People keep telling me and other Atheists we should value other people's religion? Why? What is there to value? Why should I go out of my way to be supportive towards people who evidently could care less about the real world?
Yeah, call me closed minded, call me a hypocrite, call me what you want but I have to draw the line at some point such as when someone's religion interferes with science, human rights, or common sense.
2006-09-25 01:21:02 · 22 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Religion doesn't deserve respect. It is silly superstition.
However, people deserve respect. People should be allowed to believe what they want. However, that doesn't mean that we can't discuss our beliefs and learn from each other, including why some think that other's beliefs are false. People that are unwilling to discuss things on a civil level get less of my respect than those that will.
2006-09-25 01:23:40 · answer #1 · answered by nondescript 7 · 5⤊ 3⤋
Well, whatever you think of religion, you have to recognize the social achievements which were attained under the aegis of religious culture. Religion was inextricably associated with all the world's greatest art. Religion was the matrix in which the values of pluralist civil society arose -- our sense of the worth of the human person, the equal standing of all human beings before the law, etc. Religion was the prime motivating force in all the great movements of social liberation of the past 200 years -- Abolitionism and women's emancipation, for example. Like it or not, these are all achievements of a religious spirit.
Your dismissive attitude towards religion shows that you really know very little about it. For example, a phenomenological description of faith would say that it was the orientation of one's ultimate commitment. Such a description makes it clear that believers and unbelievers alike have faith. Both are also capable of orienting their ultimate commitment towards things which are not worthy of such commitment -- believers towards unexamined superstition, unbelievers towards a reason uninformed by ethics, for example.
Believe it or not, when you leave cyberspace and its screaming idiots of all stripes, you find many thoughtful believers. If you go so far as to read some serious theology (Tillich and Wieman come to mind), you find that believers have addressed the most difficult challenges posed by the modern world. In many cases, they have rethought traditional religious ideas and cast them in forms that you might well find unobjectionable, or even helpful.
Thinking believers are out there. I'm one. I've read Marx, Freud, Nietzsche, Sartre, many philosophers of science, many texts on cosmology and evolution. I'm more than willing to accept all the sound findings of science. I seek to have a reasoned faith, and a faith which informs my reason, in the sense of orienting my reason towards what is worthy of a man's ultimate commitment.
2006-09-25 01:48:06 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
You should respect the power religion has over our society and fear what kinds of personal agendas those religious people can push and enforce upon us as a whole.
If you want to see something scary, click on my blast on my 360.
That right there is why you should respect them in the form of beware what they can do. Should you value it? Hell no.
2006-09-25 01:45:08 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
If a religion is rigid, and goes against rational scientific conclusions, then stand up against it.
If people use their religion to deny others equal rights, then stand up against it.
But to reject all religions/religious people because some people "of faith" are ignorant and closed minded shows a rigidity that I usually see only in some religious people!
The world would be absolute chaos if it weren't for the peace and compassion generated by the world's great religions.
Yes, there are problems, and as a Christian (progressive), sometimes religion (especially Christianity) makes me cringe. But to deny its positives and disrespect all religions is not the answer.
peace
2006-09-25 01:30:36 · answer #4 · answered by Colin 5 · 4⤊ 1⤋
I am not going to call you any names, and I see your point of view. But in most religious peoples minds, by your own logic why should they care less about someone who has been told the God exsists and refuses to believe it. You define your own beliefs and your own reality, science is just as hypothetical as religion. They are therorys and philosophies and laws just like in religion. The fact is especially if you live in the US everyone has the freedom of religion and the right to privacy, both entitle us to view the world as each person sees fit. Religion give us a way to label reality, to define ourselves and define humanity. Just like science does. Science is a religion, and atheists are its followers, what does it offer that has more value then religion nothing. Just numbers words and therorys. Technology and science go together magick and religion go together. All define the world as we see it today. That its the value of religion.
2006-09-25 01:30:29 · answer #5 · answered by brian_richard20 2 · 3⤊ 2⤋
But hun, Its what they think and no matter what u do people are going to think what they want and ur gonna think what u want. U dont have to value nothing, BUT u should respect it, People have different opinions, U dont have to agree with them but dont debate it either. Its their beliefs not urs.
For example, My friend don't believe in god, I do, we respect each others beliefs, I can talk about god and she dont care, Because its my belief not hers, And when she says a comment that goes against god(for what I believe) I respect that also ( it has to go both ways. And everythings ok.
It shows maturity,hun, when u find peace in what u believe and what others believe,
What I do is, Take what I want and discard what I dont want (without fuss).
2006-09-25 01:32:27 · answer #6 · answered by chinaz777 4 · 4⤊ 1⤋
No one should respect beliefs that they disagree with. If people really held this belief, that peoples beliefs should be respected, there would still be slavery. It is not as if the slave owners got up one day and decided themselves that owning slaves was wrong. They were pressed into giving up their practice by people who disrespected their beliefs.
Both slavery and religion, when viewed objectively, are a huge detriment to humanity. And neither deserve respect. We should always respect people's human rights, and one of those rights should be the freedom to disagree and state your honest opinions.
2006-09-25 01:30:12 · answer #7 · answered by AiW 5 · 1⤊ 3⤋
Your question is asking me to respect your humanist religion, one that definately interferes with science, human rights and common sense.
2006-09-25 01:30:42 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 2⤋
Respect is a two-way street. Do you expect us to respect you and your choices? Then you should respect us as well. Respect doesn't mean supporting or joining. I don't expect you to go out and get an "I Heart Chrisitianity" t-shirt, but respect my right to worship and believe as I do, and I'll respect you.
2006-09-25 01:29:47 · answer #9 · answered by sister steph 6 · 5⤊ 1⤋
You don't really have to respect religions, but you really should try to respect other people's beliefs. That doesn't mean you should let them impose them on you. They should respect your beliefs too.
Everyone should be free to believe what they want as long as they don't harm others or impose their beliefs or morals on others.
2006-09-25 01:27:30 · answer #10 · answered by undir 7 · 4⤊ 2⤋