(October 25, 2010 at 8:34 pm)katinator44 Wrote: I have to agree with a lot of what you said, truthfully. I like to try and take the stand point that faith depends on the person. But you're going to always find for every religion ever created there are people who are so deeply connected to their religion they are overcome with the desire to convert as many people as possible...and everyone thinks their religion is innocent or justified in doing it while everyone else is rude and horrible. I wish it were as easy as writing up something profound to change all thatbut I do agree with you...
The only thing I have trouble with (because I'm personally having issues with it) is defending your religion. I tend to keep quiet about my beliefs because I don't want to seem like I'm trying to convert anyone. Yet me not debating about it and letting it out is building up inside me is causing me to have a LOT of resentment toward other religions. My friends will sit down at supper (all of them devout Christians) and talk about Jesus and God and such...they never do it to try and convert me (that I know of) but they do it nonetheless. So is it justified for them to sit and talk to one another about their religion or should everyone just keep quiet about their beliefs? Cause, honestly, it sucks to do that...and I have NO desire to convert ANYONE to my faith. Like I said, what an individual believes is what they believe...I have no intention of converting the world to Atheism. It's just a matter of discussing beliefs...that's when the line gets really fuzzy.
It seems to me that you are just making yourself miserable by holding in what you believe. I understand where you are coming from, because I know it is hard (and risky) to question your friends, relatives, and college peers about what they believe. At the same time, they are putting you in a position where you don't feel comfortable being around them when they are discussing their religious beliefs. If it were me, I'd likely ask that they change the subject. Don't be rude, just say something like 'I'm not in the mood to talk about religion, can we talk about something else?' Then perhaps bring up a subject that you are interested in, and try to steer the conversation away from religion. That way, you aren't confronting them, just changing the subject.
'The difference between a Miracle and a Fact is exactly the difference between a mermaid and seal. It could not be expressed better.'
-- Samuel "Mark Twain" Clemens
"I think that in the discussion of natural problems we ought to begin not with the scriptures, but with experiments, demonstrations, and observations".
- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
"In short, Meyer has shown that his first disastrous book was not a fluke: he is capable of going into any field in which he has no training or research experience and botching it just as badly as he did molecular biology. As I've written before, if you are a complete amateur and don't understand a subject, don't demonstrate the Dunning-Kruger effect by writing a book about it and proving your ignorance to everyone else! "
- Dr. Donald Prothero
-- Samuel "Mark Twain" Clemens
"I think that in the discussion of natural problems we ought to begin not with the scriptures, but with experiments, demonstrations, and observations".
- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
"In short, Meyer has shown that his first disastrous book was not a fluke: he is capable of going into any field in which he has no training or research experience and botching it just as badly as he did molecular biology. As I've written before, if you are a complete amateur and don't understand a subject, don't demonstrate the Dunning-Kruger effect by writing a book about it and proving your ignorance to everyone else! "
- Dr. Donald Prothero
