What is your general attitude towards those who believe in religion whether they are jewish, Muslim, Christian etc etc.

Do you get on well with any religious friends and neighbours?

Have you ever thought of believing in a religion at some point?

If you do not like the faiths, why?

If you DO, also why? Does this come from your family? Maybe something went bad during your life?

I get that Lemmy might have the same stereotype in Reddit that there are loads of atheists, but there’s a good reason why despite criticism of religion, it is still here.

P.S. I am not religious or anti religious in any fashion, I am agnostic.

  • space_of_eights@lemmy.ml
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    2 months ago

    I respect the fact that people believe. They even can form their own clubs as far as I’m concerned. Forcing those beliefs onto other people is something I do have an issue with.

  • Nora@lemmy.ml
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    2 months ago

    I am Anti-theist, If anyone brings up religion around me I will not hesitate to tear it down. These people are playing make belief and if affects my life, I have to live in a world where people make decisions based on some imaginary sky friend.

    I will not play nice for the sake of someone feeling good about their bullshit.

    • Cagi@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      So you’re an asshole, using religion as an excuse to berate and bully people, got it.

      • Nora@lemmy.ml
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        2 months ago

        I actually care a lot about people. I don’t care much for ideas though.

        How’s it go? Love the person hate the imaginary “friends”?

        One thing that’s nice about being visibly queer is that luckily people don’t try to con me into their religions.

      • Nora@lemmy.ml
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        2 months ago

        Flat-earther comes up to you and tells you the earth is flat. What do you do tell them to each there own? Or do you tell them no the earth is not flat and they should educate themselves?

        • Cagi@lemmy.ca
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          2 months ago

          That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying you don’t need to be an asshole to disagree. You don’t need to “tear down” beliefs and “not play nice”. Being rude to people for being wrong just makes them dig deeper into being wrong out of defensiveness. It isn’t about edification, it’s about finding an excuse to be mean.

          That said, other people’s education is not my responsibility. Taking the time and energy required to correct a random stranger about what shape the earth is isn’t going to change the world but it will take a toll on me. Being wrong doesn’t make them a bad person. Being a jerk to them for believing so does. Believing in a flat earth a symptom of fundamentally flawed reasoning skills that I don’t have the time or energy to deal with. If someone believes the earth is flat, I’ll politely disagree and state my opinion, but ultimately I’ll let them do them. Who cares. I choose my friends, they won’t make the cut.

    • red_pigeon@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      Unfortunately, “these people” have to live in a world where you exist too and your conflicting attitude affect their lives.

      Learn to live and let live, my friend. You cannot expect the world to accept you if you are not ready to accept them.

      • Nora@lemmy.ml
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        2 months ago

        I accept people, I will never accept irrational/harmful beliefs. Luckily it looks like access to the internet’s vast wealth of knowledge is killing religion in the next generations.

  • Tarquinn2049@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    When my siblings and I were kids, our parents considered themselves christian and we went to church. But as we grew up, we all stopped believing, and we convinced our parents to stop too. I don’t generally want to convince most religious people to stop, but we were kids at the time and didn’t really know the ramifications of disillusioning our parents. If religious people can believe in “heaven”(or equivalent) and think they are going there, it’s a really nice thought that I don’t want to take away from them. But people that use religion to hurt people, yeah I kind of want to take it away from them. I guess like anything else in life, if you are using it to be nice and constructive, cool. If you are using it to hurt people, take it away.

    The real version of death kind of sucks. It honestly kind of physically hurts/feels bad to even think about ceasing to exist permanently. I feel like that has always been the true purpose and main point of religion. Pretending death is absolutely anything else other than what it really is. I don’t want to take that aspect away from anyone.

    • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 months ago

      Pretending death is absolutely anything else other than what it really is. I don’t want to take that aspect away from anyone.

      I do, because choosing to believe in a comforting lie is what leads us to despots killing anyone who is different. There’s a direct line between the two.

      Donald Trump is a comforting lie that a strong man (like God, the ultimate strongman) can come in and just “fix things” because it’s easier to believe that than do the hard work of understanding how complex and confusing our world is. That’s where we’re at, the comforting lies appeal to humanity more than cold truth and it’s going to fucking kill us all.

      Sorry, humans need to get the fuck over themselves with this not being able to handle death shit or wake up to our own extinction. Eternal life, reincarnation, it’s every flavor of stupid.

  • daltotron@lemmy.ml
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    2 months ago

    Mostly I find them annoying. I mildly understand the need for human meaning as it kind of, tends to come up later at night, or for the elderly, or when life really sucks or you tend to even just be really really bored right.

    I also understand some of the benefits, right, like. As much as people will despise to admit it, you don’t get, say, the number zero without the Muslim science guys, and you don’t get science without the enlightenment which stemmed out of some weirdass Catholic Christian theory guys. and then everyone’s all like, oh no well you can’t attribute that to the Catholics and if anything they hampered progress, and I’d say, well, maybe, maybe, but also maybe science sucks as we commonly understand it and maybe also you can’t really divorce any part of things from their cultural context, or else things get fucky.

    On the other hand I find them annoying and I find that all to be totally null and void because the vast majority of people are just using it as an opiate to placate literally all of their anxieties about the world with a bunch of meaningless thought terminating cliche style statements, and even actively reinforce their own participation in some of the worst aspects of their own culture and society even at points in which they really don’t want to or know that it’s horrible and is causing them pain.

    So I dunno, mostly it sucks.

  • CaptainBasculin@lemmy.ml
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    2 months ago

    Religious or not, I don’t care. What matters is their personality. (except for jehova’s witnesses, every time I’ve interacted with them it made me think they’re some sort of cult rather than a religion, so not sure if this counts.)

    I do have religious friends that I get well with.

    • spittingimage@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      In New Zealand we’re currently waiting on the release of a report from a parliamentary commission on the state of the Jehovah’s Witnesses following decades of abuse claims. We don’t expect it to be light reading.

    • aleph@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      As someone married to a JW and who is friends with several others, I will say this: like any group of people, they can be a mixed bag. Some are more closeted and “in the truth” whereas others are more outgoing and “worldly”.

      One the things that I actually admire about them (the individuals, mind you, not the Watchtower organization) is that they really seem to try and live by the teachings of the Bible and study it frequently. Much more so than, say, your average evangelical Protestant.

  • tiredofsametab@kbin.run
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    2 months ago

    Keep it to yourself and don’t hurt others. So long as that’s the case, what someone else believes is generally not my business.

    I was raised in various evangelical protestant denominations of Christianity, went through a Neopagan period, and landed in atheist-leaning agnostic.

  • n3m37h@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    I consider myself an anti-theist. Religion is used to control unintelligent/mentally challenged people and shouldn’t exist in any form.

    I don’t hate the people unless they are forcing it down my throat.

  • zxqwas@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Attitude: I generally don’t care unless they try to tell me what to do based on their religion. This is generally never a problem, I’ve had more vegans and environmentalists bother me.

    Getting along: we have some high faith denomination of Christianity here. I’ve worked with a few and generally don’t notice unless they drop something heavy on their foot and don’t swear.

    Thought of believing: not since I was 12 or something.

    Do not like faiths: I acknowledge they can create a sense of community and belonging. I have a dim view of the dogma that tends to come with them.

  • Dae@pawb.social
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    2 months ago

    I’m a Pluralistic individual. I believe everyone has a reason to believe. But I think the way someone believes is very telling about that person’s personal values.

    Ergo, I don’t care what a person’s religious beliefs are, I care what that person’s values are. I believe that is a much more honest approach that doesn’t needlessly alienate anyone or stoke petty, tribalistic behavior.

      • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        I’d tell that person they’re being intolerant and offensive, and to fuck off.

        And I’ll tell you that that is an unrelated question to the topic, and that you are being offensive by injecting that question in such a manner. You can pick your religion. You cannot pick whether or not you have gender dysphoria.

      • molave@reddthat.com
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        2 months ago

        It’s not analogous nor related to the topic, but since you asked, this scenario requires a lot of assumptions.

        Is said person intentionally misgendering? I’ll make it quick. “Please respect [trans person]'s preferences.” It’s not my business to force them to comply or not.

        • CableMonster@lemmy.ml
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          2 months ago

          Taking a WAG at the number, I would say that 90% of people in your belief group would use soft power against someone that wouldnt go along with using their new pronouns. This includes things like banning them from social media, kicking them off youtube, debanking them, ect. Do you think that using influence like this is approapraite to get people to not offend the trans people?

            • CableMonster@lemmy.ml
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              2 months ago

              Okay then it sounds like you are like what normal christians are. The problem is that most of the people in your group will start yelling and use their soft force to get people to comply, which most christians dont do. So in the end your group is the one that is trying to use force to get people to follow their ideology.

      • shapesandstuff@feddit.de
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        2 months ago

        If you’re trying to make an analogy here, that’s incredibly short sighted.

        Forcing religious values down other ppls throats is trying to dictate their life.

        “forcing” aka asking to be referred to with certain pronouns is asking to have your own life respected.

        One is about having your beliefs respected, the other is demanding others to act as if they were part of your faith no matter if they believe or care.

        • CableMonster@lemmy.ml
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          2 months ago

          So then what would you say to a person that wont use preferred pronouns of a trans person?

        • explore_broaden@midwest.social
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          2 months ago

          Some religions believe that they should proselytize as many people as possible, so really not letting them convert you is disrespectful to their beliefs.

          I agree that there’s a difference, but I’m not sure a simple argument like this really works since it is difficult to say one belief is ‘better.’

          • shapesandstuff@feddit.de
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            2 months ago

            Not really the same thing at all though is it?

            Also bit of a weird constructed example. A faith like that can only lead to it’s followers taking offense or religious totalitarianism.

            Which is not something I’d engage with so idk why i would tolerate something so intolerant.

            The comparison is also kinda failing since one is a belief and the other isn’t.

            A more fitting comparison would be ostracising someone for their faith vs insisting to misgender someone despite better knowledge.

          • molave@reddthat.com
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            2 months ago

            Proselytizing: You can say no without repercussions.

            “Forcing Their Beliefs:” You have to follow the religion or you will face legal/societal consequences.

      • inconspicuouscolon@lemy.lol
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        2 months ago

        What would you say to a person who refuses to acknowledge or take into consideration the belief of a religious individual?

        • CableMonster@lemmy.ml
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          2 months ago

          I wouldnt say anything. Modern christians in america are much much more accepting than those of the “woke” philosophy.

        • Mubelotix@jlai.lu
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          2 months ago

          It’s very different. Misgendering is illegal where I live, but you can’t be forced to care about someone else’s dumb beliefs

  • Zerlyna@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I’m an ex-Christian, the more I read the Bible, the more it doesn’t make sense. But I respect others choices to believe in their higher power, whatever that may be that makes their life work. Double points if they respect back. They all can’t be right.