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

[Napoléon]

Both sides feel the other is wrong, and they are right.

No. One side knows the other is wrong because of actual real things, like evidence, science, and everything we currently know about the god damn universe, and the other side believes they're right based on a mythical book/religion. That's all there is to it.

I think Rhythm asked you the same question, what would you do if your friend believed in the tooth fairy? Are you honestly telling me you'd go "I respect your beliefs". Oh c'mon. That's just lame. Be honest with yourself and the other person who believes in the tooth fairy. If you call yourself their friend you owe them that.

I know it's a hard comparison for you to grasp the similarity of, but it's a very reasonable comparison, because whether you think your beliefs are on par with the tooth fairy or not, scientifically they are. That's just a fact. And the person who acknowledges that, has every right to ridicule their friend for believing in the tooth fairy, because it's childish. If you'd be disappointed and surprised by friends doing this, how about try growing out of your childish beliefs.

[Napoléon]

I've never met anyone who thinks gay people are vile.

Have you read your own bible?

[The Grand Nudger]

You need to travel more often, then..or, perhaps..peruse Catholic Answers dat cam. I guess that's -another- question you'll be avoiding an answer to, though...and I should respect that, for "reasons".

[abaris]

Like I said a couple posts back. I still think it's not cool to make fun of a person here. My opinion.

Sorry, but if someone enters the lion's den voluntarily to post what I consider ludicrous bullshit, it's gloves off. Nobody invited them after all. It's their decision to submit themselves to all kinds of challenges, including making fun of them if their positions actually are laughing stock material.

[Longhorn]

I've never met anyone who thinks gay people are vile.

Really? REALLY?

You don't know many people then, or you're just lying.

You know what pisses me off? Your reaction to everything bad religious people might say or do. 'It couldn't happen here'. 'I don't know anyone like that'. 'That is not the norm'. Are you really that deep in denial? It's irrelevant. It's not countering anything that is said to you. It's not evidence against what is being said. It's just your bubble.

And it's really fucking annoying you know? And pretty disrespectful, too, when your reaction to how the RCC fucked me over is 'where was that? it couldn't happen in the US'. I don't know if its your defense mechanism to preserve your image of religious people or your church or just dishonesty, but for fucks sake, please drop it.

[Salacious B. Crumb]

I've never met anyone who thinks gay people are vile.

Have you read your own bible?

Yeah, or paid any attention on what goes out there in the real world with the loving christians...

[Longhorn]

Like I said a couple posts back. I still think it's not cool to make fun of a person here. My opinion.

Sorry, but if someone enters the lion's den voluntarily to post what I consider ludicrous bullshit, it's gloves off. Nobody invited them after all. It's their decision to submit themselves to all kinds of challenges, including making fun of them if their positions actually are laughing stock material.

Exactly. So please don't tell me to be kinder, Cath.

[Catholic_Lady]

Now to address your "separating what people think about religion from what they think about you", here's what I think.

Let's say I think Ugg boots are the most hideous, ridiculous article of clothing I have ever seen. Not only that, but I think they are also bad because they use wool from sheep who are treated very very badly.

Let's say I have a friend who loves them and wears them ALL the time.

Should me thinking Ugg boots are awful be offenssive to her? Obviously not.

Should it be offensive to her if I sat down with her and respectfully told her I think they just don't look good on her and I'm against them because they are attached to inhumane treatment of animals? Also, no.

But if I pointed at her, and laughed, and said some nasty stuff like "why the hell are you wearing those God awful f---ing boots?? They look ridiculous, and apparently you're ok with the mistreatment of animals, which makes me sick!"

If she got offended by this, would it be reasonable for me to say "Hey, what's your problem?? I wasn't making fun of you, just your clothes!"

This makes perfect sense.  But I'd be likely to respond differently (than the part bolded) if she is really a good friend of mine and the poor treatment of animals thing really bothered me a lot.  At first I'd simply tell her what I understood about the way the sheep were treated where those boots were made.  If she continued to wear them when we met I'd up my game.  Rather than lose her number or decide her apparent indifference to my fellow creatures was alright I'd probably nudge her with little barbed verbal jabs.  I might, for example, occasionally ask her if she heard it too.  When she asked me what, I'd say I keep hearing the screaming of lambs and then look wistfully at her boots.  After that, assuming I still liked her, it might just become an occasional joke between us.  I might pretend to be hearing something but then carry on without an overt comment.  I might look at her boots and wince.  But it wouldn't be a nonstop sort of thing.  Just an occasional nudge whenever the thought "how can it be that .." crossed my mind.  Otherwise I'd just go on enjoying what I liked about her to begin with and let it go.

You are correct. The respectable thing to do would be for her to try not to wear them around you, if she doesn't need to. Same thing with a strong vegetarian. If you are going out to dinner with someone who has expressed feeling very bothered about the treatment of the animals who are raised for slaughter, the respectable thing to do would be to not order meat.

...And likewise, a religious person should not talk about their beliefs when hanging out with an atheist friend.

With that being said, the little jabs you talk about seem very mild and harmless. And a person's shoes are usually not nearly as much a part of them as their religious beliefs.

So I see nothing wrong with the teasing you're talking about here. If you came to my house and saw my crucifixes, and made a little wince, I would laugh. But if you started laughing and saying nasty profane stuff about Jesus and my Christianity, I would not appreciate it too much.

[Catholic_Lady]

Both sides feel the other is wrong, and they are right.

No. One side knows the other is wrong because of actual real things, like evidence, science, and everything we currently know about the god damn universe, and the other side believes they're right based on a mythical book/religion. That's all there is to it.

I think Rhythm asked you the same question, what would you do if your friend believed in the tooth fairy? Are you honestly telling me you'd go "I respect your beliefs". Oh c'mon. That's just lame. Be honest with yourself and the other person who believes in the tooth fairy. If you call yourself their friend you owe them that.

I know it's a hard comparison for you to grasp the similarity of, but it's a very reasonable comparison, because whether you think your beliefs are on par with the tooth fairy or not, scientifically they are. That's just a fact. And the person who acknowledges that, has every right to ridicule their friend for believing in the tooth fairy, because it's childish. If you'd be disappointed and surprised by friends doing this, how about try growing out of your childish beliefs.

Lol, ok.

[Catholic_Lady]

I've never met anyone who thinks gay people are vile.

Have you read your own bible?

I can't say I've met the people who wrote it.