Hey guys,
I am posting this here because ATOT is the most diverse group of people I can get input from, there are people here from both sexes, many religions, and different nationalities, all of whom will each have their own opinions on what I'm about to ask here.
I know this might be a stretch but this isn't a debate about whether athiesm is better than religion, or which religion is superior to another. Leave the flaming out of this. As far as I'm concerned everyone is entitled to their own opinions, if you don't respect anothers opinion it's just the basis for them to flame you.
I am agnostic, my parents are different religions, and different races. As such I've never felt any grounds to judge someone on either criteria. I've been exposed to many different things, and usually keep an open mind, until recently.
Maybe it's simply myself getting older and being exposed to more things, that I realize that things like religion are simply used as justification to criticize others.
Which brings me to my experience that I want to talk about in this post.
My best friend is Orthodox Christian, my other best buddies are Islamic and Jewish, and each religion has their section of crazies, right, thats fine, but never have I seen a holier than thou judgemental group of people than this.
For a guy that went to a Catholic school I was taught that at the heart of both Catholicism and Christianity is forgiveness and acceptance. Now I'm not really in a situation where I need to be forgiven or accepted, but someone (a very religious person), is.
I'm a fairly decent person despite what many people will attest to on ATOT, I'm hard working and honest, and I believe that there is a fundamental good in just about everyone.
But everytime I've run into a hardcore Christian, things never seem to go well.
I've been smeared by them, called a drug dealer, a rapist, a thief.
Hated on because I'm not religious, because of mixed heritage.
At times I've wondered what I've been missing in my life and looked at religion as a possible thing to look towards, I was snubbed by the people I tried to talk to.
Hypocrisy
For a community that is so judgemental, and in most cases with no foundation for their criticism I often wonder what these people use to justify their criticism of others when they are rarely, if ever, perfect human beings.
Many Christians I know, engage in pre-marital sex, drink, do drugs, by night, and in the day time they go back to good little Christians.
Now, as someone who is a bit of a whistle blower, constantly questioning my own convictions, I ask myself, how do these people sleep at night?
Everyday they judge people on the foundations of what some guy upstairs thinks, and what people thousands of years ago wrote down in what could be the best selling fiction novel of 10 BC.
Now I'm not naive nor intelligent enough to say that an entire religion is false, but I often look at the situation and walk away from talking to or interacting with people like this because it is impossible to have a logical argument with someone who believes in blind faith.
Conclusion
I guess what I'm really asking is on what religious basis can I question their right to criticize me? I obviously don't have many people to criticize, but I find that I am running into these people more and more often, and I've walked away before, but I would really like to be able to question them, and their existance and reasoning like they question mine.
Cliffs
If reading the first portion of this post was too cerebral for you, you don't belong in this thread.
There are no cliffs.
I am posting this here because ATOT is the most diverse group of people I can get input from, there are people here from both sexes, many religions, and different nationalities, all of whom will each have their own opinions on what I'm about to ask here.
I know this might be a stretch but this isn't a debate about whether athiesm is better than religion, or which religion is superior to another. Leave the flaming out of this. As far as I'm concerned everyone is entitled to their own opinions, if you don't respect anothers opinion it's just the basis for them to flame you.
I am agnostic, my parents are different religions, and different races. As such I've never felt any grounds to judge someone on either criteria. I've been exposed to many different things, and usually keep an open mind, until recently.
Maybe it's simply myself getting older and being exposed to more things, that I realize that things like religion are simply used as justification to criticize others.
Which brings me to my experience that I want to talk about in this post.
My best friend is Orthodox Christian, my other best buddies are Islamic and Jewish, and each religion has their section of crazies, right, thats fine, but never have I seen a holier than thou judgemental group of people than this.
For a guy that went to a Catholic school I was taught that at the heart of both Catholicism and Christianity is forgiveness and acceptance. Now I'm not really in a situation where I need to be forgiven or accepted, but someone (a very religious person), is.
I'm a fairly decent person despite what many people will attest to on ATOT, I'm hard working and honest, and I believe that there is a fundamental good in just about everyone.
But everytime I've run into a hardcore Christian, things never seem to go well.
I've been smeared by them, called a drug dealer, a rapist, a thief.
Hated on because I'm not religious, because of mixed heritage.
At times I've wondered what I've been missing in my life and looked at religion as a possible thing to look towards, I was snubbed by the people I tried to talk to.
Hypocrisy
For a community that is so judgemental, and in most cases with no foundation for their criticism I often wonder what these people use to justify their criticism of others when they are rarely, if ever, perfect human beings.
Many Christians I know, engage in pre-marital sex, drink, do drugs, by night, and in the day time they go back to good little Christians.
Now, as someone who is a bit of a whistle blower, constantly questioning my own convictions, I ask myself, how do these people sleep at night?
Everyday they judge people on the foundations of what some guy upstairs thinks, and what people thousands of years ago wrote down in what could be the best selling fiction novel of 10 BC.
Now I'm not naive nor intelligent enough to say that an entire religion is false, but I often look at the situation and walk away from talking to or interacting with people like this because it is impossible to have a logical argument with someone who believes in blind faith.
Conclusion
I guess what I'm really asking is on what religious basis can I question their right to criticize me? I obviously don't have many people to criticize, but I find that I am running into these people more and more often, and I've walked away before, but I would really like to be able to question them, and their existance and reasoning like they question mine.
Cliffs
If reading the first portion of this post was too cerebral for you, you don't belong in this thread.
There are no cliffs.
let it die a slow painful death like all religion threads should!
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