the answers to everything or that God isn't stupid. Do any teens know how this feels and how to defend the Lord to their peers?

Even though I live in the Bible belt of Sydney, Christians do still get it a lot. In general, people who put us down for being legalistic sexists who sing boring old hymns who try to impose their self-righteous view on others obviously are saying this out of ignorance. That's what it mostly is - ignorance. If they truely had read the Bible and knew what it meant they would not be saying those things. Sure, they still might not believe, but they would actually know what we are on about. They might also feel threatened. Think about the message of the gospel and it makes sense.

I know what you mean when you feel threatened by these people, especially when they're in large numbers and you are at a complete loss as to what to say. I would say at the start of every day pray about it, that if this kind of situation arises that God would equip you with the knowlege to answer these people and to not be ashamed of the gospel. This is not a passive thing - actually read the Bible about this also.

 

[JeffShott]

Happens to me, too. And, what's worse, it's at the hand of most of my closest friends.

First thing I do is try to explain everything intellectually. No one has every beat me in an actual debate on Christianity; but, sometimes all people wanna do is bash God, so they won't even listen. Most of the time, right as I've won the actual argument, they get all quite. Soon after that, though, it's just a slew of insults and jokes.

Depending on the person, you can do one of two things:

1) Be reasonable and explain things.
2) Pray.

And, always a combination of the two.

I know that no one wants to read a super long post on this, so I tried to keep it short. However, I am pretty experienced in this, so anyone is free to PM me with any specific questions.

In Christ,
Jeff.

 

[Nick]

Thanks Jeff, some good advice there.

I don't mind intelligent debate between myself and an athiest, but what Is really hard is when someone just wants to bash God or Christianity, no matter how illogical their bashing is, even if they have lost - especially if they had lost. Indeed prayer is very useful here.

 

[Cheyenne K]

Happens to me, too. And, what's worse, it's at the hand of most of my closest friends.

That's where my biggest problem is. My close friends know I'm Christian and they still insist on doing this at times, which really annoys me and makes it very uncomfortable for me, more so than just random acquaintences. Sometimes we are able to get into rational debates about the subject, but after their rantings, it really doesn't help and reminds me about what my pastor said about, "Winning the argument, but not the soul."

I don't mind intelligent debate between myself and an athiest, but what Is really hard is when someone just wants to bash God or Christianity, no matter how illogical their bashing is, even if they have lost - especially if they had lost. Indeed prayer is very useful here.

I can easily do a debate with an atheist as well. But when they start bashing rather than debating it's hard to get a word in edgewise to make any sense, let alone a decent argument.

 

[JeffShott]

Thanks Jeff, some good advice there.

I don't mind intelligent debate between myself and an athiest, but what Is really hard is when someone just wants to bash God or Christianity, no matter how illogical their bashing is, even if they have lost - especially if they had lost. Indeed prayer is very useful here.

Exactly my stance, bro.

Happens to me, too. And, what's worse, it's at the hand of most of my closest friends.


That's where my biggest problem is. My close friends know I'm Christian and they still insist on doing this at times, which really annoys me and makes it very uncomfortable for me, more so than just random acquaintences. Sometimes we are able to get into rational debates about the subject, but after their rantings, it really doesn't help and reminds me about what my pastor said about, "Winning the argument, but not the soul."

 

[nalini-dahlia]

(I know this is kinda old, but I had to say something XD)

Almost all of my best friends have changed to atheist and agnostic. Sad thing is, they're too ashamed to say anything about, and I still haven't tried to witness to them! :verysad

My dad talked to me about something pretty interesting recently. He told me that everything we do depends on our faith in God. When you really think about it, not saying anything to your friends really doesn't make your faith in God look so great to your friends who do know that you're a Christian. They might be testing you to see if you're really what you say you are.

With people who don't even want answers and just wanna bash on Christians and Christianity, you just have to ask them what the point of even bashing on Christians is. Typically, when someone insults something or someone for the sake of bullying/bashing, they have some pretty low self-asteem and are probably a little jealous.

 

[Nick]

My dad talked to me about something pretty interesting recently. He told me that everything we do depends on our faith in God. When you really think about it, not saying anything to your friends really doesn't make your faith in God look so great to your friends who do know that you're a Christian. They might be testing you to see if you're really what you say you are.

Interesting point. I think somewhere in 1 Peter it talks about suffering, and basically Christians are expected to suffer in this world. So my challenge is that if we are not suffering, then we are not living out our faith as much as God wants us to. When I say suffering in this context, I mean more persecuation and people just bashing christianity, not necessarily stuff like depression etc.

 

[nalini-dahlia]

My dad talked to me about something pretty interesting recently. He told me that everything we do depends on our faith in God. When you really think about it, not saying anything to your friends really doesn't make your faith in God look so great to your friends who do know that you're a Christian. They might be testing you to see if you're really what you say you are.

Interesting point. I think somewhere in 1 Peter it talks about suffering, and basically Christians are expected to suffer in this world. So my challenge is that if we are not suffering, then we are not living out our faith as much as God wants us to. When I say suffering in this context, I mean more persecuation and people just bashing christianity, not necessarily stuff like depression etc.

Agreement-ness!

 

[NathanJ]

I've heard as many variations of "they're so stupid" in the past, usually when the school chaplain/principal is talking about God or Jesus front of a large amount of students. I just tend to ignore them. Though.. I've never been in a debate about Christianity, so yeah..

It might be a bit different because I go to a Christian school, but anyway. It's also the only private school in the area, many parents pull their kids out of the "bad school" & enroll them to our school, hoping to get them a better education etc.