How can you disagree with a religious person and not get him/her mad?

Answer 1

It's difficult, many religious people are taught that even thinking about simple things from a non-religious perspective is heresy and sinful. The key is understanding the taboos. Taboos are like landmines in a conversation with a religious person, once you step on them the conversation is over or explodes into argument.

You need to learn about the religion and its taboos, so you can avoid the red zone.

For example, with a Mulsim person you simply cannot be talking lightly about Mohammed. Any type of joke about the Prophet is unacceptable. Homosexuality is another issue that you should not bring up with a Muslim, you will not get anywhere and eveyrone will get very upset.

With Christians, you can poke a little fun at Jesus, and you can even talk about homosexuality. Their taboos are more along the lines of claiming divinity. Saying "I am my own god" or "Man created god" or "God is Dead" that sort of talk will usually get you a huge explosion of anger.

With Jewish people it's persecution. You cannot make light of any type of persecution of jews or israel. Even if you think that people have a right to be angry at something israeli government did you need to word it very carefully and diplomaticlally, and attribute the actions to a specific person or political group rather than the entire country. (ie: I think that the policies of the Likud party have been unnecessarily cruel and opressive" rather than "Israel is cruel and opressive to the Palestinians")

I'm not trying to push stereotypes; in my experience, these are the taboos that really exist in the various cultures, and in an argument or debate, it's best to avoid them.

Answer 2

The important thing to remember in all interactions with human beings is that a person must own their emotions. You do not own their emotions for them. You cannot do or say anything that will get them mad or glad or sad or bewildered, whatever. They own that emotional state inside themselves. That is a first principle. Reread that paragraph above until it makes sense to you.

Seriously. It is vitally important! There are those who wish to pawn their lack of emotional control off onto you. They will say, "You made me so mad!" When indeed, what they are really saying is, "I chose to get mad at you." This is emotional abuse of the subtlest and sometimes not so subtle kind. We see it all the time in abusive relationships. A guy will come home and find a towel hung crookedly and then beat his wife while saying, "Oh, I don't mean to do this, but you make me so mad when you disobey the rules."

Now, about disagreeing with someone, religious or not, you owe it to yourself to own your own emotions here. Remain calm and respectful. If they choose not to be, then walk away. What is so important about religion that you would want to lose your composure about it? It is like two little children arguing about who has the better imaginary playmate, isn't it? Kind of useless.

Hope I helped.

Answer 3

If you are respectful and state things simply, "I believe in this, this and this," they shouldn't get mad. They may get mad if you won't let them convince you, or if their attempts to convince fail, but that's not your fault. It's their fault for trying to turn you away from what you believe when you don't want to be turned away.

Also, don't make statements out of ignorance. There are many Christians who say, "Wiccans are devil-worshiping witches." Now, yes, I consider myself a witch, but I don't believe that negative energies are condensed into a spiritual being. I do not worship the entity Satan because I don't believe that such a thing exists. If you're going to disagree with a person of another religion, at least have the courtesy to know what you're talking about. Also, don't accuse them of stuff they haven't done. "You killed thousands of people in the Middle Ages." The Catholic and Protestant churches did that, not the individuals living today.

Answer 4

If the religious person is righteous then they should not get mad when someone disagrees with them. You should just state your disagreement in a nice way and go from there.

Answer 5

As a Christian, I disagree with many people. The trick is not to take too much personally, and to respect them intellectually. Know right away that you will disagree and work around that. Tell them what you believe, but don't expect them to agree, just expect them to listen. Do the same with them. Do unto others, y'know?

Answer 6

You should not. His or your opinions will not necessarily create a loving environment. Neither your opinions or the others will get you to heaven or keep you out of it. When Jesus walked the earth there were times when He confronted. But in those times He was led by the Spirit and I'm sure He "counted the cost" and knew there would be a "price to pay". He was humble enough to face that rejection. And smart enought to " make Himself scarce" when it was not time yet for Him to die. When I feel compelled to confront someone I know that I need to do it with prayer and guidance. I will not do it to win but only to present grace and truth as I am led by the Lord.

Answer 7

How can you disagree with a religious person and not get him/her mad?

with Grace & respect. same as for any human being that has a different opinion or beleif than your own.

Answer 8

It really depends on the person you are dealing with. Talk about your views with someone who has a little bit of an open mind about things, but don't forget to keep an open mind yourself. Don't be smug, or act like you have all the answers while they rely on superstition and story books. Acting superior is the quickest way to make them mad.

Don't bother talking at all with someone who is so engulfed by their faith that they discuss little else. You'll just be banging your head against a solid brick wall.

Answer 9

There is no guarantee that you won't offend and or anger someone somewhere about something.I have on numeruos occasions.Most of the time not even intentionally.I had a question here deleted because someone got offened and all I wanted to know was if we had to honor our mother and father even if they wanted us dead and/or did bad things to us.Someone obviously could not answer the question without being offened and so they reported me.

The key is to know yourself and if you are ok with yourself then who cares if they like what you have to say or not.If they can't talk about their views rationally then they probably are not mature enough to have a discussion with.

Answer 10

If you have a valid reason, like a very good reference about your point of view and you feel logically the religious person is totally wrong then you must tell him about your reference.
He/She might not be knowing about the fact and this is quite normal as no one is perfect.