-
It's possible to disagree with somebody's beliefs without blundering about telling them they're ridiculous and don't deserve respect as human beings.
Agreed - that was basically the point I was trying to make before being side-tracked by Winni's outraged strawmen. Respecting other people, and treating them with dignity and respect is a good thing. But it doesn't mean that everything they believe in requires respect too.
Brommers-
Winni's outraged strawmen.
I had to go and look up the definition of staw man to work out what you meant by this, then I realised that by accusing me of straw manning you were... straw manning? mind blown
I'm not outraged, Dan, it's just that your post about ridiculing everyone's beliefs gave the impression you were on a bit of a crusade, and it's still not clear what you hope to achieve by it other than amusing yourself. Surely you will alienate people further if you tell people their beliefs are stupid just for the sake of it?
Every belief system should be open to questioning, but when it turns into antagonistic, targeted ridicule for it's own sake, it's counter-productive. For example I think the latest Hebdo cover could have been alot more intelligent. I don't understand why they didn't point out that two muslims were killed in the attacks.
William.
I don't think he is. I think he's more obliquely trying to get at "bullying people isn't nice or clever, even if you're an atheist and you think they are all really stupid for not being atheists". And he's right, IMO. I know lots of religious people, some of them are cunts, some of them are quite nice. I also know lots of atheists, and some of them are cunts and some of them are quite nice. I try to keep my value judgements of them as people separate from my value judgements of their beliefs (recognising that as humans we make value judgements all the time).
It's possible to disagree with somebody's beliefs without blundering about telling them they're ridiculous and don't deserve respect as human beings.