Our server costs ~$56 per month to run. Please consider donating or becoming a Patron to help keep the site running. Help us gain new members by following us on Twitter and liking our page on Facebook!
Current time: March 29, 2024, 5:10 am

Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
[Serious] Questions about Belief and Personal Identity
#21
RE: Questions about Belief and Personal Identity
I tried the 'I'm not particularly religious' tack when questioned about my religious stance by people whose business it wasn't. However, I live in South Carolina and they rarely settled for that answer, they almost always wanted to know particulars. So for years when asked what church I go to I said I don't go to church, I'm an atheist. Then I got involved with a Untiarian Universalist fellowship, so now I say I go to that sometimes. The conversation is much less likely to turn personal and more likely to turn to 'what's a Unitarian Universalist'?
I'm not anti-Christian. I'm anti-stupid.
Reply
#22
RE: Questions about Belief and Personal Identity
(June 3, 2021 at 10:05 am)Neo-Scholastic Wrote:

Rather than take each question individually I'd rather just spill my thoughts on identity and beliefs.
1. We are not one thing, we are a story. Part of that story is what we believe, and what others believe about us, what we expect of ourselves, and what others expect from us. It is a story being written now, so that we are the sum of what we've been what we are in this moment and the expectations of our future. Success and contentment for me is when reality matches the story.
2. Our brains are really complex sorting hats. We identify things and define them from our unique perspective. Then we relate them to other similar things and classify it as this or that, us or them, good or bad, etc.. When it's been classified we gain knowledge which might impact other relationships and definitions. A perfect example is the definition of "what is a man" everyone has their own perspective but when I was younger, I thought being a man meant having a peepee. As my world view expanded and that value definition wasn't deep enough, I sought more definition. I added attributes that someone I saw as a man had. It grew my definition of what it means to be a man. As the years move on that's changed and will continue to.
3. This is all tied heavily with value as well. I can say I'm a man, but not that kind of man. Someone else has a different value of what's a man and I don't match that. They don't value my definition as much as theirs and react to me based on their valuation. This is why stereotypes and generalizations exist and can be accurate to their degree.
4. As time moves on definitions change. We move the goal posts on ourselves. There is a reason that the only constant thing is change. Change is tied to the ebb and passing of time. We have beliefs, based on definitions and values, those definitions or values change and it's a changed belief, which changes "us" which changes other's perception of us, which changes their definition related to their classification of us and so on...

/2cents
"There ought to be a term that would designate those who actually follow the teachings of Jesus, since the word 'Christian' has been largely divorced from those teachings, and so polluted by fundamentalists that it has come to connote their polar opposite: intolerance, vindictive hatred, and bigotry." -- Philip Stater, Huffington Post

always working on cleaning my windows- me regarding Johari
Reply
#23
RE: Questions about Belief and Personal Identity
(June 8, 2021 at 9:49 am)Mister Agenda Wrote: I tried the 'I'm not particularly religious' tack when questioned about my religious stance by people whose business it wasn't. However, I live in South Carolina and they rarely settled for that answer, they almost always wanted to know particulars. So for years  when asked what church I go to I said I don't go to church, I'm an atheist. Then I got involved with a Untiarian Universalist fellowship, so now I say I go to that sometimes. The conversation is much less likely to turn personal and more likely to turn to 'what's a Unitarian Universalist'?

When I was in SC my son played baseball and football so I met a lot of the other parents.  I noticed that after the exchange of names the next step was about your church affiliation...always.  I always found it rather rude.  My usual answer was that I was raised Catholic and with enough of the typically Southern flavors of faith...that was enough said.
  
“If you are the smartest person in the room, then you are in the wrong room.” — Confucius
                                      
Reply
#24
RE: Questions about Belief and Personal Identity
(June 8, 2021 at 11:54 am)arewethereyet Wrote:
(June 8, 2021 at 9:49 am)Mister Agenda Wrote: I tried the 'I'm not particularly religious' tack when questioned about my religious stance by people whose business it wasn't. However, I live in South Carolina and they rarely settled for that answer, they almost always wanted to know particulars. So for years  when asked what church I go to I said I don't go to church, I'm an atheist. Then I got involved with a Untiarian Universalist fellowship, so now I say I go to that sometimes. The conversation is much less likely to turn personal and more likely to turn to 'what's a Unitarian Universalist'?

When I was in SC my son played baseball and football so I met a lot of the other parents.  I noticed that after the exchange of names the next step was about your church affiliation...always.  I always found it rather rude.  My usual answer was that I was raised Catholic and with enough of the typically Southern flavors of faith...that was enough said.

Seems like a Southern thing. I have never experienced anything like that elsewhere, particlarly in the Midwest.
<insert profound quote here>
Reply
#25
RE: Questions about Belief and Personal Identity
The question is more important and more relevant the more religious a place is, and the south does have some pretty thick concentrations of churches. We all know what kinds of people go to each kind of church in our area.

They're just feeling people out.
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
Reply
#26
RE: Questions about Belief and Personal Identity
(June 8, 2021 at 11:54 am)arewethereyet Wrote:
(June 8, 2021 at 9:49 am)Mister Agenda Wrote: I tried the 'I'm not particularly religious' tack when questioned about my religious stance by people whose business it wasn't. However, I live in South Carolina and they rarely settled for that answer, they almost always wanted to know particulars. So for years  when asked what church I go to I said I don't go to church, I'm an atheist. Then I got involved with a Untiarian Universalist fellowship, so now I say I go to that sometimes. The conversation is much less likely to turn personal and more likely to turn to 'what's a Unitarian Universalist'?

When I was in SC my son played baseball and football so I met a lot of the other parents.  I noticed that after the exchange of names the next step was about your church affiliation...always.  I always found it rather rude.  My usual answer was that I was raised Catholic and with enough of the typically Southern flavors of faith...that was enough said.

When my sister lived in SC, she said that she had people simply stop the conversation and walk away when she said she was Catholic. (This was late 90s. Hopefully the culture has shifted a little bit since then.)

My sister also said she drove by signs advertising a KKK picnic. I hope that sort of thing just doesn't happen anymore. But maybe it does...
Reply
#27
RE: Questions about Belief and Personal Identity
It does, and yes, being catholic in the south is something like and akin to (and very often is) being a hispanic who's wrong about god. Two things you don't really want to be affiliated with in places where this would be an issue.
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
Reply
#28
RE: Questions about Belief and Personal Identity
(June 11, 2021 at 7:43 pm)vulcanlogician Wrote:
(June 8, 2021 at 11:54 am)arewethereyet Wrote: When I was in SC my son played baseball and football so I met a lot of the other parents.  I noticed that after the exchange of names the next step was about your church affiliation...always.  I always found it rather rude.  My usual answer was that I was raised Catholic and with enough of the typically Southern flavors of faith...that was enough said.

When my sister lived in SC, she said that she had people simply stop the conversation and walk away when she said she was Catholic. (This was late 90s. Hopefully the culture has shifted a little bit since then.)

My sister also said she drove by signs advertising a KKK picnic. I hope that sort of thing just doesn't happen anymore. But maybe it does...

I left in 2006 - asking about your religious affiliation was still a thing.  I had one lady who came to the door from a Baptist church actually gasp...audibly, when I said I was raised Catholic.  Mind you, she was standing in my damn house as I had invited them in since the night was chilly when they came to recruit me.

Just off the highway between our tiny town and a bigger town was a sign for the Girl Scout camp.  I nearly drove off the road the first time, right next to it, was a sign that read: KKK Rally, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, public invited.

That sign popped up every month like clockwork for several years.  That's not to say that after the signs stopped going up the rallys stopped....oh, no.  They were just a little more on the down low since Horace King was in deep doo doo with the police.  He was the Grand Dragon of the KKK.  He seriously had life-sized Klansmen in their robes depicting status in his front yard.  

Seeing caravans of vans and trucks bedecked with rebel flags pulling into the area one weekend a month was unnerving at best.
  
“If you are the smartest person in the room, then you are in the wrong room.” — Confucius
                                      
Reply



Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Belief without Verification or Certainty vulcanlogician 40 3240 May 11, 2022 at 4:50 pm
Last Post: vulcanlogician
  Is Belief in God ethical? vulcanlogician 28 2521 November 1, 2018 at 4:10 pm
Last Post: vulcanlogician
  William James and Belief In Belief Mudhammam 0 617 November 2, 2016 at 7:13 pm
Last Post: Mudhammam
  Knowledge and belief in God Harris 37 4442 April 29, 2016 at 8:00 am
Last Post: paulpablo
  Is personal identity really just mind? Pizza 47 6510 February 14, 2016 at 12:36 pm
Last Post: God of Mr. Hanky
  How is a personal god different from an anthropomorphic god? Pizza 36 5899 January 1, 2016 at 12:07 am
Last Post: Pizza
  Test my belief system robvalue 84 12126 September 8, 2015 at 10:41 am
Last Post: Sappho
  The Ethics of Belief Pyrrho 32 7577 July 25, 2015 at 2:27 pm
Last Post: The Grand Nudger
  My View on Belief vs. Knowledge GrandizerII 29 7247 March 4, 2015 at 7:12 pm
Last Post: Thumpalumpacus
  Belief and Knowledge Heywood 150 14852 November 9, 2014 at 8:24 pm
Last Post: bennyboy



Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)