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Common ground.

lewisnotmiller

Grand Hat
Staff member
Premium Member
I generally get along pretty well with the atheists on this forum. The majority of my friends are also atheists.

My secret to success is that I really don't give a damn whether or not they believe in my gods. I have absolutely no interest in converting them. I also don't believe that being an atheist makes somebody stupid, immoral or deceived.

If an atheist is willing to treat me the same way, we're probably not going to have an issue as far as religion goes.

Well said.
 

Vinayaka

devotee
Premium Member
I already do all that without any problem. Religion is just a tiny aspect of most peoples lives and easily ignored/tolerated. That's a fact that is easily forgotten here as we concentrate on that tiny aspect.
Most people ... there are exceptions who wear it on their sleeves. How do you deal with those, without any problem?
 

mikkel_the_dane

My own religion
Most people ... there are exceptions who wear it on their sleeves. How do you deal with those, without any problem?

I can't do that for believers in Objective Authority because if I do it differently that is a problem and I will call it out as different for different worldviews. Now there are different ways of pointing it out, but that is another debate.
The problem is that they believe in Objective Authority, however they do it and that I don't.
 

Vinayaka

devotee
Premium Member
That is the common ground, but that is a social construct.
The problem with 'common ground' is that it turns into a religious discussion. There is no need to bring religion into harmony within humanity. I've done this before, and had those looking for common ground start telling me falsehoods about my religion just because they were fixated on looking for common ground. In the Baha'i case, rather than just accepting other religions as they are, they re-interpret or change them to fit into their view. That insults the other faiths, and leads to disharmony. So it's a flawed approach.
 

nPeace

Veteran Member
How can believers and atheists find common ground to be able to say.

You know, I see you as a human being, no matter if you believe in a religion or not.
I want to know you as a person, but if you believe or not, that is your private choice.

I can love you for just being you.
It's part of our built in nature to love one another.
The Bible terms it, "natural affection"... which is lacking greatly today, because of the spirit of the world - its influence, which is in opposition to man's true nature (overridden of course, like a virus that has corrupted a file on your computer).
2 Timothy 3:3; Ephesians 2:2

Hence the Bible commands that we have love - not the kind of 'love' that many consider love, but agape.
Matthew 22:39

This kind of love, is as you described... provided...
I take that last statement, not to mean, "I can love you for being an arrogant, self-conceited, selfish, hateful, violent, destructive human", but rather, "I can love you for being human". :)
 
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mikkel_the_dane

My own religion
The problem with 'common ground' is that it turns into a religious discussion. There is no need to bring religion into harmony within humanity. I've done this before, and had those looking for common ground start telling me falsehoods about my religion just because they were fixated on looking for common ground. In the Baha'i case, rather than just accepting other religions as they are, they re-interpret or change them to fit into their view. That insults the other faiths, and leads to disharmony. So it's a flawed approach.

No, not in all debates. Try going to a forum with only secular views and then you can observe the same problem in effect. Now it is just about objective reason, logic and evidence and if has limits.
 

Aupmanyav

Be your own guru
Or that you believe reality is physical, but you don't know that.
I agree I do not know it absolutely correctly. I agreed to another member who pointed out this. If I go by my 'physical energy' views, hat happens when 'physical energy' is in its 'non-existence' phase. Then is there any consciousness which remains that remembers to stir up again? And if there is such consciousness, where does it arise from? No answers at the moment. So, leave the existence/non-existence problem for future generations and centuries.
 

LuisDantas

Aura of atheification
Premium Member
I don't think that there is enough of a gap between atheists and believers for attempts at bridging it to be worth the effort.

It seems to me that the significant, important challenges exist internally among the community of god-believers (or perhaps supernaturalists in a broader sense) who sometimes lend way too much significant to their own beliefs, for everyone's loss.

I'm all for addressing them, for they are very real and very worrisome.
 

loverofhumanity

We are all the leaves of one tree
Premium Member
What will stir that? Kitab-i-Aqdas?Ah, the militia! ;)And there is no hurt equal to those caused by truthful words.Perhaps by saying that we really do not know other than what we have heard; for example, that so-and-so was a so-and-so of God.

Likely another world war. No nation will give ground unless it’s a matter of survival I would think. In speaking of racism in the US, Shoghi Effendi quoted Abdul-Baha and went on to say this in his letter to American Baha’is.

…..
“If allowed to drift, will, in the words of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, cause the streets of American cities to run with blood, aggravating thereby the havoc which the fearful weapons of destruction, raining from the air, and amassed by a ruthless, a vigilant, a powerful and inveterate enemy, will wreak upon those same cities.

Shoghi Effendi

Who is the ‘inveterate enemy? I don’t really know but my thinking is Russia then China if America interferes in Taiwan.
 

nPeace

Veteran Member
Because I want the "fight" between faith believers and Atheists to end. I want people to live in peace and harmony
Most people want people to live in peace and harmony.
Why do you think it's not happening?
Perhaps if we can find common ground on an answer to that question, it can lead to more common understanding.
 

Spirit of Light

Be who ever you want
Most people want people to live in peace and harmony.
Why do you think it's not happening?
Perhaps if we can find common ground on an answer to that question, it can lead to more common understanding.
For the most part i see it in discussion or debate area.

Maybe it is unhealthy to discuss between believers and non believers because it seldom lead to any good.
 

Fool

ALL in all
Premium Member
How can believers and atheists find common ground to be able to say.

You know, I see you as a human being, no matter if you believe in a religion or not.
I want to know you as a person, but if you believe or not, that is your private choice.

I can love you for just being you.
Stop creating threads about people and start discussing more ideas.
 
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