RE: Questions: atheist/theist friends
July 17, 2013 at 5:26 am
(This post was last modified: July 17, 2013 at 5:27 am by pineapplebunnybounce.)
@genkaus, yea you're right, religious or nonreligious beliefs shouldn't be treated differently. i guess i think of them differently because i find it so hard to sympathize with religious beliefs.
@apophenia, sorry for being vague, i do very much value this friendship that i brought up, so i'd rather not risk her seeing this because her religion is very personal to her. i'm sorry about your friend. this is the other thing that i do watch out with theist friends, because their religions are personal to them, while to me, it's more or less an intellectual game. so i tend to just not discuss it or even have a conversation about their religions, because i don't want to do that without being dishonest, and i don't want to lose the friendship because i'm being too honest. sometimes i test the waters a little and see how ok they are with someone disagreeing with them about their god(s).
i learned this the hard way. once, a religious friend challenged my view on science, and said that science only works on earth. which he should've known is not something i would take lying down. so i argued my argument as strong as i always do, and he said to me, "stop, i don't want to stop being friends with you over this". which really hurt, because i would never have stopped being friends with him for holding an opposing opinion. so i tried to say that what i'm saying had nothing to do with his religion, but i didn't back down from my point, because i think if i respected him enough, i would argue it with the expectation that he can hold his own. we're still friends now, but i learn not to discuss several topics, and i think he learned not to bring them up.
@apophenia, sorry for being vague, i do very much value this friendship that i brought up, so i'd rather not risk her seeing this because her religion is very personal to her. i'm sorry about your friend. this is the other thing that i do watch out with theist friends, because their religions are personal to them, while to me, it's more or less an intellectual game. so i tend to just not discuss it or even have a conversation about their religions, because i don't want to do that without being dishonest, and i don't want to lose the friendship because i'm being too honest. sometimes i test the waters a little and see how ok they are with someone disagreeing with them about their god(s).
i learned this the hard way. once, a religious friend challenged my view on science, and said that science only works on earth. which he should've known is not something i would take lying down. so i argued my argument as strong as i always do, and he said to me, "stop, i don't want to stop being friends with you over this". which really hurt, because i would never have stopped being friends with him for holding an opposing opinion. so i tried to say that what i'm saying had nothing to do with his religion, but i didn't back down from my point, because i think if i respected him enough, i would argue it with the expectation that he can hold his own. we're still friends now, but i learn not to discuss several topics, and i think he learned not to bring them up.
