Quote:
Originally Posted by Lestat
Maybe this will better illustrate my meaning (or my idiosyncrasies)...
I am also bothered by people who use the word "mom" in conversation to non siblings who do not share their mother. I have friends who will say, "I have to stop at the store, because Mom told to try the new brand". This drives me up a wall, because your mother is not my mother. Sure, I know who you mean, but don't talk to me like it's my mom.
I have another friend who does this with his friends that I don't know. We'll be talking and he'll say, "Steve went to the Cav's game last night". Who's Steve? He's a guy I work with. Do I know him? No. Then why did you just assume I'd know who you were talking about?
Okay, so maybe I'm a nit. But I don't do that. When I talk about my mother, I say, "My mother". When I talk about a friend to someone who doesn't know the person, I'll say, "This guy at work", "Or this guy Steve at work". I don't just assume that things in my life transfer to everyone else.
By the same token, when you say, "I'm going to pray for you", or, "I'm going to pray to god that someone gets better", fine... But when you say, "God will heal her", or, "God is watching her now", you've crossed a line, because your god is not everyone's god. Your beliefs are not everyone else's beliefs.
Okay, I think me and my soapbox have wasted enough of everyone's time now. I just meant to point out something that I found inappropriate and in poor taste. If you don't agree, you're entitled to your opinion. But it will continue to disturb me.
But you know who God is regardless if you believe in Him or not. He's not just Steve and not just some random person. And when someone talks about Earth, they don't say "my Earth" because, to them, we all share the Earth. Just as to a believer, we all share the same God even though people don't share the same belief. Muslims say Allah, not "my Allah" because they believe Allah is everyone's God. This shouldn't be offensive as their goal is not to convince you but, rather, semantically correct given their religious beliefs.
I actually think I see what you're saying and can see why maybe you'd get frustrated over years of hearing these things when you don't believe them. But if you let minor nuances in communication like this become more severe annoyances, as you seemed to have done, you're setting yourself up to be pretty miserable. Best to let it go and chalk it up to the way things are. Not because people are trying to convert you but because it makes sense to them to express their beliefs in that way. Hope that makes sense.