General Chat

I dont usually get involved in discussions of this nature either but today I will make an exception :)

To my mind

Religion doesnt necessary make a person good

Atheism doesnt necessary make a person bad.

We are all open minded individuals with our own paths to lead. I was brought up initially as a child in the high church but see so much hypocritical behaviour that I veered away from it all as soon I was old enough to make my own way.

Later on a lot of my family went into spritualism and all the things that went with it. To me it was like jumping from the frying pan into the fire so why would I want to rake up demons that I had been brought up to believe in.

There were parts that I did start to form an opinion on but again I found so much hypocritical behaviour.

If a person is over on the other side and I believe they could well be, then why would I want to keep disturbing them to bring them back to the plane we are supposed to be on here. It doesnt make sense.

I looked into many things for a while before I came to my own way of life. Thats being be prepared to listen to others views, a person doesnt need to preach one way or the other whether they should believe and should certainly not condemn them for what their own beliefs are so long as they do not go to extreme, but then again who am I to judge them, no one gives me that right either.

I believe in the power of positivity, simplicity, meditation also in higher energy whatever we call that higher energy be it God, Karma, Chi, or any other name by which people call it but that doent mean others should agree or disagree with it or condemn me for what I believe.

Funny old thing 'belief' isn't it? We have the freedom to believe anything we want to - from the belief that the earth is flat to the belief that little green men have landed from Mars. I respect people's right to believe whatever they wish - even though I may not agree with them. We are fortunate to have the choice - to believe in something or not to believe.

I believed my children should brush their teeth and encouraged them to do so. Both choose to continue with this. They made an informed choice.

I believe in the Christian faith and encouraged my children in this way. One chose to continue, one didn't. They made an informed choice.

I agree that ones beliefs/faith shouldn't be rammed down others' throats - it tends to put people's backs up rather than interest them. There is the old saying 'Christianity is caught not taught'. However, I am always willing to listen to someone with more experience than I have and learn from them.

Hayley

You're lost me ? Which post ? This thread didn't relate to any thread/post on GR as I said at the beginning.

TOR x

UPDATE just checked this thread and I assume you are referring to 2nd post........My assumption would be that the poster removed it themself. But I could be wrong as normal. lol

Just a quick question why has been post been reported and removed, it wasn't rude ?

i dont care what religion anybody follows
but don't want it rammed down my throat
as i have my own beliefs

Angie,

I think the point is anyone can have any beliefs (whose practices do not fall foul of common law) that they wish to.

It's the evangelists that I object to. I am not open to being preached AT. You can debate with me but not shove something down my throat. Well not without me biting your hand :-))

We all have views on what is acceptable and what is not. That relates to some 'fringe' religions in my case.

My sole objection is where parents indoctrinate their children into a religion before the child is mature enough to decide for themselves.

By all means bring your children up to 'do no harm'. that's the principle we went by. It's their choice whether they follow any religious course or not and not ours.

Sue x

I'm not so sure that some extreme beliefs are actually a good thing though...............suicide bombers and allowing a person to die when a blood transfusion could have saved them are 2 extreme examples I personally can't ever see as being harmless.

I don't think you should necessarily hold respects for another's beliefs if you don't believe in them yourself. How can you respect something you regard as false? But I do think the person who believes them can be respected. However, there are too many grey areas in that. Sometimes, as in the case of paedophiles mentioned earlier, how can you respect either the person or their belief that what they do is ok?

Equally though, should the person who does not believe in what YOU believe in be mocked, ridiculed and slated for it? It works both ways.

If the non-believer states his or her case and the reasons why, things get heated, yet it is that non believer who often carries the blame, simply for stating their own beliefs/non beliefs. The attacking has gone both ways.

Teresa...Also Christian, proud of it, never denied it, but tries not to enter into religious discussion.

I better take a hose with me Sue lol

Yes SueM

It's the being preached at and perhaps being condemned for not holding a particular belief (religious or political) which means those being preached at can "fight" back.
If someone started spouting anti-semitic Nazi or Marxist Leninist Communist propaganda at me I'd feel I could argue as forcefully as I wish and in open debate if that looked like ridiculing their beliefs then so be it.

Sadly when debating there is no way not to ridicule someone if their beliefs are extreme. You cannot treat some beliefs as holding equal value to others.

Sue
x

lol Kitty

We are all going to find out at some point aren't we?

x

Says it all really doesn't it Sue:))

I honestly don't care what anyone's beliefs are as long as they do not try to preach AT me.

As for taking the stance that only they have the right to enter the Kingdom of Heaven (if that exists) and the rest of us are condemned to Hell....well!

Sue x

I don't think we should ever mock a person's beliefs, we all have life experiences and upbringings that shape the way we are.

What I do object strongly too is anyone pushing their beliefs onto others ...............that is the cause of a lot of problems.

Mocking anyone because they believe something we don't is pointless and totally unnecessary.

Thinking about it I suppose if I feel someone's beliefs are totally ridiculous or just do not fit known facts so are simply wrong, then I would find it very hard to really fully respect that person but that doesn't mean I'd want to be nasty.

I might still like them as people while not being able to understand how on earth an intelligent person has come to the conclusions they have. I'm really not sure David Icke is intelligent though!

In the case of people I know I would then avoid all possible subjects which might lead to upsets when I meet them because I still value their friendship.

I can think of an example.........we have old and very good friends who are Creationists. We meet for meals and have fun together. They are a very nice couple and we've known them for years. I have no intention of upsetting them and my paleoanthropologist daughter would not dream of wearing her t-shirt which states "I give evolution the opposable thumbs up" when they are here!
If they were to come here and try to convert me then I would counter with arguments. But they don't and so we get along just fine.

Sue
x

Well, If there was one god, that would be fine by me.But there are so many out there,who's to say who is right in what they believe?

Too many wars/troubles being caused by it all.



Marion

This is an emotive subject and we did have a very heated thread on here recently. It would not achieve anything to drag all the old nastiness up again.

This is how I see it.

I like and respect people from a wide variety of backgrounds and cultures. I have friends who are Sikh, Hindu, Jain and various varieties of Christian (including Creationist). We live and let live perfectly happily.

However, if someone starts preaching at me and declaring what I should believe, then I feel perfectly at liberty to state my own beliefs and my reasoning behind them. If someone has ideas and beliefs I feel are ill-informed or even ridiculous and spouts them at me then I have every right to state what I feel are better reasoned ideas.
If evidence and facts disagree with someone's beliefs and the believer is trying to convert others then anyone has a right to disagree. Debates are often heated on such subjects and that is fine.

We can respect people but there is no reason on earth why anyone should respect a belief.

I'll fight tooth and nail for anyone's right to free speech and everyone's right to hold a belief but put it forward on an open forum and I have every right to disagree (even forcefully).

Sue
x

Well, fair point about the government but the point i was making is would you be able to respect someone if you totally disagreed with their belief system?

My friend works in a prison in Wales working with paedophiles. Now some of the men she works with truly believe they have the right to sexual contact with young children.
It's not that they know it's wrong but do it anyway, they simply believe that their human rights are being infringed by society's repulsion of their actions.

Now...do you respect their right to believe that? And can you respect them as people?
xx

Agree with you TOR regarding the government.

As for David Icke, who knows if he is right or wrong.
I am not clever enough to know.


Mo

Unsub522

Who says his belief system is a load of 'old mince' (love that btw)

Alien infiltration of the government would explain a lot of the policies they come out with.

TOR x