My friendships are based on the depth of conversation, enjoyment and mutual respect I experience with a person.
Respect does not mean that I 'respect' your beliefs by default, respect means that we can question each others beliefs, have a debate, and both of us come out of it without making ad hominem attacks or feeling like we've been hurt. Sometimes you need to know when to back down though, and that really takes a little intuition.
I got into a discussion with a friend recently, which started by me pondering whether the current procedure of removing part of an animals organs was cruel (desexing of cats). Unfortunately he wanted to make the claim that the simple act of even *owning* a pet was cruel (something to do with domestication and being unnatural) and yet he became defensive when I gently probed and asked questions to find out his reasons for believing this. I still don't know his real reason for asserting it.
My point is - some people make unreasonable assertions, and I think it's fair to question them if they come up in the natural course of conversation. If your friend becomes overly defensive, assuming you're not on the 'attack', then that's their problem. It comes back to that intution and knowing when to change the subject and just let something drop. When we reached that point in the conversation that I realised he was being unreasonable, I just dropped it and made a joke out of some related side-issue.
Easy to drop a subject such as animal rights, less easy with religion, and I can understand the difficulties religious views would cause in a friendship.
Respect does not mean that I 'respect' your beliefs by default, respect means that we can question each others beliefs, have a debate, and both of us come out of it without making ad hominem attacks or feeling like we've been hurt. Sometimes you need to know when to back down though, and that really takes a little intuition.
I got into a discussion with a friend recently, which started by me pondering whether the current procedure of removing part of an animals organs was cruel (desexing of cats). Unfortunately he wanted to make the claim that the simple act of even *owning* a pet was cruel (something to do with domestication and being unnatural) and yet he became defensive when I gently probed and asked questions to find out his reasons for believing this. I still don't know his real reason for asserting it.
My point is - some people make unreasonable assertions, and I think it's fair to question them if they come up in the natural course of conversation. If your friend becomes overly defensive, assuming you're not on the 'attack', then that's their problem. It comes back to that intution and knowing when to change the subject and just let something drop. When we reached that point in the conversation that I realised he was being unreasonable, I just dropped it and made a joke out of some related side-issue.
Easy to drop a subject such as animal rights, less easy with religion, and I can understand the difficulties religious views would cause in a friendship.
Atheism as a Religion
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A man also or woman that hath a Macintosh, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with used and abandoned Windows 3.1 floppy disks: their blood shall be upon them. Leviticus 20:27
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A man also or woman that hath a Macintosh, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with used and abandoned Windows 3.1 floppy disks: their blood shall be upon them. Leviticus 20:27
