I made a new Instagram account so I cam keep up with my friends and school events.
I put some things about me in my bio, such as me in my schools band and how I'm an athlete. I added atheist because many kids add Bible verses to their bios and I thought, if they can, then why can't I add how I'm a nonbeliever?
Today, I was talking to my friend and her boyfriend about my instagram account, and they saw my bio and said I should remove it because it's offensive.
They have Bible verses in their bios, isn't that offensive to other religions?
I had no choice but to remove it (the reason was so they can shut up about it). Like they started asking why I am an atheist. I felt violated. I was going to ask my friend why she has a bible verse on her bio, but I didn't. Luckily the bell rang so we had to go to class.
Why are atheists seen as offensive? We are human beings, we just don't follow a religion. I felt violated because they said I should remove atheist in my bio, just because it offends the religious kids in my class.
I am not in a religious country (I'm in Canada), but my school is full of religious kids. We even have a Christian club and an Islam club (whoch I really don't care). My friends are Christians and go to church every Sunday. I don't say anything cause it's their choice and I respect them.
What should I do?
Edit: I put it back, I'm not letting insecure people tell me what to put on my page.
Edit two: Woah, I did not expect this to blow up! Thank you all for your support ♥
About a month ago I made a post about my Coptic Orthodox boyfriend choosing the church over his relationship after his priest told him in no uncertain terms that we would not be allowed to marry. I received so much support from this community and a few insights that I otherwise would have missed, and I’m so grateful for that. This might not be the update some people would hope for. I had a LOT of people telling me I dodged a bullet or that I am better off without, and I DO hear and understand that perspective. However, I’m a romantic and an optimist, and maybe still a bit young and stupid.
We tentatively got back together after only a few days with the agreement to explore his beliefs more thoroughly. At first it was very tense, but we both wanted so badly to make this work. Our breakup caused so much dissonance for him that he has started to question things in his religion. Over the next few weeks, we watched some documentaries about evolution, combed through the Bible for the (many, many) inconsistencies, and dug into what was really important for him in his religion. He has been so open minded and we’ve had some important and honest conversations about our beliefs and our future. A few weeks into this, he said he feels comfortable walking away from his church and towards a future with me. He still considers himself a Christian at this point, but he has started deconstructing. He's been visiting different churches to understand the differences between his religion and other sects of Christianity, he's been talking to people of different religions to get new perspectives, and he's researching to figure out what he really believes versus what he's just been told to believe. It’s a really hard process, especially when he still lives in an echo chamber. We are starting the immigration process by the end of May.
We still have a lot to navigate here, but I go forward feeling a bit more hopeful. I don’t know if he will ever been an atheist, but the way he has handled this since we reconciled has been really encouraging. I think we will be okay. We don’t plan on having kids for quite a while to give ourselves time to work through this in full without bringing kids into the picture. If we end up not being able to make things work, at least we’ll know we did everything possible to try. Our priority right now is to close the distance so we can give this relationship the best possible chance to work. Getting him out of a super religious environment is a happy side effect of that.
Thank you again to everyone who gave me support on my last post. I won’t pretend to have full confidence in this relationship working out, but he is my best friend. I feel like I owe it to myself to try.
