Non-Believers: What stance should we take towards religion? (beliefs, atheist)

[kai]

Originally Posted by Jaiket

I don't know that adopting a position on religion as a whole is useful, desirable, or practical.

i dont see how you cant unless you live on your own on a desert island somewhere(even then you may fall under the influence of the cargo cult lol)

[Fluffy]

Originally Posted by kai

i dont see how you cant unless you live on your own on a desert island somewhere(even then you may fall under the influence of the cargo cult lol)

I think Jaiket isn't claiming that we should ignore religion but that religion is too varied to adopt a general stance towards all of it. It might be more appropriate to have a particular stance towards each religion or even individual religious followers.

I tend to agree but I still think we can generate a general stance from specific instances. For example, if we agree that extremism, for example, is a bad thing then we need not say "Religion X is bad because it has too much extremism whilst religion Y is okay because it doesn't have that much extremism" because we can generalise to "If a religion has too much extremism then it is bad".

[kai]

Originally Posted by Fluffy

I think Jaiket isn't claiming that we should ignore religion but that religion is too varied to adopt a general stance towards all of it. It might be more appropriate to have a particular stance towards each religion or even individual religious followers.

I tend to agree but I still think we can generate a general stance from specific instances. For example, if we agree that extremism, for example, is a bad thing then we need not say "Religion X is bad because it has too much extremism whilst religion Y is okay because it doesn't have that much extremism" because we can generalise to "If a religion has too much extremism then it is bad".

then all religions are equal except some are more equal than others

[Kungfuzed]

I like the Patty approach.

[OutOfTime]

why don't you come up with your own approach? i mean if you can figure out a reason for not believing in a religion then i'm sure you can figure out your stance towards them too.

[MidnightBlue]

I checked "something else" because religions are too diverse for any one stance to fit all cases.

[crystalonyx]

One should take the same approach towards religion as is taken towards any organized perpetuation of myth - approach cautiously.

[emiliano]

Originally Posted by 9-10ths_Penguin

I think that a person's beliefs should receive a certain measure of respect that flows from respect for the person who holds them, and a certain measure of respect (or disrespect) based on the merits of the belief itself.

I don't think that the religous or non-religious nature of some belief should factor into our level of respect for it, except inasmuch as any religious belief is likely held by a number of people who deserve a measure of respect just by virtue of the fact that they are people... though I don't think "godly" beliefs are any different in this regard from political beliefs or any other beliefs held in common by groups of people.

This is very nice Penguin, but what is this doing in “Same faith debates????????
Is atheism a faith? what is their same faith?

[crystalonyx]

Originally Posted by emiliano

This is very nice Penguin, but what is this doing in “Same faith debates????????
Is atheism a faith? what is their same faith?

Atheists and agnostics generally have their own threads on this forum, and BTW theists are not supposed to post in them.

[Jaiket]

Originally Posted by crystalonyx

One should take the same approach towards religion as is taken towards any organized perpetuation of myth - approach cautiously.

Publishers?