= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
pedanterrific comments on Find yourself a Worthy Opponent: a Chavruta - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
= 783df68a0f980790206b9ea87794c5b6)
Loading…= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Powered by Reddit
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d)
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (74)
That's what I said. The fact that he does behave like an atheist is the annoying bit - I knew he went to Catholic school, but actually wasn't aware he still considered himself Catholic until the topic of my atheism happened to come up.
As far as I can tell, he believes exactly the same things I do about basically everything - yes, even dinosaur fossils. He just considers himself Catholic, and says he 'believes in God'. If there ever was a more freeloading belief, I haven't met it.
I have touched on a related subject in another thread.
While I've never actually heard the term "Catholic atheist" as I have "Jewish atheist," it wouldn't actually be that surprising -- "Catholic," much more so than the generic "Christian", is a cultural signifier as well as a purely religious one.
Indeed. In Ireland, especially Northern Ireland, religion is far from the only major difference between the two main groups (Catholics/Nationalists/Irish/people who say “Derry”/people who say “haitch” and Protestants/Unionists/British/people who say “Londonderry”/people who say “aitch”, for lack of any completely satisfactory one-word labels for the groups.)
(My spell checker is clearly Protestant, as it flags “haitch” as incorrect.)
I wouldn't be so weirded out if that were the case, I can understand that. The problem is that it isn't being used as a cultural signifier - he never goes to Mass, none of his friends are Catholic and he didn't raise me to be Catholic. (It occurs to me to mention at this point that the person in question is my father.)
My 'atheist coming-out' was a deeply strange conversation, not least because I wasn't aware I had been in a closet.
Reminds me a bit of my father. My dad has basically said that he doesn't think there is anything after death, and that what you do in life does not matter- so long as you do not 'get caught.' While I cringe at his lack of morals, I do question why he considers himself Catholic. He does not go to church, does not pray, and holds the church in contempt.
I can see that it is not a cultural signifier, so my idea is that he fears creating any problems within the family. Other people in the family might outright ostracize him for openly stating his beliefs without the mandatory "but I'm a Catholic!" added in at the end. Perhaps it is a similar situation? I can't actually say, since I do not know your father. It's simply a stab in the dark.