I think that the world would be much, much, much more better, if we accepted each others beliefs and lead by example not by anyother means. You can't convert an atheist that doesn't want to convert. Same about Christians, Muslims, Jew, Hindu's and about 4 billion other people on the planet. I also think that it is aweful the way people try to get people to convert. It ranges from bashing people, to running ads, to even killing them if they don't convert. If you can't convert them, then it's a huge waste of time, money and energy. Even when you can do so through those methods, I find it to be unethical. The only way I think it is effective and ethical is to lead by example instead of forcing beliefs down people's throughts. Jesus never did it, and neither did buddha, I am sure there are more. This all just my opinion.
if you are willing to convert, do so. if not, don't simple as that. unfortunately, so much of our society and infastructure is based on religion and that politicans have to keep a rather hushed opinion about religion. conversion is now more of an independant thing. some times its not an option, atleast in apperance. for example. we will never ever have a president that is openly athiest, while they may very well be athiest/buddist/satanist .ect the population would never buy into it, so in a sense, they are forced to convert if they want to be president.
In an ideal world none would try to force their beliefs on another...however, once you bring in the "human" factor that ideal world fies right out the window. It really boils down to stubborn people thinking their belief is the "correct" belief. This is, unfortunately, something we will never escape.
if everyone accepted each others beliefs, and im not just talking about religion , you give people the right to do anything. it would be a hollow interpretation of human nature. People believe they should have the right to have sex with children, should i let them? if were all liberal, were all wishy washy in our opinions, were all sheep. I gladly accept a bit of conflict and hostility towards my opinions. i believe i have the right to be an ******* and not just let people do what they want.
a good christian wouldnt want his atheist neighbour to go to hell right? so if he TRULY believed, he would try and convert him in order to save him.
Yeah but that would be fine because when he/she spoke to his/her neighbour it would become apparent that the neighbour wasn't an {insert religious belief system here} through ignorance or blindness but because it more closely matched their thoughts and world experience. The Christian could then go on his/her way secure in the knowledge that they have a happy neighbour.
a true believer would realise that his atheist neighbour would be forgiven by god for his ignorance so he should leave him alone.
Should is the key word there. How many people do things that they should/should not do? The human variable is the dangerous variable in this equation. What I believe and what others believe can differ immensly, I do not press my views, but what if they press theirs...it makes my views stonger because it shows me how foolish and ignorant their views really are. Just my opinion on the matter.
yeah but if you are catholic and your neighbour never confesses and has sex without being married, doesnt that mean hes going to hell?
lol, not if your sorry (and you would be if you were facing an eternity of suffering), god is all forgiving
Responce to #1. No, I don't think there is too much religon bashing. I welcome people to challange my thoughts and make me think about what I believe. I'll do the same for them. However, I won't do it to people who don't want to listen. That's a waste of breath. My evangilism is this, first, make sure people know that it is there. 2nd be able to defend you faith. 3rd if someone doesn't want to listen, don't force them, they'll come around on their own time and if they don't, you will not help by pestering them.
The Wiccan's believe that all the different religions are different roads all leading to the same place... and as such accept that it doesn't matter which road you chose to travel; as long as your a good person you'll be lead to heaven or your religions equilivant thereof. To me this makes sense. It brings the onous to lie more on how you live your life, and less on what you believe. I hate the bickering and in fighting within religions. Catholics hate baptists, baptists hate united, united hate anglicans. Makes no sense to me. Never will. You bring up religion bashing... I think the large majority of religion bashing comes from other religions. One denomination against the other. I see it all the time. The Athiest against believer type argument makes up in my opinion a very small percentage of the bashing that does go on.
That's true ,but I'll add this to convert someone you need to be a friend .I know people from all aspects of life and religions and ways of thinking and do not bash them though I disagree with them but when I see them I show myself friendly.
It depends, somepeople would consider bring up logical poitns to be bashing. Its always hard to not offend at least one person when you challange their thinking. As far as I know. They don't hate each other. They just agree to disagree. Though the old Catholic Church was filled with power hungry, not Christ like, Christains only in public. I hate that, but not Catholics in general. I completely agree with this method of living for Christ as well.
No, not really. None of us knows who goes to hell and who doesn't -- it would be presumptuous of us to think we know. Only God knows this; only God can see into peoples' hearts. It's all in the approach. It's one thing to say "You believe this, I believe that; let's discuss it", and quite another to say "Your beliefs are a pile of poo" True Christians don't hate any group of people just because they have a different set of beliefs.
The only people I hate are the people who keep whining about how much Christians hate other people. Especially when the only evidence they can give is "I know Christians must act this way, despite the fact that I've never personally seen any evidence of it". I mean, if everybody would just shut up about how one religion bashes another, or how there's so much intollerance from religious people, we'd never even see any religion bashing or intollerance. When was the last time a religious person started a thread like "the problem with Atheists", or when a Christian started a thread like "Attacks on Buddhist thought", or "Why Satanism is evil". It's just atheists and others who try to stir something up by calling religious people illogical and intollerant that creates most of the negative discussion here.
