Today I rung a guy out for an iPad 2. Afterward, his friend tried to hand me a couple pages that looked torn out from a book. He asked me if I was a believer, and I realized what he was doing. I handed it back to him, saying simply, “Hey man, it’s cool. I’m an atheist. You might want to hold these for someone else?” and handed it back. He started questioning me about it, trying to get me to listen to whatever … stuff he was talking about. I had to drop the, “I don’t want to get in an argument with a customer about this stuff, so… yeah.” and continued to just nod at him for a bit. He left, but the whole thing’s been on my mind since.
What I WANTED to do was drop something simple: I’ve spent a very long portion of my life as a nonbeliever. I’ve discussed it with my Catholic parents, I’ve talked to priests, reverends, imams, rabbis, and others, including family and friends. I’ve spent at least 10 years, more like 12 or 13, considering myself an atheist, and longer then that just not knowing what to call it. What could one random stranger POSSIBLY say that would suddenly change my mind? If he honestly thinks he could, that is a level of self pride that clearly falls in the seven deadly sins definition of pride, which is kind of ironic to me.
So, anyways, if you ever think atheists seem depressed and you think it’s because they don’t have God in their lives, realize it has more to do with having to put up with crap like this all the time.
