Atheists: It's awkward when someone asks you to pray at the dinner table, amirite?

It may be awkward, but there's no need to be rude...I just sit there in silence with my eyes open. The worst is when they wanna hold hands to pray :P

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Ugh, I hate the holding hands thing. I never keep my eyes closed. I just look around the room until they're done, then pretend to open them.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I'm a Christian and I find it weird when I hold hands with people and pray.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I just sit silently until they're done.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

It felt awkward for me, but I didn't let them know that. They had good intentions, I was just going through the motions, it didn't change who I was or what I believed, and it was worth not saying anything about it. They meant well.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I was asked to lead my friend's family in grace once. ...It was fucking horrible.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

what did you do? *grabs popcorn*

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Well, first I just kind of mumbled a little excuse (no one listened to it) and they simply sat there, looking at me expectantly. At that point, I wasn't a full-on atheist, just an unofficial-sort agnostic...all the same, I just mumbled some shit like "thanks for the food...and...the...um..." That friend didn't invite me over for dinner anymore after her crazy-ass mother LECTURED me for a while about how I've "turned my back" on God and was unworthy of eating the food that he had prepared. ...Needless to say, the remainder of the dinner had a very fragile atmosphere (I mean, I couldn't just leave).

by Anonymous 12 years ago

You should have just said you were an atheist >.>

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Thing is, I DID tell them we didn't share the same beliefs...I tried to be as polite about it as possible, but she wasn't a very understanding woman. She was the kind of person who wears sandwich board protesting gay couples and tries to ban Harry Potter from elementary schools because it teaches children to worship "false gods".

by Anonymous 12 years ago

One time my friend invited me to her quinceanera, which I did not realize meant going to Mass. People started reciting hymns and I just sort of mumbled "watermelon" over and over again.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

That's what I did in chorus when I didn't have a song memorized and we weren't allowed to use the sheet music! It really looks like you're saying words.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

haha wow, one of my friends was lead in a musical but didn't know one song so she did that, she even used watermelon too, i guess it does have a lot of diff mouth movements in the word.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

My grandparents always pray over their meals. When I was little it freaked me out and I didn't know what to do, but now I just bow my head and wait until they're done. That whole side of my family is really religious and my parents spend a lot of time telling them that no, they still can't take me to church with them. I did go with them once, on Easter, just to make them happy. It was horrible; I didn't know any of the songs, I couldn't take communion because of my food allergies, and they kept stopping to talk with people I didn't know while I just kind of hovered nearby, staring at the carpet. To round out the whole fiasco there was a crowd at the door and as we were trying to get through I accidentally put my elbow in a dish of holy water.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Hahaha wow, I lol at you Americans you have to live along with a fuckload of hardcore Christians in your country. I have never seen anyone pray before eating apart from in US media.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

When did America become such a huge Christian country?!

by Anonymous 12 years ago

America is the most religious 1st world country. Known fact.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I was unaware.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Interesting. Anytime that's entered the conversation I'm having with someone, they seem to know. Well, I suppose amirite community =/= New England

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Or perhaps I'm just ignorant.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Probably not, your comment is +7 and has 2 loves.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

And two downvotes, one probably from anon giving him/herself away.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Well if that's how it is, then you're even more likely not to be ignorant.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I lol at the fact that you use lol as a word in a sentence

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Other countries don't have as many public displays of religion?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Other FIRST WORLD countries don't, yes. Modernise, America. About time, goddamnit.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

You don't have to tell me. I find the whole idea that there is a supreme being very primitive.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

In case I ever get called by my family to lead grace, I have a few short and funny ones up my sleeve. My Christian friends find them amusing.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I have a friend whose family holds hands and sings this religious song before every dinner meal. And, of course, guests don't stop them from doing it. It's really awkward. Especially when they berate me for not singing along.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Because it's usually my religious family that I only see around the holidays and a few times in the summer that do this, I just join in and deal with it so I don't cause a scene.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Yeah it's awkward, especially when my step mom does it just because she wants me to be a "normal Christian."

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I'm a Christian (aka outsider in this convo) but when I went to my Catholic friend's house, they kept praying and I didn't know what to do or how to do any of the hand motions or what to recite. So I just sat there, then I got yelled at by her grandfather for not "showing Jesus respect"...

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I'd rather prey on the food than pray to a God

by Anonymous 12 years ago

My family prays before meals, and I'm totally used to it, but it's actually pretty awkward for me when my non-Christian friends come over for dinner, just cause I know they're probably feeling awkward.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I once went to a good friends house to stay the night when I was about thirteen and with how I was raised, I was never pushed into religion because I have never been one for it even as a kid(For reasons that do not need to be discussed) but I was raised to have VERY high manners at the dinner table and my friends mom screamed at me for not leading in saying prayers and grace when I was told; not asked too even after I explained I was an atheist. About ten minutes later I was then was litterally kicked out when an old habit of reminding that elbows do not belong on the table as you eat slipped out and had to walk home from their house in the far country to mine in town.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

My family's weird. Before dinner each night, we say "gratitudes." We go around saying things we're happy about. It seems like such a normal thing to me, but no one else in the world does it.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

This summer my grandparents had their fiftieth anniversary, so they had all of us - my aunts and uncles and cousins and stuff - go to a special church service, and I hadn't been to church in, um, eight years, because my family isn't particularly religious... I had to stand and sit and mouth Darren Criss lyrics at the floor while everyone else sang the hymns. Worst hour and a half of my life.

by Anonymous 12 years ago