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I was having a candid conversation with me wife today about the frustration that I often feel when engaging in almost any conversation w/ a couple of people that I am either forced or feel obligated to interact with on a regular basis. This conversation commenced about an hour or so before I was scheduled to interact with one of them.
My wife's recommendation was to simply remain silent and ignore everything they proffered. "Don't ask them anything. Don't ask them to explain or elaborate on anything that they voluntarily offer. Don't critique anything that they say. Just remain silent, say 'ah ha,' 'oh, yea, I see,' 'yea, isn't that interesting' etc. and shake your head in silent agreement." she said. In other words, just STFU! To which I replied, "Yea, but what you're really asking me to do is to interact with them as if they were a six year-old." To which she replied, "Precisely!" And then she went on to ask if I would seriously ask a six year-old to offer a clearer explanation of exactly where Santa and his elves live and work. (She then said something about using the George Castanza approach, referencing, of course, to the time George wrote down the sex moves guaranteed to drive women wild on his palm and then reviewed each step of the move as he performed the action. But I digress).
I did admit that heeding her advice was indeed something that I should spend a little more time and effort on cultivating but that it was very hard for me to do, primarily because the people that I'm referring to were adults in every meaningful sense of the term, not children. "Yea," she said, "they look like adults but looks in these particular cases are very deceiving." It's impossible to resist this logic.
So, how might I do a little more "cultivating," I wondered. What can I possibly do to remind myself that I must - at all costs - resist interacting with people on a thoroughly adult, rational and logical level - one that demands a degree of critical thinking uncommon for a six year-old - and instead just smile, shake my head as if I were in agreement with them while muttering soothing sounds of acceptance and approval?
That's when I came up with this brilliant idea: each and every time the person in front of me offered something headbangingly stupid that normally would have driven me over the edge, I simply looked down, listened, opened my hand and stared directly into my palm.
You know what? It worked! Instead of feeling frustrated and aggravated when they offered something too stupid to comprehend (which is most of the time) I was silently laughing the entire afternoon!
http://debunkingchristianity.blogspot.co...tianity%29
Goody, goody, goody we do not have to hear from you again, blessed be the LORD!
God loves those who believe and those who do not and the same goes for me, you have no choice in this matter. That puts the matter of total free will to rest.
(January 19, 2015 at 9:06 pm)Godschild Wrote: Goody, goody, goody we do not have to hear from you again, blessed be the LORD!
So, how do you think "oh boy, another candidate for probing intellectual discussions that might challenge my beliefs that I no longer have to deal with!" will play on a forum ostensibly designed for probing intellectual discussions of beliefs?
"YOU take the hard look in the mirror. You are everything that is wrong with this world. The only thing important to you, is you." - ronedee
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January 20, 2015 at 8:28 am (This post was last modified: January 20, 2015 at 8:29 am by Spooky.)
I respectfully disagree with the op. I've met plenty of extremely intelligent believers. My experience with them would put them closer to some sort of psychological disorder than lack of cognitive ability. Crazy people can still be smart, but damn if they aren't still crazy.
January 20, 2015 at 9:10 am (This post was last modified: January 20, 2015 at 9:12 am by robvalue.)
I agree in as far as it's important to pick your battles. Sometimes a discussion/argument isn't going to achieve anything for either side. Sometimes it will.
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(January 20, 2015 at 8:28 am)Spooky Wrote: I respectfully disagree with the op. I've met plenty of extremely intelligent believers. My experience with them would put them closer to some sort of psychological disorder than lack of cognitive ability. Crazy people can still be smart, but damn if they aren't still crazy.
I've met both.
The smart people who believe are usually the ones that don't talk about religion much, unless asked. They're respectful of others' views, and generally understand that there's usually more pressing things to discuss/do at the moment.
The dumb people are those that are always making a show of it, tying everything back to their god in a glassy-eyed fervor. You can't go five minutes without them praising god for something completely mundane. They are like children, only instead of going on and on about their favorite Pokemon, they're talking about their deity.
"I was thirsty for everything, but blood wasn't my style" - Live, "Voodoo Lady"
