"holier than thou...?"

[Trillipse]

my family are all quite relgiously-oriented, and absolutely lovely, as opposed to "in-your-face" with it.

Most of the time.

However, my brother in law, who always seemed a little opinionated and egotistical and self-serving underneath the god thing (in my opinion, though not only in mine) and who goes around doing "good works",

anyway, he, after i recently showed myself to be All-Too-Human, (I'm possibly the black sheep, having had some personal problems) said "I don't want you to think that We're up Here, and You're down there", after a little religio-spiel.

Now, I have no issues with religiosity, and think the world of my family, but i do have problems with that one statement, because I had never for a moment thought that my own personal issues made me a worse person than someone else, and felt deeply condescended to.

Am I wrong?

[China Doll]

Nope, I see your point entirely and would probably feel the same way. However, your man may have thought he was being nice and have no idea how irksome it was to you. Different perspectives and all that and if you're inclined to dislike him anyway then you're not going to be inclined to see the positive side of the statement he made, (like I said, I see your point but we do have to include the other perspective).

If it irks you that much then say something to him about how he made you feel and why but bear in mind, he may honestly have thought he was just being nice. If you can let it go, then roll your eyes and just get on with it. To be honest, if he's not much of a factor in your life anyway, it may not be worth your time or emotional investment.

[Theland1]

Wouldn't it be better to ALSO post this in R & S ?
Might help.

[andy-hughes]

As an atheist, one of the major problems I have is not with Christianity, but with Christians.

It's the 'I've got something you need ...' trend in their attitude that bugs me so much.

I have absolutely no problem with anyone who wants to smooth their way in this life with a belief in another one, and that a 'saviour' is waiting for them - all cool so far.

But as a non-believer, there is a definite air of smugness in the more overt exponent of 'the message'.

However, it does all depend on which branch of 'the faith' you like to favour as the 'correct one' - as one Catholic said to another - "How many Protestants does it take to change a light bulb?" "Doesn't matter," was the reply "They all live in eternal darkness ..."

And that's before we get onto the thousands of other beliefs past and present.

Grin, and nod, they like that.

Oh, and start every answer with " And d'know ..." - they love that!

[NiceCupOfTea]

What on earth did you do to bring on that little bit of religio-spiel?

We in my family are all Catholics (better spell it with a 'C' in case I get, y'know, 'spieled at') but of the normal variety. Even our Priest is quite human. However, sometimes some people just have issues with their own self-image that they see as being imperfect and then pick out those things in other people.

I'm sure even my Father would say this - sod them.