Religion in Inappropriate Places

Posted on by

Why I canceled a helicopter magazine subscription.

I am not a religious person. In fact, I lean toward atheism. I do, however, have a lot of respect for other people’s religious beliefs.

As long as they don’t try to push them on me.

So imagine my surprise when I realized that a 32-page, tabloid-format helicopter magazine I’d subscribed to included a full-page article by a Christian minister that attempted to relate Jesus to flying helicopters.

Every month.

What is the point of having a sermon — because that’s exactly what it is — appear in a helicopter magazine? Is the publisher trying to push his religious beliefs on the readers of this otherwise non-religious publication? Sure looks that way to me.

And I find that offensive. Not only does it disregard the beliefs of non-Christians like Jews and Muslims, but it also disregards the non-beliefs of atheists and people like me who simply don’t want to read about someone else’s religion. Or support a publication that pushes a religious beliefs where it’s not appropriate.

So I cancelled my subscription.

This is only one example of where religion is beginning to appear in inappropriate places. Can you think of other places? Use the Comments link or form to share your thoughts. Just don’t use them to preach to me.

Discover more from An Eclectic Mind

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

5 thoughts on “Religion in Inappropriate Places”

  1. I’ve always been offended when people claim that Jesus Christ is the sponsor of their sporting endeavor. I wouldn’t be happy if they claimed Yahweh, Allah or Buddha, either.

  3. Where is it appropriate?

    Well, church and Sunday school, for sure. Religious publications. Religious meetings and club gatherings. Religious events. You know. Places where people EXPECT religion.

    Another place it’s not appropriate is at non-religious meetings. At a recent meeting of the Howard Mesa Property Owners Association that I attended, they started with the Pledge of Allegiance and a prayer. The prayer mentioned Jesus Christ, as many Christian prayers do. The guy in front of me was offended. He turned around to complain to me, saying that he was Jewish.

    But the people who inappropriately introduce religion into non-religious events or gatherings don’t really care what YOU believe. It’s what THEY believe that matters. We just have to deal with it.

  4. Lee Strobel said, “Essentially, I realized that to stay an atheist, I would have to believe that nothing produces everything; non-life produces life; randomness produces fine-tuning; chaos produces information; unconsciousness produces consciousness; and non-reason produces reason. Those leaps of faith were simply too big for me to take . . .”

    • Josh: Maybe those “leaps of faith” were too big for Strobel. But with an understanding of science, they’re not “leaps of faith.” Actually, “faith” doesn’t enter the picture at all. Faith is believing in the unproven. That alone is a leap, as far as I’m concerned. Why cling to a supernatural explanation when a natural and scientific explanation is at hand? Maybe Strobel needs to put down his bible and pick up a science book.