R -E - S - P - E - C - T: Who gets it and who decides?
November 16, 2014 at 6:01 pm
(This post was last modified: November 16, 2014 at 6:04 pm by Whateverist.)
Respect, as I'm using the word, refers to the esteem that some people elicit from us and others don't. Still others elicit the opposite reaction. We find them despicable and revile them.
But respect is about what we feel. What became clear in the closed thread is that many/most of us place more stock in how people behave than in what they feel or believe.
Tolerance is a stance and prerequisite to good manners. These are instilled in youth (or not) and further conditioned by our life experiences thereafter. It doesn't seem reasonable to hold people accountable for the conditioning their life circumstances have thrown their way, but behavior is another matter.
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If you're an atheist, do you hold theist in low esteem because of their god belief? If you're a theist, do you hold atheists in low esteem because of their rejection of god belief?
Personally, I find god belief doesn't automatically dampen the respect I have for a stranger. However, the more I learn about how that belief is held, the needle on the respect-0-meter can either go up or down. The more a theist claims certainty in their god belief, the more I notice it adversely affecting their capacity for sound reasoning. When their behavior toward others in the service of their god belief becomes pushy, pompous, condescending, manipulative, dishonest .. the needle can plummet to zero. But the same can happen when a stranger's lack of god-belief leads them to treat believers with contempt for no other reason than what it is they believe, well then again the needle plummets. In both cases, there seems to be some amount of reason-impairment and when that leads to poor treatment of others they lose respect from me.
In the last thread, I made the mistake of 'calling out' examples of theists whose reasoning and manners I respect, some others whose struggles I have empathy for and so no lack of respect, and others who are total poopoo heads whose behavior brands them as dullards and miscreants. This time I won't make the mistake of calling them by name. You will know them easily enough by their actions.
But respect is about what we feel. What became clear in the closed thread is that many/most of us place more stock in how people behave than in what they feel or believe.
Tolerance is a stance and prerequisite to good manners. These are instilled in youth (or not) and further conditioned by our life experiences thereafter. It doesn't seem reasonable to hold people accountable for the conditioning their life circumstances have thrown their way, but behavior is another matter.
- - - - - - - - - - -
If you're an atheist, do you hold theist in low esteem because of their god belief? If you're a theist, do you hold atheists in low esteem because of their rejection of god belief?
Personally, I find god belief doesn't automatically dampen the respect I have for a stranger. However, the more I learn about how that belief is held, the needle on the respect-0-meter can either go up or down. The more a theist claims certainty in their god belief, the more I notice it adversely affecting their capacity for sound reasoning. When their behavior toward others in the service of their god belief becomes pushy, pompous, condescending, manipulative, dishonest .. the needle can plummet to zero. But the same can happen when a stranger's lack of god-belief leads them to treat believers with contempt for no other reason than what it is they believe, well then again the needle plummets. In both cases, there seems to be some amount of reason-impairment and when that leads to poor treatment of others they lose respect from me.
In the last thread, I made the mistake of 'calling out' examples of theists whose reasoning and manners I respect, some others whose struggles I have empathy for and so no lack of respect, and others who are total poopoo heads whose behavior brands them as dullards and miscreants. This time I won't make the mistake of calling them by name. You will know them easily enough by their actions.
