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Odd name for a thread. Yet it is what many of us do in debates and disagreements. We too often fail to see that others do not share the same "self evident" beliefs as we have.
How often each of us gets angry when somebody disagrees with what we believe to be true. How often we call somebody stupid because they do not see what is obvious to us.
Perhaps our being human is the cause for us being intolerant of each other.
Intolerance hurts all of us as it leads to animosity and being a touch nasty to each other.
How do each of us try to become more tolerant of others? Please state what helps you find tolerance of those you disagree with.
For myself I make a concentrated effort to spend a few minutes at trying to look at myself from their viewpoint.
Please state what helps you find tolerance of those you disagree with.
I like being with people I disagree with. What am I ever going to learn from someone who always agrees with me?
I am a conservative Republican and I used to enjoy having lunch at work with three Democrats, one very liberal. We had a good time talking about politics.
Later I changed jobs and had lunch with a good friend who was even more conservative than I am. Was that ever boring!
Besides, when I disagree with someone, I seem to irritate them much more than they could ever irritate me.
I like being with people I disagree with. What am I ever going to learn from someone who always agrees with me?
I am a conservative Republican and I used to enjoy having lunch at work with three Democrats, one very liberal. We had a good time talking about politics.
Later I changed jobs and had lunch with a good friend who was even more conservative than I am. Was that ever boring!
Besides, when I disagree with someone, I seem to irritate them much more than they could ever irritate me.
I like that view. One does not need to agree with another person to enjoy their company. Perhaps the attitude of wanting to enjoy another person's thoughts is a good step towards tolerance.
Fleas are clearly not gazelles. I see no need to accept such an obvious delusion.
That said, If I actually knew somebody in real life who was convinced his fleas were gazelles I would not spend hours trying to convince him otherwise; I would just avoid him...because after all, I don't want fleas.
But on a web forum meant for religious discussion/debate, such a debate should be expected... kinda like how you expect an outhouse to stink.
I'd venture to guess very few regular posters here are as intolerant in their daily lives as they appear to be while debating religion.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Chango
Fleas are clearly not gazelles. I see no need to accept such an obvious delusion.
That said, If I actually knew somebody in real life who was convinced his fleas were gazelles I would not spend hours trying to convince him otherwise; I would just avoid him...because after all, I don't want fleas.
But on a web forum meant for religious discussion/debate, such a debate should be expected... kinda like how you expect an outhouse to stink.
I'd venture to guess very few regular posters here are as intolerant in their daily lives as they appear to be while debating religion.
ya but some fleas are more tolerant than others, and gazelles have a bigger bite..
i think most of the people arguing over religion are theist and atheist.. agnostics tend to be more layed back in my opinion.. i tend not to get into heated aguments over something as trivial as mainstream religion. it's a never ending circle of bs almost as bad a politics i said "almost as bad as politics"
I try to assume that I'd have the potential to outsmart Einstein and Aristotle, but that the opinions of a retarted, schizophrenic person would all be correct, and that he would be wiser than I am, until it becomes very obvious that this is not the case.
I knew a social worker who worked with the elderly...some of whom were in dirty conditions without care in their own homes, and she had to choose whether they went to a nursing home or stayed in their homes. If they could survive it, she usually let them stay. The reason was, some people may have died quicker when put into nursing homes...by being seperated from what they'd accumulated over their lives. Not that I'm bashing nursing homes...I don't have any personal experience with them. I do know two relatives who've worked in them who don't see them as negative institutions.
Some things are important to some people in ways others can't understand...and there are regularly viewpoints that cannot be understood without having the experiences of the subject in question.
I try (and not always successfully) to imagine that the person is in the same room as I am - it removes that anonymity factor of the internet that so often allows people to type things they would never say in person.
If someone disagrees with me, after carefully considering what I have written, then it's all okay. It's when we immediately disagree with someone by jumping to conclusions, or refusing to modify one's views - that I see a sort of intellectual death. I love learning. I read every day, and if a day goes by without any sort of learning - I feel that it's a missed day. Mistakes are good teachers too....
When I sit down at my computer and engage in a debate or discussion of any kind, the first thing I do is picture in my mind that I am sitting at a table with all that I am talking with or listening to, like a personal conversation over a cup of coffee or whatever your particular drink maybe and discussing what ever subject that comes up. I try to listen to what everyone has to say and give everybody the courtesy to speak, whether I agree with them or not, I give them the respect that we all want and then when it comes to my response, I try to be honest and respectful about it, I may disagree with you but I try not to do it in a disrespectful way so that by the time we have finished your conversation, we have both learned from each other and can still part as friends to have other discussions in the future.
I've never seen fleas turn into gazelles. But there was this one time, while on this heady tea concoction, that I saw a cat morph into a mouse! Talk about strange brew. As for respecting others...that's an always! The learning never ends and I sometimes learn the most from those i'd generally not pay mind to. Peace, children
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almost as bad a politics i said "almost as bad as politics"
