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Can you truly respect someone who claims religion?

pill_billy said:
or someone could be a nihilist and believe everything is completly random and has no purpose what so ever...
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You can believe whatever you want.
Doesn't make it true respectfully.
Every religion has that in common.
We're all in the same boat.
 
L2R don't get me wrong your default position is a worthy one I just don't think it applies in this context. Whether a neo-nazi expresses his beliefs to me or not I still think his belief system is completely fucked. He is just as distasteful to me whether he shows his swastikas at home in private or during a march. Yes, I did intentionally make this comparison because everybody (with exception to white supremacists) would agree this person is a piece of shit. Yet nobody can have the same conscensus on religion and its place in modern society, people can't even begin the debate because of their so called sacred personal beliefs.

Get the ayatollah/caliph in a room with the pope and have them both come out agreeing on one god. Never going to happen. Get Obama in a room with whoever the soon to be killed leader of ISIS is and have them agree to peace. Never going to happen. Why? religion
 
Truly some character and personality flaws can be judged as unacceptable by the standards of most sane people. But as you put it there are those who don't meet the standards of society as a whole. These seemed to have crawled out of one.
 
methamaniac said:
You can believe whatever you want.
Doesn't make it true respectfully.
Every religion has that in common.
We're all in the same boat.
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i was just saying not everyone has a higher power...

Cosmic Giraffe said:
I like this. Most of the people that I know are religious and involved in a church in some way. Most of them are good. I can respect that. I don't question anyone for their beliefs. Yes religion has done nothing but cause problems since the beginning of humanity as far back as we know of. I am a white male, so should I then be held accountable for the atrocities my ancestors and fellow caucasians may have committed in the past?

Respect is earned not given.
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no you should not be held accountable for what your ancestors have done but if you still believe in their ways and base your life around that... well its kinda like saying being a neo nazi is ok cause you werent personally involved in the holocaust... yea its a dramatic example but i believe the principal remains the same
 
methamaniac said:
You can believe whatever you want.
Doesn't make it true respectfully.
Every religion has that in common.
We're all in the same boat.
Click to expand...

Agree, problem is that not everyone has a clear understanding about it
 
we are all products of our environment. beliefs fall into this category, and very rarely does anyone choose a belief, if it ever happens at all. therefore, even the most dispicable can be understood and the person respected. respecting /tolerating a belief is different from respecting/tolerating a person. for several years i was good friends with a straight up racist. i never agreed with her views, and we discussed it at lockerheads throughout the period, but we maintained civility, and she never threatened anyone. it did eventually get aggressive, so i do not consider our friendship close as it once was, but i am still friends and we talk daily.

like i first said in this thread. it's not about what one believes, but how one believes it. a hostile jew, atheist, buddhist, goth, vegan, football club supporter, or anything else, is still just a hostile jerk. the flavour of their hostillity is inconsequential. i know some great christians, and i know some asshole christians. i know very smart ones, and stupid ones. i know rich ones, poor ones, short ones and tall ones. they all share their religion and their beliefs, but they all perform their beliefs in their own ways.

i will vehemontly disagree with people and still respect them. they have to do something really bad to get disrespect out of me. it takes quite a lot to get to that point. i most cases, i just distance myself before i get anywhere near it. so for me, disrespect is not just earned, it's hard earned.
 
methamaniac said:
You can believe whatever you want.
Doesn't make it true respectfully.
Every religion has that in common.
We're all in the same boat.
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Line 3 would seem to be false-to-facts... :D
Line 4 is contradicted by all the Religions who say "our way or Hell!" :D
 
maniac said:
Everybody has a belief in a Higher Power(s)
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What do you mean by "higher power"? Is that how people usually use the term (in relation to religion and/or spirituality)?

ebola
 
I don't completely lose respect for someone if they are religious but I don't openly talk about such things.
I don't like offending people just like I don't want anyone offending me. Religion to me is a "to each their own" type a deal. I don't believe a dude named Jesus came down to wipe away our sins and I definitely don't believe in Noah's arc. Now when you start killing people in the name of your god I think you do not deserve to be apart of the human race.
A friend of mine started talking about how she thinks life starts at conception and blah blah blah. I stopped her in her tracks so there wasn't a big fight during our gym session. Basically I practice patience and tolerance for others views until certain subjects come up. Keep your rosaries off my ovaries type deal. Women's health and safety mean more to me than God. For some people it's the other way around and I would rather not discuss such things with them because it will end ugly and I do not want to be an ugly person.
Basically practice the golden rule and just keep religion out of medicine and out of classrooms.
 
No, you can not generalize anything like that. It´s a huge subject involving billions of people, literally. It´s impossible to say without having a serious study about it.
 
ebola? said:
What do you mean by "higher power"? Is that how people usually use the term (in relation to religion and/or spirituality)?

ebola
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Yeah.
Define higher power in another manner.
You have to believe in a higher power in respect to your creation.
And you have to believe in higher power in respect to your world view.
As I said you can believe you are the highest power. It's your( in general) religion believe what you want.
Journyman16 said:
Line 3 would seem to be false-to-facts... :D
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Every religion believes it is the right belief.
Possibility of being wrong is common denominator.

my man Journey said:
Line 4 is contradicted by all the Religions who say "our way or Hell!" :D
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I'm not saying all religions are the same or lead to the same place.
Naturally, like you, I believe my world view is correct.
 
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methmaniac said:
Yeah.
Define higher power in another manner.
You have to believe in a higher power in respect to your creation.
And you have to believe in higher power in respect to your worldview.
As I said you can believe you are the highest power. It's your( in general) religion believe what you want.
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I still wanted you to clarify what you mean by "higher power".

ebola
 
ebola? said:
I still wanted you to clarify what you mean by "higher power".

ebola
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The definition you get will vary because of each person's religion.
Some people call it "God", "higher-beingness", higher- consciousness", power greater than self", "force or nature", "energy-source" etc etc.
Some use the vagueness of "spirituality".
Basically it is what shapes your world view.
What governs you if you will.

What all these have in common is that they can not be defined in a way you would want.
The description of these ( and implications)
is what gives way to religion.
You can say I don't believe in any of these.
Like I said that makes you your higer power by default.
And it puts you squarely on the spot to explain just how did you get here.
You can say randomness, but it's just another religious idea.
There is no way of proving this.
 
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How can you respect yourself for being 'governed' by a belief system that you can define, quantify, qualify, or prove?
 
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