"Not believing in God is unnatural"

[EllieCee]

My younger sister had just started high school this year, and she attends a Catholic high school. For the past few days she's been telling me about her rather, slightly crazy theology teacher. Here are few quotes from said teacher:

 

"Not believing in God is unnatural."

"Atheists are insecure! The only reason they don't believe is because something bad happened to them!"

 

It shocked me that she's made these claims. I know my sister attends a Catholic school, but I attended a Catholic middle school, and none of my religion teachers have ever said anything like this. Statements like these make me so frustrated because it's so one-sided and generalized. Quite frankly, I know a number of atheists who stopped believing due to the simple fact that they simply no longer believed. Most of them are happy, well-adjusted people. Being agnostic, I want to know what her teacher thinks of them.

[clibbyjo]

Are your parents ok with a teacher(they are paying) saying things like this? I would talk to the principal and force her to say that is the teachers OPINION. Regardless if it is a Catholic school or not,that should not be allowed.

[deelaem]

Funny, I say the reason why a lot of people are religious is because of insecurity, but whatever.

clibbyjo is right, this teacher is putting her opinions in where they don't belong. I'm not sure that anything can be done about it, though, if it's a religious school. After all, what're the administrators going to say, that it's not unnatural to believe in God?

If you can, just keep exposing your sister to other points of view so she can make up her own mind.

[Guest Anonymous]

I am befuddled by the statement that "not believing in God is unnatural." What does that even mean? Is the teacher saying that the belief in God is innate - and, if so, who cares? Even if human beings have an innate tendency to believe in God, it doesn't follow that therefore God exists. Is the teacher using "unnatural" is a synonym for "bad"? Why is something that's "unnatural" supposed to be bad? Also, what is the distinction precisely between what is "natural" and "unnatural" in this context? How does one determine which thoughts or beliefs are "natural" and which are "unnatural"? Seems like there are a lot of questions a curious student could ask this theology teacher.

[emmiedahl]

Someone needs to have a talk with the principal and maybe even the school board. My kids went to Catholic schools and all faiths were respected. That is, I believe, the official policy.

[Kitty]

Unnatural? Babies are not born believing in God. People have to be taught that there is a God, and usually are very, very young. Christians tend to agree, but many won't admit it.

Is the teacher using "unnatural" is a synonym for "bad"? Why is something that's "unnatural" supposed to be bad? Also, what is the distinction precisely between what is "natural" and "unnatural" in this context? How does one determine which thoughts or beliefs are "natural" and which are "unnatural"?

^this too.

Also, I have many insecurities, but I did not turn to atheism because of that. I daresay that conservative Christianity made me MORE anxious and insecure, and it's in my more insecure/depressed/anxious times when I want to turn toward religion again. I didn't turn to atheism because something bad happened. Nothing bad happened. What did happen was, I simply realized that Christianity was not for me.

[SquirrelySquirrel]

Unnatural? Babies are not born believing in God. People have to be taught that there is a God, and usually are very, very young.

This is just what I was going to say. Everyone is born an atheist. I've been an atheist my entire life. I'd love to know what this idiot thinks of someone like me who has never believed, regardless of what has happened to me in my life. I have insecurities just like probably every other human on the planet does, but I wouldn't (nor would those who know me) describe myself as insecure. I'm quite confident in myself and my lack of beliefs, thanks.

[Swamptribe]

Perhaps, a good idea would be to confront the teacher, and offer to give a talk on what atheists are actually all about to the class. Make the offer in writing, and send a copy to the school principle too.

[Kitten]

Never having sex (by deliberate choice) is "unnatural." Perhaps the teacher could also help the Catholic priests and nuns with their theology... :D

[lilwriter85]

My younger sister had just started high school this year, and she attends a Catholic high school. For the past few days she's been telling me about her rather, slightly crazy theology teacher. Here are few quotes from said teacher:

"Not believing in God is unnatural."

"Atheists are insecure! The only reason they don't believe is because something bad happened to them!"

It shocked me that she's made these claims. I know my sister attends a Catholic school, but I attended a Catholic middle school, and none of my religion teachers have ever said anything like this. Statements like these make me so frustrated because it's so one-sided and generalized. Quite frankly, I know a number of atheists who stopped believing due to the simple fact that they simply no longer believed. Most of them are happy, well-adjusted people. Being agnostic, I want to know what her teacher thinks of them.

I have heard statements like that numerous times from people who try to give reasons to why people are atheists. Some atheists have said that the reason they don't believe in a deity is because of the bad things that go on in the world. There was an atheist blog that I used to read and the blogger said that often people asked if the reason he didn't believe in God was because something bad happend to him. He said that his response to him was that nothing bad had ever happened to him in his life and that the reason he didn't believe in God was because he felt that there wasn't really proof and that science made sense to him.

[emmiedahl]

Some people are religious because bad things happened to them, and some people are atheist because bad things happened to them. I have a friend who was raised in a fundie cult and is atheist.

Having bad things happen to you makes you question. That does not mean that the answer is wrong. I know that is not the only reason people become atheist; I just wanted to point out that there is no bad way to develop a world view.

[Lillian]

At my Catholic HS our religion classes involved eating feasts in the chapel, meditating, learning relaxation techniques, learning about different beliefs, MBTI personality tests, and volunteering at local charities. Occasionally we read bible stories. They were pretty good classes!

That said, we always had the crazy religious teacher, who made similar claims, but most people knew to take what they said with a grain of salt and not take it too seriously.

[Elle]

"Not believing in God is unnatural."

"Atheists are insecure! The only reason they don't believe is because something bad happened to them!"

Ha! Tell these things to my 5-year-old self who was banned from Sunday School because I had questions I wasn't supposed to have at a time when I didn't even know not believing was an option, and yet I just knew (and then went into denial about not believing because I didn't learn for a few more years that believing in nothing was really possible).

[Vex]

If you go to a religious school, you'll get the odd religious nutter.

I attended a very religious Lutheran high school for a while. Once an archbishop came to lecture us at chapel and said "Atheists are tools of the devil, sent to lead good Christians astray." The principal approved that nutbag desipte the kids at the school being largely agnostic or atheist. I hate it when schools allow these opinions to get out, they have to know it's offensive to some students.

[JesusFightClub]

If you go to a religious school, you'll get the odd religious nutter.

I attended a very religious Lutheran high school for a while. Once an archbishop came to lecture us at chapel and said "Atheists are tools of the devil, sent to lead good Christians astray." The principal approved that nutbag desipte the kids at the school being largely agnostic or atheist. I hate it when schools allow these opinions to get out, they have to know it's offensive to some students.

Yes.

We had one service where my Muslim friend was in tears after the visiting speaker told about the delights facing false religions and their adherents in hell. With particular reference to Islam.

And the time that we had to pray for the souls of the IRA. Not that they would fully participate in the peace process and stop blowing shit up, but that they would turn from Catholicism. To this day I am ashamed I didn't walk out of either of those sermons.

There was also the infamous one about how "mongols" were closer to God than normal people because even though they were tragically handicapped they could have a childlike faith.

I am amazed looking back on this. It appeared stupid to me at the time, but I can't quite believe I didn't realise how wrong it was.

[sugaree]

There was also the infamous one about how "mongols" were closer to God than normal people because even though they were tragically handicapped they could have a childlike faith.

I believe they probably used the outdated term "Mongolians," no? Although this one makes for a pretty enjoyable image of the childlike faith of the slaughtering hordes.

[nuri]

I believe they probably used the outdated term "Mongolians," no? Although this one makes for a pretty enjoyable image of the childlike faith of the slaughtering hordes.

The term was mongoloids, actually. And OMG, my roommates grandmother still used that term. We gently corrected her on the usage.

[Elle]

The term was mongoloids, actually. And OMG, my roommates grandmother still used that term. We gently corrected her on the usage.

I've got some very very racist relatives (which is really weird because most of my cousins are of mixed race, so I just can't understand how people who throw around slurs and hate-speech would be willing to have sex with those they hate) who use "mongoloid" to refer to any non-whites who have less than beauty-peageant looks, though none of them think they'd count by their own definition even though most of them are so ugly I question if we have any genetics in common. It does no good to explain to people who think slurs so bad I can't make myself even type them are fine for toddlers to learn that "mongoloid" is racist too, and that they're using it so completely wrong that it might not even be "the same word." Just talking about them makes me feel my brain is dying a bit, so if this makes no sense, I don't blame you. It takes having grown up around them to understand the twisted non-logic it takes to make this all make sense (hint: it usually is just willful hypocrisy).

Yet every single one of them looks down on me and calls me a "white devil" because I'm not a Christian. Some of them think that different races are proof god doesn't approve of biracial relationships or people or else he'd have made them all the color. Re-read the first line I wrote. See what I mean about hypocrisy? They're exempt. Even though they claim it's unnatural for people of different races to be together, it naturally doesn't apply when they're sleeping with someone of a different race and having babies left an right.

Sometimes I wonder if being hateful is a natural part of human nature with tolerance and acceptance being what's unnatural and learned, or if it's the other way around. While I've got some Christian friends who are wonderful and loving and accepting, looking back on my life, I've known far more Christians to be bigots who say that being anything other than Christian is wrong, unnatural, and that the non-Christians are doomed to burn in hell forever no matter how much good they do in life, and far more atheists and agnostics who say that it is PROBABLY unnatural to be a Christian, but it's hard to tell when it's indisputable that indoctrination usually begins right at birth.

[JesusFightClub]

I believe they probably used the outdated term "Mongolians," no? Although this one makes for a pretty enjoyable image of the childlike faith of the slaughtering hordes.

No, neither mongoloids nor Mongolians. It's "mongol" where I am from (in oldfashioned usage), with a small m to distinguish from the Mongols. You are right, the mental image is amusing though it didn't occur to me at the time ;)

The preaching guy was one of the teachers at our school. He talked about "The little mongol children" his pal had adopted and how they "understood right from wrong" in a way "so called educated people could not". Really when I look back at some aspects of my childhood education, it gies me the dry boak.

Also, you will hear to this day the insult "Ya f*ckin mong" if someone does something stupid. :(

[dawbs]

I believe they probably used the outdated term "Mongolians," no? Although this one makes for a pretty enjoyable image of the childlike faith of the slaughtering hordes.

I could be off base here, but Mongoloid is also an older term for people w/ Down's Syndrome.

(and yes, for very racist reasons--it was that "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" theory--assumed that these infants stopped developing at the 'not yet evolved into white people' stage--Gould's _the Mismeasure of a man_ explains it well)

[nuri]

I could be off base here, but Mongoloid is also an older term for people w/ Down's Syndrome.

(and yes, for very racist reasons--it was that "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" theory--assumed that these infants stopped developing at the 'not yet evolved into white people' stage--Gould's _the Mismeasure of a man_ explains it well)

Yep, exactly.

To be fair, I think my roommates grandmother literally forgot what the actual term was and resorted to the one she grew up with.

[dawbs]

Yep, exactly.

To be fair, I think my roommates grandmother literally forgot what the actual term was and resorted to the one she grew up with.

I give quite a bit of pass to people for merely wrong terminology (especially since, depending on who you talk to 'Downs' isn't as accurate as trisomy-21, etc).

(I mean, my gramps can't remember the 'right' words for women/minorities/etc (actually, as of today, he can't remember where he is or who I am :( ), but he's remarkably mostly-immune from the 'generational racism' that so many men his age have (and you know it from how he deals w/ the staff around him. He may offend someone by saying "that little colored girl' (or slightly worse, depending on the day)--but that nurse knows that he's not an ass. While the patient down the hall who says everything right is still a racist ass)