Dad thinks RFID chip is the Mark of The Beast, and will lose it when he finds out I have one. Any advice?

This would go under support, right?

I got my implant back in March. It was an informed decision, nothing spontaneous. I had done around
five months of lurking on here and research before ordering. My research paid off, and I was able to install it on my own with no complications. But I guess now I’m facing one complication: my father.

I love my father dearly, but he has a habit of buying into all of the Facebook conspiracy theories with chips being the Mark of The Beast. He’s Christian, I’m agnostic, but I know that the Bible doesn’t even mention chips in Revelations. Hell, I even put it in my left hand so I could avoid getting grief from Christians (thanks for the idea, Amal, I think you were the one to mention this).

Unfortunately, this cat is finally starting to come out of the bag, and my dad is now suspicious that I have a chip. So suspicious, in fact, that I feel he will look over my arms and hands for a chip. My hand is slender (see my post back in march) so there is no hiding it if he looks for it.

Does anyone have any sound advice on what I should do if a confrontation occurs? Anything would be greatly appreciated.

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I feel ya. My parents are highly religious. I’m atheist (probably because they are highly religious lol).

Honestly, the best advice I can give you (I’m 46) is don’t worry about it. Yeah he might flip out. It will pass. I lived far too much of my life trying to be this perfect christian son that they wanted me to be instead of being true to myself and it took me a long time (too long) to get out of that thought pattern. Even now there’s things that I would never tell them, because I know it goes against everything they believe. But at least now I don’t feel guilty about it. To this day they tell me I haven’t met anyone because I don’t go to church. Why would I go to church to meet someone of those people don’t align with my beliefs? I digress.

You can still love and respect your father without being forced to live his life.

Of course if you are still living under his roof, ignore everything I just said. lol

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I live under his roof, but I don’t see how that is relevant. Just because I live under his roof doesn’t mean he has a moral right to say what I do with my body. Of course, if this was about something else like smoking or doing stuff like that in his house, then of course that would be disrespectful to him and his home. But that disrespect is null when the actions I take have no effect outside of my body.

But as you said, I’m sure this will pass. He surely will flip out, but I suppose his anger will go away in time. I’m just looking for advice on the best way to inform him about it so that he is at least in the know.

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I gave my 2¢ in another thread here:

There’s some other good advice in that thread and a few other threads along the same lines :slight_smile:

I honestly find telling people it’s the same thing as what pets have often changes their perspective. Be cool, calm and educated and try (as best you can :stuck_out_tongue: ) to not get too defensive and angry.

End of the day, body autonomy is my #1 value and you should be allowed to do whatever you want with yours :v:

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Also, out of interest - which implant and what location? Cuz the Mark of the Beast is only in the right hand, not the left :wink:

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I put it in my left hand, just so I had a rebuttal against someone telling me it was the mark.

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I have so many things to say here about this situation… most of them sort of insulting. This comes from a near eternity of dealing with irrational, hypocritical, and sometimes outright immoral religious people that I can’t help but have a strong negative reaction.

That said, I do have something to comment on … what I quoted above. I fully respect your ideas on body autonomy. However, you are applying a logic here that is somewhat narrow and also biased toward your case. My first point has to do with the idea of damaging physical property (the home itself). This is just one aspect of “living under someone’s roof”, and it’s very likely the least important thing to him to be honest. I’m sure he would rather you destroy an entire room than violate what he feels is his moral and paternal duty to “raise you right”… i.e. live in the way he literally sees is the best possible way for you to live. Believe it or not, most parents are assholes because they are really actually trying to guide and mold you (in their own way) to be the best person you possibly can be, with the best life you can possibly have… only a metric shit-ton of people just don’t know how to do that at all… there is no school class or college program you can audit that teaches anything about human interpersonal communication, emotional intelligence, expressing one’s views with reason and empathy… these things are so hard that a real significant percentage of parents resort to caveman unintelligent brow beating, which results in comments like “LIVE UNDER MY ROOF, FOLLOW MY RULES” … but that’s such a disservice to what they are actually trying to do that it would be laughable if it weren’t literally tearing some families apart.

My other points I was going to outline here are kind of, well, not all that important. Unless you are paying rent and splitting the bills for water, power, internet, TV, garage, cell phone, medical insurance, vehicle insurance, vehicle maintenance, etc. then there is so much more going on than simply occupying physical space in the home… there’s a reason the tax code uses the term “dependent”.

The most important thing here is that if he discovers that you’ve done this and flips out, couch your response to him in empathy. Logical arguments don’t tend to land with religious people… they operate more on heart than head… and when the heart is filled with fear masquerading as anger, empathy will be the only logical way forward.

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I understand your point about how that statement was biased. Honestly, I would be more surprised if you said it wasn’t biased haha, but I guess its hard for me to take objective views in my situation. I agree that it didn’t quite convey my believe in body autonomy well, but I’m glad the message still got across. I’m sure my father thinks otherwise of course, largely due to, as you said, his desire to “raise me right.”

How do you suggest I go about empathizing with him? I agree that logic probably won’t get far off the ground, so what do you think would neutralize his anger so that I can move the conversation towards a better outcome?

I’d say you can’t aim to neutralize his anger. You should aim to understand it. Communicate to him you understand why he’s angry… that he cares about you and your soul and your body and your safety and your eternal life… I mean, I can only assume that’s what he cares about here… but see what I mean… you can’t aim to “manage” him, just as he should not try to manage you… just communicate that you love hi dearly as you’ve stated, and that you understand he wants the best for you, and that you’ve carefully considered and researched the issues - going so far as putting it in you left hand because scriptures state the mark is clearly placed in the right hand of forehead. If he knows you’re not Christian like him, he should understand the impact of this … that you would take this precaution… even if he doesn’t even realize it in the heat of “discussion”… he will eventually think this if he’s half way human… might not say it, but he will think it.

The most important thing is to maintain calm yourself and keep communication going, not resorting to tit-for-tat, snarky comments, direct arguments, etc… this will be an engagement of emotion only… at least to start. Maybe once things cool you could ask him to discuss his concerns. Really hear those concerns, don’t just listen to build a retort as he’s talking… understand the concerns from his perspective.

Hopefully it will be easy.

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God I would hate to have a parent who’s a religious nutcase. My mom is an “opportunistic Christian” - meaning she essentially doesn’t believe in anything, but can’t help saying a prayer when something goes bad, thanks to her own ultra-religious upbringing - my dad was a peaceful agnostic, and I’m a raging atheist and anticleric. Years of strict religious schooling did that to me: I’m allergic now. Religion is the only thing that will turn me violent in very short order.

Not sure how old you are, but if your dad throws a fit over biblical nonsense, if I were you I’d just tell him off and tell him to have his brains unscrambled. And then I’d move out. But that’s just me.

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If they aren’t already planning to move out I’d say that’s a bit… much
Or if they’re in my situation they could tell him as they’re walking out the door to live at college. then he’ll have plenty of time to cool off before meeting again.

Just keep it clear: the Bible states the mark will be on their right hand or forehead. Yours is neither. If you really want to drive it home tell him you requested the UID contain the number 7, as this is considered the perfect number and the number of God in a lot of circles of Christianity.

Further counter points if needed:

Does your father wear mixed fabrics?
Does he eat fat?
Does he eat pork?
Did he ever play football (handling the skin of an unclean animal)?
Does he eat shellfish?
Does he shave?
Does he sit down in the presence of the elderly?

All of these are banned in Leviticus and demand a sacrifice be made to God in atonement. I love using Leviticus against people, usually the homophobic ones who use it to denounce gay people.

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You can’t use logic or reason, and irony even less, with religious people, because when you do, they become belligerent and dangerous.

It’s a defense mechanism of the brain: when the absurdity of the reality it understands becomes blatantly obvious, the brain panic-rejects any information that challenges that stable set of working parameters it’s been operating on.

It’s very difficult for any person to let go of a belief they hold true, even when that belief is grounded in honest logic and that person is open to counterarguments - let alone for people whose beliefs are grounded in the easily disproved irrational.

(I originally replied to the wrong person by accident, I hope this text is enough that i can post the correction in the right place) This is going to sound odd but maybe try to find a reasonable religious person (minister, priest whatevs) to talk to him? I know a lot of my “questionable life choices” sat better with some family members when a priest (of my choosing, with previous thorough discussion etc) talked to them in their own terms and something along the lines of god loves us all, he doesn’t make mistakes, quoting some of the more hippy jesus-ey bits of the book and suddenly it clicks for them. The power of the clothes and all of that.

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Just ask a rational friend to dress up as a priest and come explain to dloomis04’s dad that his getting an implant was God’s will, since he allowed it to happen :slight_smile:

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I went to all catholic schools and universities my whole life. It wasn’t tough to find catholic scholars, especially the young Jesuits who were very open to rational discussion, difference of opinion, debate etc. They’re not literalists for the most part and quite forward thinking, so in my case I’d just ask one of my congenial professors to put in a word for me. They were always happy to contribute towards family peace and love.

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Well, like mental illness, cases of religiousness range from very mild to full-on debilitating. It’s perfectly possible to find functional, logical people who have a mild mental problem to talk to - and as long as you don’t touch on the subject that poses problems, it’s fine. That doesn’t mean their brain is functioning entirely correctly, and one should be aware of that when one talks to a “reasonable” priest. I mean at the end of the day, they devote their life to the irrational. That puts a twist on anything they say…

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Not specifically for this situation… but I always find making it clear that I understand while they may be upset I am trusting them to respect my choices by telling them, and that you really want to be able to be open with them about your life. Bit of a guit trip maybe but can make people that care about you think for a moment at least.

I just woke up, so let me do my best to reply to some of these while I wake up. Tea, anyone?

I’ll make sure to tell him it was all part of god’s plan, haha.

Yeah, unfortunately I’m 16, so that wouldn’t go over too well. If only I was two years older…

I feel like this is definitely a point that will have a lot (if not the most) leverage when the conversation arises, since its something that’s hard to refute when the Bible says it so explicitly.

Lemme check… darn, no sevens. Good idea though.

I suppose this and what Amal said really do come together. I feel that logical processes wouldn’t get far not only because of the religious beliefs he’s got himself tied up in, but because of his position as my parent. My argument will definitely need a bit more empathy, so that he at least understands that I understand why he is concerned.

I really appreciate everyone’s input. I’m not sure when this conversation will come to be, or if it even will, but at least now I’m prepared for if it does.

It’s sad that people have to deal with this shit. I’ve seen some other threads on here asking for similar advice, and honestly, its a real shame that some people are so afraid of biohacking, simply because of all the misinformation that’s floating around. But I’m glad that sites like this surface, and I appreciate the effort Amal and everyone else here has put towards getting the facts set straight over the years.

If anything happens with my dad, I’ll make sure to come back and update. I’ll still be watching the topic, so please feel free to keep commenting, I need as much advice as I can get.

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Hey dude, if it’s really that stressful, I would just honestly not tell them.

With my rfid, nobody can tell unless I explicitly show them. Even if I show them, some people think it’s just a vein and I’m messing w them.

I think you could hide it and be perfectly fine! Much easier than hiding a tattoo or piercing!