Does this site ever harm your confidence in Humanity?

Question

I am not religious as such, but sometimes when I read some of the comments on this site, I lose hope.

Not in life just in people.

Anyone else had similar experiences?

Answer 1

I'll be honest this section has opened up my eyes to just how many people are incapable of answering a question honestly without using quotes from the bible, this is not there point of view but some one elses !! :)

Answer 2

Not so far. Does it really affect you as much as that? Some of the comments are a lot harsher than I've found on other messaging / social-networking websites I've been addicted to in the past. I do often see things which pleasantly surprise me about people. There's a lot of dross but I just skim over it until I get to the interesting stuff.

I've never come across a messaging type website before which mentioned religion quite as much. Wherever you go on here there are the evangelists trying to convert us, quoting the Bible. They're probably even in the Travel section. I find that a bit of a downer.

EDIT:
I think I've been protected from feeling the stab of the nasties because I much prefer to answer questions than ask them. If I was on the receiving end of some of the answers to questions I would find it very hurtful. I saw one yesterday to someone else's completely innocent question, really nasty & totally unnecessary. I was angry & wished I could do something but apart from causing more bad feeling & maybe writing some kind words to the questioner there's not a lot that can be done. It would be great if we could comment on other people's answers. Some answers (to other people's questions as well as my own) give me so many thoughts & feelings and there's no way to express them.

It hasn't damaged my faith in human nature because I've always know there were people like that in the world, self-righteous, not seeing past their own perspectives, never thinking beyond their own boundaries, not even realising this was possible, and because they can't see past a certain point themselves thinking that everyone who doesn't see things their way is a fool. Ugh. Most of the time I manage to avoid them in the real world but this site has been a reminder to me that they are still around and still not thinking past their rigor mortis. :(

Answer 3

No, I've had enough experience with people who are way too opinionated about religion, yet when you try to have a discussion they don't want to listen, they just want to keep running their mouths without a point.

Maybe if I hung out in R & S more I'd agree. Sometimes the politics section makes me wonder why anyone ever thought democracy was a good idea. I almost want to do the research. How many kings were worse for their countries than democratic leaders, and how many were better?

Sorry I got off the point, but thanks for the question--you got me thinking of some research (or at least a y!a question) that could be interesting.

Answer 4

Sometimes a little. I have never had any false delusions that half the people out there weren't crazy, evil, or dumb. So I am not surprised. But it certainly is kind of intimidating coming "face-to-face" with the worst of them. The key is to remember that they are not all bad. The truth is that for every really bad comment there are usually a couple of good ones and a bunch of neutral ones. It is kind of like stubbing your toe on a good day. You can have the best day of your life, get a promotion, find $20 on the ground, and be coming home to your wife cooking your favorite meal.... but then you suddenly stub your toe really hard, and guess what you think about in regards to that day? Your toe. The bad comments are like that, too. A dozen good ones will go unnoticed when you read the one bad one. So if you put things into perspective, it really isn't all that bad. It just seems that way. No hiding from the idiots, I guess!

Answer 5

No it doesn't for me. Because I know that everything is as it is supposed to be. What you are seeing on Yahoo answers, is the many conditions that exist within this world, our beliefs filter what we see, people at best have very little in the way of empathy and only operate from a single perspective and are polarized to that perspective alone. Such is life.

Half thought out answers, useless opinions abound, but then again, what one finds useful is not what an other finds so, thus - filters of belief.

Answer 6

I dunno if it's so much this site, as it is just an increase in contact with people who make me nauseous, via the R&S section. For instance, I saw this answer posted in response to a question regarding Christians and seeing the effects of Global Warming:

"No, like i have told people before, God would not let that happen. He PROMISED that by saying he would out the rainbow on earth to remin us that this would not happen. Peopel think that the rainbow theory is silly, but it makes more sense then the ones who say that there is no God."

We can do whatever the heck we want, because God won't let anything bad happen. Ever. It certainly must be nice to believe that there is a cosmic eraser, ready and willing to blot out the stupid mistakes that we make, but it is disturbing to see the conviction some people have in it. Seriously, some people shouldn't be allowed to breed. I've always been a cynic, and it never ceases to amaze me the depths of stupidity and evil that people can sink to, but encountering this stuff every day on Y!A doesn't help anything.

Answer 7

No, not really. I mean, it's the internet. People's behaviors here are not necessarily how they would behave in life. By hiding behind avatars and nicknames we can be sillier and more offensive and feel that nothing bad is going to happen to us.

If you are talking about some of the more, uh, extreme religious types, I think you have to remember that they have always existed. The difference is that now open atheism/agnosticism is acceptable, which is a huge change from the past centuries.

Answer 8

As my old friend the Reverend Nathan Strawbelly always says, there are two kinds of people in the world, sheep and wolves. There are many more sheep than there are wolves.

I don't think you can change a person's essential nature. If they can't think for themselves, if they need other people to tell them how to live and how to behave, then no amount of persuasion or ridicule is going to change them.

I know it's depressing, but just be glad you're not one of them.

Answer 9

No it doesn't. This is the Internet and thoughtless opinions are everywhere. If our opinions really mattered we would be much more careful of how we expressed them. I'd rather have the darker side of humanity at odds with me so I might see how I fare against it in this anonymous place. Someday it could be a real court of dark souls to illuminate with the love of God. Learn while it's easy.

♥Blessed Be♥
♥=∞

Answer 10

I've had similar experiences, but I don't think it's fair to generalize from your experiences on Y!A to the rest of the world.

The R&S section in particular is filled with people with strong theological opinions, and I don't think it's a representative sample of the rest of humanity, in which most people I've met are generally good people just trying to get through their day.

Answer 11

losing confidence in humanity is like losing hope for the world its something we shouldn`t do i try to think positive and give out good Karma But after saying that some of the comments i read on here and in the politics section make me feel physycally ill