"The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us..." should we be grateful?

[Catholic_Lady]

If you know that making fun of someone's beliefs to their face hurts their feelings, and you do it anyway, then you don't care about their feelings. And if you don't care about a person's feelings, I don't know how you can say you care about them.

If you have a dear friend who is falling into some pretty messed up, harmful ways of thinking, you can still sit down and have a serious conversation with him and be honest with him. But there is a respectful and disrespectful way of doing it. And how you approach it will show how well you care.

Which is more respectful of a person, challenging their false and silly ideas (while hoping that they might realize their error), or leaving them with their false and silly beliefs?

Some ideas are so silly that it is difficult to seem respectful of the person when one is discussing how completely idiotic and ridiculous the beliefs are.  And pretending that stupid ideas are not stupid gives a very wrong impression.  Do you value honesty and openness, or do you want to pretend that silly ideas are not silly?

If your adult friend believes in the tooth fairy, how do you react?  Do you pretend that there is even a tiny bit of sense to such an idiotic belief?

Let us take the idea further.  Suppose that your friend is not only privately believing in the tooth fairy (which, if it were truly private, you could not know about it all), but also acts on that belief in a manner which is detrimental to society.  How does that influence your interactions with your friend?


And when you come to a web site, which you know is devoted to not believing in your invisible friend (or anyone else's invisible friends), and you tell the people there that you have an invisible friend, what sort of reaction do you expect to get?  The fact that interactions here are different from interactions one typically has in person is in part due to the purpose of the site.  If, in real life, you go to an atheist meeting, what sort of reaction would you expect to get from telling them all that you believe in a god?  What kind of reaction would they get, going to a religious meeting and telling the religious people that there is no god?  Context matters for many things, and when you go to a meeting place that has a specific purpose, you should have different expectations than when you go to some other sort of place.

Hm?

Perhaps you missed the part where I said "If you have a dear friend who is falling into some pretty messed up, harmful ways of thinking, you can still sit down and have a serious conversation with him and be honest with him. But there is a respectful and disrespectful way of doing it. And how you approach it will show how well you care."

I never said don't say anything at all if you are truly concerned about someone you care about. Just that making fun of them to their face is not the right, or caring approach.

And I'm  NOT talking about the website, Pyrrho. I'm talking about real life.

[The Grand Nudger]

People often find themselves offended by things that -are- serious, honest, and respectful.

[Catholic_Lady]

Well... since everyone seems to have a vivid imagination when it comes to what I say, perhaps it was a mistake to try to answer some questions here lol. I don't really see the point in doing it when instead of reading my actual answers, people just seem to make up stuff that I never actually said.

Thanks for the post anyway, Whateverist.

I hope I was able to clear up at least one thing for ya.

[Crossless2.0]

Well... since everyone seems to have a vivid imagination when it comes to what I say, perhaps it was a mistake to try to answer some questions here lol. I don't really see the point in doing it when instead of reading my actual answers, people just seem to make up stuff that I never actually said.

Thanks for the post anyway, Whateverist.

I hope I was able to clear up at least one thing for ya.

In the interest of fairness and to avoid any misunderstanding, allow me to paraphrase your post.  Please feel free to correct me if I get this wrong.

CL: Since you miserable heathens continue to mischaracterize my posts, I will smite you with the very wrath of God.  You'll wish you were misquoting me in Sodom itself by the time I'm done with you.  I hate you.  I hate you all!

How did I do? 

[Catholic_Lady]

Well... since everyone seems to have a vivid imagination when it comes to what I say, perhaps it was a mistake to try to answer some questions here lol. I don't really see the point in doing it when instead of reading my actual answers, people just seem to make up stuff that I never actually said.

Thanks for the post anyway, Whateverist.

I hope I was able to clear up at least one thing for ya.

In the interest of fairness and to avoid any misunderstanding, allow me to paraphrase your post.  Please feel free to correct me if I get this wrong.

CL: Since you miserable heathens continue to mischaracterize my posts, I will smite you with the very wrath of God.  You'll wish you were misquoting me in Sodom itself by the time I'm done with you.  I hate you.  I hate you all!

How did I do? 

Lol, good one. That sounds like the common translation for my words around here.

Thanks for the humor. I needed a good laugh!

[The Grand Nudger]

"I couldn't possibly have a habit of saying silly, hypocritical shit, therefore those who criticize my comments do so only out of mis-characterization"

How did -I- do?  

[abaris]

This is a good question, and this is what I think a lot of people here don't understand. Yes, a person's religious beliefs, if they are devout, is a HUGE part of who they are.

I can understand that. That's why I sent my mother a priest to perform the last rites although she already was in a deep coma. Just in case, something of that still got through to her and made it easier.

My rule of thumb is, don't pester me, don't invade my personal or social space with what I consider religious nonsense, and I don't pester you. What I do here is far from what I'm doing on the streets. Not that it's a big problem in my country anyway, since if you don't actively go looking for religion, it's not part of daily life. I can't even remember having a religious conversation face to face.

As many have said, if you come here, you kind of have to accept to be challenged. But here's not IRL.

[Catholic_Lady]

This is a good question, and this is what I think a lot of people here don't understand. Yes, a person's religious beliefs, if they are devout, is a HUGE part of who they are.

I can understand that. That's why I sent my mother a priest to perform the last rites although she already was in a deep coma. Just in case, something of that still got through to her and made it easier.

My rule of thumb is, don't pester me, don't invade my personal or social space with what I consider religious nonsense, and I don't pester you. What I do here is far from what I'm doing on the streets. Not that it's a big problem in my country anyway, since if you don't actively go looking for religion, it's not part of daily life. I can't even remember having a religious conversation face to face.

As many have said, if you come here, you kind of have to accept to be challenged. But here's not IRL.

I agree 100% with everything that was said here.^ 

[The Grand Nudger]

Meh, if we'd stood up to religion rather than show them deference out of fear -or- "respect" for their fragile sensibilities (or just to avoid the inconvenience) then I might have less ammo to sling at the Catholic Church, as only one example, don't you think?   Only presenting the other side of that coin, the side that we may be uncomfortable facing. Is providing cover for continuing atrocity all that justified on the basis of what makes a given person tear up?

Obvs, I don't think so.

[Whateverist]

How did this thread become about Catholic_Lady's feelings?

Ask Whateverist and Rhythm lol.

I'm just answering their questions.

Well it was really just inspired by the quote in your sig line and musing about the conflicting feelings it raises in me.  You know - great guy to be more inclusive but what do I really care about who is on the Pope's admit list if I'm not going to his club?

The connection to you my friend is just that you had it in your sig line and you obviously do care about the pope's club.  What I like more about you is that you care who is on his admit list.  Believing what you do it would be kind of unfriend-like if you didn't care.