HelenM

Goliath, thank you for that clarification.

Helen

Goliath

You're welcome.

Sincerely,

Goliath

BadBadBad

You're going beyond the premise. I thought the premise was that disrespecting beliefs is the same as disrespecting the person. Here, the person is clearly being attacked. There's no commentary at all on ideas just criticism and antagonism towards the person.

I had lunch with an atheist and a Christian. The atheist brought up religion to an obviously fundie Christian. He said I'm an atheist with a smile on his face. He questioned the Christian as to whether he believed a long list of silly and rediculous stories in the Bible. The discussion was very friendly and cordial with lots of smiles to go around on both sides. I didn't see any respect though. He ridiculed Christianity. I don't see a problem here. If the Christian took this as a personal insult, which I'm sure he didn't, I'd say it was his problem.

BadBadBad

So for those Christians that would be insulted by us disrespecting their beliefs, how far should we go to protect their sensitive feelings? Some take offense to an atheist simply admitting to being an atheist. BaldBantam's wife took offense at him sharing his worldview with his children IIRC. What if a friend wanted me to attend his religious retreat. Should I avoid telling him that I won't attend because I find these kinds of religious events offensive? Saying no isn't sufficient. I have to give an explanation. How far should we go to avoid offending these poor Christians? My point is that you can be offensive, but you can't avoid being offensive if the person is inclined to be offended because you disrespect their beliefs. Therefore, I don't feel responsible unless I was disrespectful to the person.

HelenM

Re: taking offense - Brett, am I right that you take personal offense at what Christians believe, even if they haven't stated their beliefs to you? Would it be unreasonable for a Christian to have the attitude "I don't feel responsible for Brett taking offense unless I have been disrespectful to him"? Does what you said work both ways?

Helen

Gurdur

Really ? I missed the memo that the thread was restricted to a single premise.
And I was talking about one very specific situation between HelenM and Goliath, with an analogy.
It's all in the way it's done.
You can choose which way you want to go:

Do you just want to dump on Xians ?
Then be aware that's all you're doing

Do you want to get them to see the light ?
Then use different tactics.

It's all the same to me; I don't post anymore at all on Xian boards, and I spend extremely little time in GRD here, simply because I find it tediously repetitive and very boring.
In fact, I see promoting humanism as being far more important than atheism; e.g. atheists are a tiny minority in the States, and very ineffective, whereas humanists can well accomplish more.
Of course, that means.......not so pure association, but it also means more fun in life.

HelenM

Actually, we're not in GRD anymore. Our part of the thread was relocated to ~~Elsewhere~~.

Helen

Viti

Why do you have to give an explanation? That's not socially required. Anyway I would simply say "No, thank you, I am not religious". No reason to call it "offensive" no reason to get into some argument about it.

Gurdur

So I'll give you one guess and one guess only as to how come I came across this.

Goliath

Speaking for myself, I do not take offense at the fact that xians believe what they believe. I merely hate xianity itself.

Sincerely,

Goliath