Even if someone disagrees with your beliefs, have you learned anything positive from them?

Question

As an agnostic, I found that there are some good philosophic points in the Bible and the Koran.Generally people are decent but too far to the right or left is scary. Never take anything to seriously.

Answer 1

Agnostic? I thought you were atheist. Either you trying to sound neutral to not offend anyone, or you are getting soft. This question makes me think you need some testosterone, antidepresants, and an arnold schwarzenegger movie. To answer the question, yes. Religions have many good points, but are over all bad because of the fact that they are control methods, and what they cause. When people take a few good points and make it into a solid belief that people get fanatic about to the point of killing others then it is never a good thing.

As for you saying "as an agnostic", let me tell you why you can be atheist without being too far to the right or left. I give this answer when people tell me atheists are agnostics because they do not know. Here it goes.

I am not certain there is no god. I am not certain there is not pink elephants in the 6th dimension. I am not sure of anything. To be sure of something, you must know everything. If you do not, anything could exist. No one will ever know everything, so this debate will always go on. I look at what we do know. I can only come to a conclusion based on know facts. Looking at the facts, I come to the conclusion that there is no god. I also came to the conclusion that ice cream exists. I can never be certain, but can only go on what we know. No one can be sure of a single thing, not even your existence. So a belief is believing in something based on what you have. People look at the evidence differently, and come to different conclusions. Agnostics just don't really take a position. A belief is not a certainty, just what it looks like to you.

My point is that you are not certain on anything. You saying you are atheist, or theist is just what you feel to be true based on what you are given. Ex: If I put you in a house, and you only saw 4 of the 5 rooms, and the ones you saw are blue, it would be reasonable to say the other room is blue. I go on what fact we have, and if new facts come along that chalenge my beliefs, I will reasses them. If the facts are signifigant, I will change what I believe. Ex: you walk into the 5th room and it is orange. The fact is, the house my not just have 5 rooms, there could be others you don't know about yet. This is why it is good to keep an open mind, and why fundamentalist usually look insane, as when they see the fifth room they continue to tell others it is an illusion and that the room is blue. So a beliefs is a guess based on what we have. That is why blind faith is seen as insane for making the guess based on nothing. We can only ever go on what we have, and that is why I am an open minded atheist, and not agnostic.

Answer 2

You are right about the teachings of different scriptures. There are some good and bad things on each. While I agree with the BIble as the word of God, I realize that how we interpret it can create problems.

Yes, I have learned a lot from Muslims. In fact, more than once, I have been given assistance from them. To me, that is why I can understand that like Christians, not all Muslims think alike.

Answer 3

I was born Christian but converted to Buddhism as a child. I realize that many people think that our beliefs as far-fetched as in re-incarnation. The basic philosophy of eastern religions are not so far from Christianity, we believe in many of the same things but say it slightly different. All of us face death, and all of us have a different way to face the ultimate end, and whether there is a hereafter is an unknown, so being the vain people that we are, we have created 'heaven' and to qualify ourselves, we accept morals and ethics. A joke that Buddhists have is that Christians use disposal but Buddhists recycle (we have another chance). Have I learned from others? Sure, I have listened to the ideas of Taoists, Hindus, Muslims and even my brother who is a devote Protestant....and I came away, perhaps a bit wiser.

Answer 4

Tons of positive things come out of disagreement.

You learn to defend what you believe.

You have to be consistant in your belief and if it fails, you must acknowledge that.

You have to search for answers, and thereby grow.

You have to open your mind to new ideas.

You must learn HOW to interact in a disagreement without causing HARM and HURT. This will help you with every walk of life.

You must be gracious and a person of integrity to be able to disagree peacefully, and walk away peaceably.

Answer 5

I agree with you it's good to have an open mind and learn from all sources, even if you disagree you can still learn. Life with all the people and their ideas is fascinating, all of it together is what made the world what it is and the history of it.

Answer 6

Considering all these ideas have evolved along with mankind, there has to be some merit to all beliefs. Who will believe something they know is false? Although I can rationalize some far out things, man.

Answer 7

Yes, definately. Anytime I talk with people of other religions there is always the chance to gain new insights to their beliefs, their religion, their practices, their spirituality, and so on. It is always a learning experience.

Answer 8

When I stop to listen to their beliefs when I consider them seriously when I leave them make their point it usually helps me. I've learnt many positive things from other people.

Answer 9

At the very least you can learn how to bolster your own argument to better overcome the objections next time.

Answer 10

Yes.