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I'm not going to waste my time replying to each of you individually, but there's a lot of cynicism and jumping to conclusions in this thread. Not that I have to explain anything to you people, but I'm not a religious person in the least. I wasn't 'looking' for any specific answer.
One of the previous posters was absolutely right when stating that, whenever you take a random sampling of people, generally you end up with a group that's not that dissimilar from one another. I get the same defensive, overly sensitive, knee jerk sort of replies whenever I ask Christians honest questions about why they believe or disbelieve the things they do... They assume (for whatever reason) that I'm trying to contradict or attack them in some way (just as this group is doing) when I'm actually just curious...
That'll happen. All the time I catch myself looking at a post and thinking: "Whose side is this guy on? Should I treat him as a hostile witness?" And I have to remind myself to reply to the question as straight as possible.
That'll happen. All the time I catch myself looking at a post and thinking: "Whose side is this guy on? Should I treat him as a hostile witness?" And I have to remind myself to reply to the question as straight as possible.
There's a reason why people get "tetchy" about things. It's long, sad experience. It makes you cautious, and a little paranoid.
This is the Internet, where you don't have body language and facial expressions and tone of voice to help you out. It's hard enough to tell sincerity from snark from disingenuousness in the Real World, let alone here.
Since by the OP's own admission, they are the common denominator in the sorts of responses they get from theists and atheists alike, maybe it's not entirely that both groups engage in baseless taking up of offense, but that the OP does not set them up sufficiently in letting them know where they are coming from. Just a thought.
There's a reason why people get "tetchy" about things. It's long, sad experience. It makes you cautious, and a little paranoid.
This is the Internet, where you don't have body language and facial expressions and tone of voice to help you out. It's hard enough to tell sincerity from snark from disingenuousness in the Real World, let alone here.
Since by the OP's own admission, they are the common denominator in the sorts of responses they get from theists and atheists alike, maybe it's not entirely that both groups engage in baseless taking up of offense, but that the OP does not set them up sufficiently in letting them know where they are coming from. Just a thought.
I'll admit that I get "tetchy" when the same argument happens all the time.
I answered the original question honestly. But when it automatically turned to the morals question which then kept evolving into "well what about this" scenarios. It's kind of hard to not see where this is going.
I'll admit that I get "tetchy" when the same argument happens all the time.
I answered the original question honestly. But when it automatically turned to the morals question which then kept evolving into "well what about this" scenarios. It's kind of hard to not see where this is going.
In my experience, they don't even bother with the Morals argument. It's straight to "Well, who made everything, then?"
I was amazed at the number of sad stories that were posted. People wrote about how they had been indoctrinated into a religion and had to struggle to free themselves from what they had been taught.
In my case, I was raised in a house free of religion and I have always been an Atheist. We raised our kids the same way, but they both ended up believing in a god, and our son recently got baptized as Episcopalian. That was perfectly fine with me. People should be able to find their own path in life.
Yes. It was a surprise to me how tough and fraught it often is in the US. I don't think it is anything like as bad here.
I think it is fine that you raise your kids with no religious indoctrination and let them find their way to religious faith if they do. And then they have somewhere to fall back on, should they find that Faith is not a good reason for believing anything.
Perhaps if the OP doesn't want to be challenged on the apparent theism of his statements he should look at the forum he posted in, and not try to modify the question multiple times to suit his whims.
Perhaps if the OP doesn't want to be challenged on the apparent theism of his statements he should look at the forum he posted in, and not try to modify the question multiple times to suit his whims.
In your opinion, but citing religious morals as stated in theism belies your statement. Not to mention the original assumption that there was a god to believe/disbelieve in.
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