Respecting Beliefs

[Guest ANCB]

but i do get me some satisfactions....

i bet you do mate, i would too if i could elucidate myself like that.

[trumpton]

I'll respect a belief if there is some solid reason to believe it. Maybe some evidence , reasoning , critical analysis would help . Otherwise , forget about it.

[Sanatogen]

Happy to disagree with people, What else is there.

Waste energy on flamewars just because somebody typed something that pushes your ego buttons!

[trumpton]

Sorry, don't want this to turn into a shitfest but it could. Bit drunk and just something that I've been thinking about, it could go horribly wrong. Any abuse and I will kill the thread.

But I've been thinking about 'respecting other people's beliefs'

I do absolutely respect the right for people to believe whatever they want. I respect the right to belief.

But that doesn't necessarily mean I have to respect the beliefs themselves.

If someone believes something that I find offensive, or that I just simply disagree with then I cannot respect that belief. I can respect their right to have that belief, but I can't respect the belief itself.

And belief doesn't really matter, it's how you act on a belief that matters. Actions matter, not beliefs.

Sorry, like I said, bit drunk again

Hi Boojum , Its an interesting subject but i don't understand what it means to respect the right to have beliefs. How is that different to respecting the beliefs themselves ? People will believe what they want , its out of our hands. The respect part is only relevant if those beliefs are expressed. However I do agree with you that we don't have to respect others beliefs.

[Fat Charlie]

It's difficult.

I work with a couple of guys, one follows Hinduism and the other is Muslim. Usually any talk about religious belief is avoided.

I don't know how the conversation got around to it but one of them said that they didn't believe in Evolution, then the other guy, a much younger lad says "Yeah I used to believe in Evolution but I don't any more"

Before even thinking, as a knee jerk reaction I just blurted out "How the fuck can you not believe in Evolution?" and was going to go on to say that there's indisputable evidence for it, but I saw the blank stares, realised that there was no good place this conversation could possibly go, and just shut my mouth.

In situations like that, where your views on a certain subject are complete polar opposites it's very difficult to deal with it other than to just clam the fuck up. But sometimes it just comes out before you realise what you're saying

[Gimps]

@@Fat Charlie... saw a program once when someone was discussing evolution with an American Christian, when asked about dinosaur fossils, they replied it was gods way of testing faith.

Lost my faith in humanity being anything but fucking stupid.

[trumpton]

It's difficult.

I work with a couple of guys, one follows Hinduism and the other is Muslim. Usually any talk about religious belief is avoided.

I don't know how the conversation got around to it but one of them said that they didn't believe in Evolution, then the other guy, a much younger lad says "Yeah I used to believe in Evolution but I don't any more"

Before even thinking, as a knee jerk reaction I just blurted out "How the fuck can you not believe in Evolution?" and was going to go on to say that there's indisputable evidence for it, but I saw the blank stares, realised that there was no good place this conversation could possibly go, and just shut my mouth.

In situations like that, where your views on a certain subject are complete polar opposites it's very difficult to deal with it other than to just clam the fuck up. But sometimes it just comes out before you realise what you're saying here ?

It seems odd that there somehow is a choice in whether you believe in evolution. Its a fact , where is the evidence to dispute it ? What is their explanation as to how we got

here ? Ah , God did it . Its so childish its hard to believe how any grown up could come to this position. It does say something about denial and faith however and how strong these forces are.

[ratdog]

I will respect other peoples belief, I mean, as long as they don`t mind me questioning it, if they flaunt it in my face that is.

Loads of people around my way think along the right so I get loads of shit for it, isn`t that the same? and my view of politics may just be that, a view, but at least the politics are real to some greater extent.

Strangely though both politics and religion see an awful lot of people die

[botanics]

@@ratdog

Perhaps because the two are more or less the same mate, that being of course a heirarchal pyramid of control mechanisms invented via the ego to suppress and dominate.

[Boojum]

I wish I believed. In something.

Belief is supposed to explain why. Why we exist. Why we are here.

Belief is there to comfort you, to convince you that there's a point to existence.

There isn't. There is no point to existence. We just are. For a brief time we exist. And then we die.

There is no point to existence. There is no God. There is just existing, and it's for a very brief time, and when it's gone, it's gone. There is no heaven or hell, when you die that's it, your consciousness is gone like someone turned off a switch. There is no reward for being good, there is no punishment for being bad (shit, the whole concept of heaven and hell us so fucking juvenile it's fucking laugable).

We live for a small amount of time, and then we die. And the time we live only really matters in our frame of time - in geological time we may as well not have existed. But we pretend that we are important, we create Gods and religions to make us feel important, But we're not, We matter less than a pebble on a beach. Deal with it and stop making up Gods and religions, and then killing other people because your made up God apparently told you so (because the priests of your God, the people who own your religion tell you to do shit - there is no God, but even if there was a God, he wouldn't communicate to you via a bunch of cunts who just want you to do shit because they tell you to, if God wants you to do something then surely he'd speak to you directly and not through some other cunt with their own agenda. If God really told you to strap bombs on yourself and blow a load of people up then fair enough - your God is a cunt but OK, he spoke to you personally. If other people tell you to go out and kill in the name of God then fuck em, if you listen to what they are saying then you're a fucking idiot, if God wants you to do it then he'll tell you himself, if some random person tells you to do it then it's got nothing to do with God, and you're a fucking idiot for listening) YOU DON'T FUCKING MATTER. Neither do I. Neither does anyone.

[ratdog]

@@ratdog

Perhaps because the two are more or less the same mate, that being of course a heirarchal pyramid of control mechanisms invented via the ego to suppress and dominate.

Yeah, I was thinking that when I was typing

And they say politics and religion should never mix, I wonder why that is?

[Hir]

Why doesn't god talk to women vs why don't women talk to god,

because women think there are more important than men,

that's the real fucking joke,

they smile at a man and expect them to simply come running,

like some little love sick fucking puppy,

i am not gay, but i wish i was, no evil cold hearted girl trying to rule my life.

you sad bastard

[Davey Jones]

Respecting peoples beliefs is important as long as you dont want to upset people, a lot of people in the world today couldn't give a shit about upsetting people and actually set out to do it.

Look at the internet, go check out a twitch chat channel when theres thousands of people on , I never knew until recently its called the online disinhibition effect. People are fukin awful to each other, all these idiots saying horrible things online shows that they must have some fuked up thought processes going on and being anonymous means they can't resist to hurt people.

I am not a big fan of any religion but I interact with people from all kinds of places and some of the places on earth don't offer the same freedom to say pretty much whatever you want, insulting these peoples beliefs is like telling a kid Santa doesn't exist because it serves no purpose other than to harm

Respecting someones beliefs means not telling them you think its a load of utter wank bla bla!, I have found that by treading carefully you can have some amazing conversations with people just ask them to explain it. I have recently met an Indian lad who is in the UK temporarily and we actually break through the language barrier and laugh. he tells me he eats beef but if he is on the phone to his Mam and tells her she starts getting emotional so he has to hide it

Made everyone laugh like fuk!

[mudman123]

the trouble with others beliefs is that they are wrong and so are yours and mine its all just a best guess about whats going on.The conflict starts when you say you are right.

[Boojum]

Organised religion is all about politics. It's about control. That's why it's such a load of shit.

God told you to do this...

Fuck off, God didn't tell you to do anything. WE told you to do this. God told us, and we are then only people that can understand and interpret the will of God, so what we say is really what God says. And if you don't do what we tell you to do, you're a heretic and we'll burn you.

God says do what we tell you to do. And if you don't do what we tell you to do, God says we can kill you.

Thou Shalt Not Kill, unless someone disagrees with you and your concept of God, in which case fill your boots. Kill anyone you want. Shit, there are so-called Christians who support the death penalty - who even claim that it is God's work. There are so-called Christians who would be happy for the moneylenders to be in the temple - David Cameron claims to be a Christian, Theresa May claims to be a Christian. I'm a fucking atheist but I have more Christain values than those cunts - I want to help those less fortunate than I am, I don't want to see people suffering at my expense, I want a world where everyone has enough, I don't want more than my fair share. That's kinda what the Jesus dude preached - be good to people, make sure those less fortunate have enough, do what you can to help others. That's not how a lot of self-procalimed fucking 'Christians' live their lives

If Jesus was reborn now and got some popular support, preaching the gospel of helping people, acceptance, all the stuff he apparently said, the right-wing 'Christians' would be the first to nail him to a cross to shut him up. Bloody pinko liberal lefty.