"Jonas is talking a lot about god and religion. It's bothering me."
"It's cool. He's getting that from The Simpsons."
"That's a relief."
I'm reminded of something Charles Schulz told in an interview: about his Peanuts strip where Sally comes home and motions to Charlie to come hide behind the couch so she can whisper a secret, and the secret is: "we prayed in school today". He said that this strip had been used widely by people on both sides of that controversy to support their point!
I would say that two simple points apply to the problem: one, be respectful of other people's beliefs, even if your own are strong. Even if you could push 'enlightenment' onto another person, you would just have overwhelmed him, and he would have to deal with the conflict of beliefs later.
And two, don't make every little issue a big contention. Maybe you're not upset for the reason you think.
3 comments:
Eolake said: "...one, be respectful of other people's beliefs, even if your own are strong..."
Nope.
Sorry, Eolake. That time has passed. Torturing children and relegating women to the status of chattel is no longer worthy of any respect - implied or active.
Religion has had a free ride in terms of "respect" for way too long.
As they might say (however) "love the sinner, hate the sin"
...but you're not going to get me to accept the validity of the sin.
So - no automatic respect for religion. Nothing. Zip. Nada. Zero.
Yes, exactly. It's accorded a respect nothing else is. It's time for that to stop.
Eolake said...
"I would say that two simple points apply to the problem: one, be respectful of other people's beliefs, even if your own are strong. Even if you could push 'enlightenment' onto another person, you would just have overwhelmed him, and he would have to deal with the conflict of beliefs later."
I think that's good, Eo. I think 2 (or more) people can share their beliefs w/another and each can still believe what they will w/out having to tear each other's eyes out about it!
"And two, don't make every little issue a big contention. Maybe you're not upset for the reason you think."
Also really good. Life's TOO SHORT to pick every little thing apart! It's better to just move on from the "disagreement" for the time being and find another topic. Losing a friendship over "little issues" is...petty and childish and soooo NOT WORTH IT! REAL Friendships are WORTH keeping 'cuz they're far and few between! :-)
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