Ngl, this can be a sensitive topic to people. Religious trauma is real and many religious people deny this. I think it's important to consider and remember that no two experiences are identical. A person born, raised, staying, and then dying in a religion will have a different experience and perspective from someone entering a religion. A person entering a religion has a different experience and perspective than someone leaving a religion. A person leaving a religion has a different experience from someone who's never been in a religion before. Etc. etc.

Keep this in mind as I explain:

I have never believed in Santa Clause (I'm not comparing Santa to God, I'm comparing the effects of beliefs, so bare with me). My mom believed in Santa when she was a kid. Her husband believed in Santa as a child. Their son used to believe in Santa (I hope he doesn't anymore, though because he's a teen, but I don't live near them anymore). When my mom's husband was old enough to understand that Santa wasn't real, every Christmas, he would start to try to catch his parents in the act of giving him presents and it became a fun game for him. For him, Santa was just a fun way for kids to celebrate Christmas. As such, he carried on this tradition with his son. His son seemed to enjoy it and as far as I know, he doesn't seem to be traumatized, so I think I can safely assume that either he still believes in Santa or he hopefully doesn't, but he took it well. My mom, on the other hand, discovered Santa wasn't real because of some older kid bullies and the event caused her to distrust my grandma and think she was a liar. This caused my mom to raise her two children (me and my sister) without ever teaching us about Santa Clause. Any Santa's we'd see out and about were just celebratory figures that represented the historical figure St. Nicholas, not much different than celebrating Jesus's birthday but knowing that the story of Bethlehem wasn't a current event. For those who grow up believing in Santa, they perceive that people like me must've been so sad to miss out on the magic of Santa, but for me, as someone who never grew up believing in Santa, I don't feel like I missed out on anything, and, in some ways, I feel like not believing in Santa as a kid helped me value honesty and I never lost the magic of Christmas by thinking "Christmas is for kids" because as a kid, I was taught that Christmas is for everyone and it's about giving, and not whatever Santa was going to bring me. We have different perspectives due to different upbringings.

My mom's husband and their son represents those who are religious from birth to death or for those who join religion.

My mom represents those who leave religion.

I represent those who were never in religion.

I never felt I missed out on anything and instead I feel like not believing in Santa helped me to be honest and helped me remain appreciative of Christmas as an adult. At the same time, I don't think it's my business if someone wants to raise their child with believing in Santa. This is probably a similarity to how many atheists who grow up without a belief in God and are raised that way feel about God. I'm sure most don't care if you believe in God because they understand that that's not their business and they can't enforce their beliefs on you.

My mom's husband and their son had good experiences with the belief in Santa, so of course they'll support parents who teach their children about Santa. Likewise, for those who feel connected with God and/or religion, it can be an amazing experience.

But, what about people like my mom? When older bullies told her the truth about Santa, she was crushed. She harbored bitterness towards it and perceived it as a lie. So she knew she wouldn't teach her children about Santa. Her actions stemmed from hurt and pain. These are the type of atheists that tend to attack religious people, Christians, and/or theists the most. Whether they stop believing in God or they just didn't feel happy and comfortable in the religion they were brought up in, they end up leaving the religion, and with them, they take their resentment, bitterness, and pains that combine to create traumatic responses. If they were unhappy in their ex-religion or just stopped believing in God, then they probably felt pressured into acting in ways that they may not have wanted to act out or doing things they didn't want to do. For example, in my ex-cult, I was forced to dress formally at church every Saturday and I absolutely hated it. I had to nag my friends about joining my cult or else I'd go to Hell. Etc., you get my point, hopefully. These little things add up and create a mess of trauma. Moreover, if you're LGBTQ+, that religious trauma just increases.

Just as my traumatized mother would speak up and say, "Teaching kids that Santa is real is wrong because it teaches them to lie," a religiously traumatized atheist may say things like "God isn't real," or "You believe in a lie." Try to understand that these comments and seemingly mean and rude behaviors actually come from a stream of so much pain. Don't take it personally. Oftentimes we, as humans, can forget that it's okay to be different, think differently, and believe differently and it's worse when we have personal negative association to a topic. We group people together in a lump and it helps our brains dehumanize them to think it's okay to bully them if someone like them hurt you.

Let me be clear: This doesn't make it right or okay, but you asked why they can't see the difference between a hieratic or a Christian and the answer is because you're talking about very specific atheists who have been through a lot of pain that was caused by religious people, so to them, they are all the same.

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anonymous 2 weeks ago

ever buddy knose they aint no sanitary clause..we got trump, tho.

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anonymous 1 week ago