Self-reflection time: I can stand being an annoying douchebag sometimes, but should I try to cut down?

Okay, but seriously, folks…

I am a liberal, skeptical atheist. My morals are based on the betterment of society/mankind, I question everything that carries a scent of bias, and I do not place ANYTHING higher in importance and knowledge than my fellow humans.

I think an important part of friendship is sharing ideas and bettering each other in the process… so I will tell my friends outright if something they say is unreasonable or flat-out wrong.

And it really, really hurts me when friends yell back at me “Shut up, Lucy! Can’t you just let me have this instead of being so negative all the time?” (I have to mention that I don’t judge others’ philosophical or religious beliefs, though I may state my own preferences. I only make firm statements on things provable by science.)

I only tell them these things because I honestly care about them and want them to grow and be even better people than they already are. And I would like nothing more than for my friends to tell me when I’ve erred. But it comes off as mean and negative. And yet, I would feel horrible if I say nothing to a friend in such a situation.

The last time I pondered this, I decided that I would say something if it was really important or something I felt really passionate about… but will remain silent on the lesser myths (those into semiotics would say all of human society is founded on myths… there is really not much firm evidence to believe anything… so everyone can live believing in a few falsehoods in their lifetime). This time around, I think I’ve arrived at the same decision… but hey, even if you think the same way as before, it’s still good to rethink (we are nothing if we don’t think, after all).

…

Kind of relatedly, today, my supervisor asked me what my religion was, because he had thought that being a Christmas-liking American automatically made me Christian, but I vehemently stated that I was not Christian in class. When he asked me about it after class, I said I didn’t believe in God, he said “Ah, I understand,” and we left it at that. He’s a cool guy… very intellectually curious and really tries to really understand things (personal religions aside… though I would not be surprised if this came up again after a few drinks). We need more people like that in the world.