classic trashic
stealthmongoose
classic trashic
stealthmongoose
classic trashic
i'm saying believe what you want, but don't put others down for being different than you. there's no sense in being an a*****e just because some people believe in a god whom you deem poppycock. let them have their god. you should respect them, just as they should respect you. people believe in a lot of silly things. you probably believe in some non-religious silly things. everyone does.
Respect is earned by virtue of respect shown. Aside from that, i would not respect my friend if i took everything or anything they said at face value.
To respect my friend is to respect their intelligence, and to respect their intelligence i challenge their beliefs when they are proposed.
Putting forward the idea that one subject is OK as long as it has the word "God" attached to it while others are off-limits despite having the same qualities is stupid.
I do far more credit, respect, and integrity by calling people out on their claims than i ever would by accepting them as true without speaking about it.
P.S.: Define "a*****e" and "Fighting" or surrender your argument as the one-sided bullshit that it is.
i have friends of all different religions and races. they tell me they are muslim, or christian, or atheist, or sikh, and i do not lose respect for them over that. people lose my respect when they start saying stupid s**t like, "all christians are evil" or "all atheists are evil". most of the people i hang out with now are nonpracticing "religious people. basically, they claim to be buddhist, or christian or whatever, but don't really do anything about it. or even atheists who just state they don't believe in god and do not go any further than that.
You have yet to draw the line for insult. From what i gather, you're perfectly comfortable talking with people who don't bring their beliefs to the table. What relevance does this have in a place where discussion is part of the subject?
An area with zero movement, zero friction, and zero force provides zero energy. Your relationship with your friends is the same if you're bringing them into the discussion. You talk about nothing, therefore nothing happens in relevance to this subject.
Sure, you don't fight, you don't get into arguments, but chances are you don't know jack s**t about each others beliefs or their validity. People are strengthened in their bonds by discourse and difference in opinion.
You and I must disagree to the point where i don't think we can find common ground on this subject.
You on the one hand, believe it's best to never challenge beliefs or verify information if it offends somebody.
I, on the other hand, consider the challenging of one's beliefs, the interest in it's discourse, and the information and knowledge gained on both the person and their beliefs to be valuable and a stronger way to improve oneself and others.
To me, your method provides no improvement, no explanatory power, and no validity in that it proposes such discussion as offensive or harmful.
my friends tell me about their religions and cultures, about their places or worship, their holidays. do i get offended because i don't believe in them? no. it widens my knowledge about the world. people are different from all over the world. and there's nothing wrong with that. it's when you start letting it control your life that it becomes a problem. when you're telling people they're gonna go to hell if they don't agree with you, or when you're telling people they're stupid cuz they read the bible. it makes you all look bad.
If you remain silent while disagreeing with their views, then i would say you're worse than a person who shouts their disagreement with offensiveness and intolerance, as that person is being more honest in their volume than you in your silence.
If there is offense to be gleaned, then it should be gleaned from reasonable sources. Your religion involves killing infants, ergo i have a right to be offended and speak out against such beliefs. Speaking out against such beliefs makes me neither an a*****e or intolerant, contrary to how you are portraying the subject.
When you tell people they're going to go to hell if they don't believe as you do, that is a product of your religion and your contract with said religion. Such is the case with all Christians, who like it or not have chosen to adopt the notion of Hell and eternal suffering for nonbelievers.
If you believe in the bible (not just read it, everyone has read the bible at some point in time) then i can confidently say that you are at least stupid to some degree. This does not make me look bad, as belief in the Bible requires the brain to be dysfunctional in several cognitive sectors, rendering human intelligence within the person less than average.
That being said, i'd like you to provide an example of a sweeping generalization such as the one you provided within this forum from the part of an Atheist. Then i want you to compare that sweeping generalization with the ones made categorically and mandatory by various religions.
When you've gotten done comparing the generalizations made by Atheists with those made by various Religions, you can proceed to analyze the claims made by each and see what the value is in discussing these things or opposing them.
By this point, your topic will seem dated and irrelevant, i'm sure.
At the end of the day, if the bar for insult is "Sweeping generalizations" as you've already pointed out, i'm afraid religions have that as part of their creed in most if not all cases, whereas human beings and Atheists tend to do it as part of basic human mistakes. Atheists, for example, don't think in general that all Christians deserve an eternity in hell, and that the thought of such a thing is a human desire for revenge and not worth worshipping.