Coexistence is awesome.

I gotta leave. I actually enjoyed this argument, geekofalltrades, I wouldn't ever mind being your friend. -out-

Beliefs don't harm me...I just don't have to think they're right. There's nothing wrong with trying to convince others of your beliefs, either.

You're very right about that, but trying desperately to disprove someone else's beliefs is, I believe, selfish.

Originally Posted by Alvis Oswin

You're very right about that, but trying desperately to disprove someone else's beliefs is, I believe, selfish.

That kind of comes with convincing someone of your position though. You can defend your position, and you can show where you believe the other side is in error. It's not the same as being intolerant, or resorting to ad hominem.

Excuse me, I should rephrase that.

You're very right about that, but trying desperately to disprove someone else's beliefs is, I believe, selfish, that is, unless the belief causes significant physical, emotional or psychological pain to the other.

There. Does this sound reasonable and/or peacefully solutionable?

Originally Posted by Alvis Oswin

Excuse me, I should rephrase that.

You're very right about that, but trying desperately to disprove someone else's beliefs is, I believe, selfish, that is, unless the belief causes significant physical, emotional or psychological pain to the other.

There. Does this sound reasonable and/or peacefully solutionable?

I guess. I mean if the other person refuses to listen to what you have to say, you should stop, for your own good. It's not like you aren't trying to change my point of view right now!

I'm an atheist, and because of recent events, extremely anti-theist as well. However, two of my closest friends are christian (one a catholic, another is a very, very gay lutheran. Irony huh?), and we are able to good naturedly joke about things such as that. We make fun of eachother for our beliefs and no one gets hurt.

Originally Posted by Alvis Oswin

Why would you be antitheist? If you don't want us to force our beliefs on you, which I never have, please don't force your beliefs on us, thank you.

Being anti-theist has nothing to do with forcing beliefs. It just means that we generally believe society at large would be better without religion, but most of us still don't try to convert another to atheism. I've been an atheist since I was around 14.

However, only in the last few months has my anti-theism position cemented itself. One of my very close friends who was a suffering epileptic, and to some extent also had conversion disorder, commited suicide. She was a medical student who had graduated high school in the top .1% of the state. Yet, her family and church group had convinced her that she was possessed by a demon, and refused her medication and treatment for her issues. Because of this she hung herself, and her little sister found her hanging in her bedroom. At her funeral, the pastor talked about how jesus and god had called her, and how they loved her more than her friends and family, and that this was a good thing. The whole ordeal shocked and disgusted me. And thus, I've become far less tollerant of religion recently.

Any belief, whether it is that you believe you like squirrels, and someone else doesn't believe that they like squirrels, puts those two parties at odds.

Coexistence is imperfect and utterly useless against the tide of humanity. Simply wishing well on somebody is not going to make disagreement go away. There has to be complete conformity in thought for there to be no "forcing of beliefs." The fact you exists forces others to accommodate you in some way.

So, unless you want everybody to think the same way, conflict is the way its gonna be.

So you're faced with the dilemma, freedom of thought, or peace? Because each cuts into the other.

Another belief that you must decide on. You can't have it both ways.

Again, I wish people would stop confusing anti-theism with anti-religionism.

IT IS possible to believe in a God with implying you follow a religion. Also, those people you speak of are "stereotypicals", or, as I put them, "bad examples." Please, don't think badly of God.

Hm. Well, the preffix "anti-" gave me the assumption that antitheists want to exterminate theists. Forgive me for that.

Yes, I am very religious when it comes to Christ's teachings, but Jesus always said to 'judge a tree by it's fruit', or, to be more literal, judge based on actions, words and intentions. I tend not to believe in a lot of the old testament because a lot of it is offensive.

My best friend is the only gay person I know, ironically. Even more ironically, he loves religion, but agrees with me that there is no way that a human can decide what is true because there is no such thing as perfect proof. (Even video footage could be edited by a technology mastermind to make it look like anything they want happened.)