My NT friend has crossed the coo-coo rubicon

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Okay, I am friends with a lady who's really nice to me. But damn if she and her husband believe in the most outrageous, nutty things I've heard in my entire life. I know I'm the one who's supposed to be "crazy" due to being on the spectrum. But for god's sake, since when did being a Christian also include believing the Illuminati's trying to infiltrate the media and Beyonce sacrificed her miscarried baby to Satan?

The NFL halftime show had Beyonce dancing on a stage composed of two faces. Apparantly, according to my friend and her husband, the space between the faces is supposed to be an image of Satan complete with horns, furthering evidence Beyonce and JayZ are part of the Illuminati conspiracy.

I'm a former Christian who's decided no way I'll ever go back to that religion. They still think I'm one though they know I don't go to church. Lord knows I'd never tell them this since I'm afraid they might burn me as a heretic or something if they found out my beliefs match Buddhism, Deism, and Pantheism way more than Christianity. I love my friends and they are accepting of me in ways others aren't. But it almost makes me boil in rage they believe such nonsense. And that's not including the stuff they believe about gays, non-Christians, and anyone else who's not "saved".

At this point, I'm at a lost at what to do. I'm worried this may be a sign of a deeper issue and I'm also afraid if she finds out about me, she'll say she doesn't want me around anymore making the excuse about protecting her child or something. I've already been through this with my "father" who kicked me out the house just for not being the "right" kind of Christian. I'm so damn tired of religion and nonsense getting in the way of my relationships.

That is so true. I don't go to church, but I still believe in God. I accept the moral teachings of any religion as long as they are "right". I do my best to defend LGBT rights. HOWEVER the people I once related to in church, the mild-mannered children of God, don't. For some reason they become total lunatics when certain topics are mentioned.
My advice would be: be the best person you can be and forget about the rest of this religious BS.
Note: I think this would better belong in the PPR forum but it might attract flame wars so I don't know...

Religion gets in the way of progress. To wit: the Middle East.

I don't know what to do when someone I know crosses this rubicon. Rubicon is a good word. I like it a lot. Rubicon. Rubicon. Rubicon.

I wouldn't worry that much about her. My mom is a lot like that--she's fundamentalist Christian and believes in the Illuminati and all that crap too. She just doesn't like to use logic.

I have a theory about why people believe in conspiracy theories: It makes them feel special. They feel like they are important enough for people to be out to get them or attack the things they value. They're the heroes of a story instead of just everyday people. They know secret things that nobody else does. They're in the know, and they can control their world because they know all the secrets that cause all the things that cause bad things to happen. They're the heroic, righteous people. It's a reassuring belief, because it puts all the enemies outside yourself. You take the focus away from your own doubts about your abilities and your decisions. If somebody's sacrificing their miscarried baby to Satan, you can tell yourself that your own tendency to gossip or put people down for their bad fashion sense isn't worth worrying about.

Conspiracy theorists are not mentally ill most of the time. They are just eccentric. It's human nature, superstition gone to the extreme. Sometimes this kind of thing is a symptom of something like schizotypal personality disorder, but usually not. Usually it's just a symptom of somebody being unwilling to think critically.

From my experience with my mom, I predict that you won't be able to change her mind, no matter how good an argument you make that the things she believes in don't make sense. I just hope you can find a way not to let it get to you, or else your relationship with your friend may devolve into your being frustrated that she can't see logic, and her being frustrated that you can't see what's obvious to her.

I want to know how someone can be simultaneously Christian and follow the illuminati. The illuminati were an underground sect of anti-religion scientists headed by Galileo during the age of scientific enlightenment. They rejected the church and based their ideas on pure science. Someone explain to me how a person can believe in pure science and pure religion at the same time.

I agree with every word in Callista's well written post.

That's actually a huge misconception, as the reasons for the Middle East's lack of progress has more to do with pride in past advancement hindering further advancement, and a lovely thing called European colonialism. Tack radicalism on top of that and then you get a backward region.

Don't forget (or go learn) that the contributions of the Middle East to European society was what caused Europeans to progress. And then Europe kindly paid them back with the repulsive, and backward, "cultural supremacy" attitude. And don't forget that some of the most economically stable countries in the world include Dubai, Israel, AND Saudi Arabia. Religion hinders progress? Too simplistic, friend.
More like, human attitude hinders progress. Religion, applied properly, has brought more education to the modern world and helped it become post-modern. Sadly, enough people don't know how to apply it properly, and so you end up with quacks like the OP posted about.

There always have been conspiracy theorists. I find it safer to stay away from them. The ones who are sure they know everything really know nothing.
End of rant.

you are handling the situation well. i'm an atheist who used to be a christian. i haven't told my christian friends about my change of heart lest they be concerned for the eternal fate of my non-existent soul. i'd continue to let them rant, then vent here.

Boys and girls, in this video lesson, we hear from Neil deGrasse Tyson, an American astrophysicist and Director of the Hayden Planetarium who discusses how Islamist fundamentalist destroyed the enlightenment era of the Middle East and why we should be concerned today.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oxTMUTOz0w[/youtube]

And were suppost to be the ones to be that are proned to think crazy, i'd just try to avoid those topics if I were you, unless you want to sound crazy too. These crazy ideas will pass after awile I bet or she will end up in a room with padded walls.

My view on religion is I don't fit any one group, the very act of joining one church forbids you the right to make your own choices in beleafs, I left the church over their will to impose a narrow view of the world on me. being autistic with a very morlelistic, indepedent and stubburn mind I just could not be in that enviroment without puling my hair out. The pope may be a good man however he doesn't always speak for me, thats what my brain is for, the one god gave me to use.

Redrobin62, I really want to thank you for posting that video. It was well worth watching, but I would like to be able to find the bit that was snipped out. I was a Christian most of my life, radical Christian for just over 16 years when my eyes were opened and I quit organized religion. For a while I considered myself a non-denominational pagan, but I'm not sure what I would call myself now.
My sisters are both Christian, one quite devout, and the one thing we all agree on is 'do not talk about religion, or anything involved with religion, during family get-togethers

I am a former fundamentalist christian. Any fundamentalist, of any religion, is at best mildly delusional. The delusion is about power and secret understandings. I lost everyone in my life when I became a FC in 1999, then I lost all my FC "friends" when I discovered the progressive movement in the church. There are sane people, who don't believe in fairy tales, who are christians. I too am interested in buddhism and deism, and lots of other faith brands.

But, I'm also open to atheism, or non-theism. Who the heck really knows anything?

I do my best. And as close as we are to each other, our faith stories need to respect other's if we are to survive as a species.

I find all this fundamental religion business perplexing. I remember speaking to my ex manager at work who was a devout Christian. At the time, I was going through depression and stuff and felt that I desperately needed something to cling to. I had read the bible and the Koran and was discussing the differences/similarities with her. I stated that it seemed that Islam had a set of inflexible rules whereas in christianity there were certain rules you should live by but it was more to do with a personal relationship with Jesus to guide you the right way and that you shouldn't judge someone thinking they will go to hell as you don't know what sort of guidance they have received. She agreed with this wholeheartedly.

Some weeks later a colleague had confided in her that her 14 year old daughter thinks she is gay. The next day this manager gave her leaflets about how wrong being gay is and that there are steps you can take to make sure someone doesn't turn out gay.

I was like WTF? That ended my little dabble in Christianity.

With regards to the illuminate, that's just strange. I've looked at loads of conspiracy theories and I think many are just modern folklore, for people whose minds are unable to investigate things properly.

While I am an Atheist myself and think that religions are harmful in general, I don't think this issue is caused in the first place by the religious beliefs of the OPs friends.

Imo, those folks are just mentally deranged, and that their mental insanity is only amplified but not caused by their religious beliefs. Think of it: it is easy to image such mentally ill people who don't have such religious beliefs, for example people who say they have been kidnapped by aliens and been abused on an alien spacecraft, in all fascinating details.

This sounds more like a psychological problem of paranoia or something similar, I don't have a medical education to make any real assessment.

Last edited by Cephalod on 04 Feb 2013, 7:52 am, edited 1 time in total.

I agree with you. I think it can be insulting and inflaming to whittle all of their problems down to simply religion or faith. I personally know many who are religious who would never fall for some of the crap that people fall for, and I am honored to know them.
And RedRobin, it would be good to note that I said that if you tack radicalism onto those varying societal changes, then you get the backwardness of the Middle East. Islamic radicalism = fundamentalism. My point: while it was a huge contributing factor, it is unfair to say that it was the only factor. If there can BE an enlightenment period in a faith's history, then people behind that faith had the capacity for it. Its when you get into dogmatism and intolerance that your society starts to crumble bit by bit.