But religions don't deserve any respect, just as a stupid political ideology doesn't deserve it. Do you say you'd respect someone who says "Jews need to be exterminated to the last toddler"? No, of course you wouldn't. Would you respect someone who believes in an Invisible Pink Unicorn who guards him and protects him? Could you keep a straight face if such a guy started chanting "Oh Unicorn, my lord guardian, deliver me from evil and blah blah blah"? I very much doubt you would.
Winner, your problem is very simple: you're a religious fanatic. You're really not a whole lot different from the people the Islamic or Christian fanatics that you so loathe.
You see, the mark of a fanatic is not belief in any particular deity or doctrine - you may be a fanatical follower of Jehovah, Allah, Vishnu, or the Dark Side of the Force. The mark of a true fanatic is certainty matched with arrogance; such rock solid certainty that he is correct that he comes to the conclusion that anyone who disagrees with him must either be insane, or simply stupid. The fanatic cannot tolerate the idea that reasonable people might just disagree, not out of mental illness, but because different personalities, experiences, and ways of thinking cause them to have different opinions on various issues. The
cause or ideal that the fanatic fights for, and his methods, change over time - fanatics may ban books, chop off heads, or simply scream at people for being delusional on the internet, all for the sake of God, or a doctrine, or even just some sort of tradition - but the essence of the fanatic remains the same. The sad thing is, Winner, is that you can't distinguish the fanatics from the religious, and so you paint them all with the lunatic brush. And all the while, all you're doing is making yourself their equal, in thought, if not necessarily in violent deed.
I'll debate with people of other religions, or of no religions like yourself, but I don't personally lose respect for them - because I learned a long time ago that sometimes people just think differently. That doesn't mean we're all equally right - but that does mean that a lot of us are just sincerely, honestly, and sanely wrong. That's something my father told me when I was about 5 years old, and it took me over a decade to really and truly understand it. It's unfortunate that you still don't.
So who the heck are you to tell me that I need to respect delusions of other people? All believers are atheists - you don't belive in most Gods invented by other cultures, probably for the same reason I don't believe in your God, but somehow I should respect him?
Please
Atheism is the belief that no god, or gods, exist. Disbelieving in any one particular god, does not make one an atheist.
I am not a fan of the fashionable modern realtivistic thinking, you know that spineless attitude that all opinions are equal, that everybody's "truth" is as good as any other etc. No, absolutely not - either you can argue for your position in a reasonable way, or you can't and in that case your position is worthless and it deserves exactly 0% respect.
WHICH DOESN'T MEAN (read this carefuly) that I attack my opponent in a personal way. If he wants to take offense just because I inform him of the fact that his cherished opinion is a piece of crap, the it's HIS problem. It's not arrogance, it's reason.
And you think I am? I often make people very angry, because I insist that there is an absolute truth out there. I'm not a relativist when it comes to morality or almost anything else. But I have respect for intelligent people, who happen to disagree with myself - other Christians, Muslims, atheists, whatever - because they're sincere, smart people, and they deserve it. I'm not suggesting that all their opinions are equally
correct, or even equally respectable (Worshiping an idol you made out of a tree in your backyard is less respectable than belonging to a sophisticated, thought out religion, for instance) And I think you need to understand, Winner, that saying that someone is delusional is a
personal attack. You aren't saying they're beliefs are wrong - you're saying they are too deluded to come to the right beliefs. Perhaps it is your lack of grasp of English, but I doubt it, seeing as how your English is quite good.
You believers are so easily offended because you know that your faith is unreasonable, that you don't have anything to back it up except some sort of gut feeling. This is why you scorn, loathe, insult and suppress opinions which might erode your faith.
Why don't you ask the people here with religious beliefs that differ from my own on how I respond to them? Ask Eran and Downtown if I "scorn, loathe, insult and suppress" their opinions on why Mormon theology is more correct than my own. Ask El Mac and Fifty and Bill if I "scorn, loathe, insult and suppress" their opinions on atheism. I'm even talking with you, and without trying to "scorn, loathe, insult and suppress" your opinions, even though you're a lot more annoying in your fanatical beliefs than they are in their reasoned ones. The only one here heaping scorn and loathing on his opponents is you.
There's a youtube clip asking where Neil Tyson asks Dawkins why he's such a jerk. It cannot be linked, because of language.
Could you PM me that link? And maybe to Winner too, while you're at it?
