Pretty much all of us say we have no problem w/other beliefs

[Creepy Albino Fish]

I personally loathe the christians who only believe in their scripture while they're in the church, but the moment they step out, they're looking down their noses at people and just.. scrutinizing and criticizing.. it goes against everything their religion preaches. And then they'll turn around and point the finger that others are going to hell because they don't believe in God. ugh.. some of my friend's family does that and it drives me nuts.

I just don't understand why people just cant.. get along.
Just, don't be such assholes. (sry.. language, I know. I just can't help it)

If people believe in other religions, sure. But if you're going to do it, you should really believe in it. Live it. Don't just do it for show.

 

[swampyface]

I respect other people's beliefs.

But that doesn't mean I don't have problems with them.

I could spout off a thousand problems I have with the Christians, the Muslims, The Jews...

But I must say that I am completely happy with my own beliefs. Sometimes, though, I find it hard to understand how a Muslim could really believe in all of those things, or how a Christian can really believe in all the crap given to them.

If theyre happy, I guess.

But I like my religion the best. =)  

[ReKay]

It has been only recently that I've decided that I don't know if "Christian" is the word for me. It's been even more recently that I've been even considering calling myself "Pagan."

I definitely respect those with Christian beliefs, because I still have many of them. But I think that, for me, right now, beliefs are kind of an awkward subject for me to talk about with Christians. I'm not grounded enough in *any* faith to really be able to stand up for myself and feel right about it, and I'm afraid that if I tell a Christian that I am becoming interested in paganism, that they'll suddenly try to "grab" me back to Christianity in the hopes that, since I'm not quite "to the other side" yet, I'll be an easier "catch." So far, though, this has only really happened once, and I've been quite surprised by the response that I've gotten from a lot of Christians that I've talked to.

Because of my background, I don't know if I'll ever be quite okay with satanists. I'll don't think I'll ever yell at them, or tell them up front that their beliefs are "wrong" (IMHO), but I think "satan" is a word that has been so deeply planted in my mind as being "Eeeevil" that I don't know if I'll ever be able to think of it without shuddering. (I'm sorry if I have offended anyone with this. >_< )

Anyway, all that said....... I think my thoughts on this are basically: I have no problem with other people's beliefs, as long as they don't try to make me believe them, or think less of me because I don't. And usually, they don't do that, at least, not as much as I would've thought before.  

[FireonYce]

I have no problem with peoples religious sytems as long as they do not do the following: harm, kill, Enslave, Degrate, or Condemn any person. As long as they do not try and force me to conform or try and show me why Im a heathen ect then were ok. Recently I've honestly become allot more quiet about my beliefs. Its because i do not want people to know now because of the way everyone acts to it. When people do find out allot of them look at me in disbelief. Allot tell me Im too nice and normal to be damned ect. So to anwser the question yes I am accepting of other religions and beliefs, but only to an extent as they respect mine.  

[Naomi Tinuveil]

Starlock

One of the primary reasons why people enter into Neopaganism is out of dissatisfaction or disillusionment with their previous religion. This tends to breed a sort of disdain for their previous religion; in spite of the supposed tolerance of the greater Neopagan community, many individuals seem to have pretty strong disdain for their old religion, usually Christianity. That's too bad. Once you begin doing some comparative religion studies... or even just interacting with people of other faiths like you did Seira, it becomes difficult to hold onto that kind of disdain as all religions have threads in common and all human beings have things in common. People get spiritual meaningfulness in different ways. If they find Buddhism meaningful for them, great. If they find Judaism meaningful for them, great. 'Tis a personal thing, ya know?

3nodding My sentiments exactly!  

[SonarP]

I'm sorry, but I'm one of those people that will always have a bad taste in my mouth when it comes down to Christianity. The reason for that is..well... personal experiences.
I guess, to sum it all up, it was a family/friend "shoving it down my throat"-thing all through my life. I'll have some positive, but mostly negative ties to it. I find myself listening to music from The Prince of Egypt, and I still love my family. Now, the challenge is telling them I want to practice/become a pagan(ism). When I look back, I see a lot of wrath and hurt from a lot of sources...including myself. I don't condone the actions of forcing beliefs or punishing/enslaving, etc people because they chose a different path...but you gotta love or hate the person without that kind of connection...like "I hate this person because they stole my cookie!" or "I love this person because she's a friend". I've learned to "love the person, hate the sin", if you wanna call it that. I have a Jewish friend, and he doesn't seem to care that I said I wanted to follow a different path...and that I am a pervert by society's definition.
In my thoughts, I note, too...that people abuse religion, too.
Sometimes, though, I wonder to myself if I should really follow paganism/ become a pagan. The questions I'm asking myself now are: "You saw what happened to your family, but do you want to do this because of what you've seen?" "What do you want to risk? What do you want to gain?" For those questions...I have no answer yet. sweatdrop
I think to this day that I'm still a blasphemer due to my experience with Christianity. However, I've heard that there is such a thing as "shamanic Christianity".......interesting, and comforting. But that's probably going to get screwed over on both sides.
I think Starlock, Pelta, Anabis, Creepy Albino Fish, swampyface, and Christo Minaverus said it much better than how I'm putting it.  

[Starlock]

One thing I'd encourage you to keep in mind, SonarP, is that Christians are a very diverse lot and to generalize about Christians can sometimes be as silly as generalizing about modern Pagans! I'm not sure it is the religion itself that is the thing to point your finger at if you've had a bad experience, particularly with people trying to convert you. I think we all to one extent or another want other people to see things 'our' way whether we blatantly prosetylize or not. I can definately understand maybe disliking a specific congregation because of some of their policies; spreading that dislike to a religion as a whole is a big step up from that! Its our natural tendancy to want to do that. Awareness can help us stop ourselves from developing that kind of prejudice, though it is probably easier said than done. sweatdrop  

[safkef]

My whole philosophy of life is to live and let live. If you don't bug me, I won't bug you. With that said, YES, I absolutely do have problems with other religions and I know they have problems with mine. Is that copacetic with my belief system, nope. Do I have a problem with my hypocrisy? Nope. I can believe one thing and feel another and have no problem with that. Where the problem comes in is if I go get up in someone's face and tell them that they are a bad "insert faith" here like they do me. I don't do that. Again, live and let live. Just don't expect me to believe your crazy butt view of the world and I won't expect you to understand my crazy view lol I'm not going to go into my problems with other religions because that would be rude. I think, if people are truly truly honest they will admit that they have problems. It doesn't make you a bad person, it just means your human.  

[Starlock]

I've often been known to say that hypocrisy is an unavoidable, inevitable condition of all human beings. wink  

[safkef]

Starlock

I've often been known to say that hypocrisy is an unavoidable, inevitable condition of all human beings. wink

THAT is quite possibly the most intelligent statement I have ever heard! You're quite right!  

[Starlock]

safkef

Starlock

I've often been known to say that hypocrisy is an unavoidable, inevitable condition of all human beings. wink

THAT is quite possibly the most intelligent statement I have ever heard! You're quite right!

But I've also been known to say that there's good hypocrisy and bad hypocrisy. Hypocrisy arising out of wanting to change to be something you consider better than what you are now is the good kind. Hypocrisy arising out of knowingly saying one thing and doing another (and not caring a whiff) is the bad kind. xd  

[Boadicia]

Starlock

safkef

Starlock

I've often been known to say that hypocrisy is an unavoidable, inevitable condition of all human beings. wink

THAT is quite possibly the most intelligent statement I have ever heard! You're quite right!

But I've also been known to say that there's good hypocrisy and bad hypocrisy. Hypocrisy arising out of wanting to change to be something you consider better than what you are now is the good kind. Hypocrisy arising out of knowingly saying one thing and doing another (and not caring a whiff) is the bad kind. xd

I wouldn't want to refer to wanting to improve yourself as being hypocrisy. I think hypocrisy would be knowing that you should improve and refusing to do so. Making stupid decisions is the price humans pay for being capable of thinking for oneself (which sounds a bit like a conundrum, choosing not to think). rolleyes

The guy I'm dating right now is a Christian, sort of, but he knew I was a pagan years before we started dating.  

[Starlock]

Boadicia

Starlock

safkef

Starlock

I've often been known to say that hypocrisy is an unavoidable, inevitable condition of all human beings. wink

THAT is quite possibly the most intelligent statement I have ever heard! You're quite right!

But I've also been known to say that there's good hypocrisy and bad hypocrisy. Hypocrisy arising out of wanting to change to be something you consider better than what you are now is the good kind. Hypocrisy arising out of knowingly saying one thing and doing another (and not caring a whiff) is the bad kind. xd

I wouldn't want to refer to wanting to improve yourself as being hypocrisy. I think hypocrisy would be knowing that you should improve and refusing to do so. Making stupid decisions is the price humans pay for being capable of thinking for oneself (which sounds a bit like a conundrum, choosing not to think). rolleyes

The guy I'm dating right now is a Christian, sort of, but he knew I was a pagan years before we started dating.

The thing is that an outside observer isn't going to know if a hypocrisy they seein you originates from wanting to improve yourself; that's why I make the distinction. To the outside observer, that is going to be labeled hypocrisy just as readily as someone who says one thing and does another deliberately and with no intention of changing that pattern. 3nodding