A change from politics...

[sqbr]

I've been pondering doing one of these for a while, but wasn't sure I'd get the wording right. Since it worked so well on his lj, I've decided to completely steal the language of angriest's recent post instead(*).

1. Tell me your religious beliefs. It can be as simple as "I am an X" or it can be a lengthy paragraph if you like. If you feel your religious and/or spiritual beliefs are private, either don't reply or leave a note saying as much.
2. If you want to reply to something someone else has written, feel free - particularly if you want to ask them a question about the religion you've always wanted to ask but have never been able to, or felt comfortable enough to.
3. This is one of the biggies: if someone asks you a question and you don't feel comfortable answering it, do not feel obliged to answer. Either don't reply at all, or drop a quick reply saying "I don't really want to answer that".
4. Religious intolerance will not be tolerated. I'm aiming this particularly at the aggressive atheists who seem to get their kicks scoring points, but the rule applies in any direction.

I know a lot of you are on both flists, I decided to do it now while it's still fresh in your heads. You are quite welcome to repeat/post a link to your comment over there! And yes fred_mouse I know you were also planning on stealing his idea, but, well, there's no reason it can't be stolen multiple times :D

(*)And yes, I checked it was ok. Don't want to be sued for copyright violation by the big mean famous writer :)

Comments

[evil-megz.livejournal.com]

It's interesting although completely understandable that on the one hand you allow people an open forum to express their religious beliefs, and on the other you insist people with a particular belief (that religion is bad) don't fully express it. I know ultimately atheists are welcome here to discuss their own beliefs and the restriction is on them abusing other people for their beliefs... but when it comes down to it nobody can really express their own beliefs without the implication that they think all conflicting beliefs are wrong. I'm not arguing with the restriction, since the old religious debate is so bleh, it is just very difficult to find the line between religious opinion and religious intolerance.

I say all this largely because, well, I am quite religiously intolerant, and I consider my beliefs against religion to be a defining characteristic of my own religious beliefs. I am entirely atheist, excusing my knowledge that there is no such thing as knowledge and I cannot actually know anything and thus am technically agnostic about everything including the sky's blueness and my own existence.

The only thing that stops me actively taking a stance against religion (beyond just attempting to point out its flaws every now and then) is that a person's religious beliefs are not the entirety of that person. I'm not going to abuse somebody for being religious because in the vast majority of cases they are an otherwise good person and do not deserve it. It's like somebody who, say, is a pretty good person but litters. You think their littering is wrong and you may attempt to change their opinion on the matter, but you will still be friends with them and treat them with respect.

(If anybody wants to discuss with me why I am atheist and religiously intolerant, I suggest we take it elsewhere)

[alias_sqbr]

Yes, and I did have a think about that. I mean I think saying "I think religious people are wrong" is ok, what I'm trying to avoid is someone saying "I'm religious" and someone else replying "YOU'RE WRONG". Same way as saying "I think you need to do *blah* to go to heaven" is ok, but not commenting to you or I saying "But you need to do *blah* or you won't go to heaven!"

But yes, it's a very hard line to draw. I think I went too far the other way, have removed my edit and left the text as angriest wrote it.