What does it mean to respect another's religious beliefs?

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

Recent polls show that, along with Muslims, atheism is the least "liked" religious viewpoint in the USA.

What examples do you have for the vilification of Christianity, aside from following the constitution which stipulates separation of church and state?

[Drkshadow03]

This strange argument to try to convince atheist people that they are religious will in no way benefit you. Even if you somehow convinced us that we had some irrational belief system (I don't), it wouldn't elevate Christianity above criticism. Sorry. You are not superior to other humans for having faith.

Where does FTIL claim to have religious faith? I always took her to be New Agey.

[Varenne Rodin]

Where does FTIL claim to have religious faith? I always took her to be New Agey.

You know her better than I do. I was responding to the statements that were mocking atheism for being Buddhism, and the general advocation of accepting all beliefs as equal and good, when that simply isn't true. I may have jumped to the conclusion that she was Christian because, as I said, I've never heard atheist views being attacked by non-christians before. Apologies to FTIL.

[Varenne Rodin]

Furthermore, she seemed interested in convincing atheists that we're just as religious as everyone else. So she's either religious, or atheist. I'm sure she is capable of speaking for herself.

[Paulclem]

Atheists speak against religion. But if we can take a deeper look we may see that we have been bombarded with Buddhist and Hindu beliefs without ever noticing it.

I'm inerested in this statement. Perhaps it's just the way you phrased it.

When you say bombarded with Buddhist and Hindu beliefs, are you referring to Buddhists and Hindus doing the bombarding, or is it that elements of those teachings - meditation, psychological methods used in therapy, adoption into the language of Buddhist/ Hindu terms, meditation and yoga practices etc being adopted in westernised forms by therapists, psychologists, new agers and - in the case of language - the general public?

[Paulclem]

Furthermore, she seemed interested in convincing atheists that we're just as religious as everyone else. So she's either religious, or atheist. I'm sure she is capable of speaking for herself.

I may be wrong - and she will correct me if I am - but I think she's trying to say that we unknowingly adhere to the same kinds of beliefs - religious and atheistics alike.

I don't think we're that ill informed personally.

[ftil]

Yes - I understand that, and it's not a bad position. The thing is as soon as you start to say all these things are the same, then someone else will point out that there are lots of differences too, and the opposite may result.True tolerance is accepting that people believe different things and that that's ok.

My point is that if people see similarities they may not want to fight with each other but dance and laugh together.

To reiterate an earlier point - the religions that are the closest Islam, Christianity and Judaism seem to disprove your point. They don't seem to do much laughing and singing together in Jerusalem. (I wish they would of course).

On the basic level we see that catholic religion is different that Buddhism,or Hindu is different than Egyptian religion, or Gnostic is different that Greek/Roman. But when we look deeper we may be quite surprised

Go on then - surprise me.

Hm......you repeat the same things again. It is very obvious that tolerance is the key. But look what is going on for centuries. Don’t you think that we need to look at a problem with different consciousness than with consciousness that created it?

You want me to present my research that took me years of hard work. Impossible! Secondly, unless you understand how your mind or consciousness works, you are not going to see it anyway. It is very different to study a subject and to see it.

[ftil]

Um...

Buddhism is secular, that doesn't mean all atheists are Buddhists. Still, I wouldn't have a problem with it if someone called me a Buddhist, or said I'm not atheist, or if they called me a Christian. I know what I don't believe in. I'm well acquainted with me. Sorry to rob you of your big "gotcha".

It's not dangerous to say Christian groups have lobbied to have Christianity forced on public school children in America, because they don't make any business of hiding it. Unless, are you saying Christians are a danger to people who stand up for their human rights? Is this another argument for atheists to not bring up child molestation cover-ups? Also, I very specifically say Christianity is the religious group that I'm at odds with, because it's the only one that effects my daily life. For the last four hours my neighbor (the local postman) has been blasting country western Christian music. "You don't got love if you ain't got Jesus!" "Whatchu gone do when your time comes to repent? Hehe, yeehaw! Whatchu gone do then?" Nice, fun lyrics. You're right. I should never make the claim that it's fricking annoying.

This strange argument to try to convince atheist people that they are religious will in no way benefit you. Even if you somehow convinced us that we had some irrational belief system (I don't), it wouldn't elevate Christianity above criticism. Sorry. You are not superior to other humans for having faith.

My oh my. You have made so many wrong assumptions. To be honest, my head is spinning how you have come up with your conclusions. You don’t know anything about my beliefs. Sorry, I don’t want to sound sarcastic but do you always make assumptions rather than asking questions and trying to understand others point of view?

[ftil]

Where does FTIL claim to have religious faith? I always took her to be New Agey.

Hehehe…… You are making wrong assumptions. I was newager for a decade but not any more since I did I quite solid research about Eastern religions and its New Age version.

[Paulclem]

I was just thinking in general terms, I wouldn't expect you to share your research. But what is the point of stating something - bland frankly - like all religions are similar if you look deeply if you aren't willing to elucidate a bit? It's a bland statement until - which I'm sure you can - justify it. I'm not asking you to copy and paste a thesis.

I repeated the point because you didn't seem to get the idea that seeing similarity in religion hasn't helped in some cases.

[ftil]

I was just thinking in general terms, I wouldn't expect you to share your research. But what is the point of stating something - bland frankly - like all religions are similar if you look deeply if you aren't willing to elucidate a bit? It's a bland statement until - which I'm sure you can - justify it. I'm not asking you to copy and paste a thesis.

I repeated the point because you didn't seem to get the idea that seeing similarity in religion hasn't helped in some cases.

Hehehe…it is impossible to elucidate in a few paragraphs. If you want to have a sense what I am talking about you may look at my Mythology and Religion tread as well as my blog. It is a tip of the iceberg as I don’t have time to elaborate it. But I also do it on purpose. I want to encourage people to do own research and those images should bring many questions.

[Varenne Rodin]

My oh my. You have made so many wrong assumptions. To be honest, my head is spinning how you have come up with your conclusions. You don’t know anything about my beliefs. Sorry, I don’t want to sound sarcastic but do you always make assumptions rather than asking questions and trying to understand others point of view?

This is not an assumption: I am not religious. You made the claim that atheists are Buddhists, and you think it is somehow hilarious. Explain yourself if you want to and if you are capable. If not, it's cool with me. I didn't really have questions for you. I was simply correcting your errors.

[YesNo]

It's amazing that someone can have spiritual/religious beliefs and believe in evolution and other scientific discoveries, and somehow their brains don't explode in the process!

After the explosion it all makes sense.

[Drkshadow03]

After the explosion it all makes sense.

Boom!!

[Varenne Rodin]

Can't elucidate? Why participate?