Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by A. Okafor on February 14, 2011 at 1:03pm

I will never respect religious beliefs. What's next? Am I gonna have to respect a white supremacist's belief that non-white people are sub-human? Am I supposed to respect a sexist's view that a woman's place is in the kitchen and having babies? I respect their right to live but not their bullshit ideas :D

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Permalink Reply by Gregor Basić on February 14, 2011 at 2:26pm

I still can't process the fact that it's 2011, like, this distant future of technological marvel and science progress, and then we still have people like O'Reilly. I'm sure that even the stone age people figured out that tides have something to do with the Moon...

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Permalink Reply by Cathy Cooper on February 14, 2011 at 2:44pm

I show respect when it is deserved.  Some religions are more worthy of respect than others.  Taoism and Buddhism for example, do not necessitate the worship of deities, and are basically just philosophies which are for the most part, positive in nature.  Christianity and Islam however, are nihilistic, and do not place much value on life on earth, as everything is geared towards "paradise" with their god. This results in a great deal of pain and suffering in the world, as they have killed and tortured in the name of their god, and raped the land, as they believe they have "dominion" over the earth.  Therefore, I do not have respect for Christianity or Islam.

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Permalink Reply by Agustin Hardy Etcheverry on February 14, 2011 at 3:08pm

You should see ZOMGitscriss on youtube, her video "Respect" talk about this

 

btw, love the believer not the belief (?) ;D 

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Permalink Reply by Dave G on February 14, 2011 at 3:10pm

Greta is an excellent writer and she's dead on, as usual. I will respect people, but their beliefs have to earn respect, it does not come by default.

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Permalink Reply by natanael on February 14, 2011 at 6:18pm

I hate that especially on facebook everybody is so damn "religious" , you say what you think and everybody demands respect while they don't respect our lack of belief.

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Permalink Reply by Gregor Basić on February 18, 2011 at 8:33am

Feel free to rant, that's why we are all here, to lick our wounds and find friends :D

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Permalink Reply by Pam on February 15, 2011 at 5:43am

great article- thanks for posting the link

 

I agree- religion should not ever get a free pass from discussion and criticism- and I also disagree with some of the commenters here- I don't respect people until they have earned it - no automatic respect from me :)

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Permalink Reply by Larry Lawson on February 15, 2011 at 5:56am

I ALWAYS grant people a basic level of respect just because they are fellow human beings. After that, depending on how they behave, the level of respect goes up or down. I'm 70 years old and have seen a lot in life. All this blather about "All We Need Is Love" just simply does not work. We humans are not constituted to "love" people we've no interaction with. My observations show me that offering basic human respect can solve problems before they even happen in ways that a phoney "love" cannot. False declarations of love can be seen through so easily and quickly that you insult people with that ridiculous claim. Besides, we have very little control over whom we love.

We have good control over who we will give respect to, however. And we can demand basic human respect in return, until we lose it or increase it by our behaviour. I am, of course, talking about respect for people - NOT for their philosophies or religions or politics or any other ideas they may have. Those definitely have to earn respect from the get-go.

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Permalink Reply by Dave G on February 15, 2011 at 1:56pm

I quite agree, Larry. A person, by virtue of being a person, gets a default level of respect from me. Whether or not that level of respect increases or decreases depends upon their actions.

And yes, the default level of respect for ideas (not people) is zero.

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Permalink Reply by Courtney on February 15, 2011 at 2:34pm

Larry, I will agree there is a BASIC level of respect to give people, depending on who they are.

I will NOT give a rapist, child molester, etc. any respect.

 

I remember being a little kid and my step-mom was being quite mean to me (which wasn't uncommon) and my dad stopped her tirade against me and said, "You do not DEMAND her respect, you EARN it. Just because she is a child doesn't mean she should respect you." I will NEVER forget that (unless of course I develop Alzheimer's).

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Permalink Reply by Gregor Basić on February 15, 2011 at 4:21pm

I'm maybe little bit strange but I will give my respect (a small amount of it) to anyone including criminals, because I can't just burn them on a stake or kill them because they are criminals, they should get a second chance and repent for what they did, much more useful this way. If we just start to kill every criminal because we don't respect them any more, is not far from saying that we don't see them as human anymore. And this is scary. Because where do we draw the line? So I give everyone their basic respect and that's it.

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