Having a religious family can be annoying.

[Elchikaah Haly]

To YL: If you feel this topic is too, well, controversial, feel free to erase it, lol

And nope, this topic isn't about religion bashing or praising, but rather that some of their followers can be annoying, that's all, lol.

Well you might say that I'm like 0.5% religious, like I believe there is an unnatural force out of there, but I don't particularly follow anything or a particular religion. I am also good with whatever religion people follow, unless they try to shove it to your face.

Right now, there is a second degree grandma from the US who's visiting us, and, yes, she is a hardcore Christianity follower. Just earlier, she and my first degree grand-ma (I recall they are sisters) got into some kind of argument about creationism and the like, but my first grand-ma is a hardcore Buddhist, and the argument continued (though they weren't fighting or anything, but yeah).

Then my second grand-ma turned to me and I was thinking: "oh no, please don't ask me about creationism, pleasepleaseplease...". But of course, she asked me: "Where do you think humans come from?" I was too lazy to answer and just said: "Dunno.". And then she was: "You believe humans come from monkeys, right?". I replied: "Well, yup."

She seemed to feel like insulted and stuff and was kind of laughing. I told her: "Well, you believe what you want, and I believe what I want."

But that's not the only thing. Whenever some family from the US come to visit us, they will always try to shove their religion to us. Well, not all of them do that, but I'd say half of them do. Just last year, when my sister got her new son, one gift from them was a bible for kids. I mean, what. And once, some second degree uncle came, and I was the one who brought him back to the airport, and guess what the whole trip discussion from home-to-airport was about? God, and Jesus. And at the end, he gave me a Bible.

We already respect the fact they are hardcore religious people, why can't they just accept the fact that we'll always have our own religion (or nothing at all)? No one of us ever tried to shove Buddhism on them and I never tried to shove Science on them, so why do they keep trying?

That was my rant of the day, lol.

[starlightmeteor]

I'm guessing your family members in the U.S. are the type that likes to share what they think is important, so they might not think what they are doing as annoying.

When I tend to meet people who are open to sharing their religion or their own beliefs or values, they tend to tell me what they believe in without me asking them. It just happens, and politics and religious conversations just kind of randomly pop up (at least when I was at university hanging around in the common rooms). I'm open to listening to what they have to say, but if they are not just my acquaintances but are fairly close to me, I do remind them that they need to try to be open to hearing what my opinion/view is. If they are just acquaintances, I usually don't talk about my thoughts on the subject at hand. It's difficult enough to find someone who is open to hear about such matters from another perspective to begin with. And then there's group pressure =p

[Elchikaah Haly]

It's good that you share your views with them, as long as they accept your views as well. The main problem with my family is that they are pretty closed as well, like they hate gay people and they can be racists as heck, especially toward black people, which irks me to no end.

[vikkers]

My mom's Buddhist too, but sometimes she's extreme. She does contradict herself and I tell her, so now she's more careful and open-minded.

But I find that Buddhism is more of a way of life. Some religious people let religion control themselves and cannot follow or understand what the religion tells them to do, so I classify them as "people who have a religion just for the sake of escape."

My family is all Buddhist, so are most Asians, but majority of them just pray for peace and protection. That is NOT the way to do it.
You... gotta DO IT. You have to find the solution for yourself. Life I said, it's a way of life. God's not gonna save you from a bullet. He has other people to care about.

Anyways, my two cents.

[Elchikaah Haly]

I've actually never seen an extreme Buddhist (most of my family and other Asians I know in Canada are Buddhist as well), well maybe except the monks, but even so those monks never really tried to speak of religion with me, they just say to be nice with people so karma will be good, lol. So hearing about extreme Buddhists seems weird to me, haha!

Vikki is right about the religion, though. Buddhism is more a philosophy than a religion (and fun fact, apparently it's the only religion to recognize other religions), so I'm glad most of my family are in it, lol. Though yeah, my two first grandmas pray a lot, my mom does it sometimes too but they know that praying isn't enough to get you anywhere!

[vikkers]

Jun 28, 2014 22:00:48 GMT Elchikaah Haly said:

I've actually never seen an extreme Buddhist (most of my family and other Asians I know in Canada are Buddhist as well), well maybe except the monks, but even so those monks never really tried to speak of religion with me, they just say to be nice with people so karma will be good, lol. So hearing about extreme Buddhists seems weird to me, haha!

Well, my mom's extreme in that she tries to preach it. It's annoying at times, because it's usually the same logic over and over again, but I guess it won't stick unless you keep reminding yourself of the logic.


But yeah, a way of life. Buddhism is pretty neutral, but some people mess it up. Well, there's always people like that in the world.

[Dubbie]

I'm not religious (I almost got myself into Scientology but it didn't work on me...)
My mother used to practice Buddhism, but once she had my kid sister, she stopped. She still perform traditional things for the Chinese New Year and stuff.

My flatmate is Christian and she commits 10% of her wages to her Church. I always joke to her about it but she doesn't get defensive. Once we had a talk about if a person had cancer and has passed away from its cause, do they go to heaven; also if someone had committed suicide, would they go to heaven? (Deep, I know...)

I am glad that my parents didn't push their ideologies on me when I was growing up, they just want their kids to be successful in life.

Quoting Elchi's comment about parents do not like black people, my parents are the same. Well my dad is more extreme... He saw me talking to one of my childhood friend (who was mix raced) and he gave my friend a dirty look. He told me off for talking to him and not to hang out with any black people in future. My mum defended me because she knew my friend. I was so angry about that, my dad is so closed minded about this. Rarrrrr.

However, I hate when I see the news about a racist attack against Muslims in the UK. Or the other way around. It irks me. There was a fatal incident that happened last year against a British soldier committed by two Muslims. In the end, people will always use religion as their defense.

[Dioji]

My family tried to be religious but it really just didn't suit us. At the end of day, whether we went to church or not, our lives weren't very improved from the experience.

My friend's mother is very religious to the point of denial, I think. I think she clings to it so much because truly, she doesn't have much faith but that's just me. She shoved it in my face all the time and went as far as to say that the way I did worship was "putting God to sleep". I mean, what the heck? Even my friend thought I didn't go to church because "it was too boring".

I'm just so emotionally exhausted when I deal with her. And it pretty much is just her that brings my blood to a boil.

[Elchikaah Haly]

Dub: Actually it's not my parents who are the closed people, but my religious family, haha! But yeah, it must suck to have a direct member of your family constantly behind your back and spying on you just to make sure you don't meet certain people for crappy reasons. Well, my father doesn't like Muslims much either, but if they are good to him, then he's good with them, but he's one of those who is all stereotypical about them. If I have Muslim friends he wouldn't mind, lol.

Diojo: I just hope you don't have to deal with her too often