Threats upon leaving
Yesterday was my last day at Sunrise Telecom, and in the process of sending out the obligatory farewell emails, I included my personal email address and, naturally, the address to this site. One of my colleagues (who fortunately works on the other side of the continent), responded with this:
It's a thinly veiled threat.
Sure, it's not, "believe what I believe, or else," but it's not far. This is why religious types (I would have said Christians, but I want to be fair to everybody), especially the vocal, evangelical ones, tend to get a bad rap amongst those of us who haven't bought into their stories. It's the old carrot-and-stick: believe in this and go to heaven or don't believe in this and go to hell. Bribery and intimidation is not the proper way to spread "the truth" or to convert non-believers, especially strong atheists. [In other words, if we think you're full of shit to begin with, stuff like this only hurts your case.] When someone threatens me, my first reaction is to lash out, to fight back, and stand up for my principles rather than cower and meekly capitulate. As it was, I figured it best not to reply, especially since it was sent to my old work email rather than my sinisterthings address.
The statement also conveys condescension and pity. To these, my first reaction is usually to call someone a self-righteous bastard. Not that I did, but that's what I'm thinking now.
Most non-believers, do not go around telling worsphipers, "I hope you realize you're wasting your life," or "your god gave you a brain, use it." I certainly don't. I don't like confrontation and don't initiate it if I can help it. So, to those of you who insist on telling me I'm wrong, do it in a way that respects my intelligence, that avoids appeals to emotion, and that is more than a parting sound bite.
Lastly, this note I received mentioned nothing of our professional working relationship--the only relationship this person and I had. My original message ended with:
Sad to see you go.This bugged me, but it took me a little while to figure out why.
I wish you well.
I'm sad to know that you are an atheist. Hopefully, you'll realize it before it is too late.
It's a thinly veiled threat.
Sure, it's not, "believe what I believe, or else," but it's not far. This is why religious types (I would have said Christians, but I want to be fair to everybody), especially the vocal, evangelical ones, tend to get a bad rap amongst those of us who haven't bought into their stories. It's the old carrot-and-stick: believe in this and go to heaven or don't believe in this and go to hell. Bribery and intimidation is not the proper way to spread "the truth" or to convert non-believers, especially strong atheists. [In other words, if we think you're full of shit to begin with, stuff like this only hurts your case.] When someone threatens me, my first reaction is to lash out, to fight back, and stand up for my principles rather than cower and meekly capitulate. As it was, I figured it best not to reply, especially since it was sent to my old work email rather than my sinisterthings address.
The statement also conveys condescension and pity. To these, my first reaction is usually to call someone a self-righteous bastard. Not that I did, but that's what I'm thinking now.
Most non-believers, do not go around telling worsphipers, "I hope you realize you're wasting your life," or "your god gave you a brain, use it." I certainly don't. I don't like confrontation and don't initiate it if I can help it. So, to those of you who insist on telling me I'm wrong, do it in a way that respects my intelligence, that avoids appeals to emotion, and that is more than a parting sound bite.
Lastly, this note I received mentioned nothing of our professional working relationship--the only relationship this person and I had. My original message ended with:
I wish you all the best of luck and success with Sunrise... or wherever your future travels may take you.Every other reply that I received was encouraging, congratulatory, cordial, or at least professional--except from this one self-righteous bastard who couldn't even manage that.
Labels: Miscellany
posted by Patrick at 10:53 AM
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