WHY DO PEOPLE TRY TO FORCE THEIR RELIGION ON OTHERS??

Get a cat.

Cats are icky.
Get a dog.

Get both, you racist scum [:wink:]

I actually love both - but I live in an apartment.

What I want is a non-shedding cat, and a dog which folds up and can be put in a cupboard between walks.

Sigh.

Gawd, what I'd give for a non-shedding cat - Sam's a ragdoll. The dogs are little but not little enough for a cupboard.

Maybe a budgie?

I don't like cats. sorry but my name is sam AND i ain't no ragdoll lol

I don't know, that avatar's got a bit of a shag cut.....

For the record I think a cat is by far the best pet one can have.

Yep, cats are thier own pyjamas. Life is too short not to have a cat.

The religious are driven by one thing - fear.

Fear that their house of cards will come tumbling down if someone points out that it has no foundation.

Fear that unless they put every other category in the minority, one of those minorities will rise up and put them in the minority.

Fear that, at the end of the day, they're just talking to their bed, and that their whole life has been a lie.

They take these fears, and, rather than embrace the truth, spend their days subverting it, and others, and viciously attacking all who would critique them the way they critique others.

Maybe one day they'll realize that doubts and questions are a way of honoring themselves...and that those who follow faith blindly often end up walking off a cliff.


Now, that being said, I have met a few people who believe in God, but have the ability to recognize inconsistencies, and can make their own way without being told where to go...and I've met most of them right here.


I'm for cats, too. :wink:

i shoot cats and dogs that go in my yard but mostly cats i really hate cats

Blinders
Most religious people that I have met walk through life like a race horse with blinders on. They know bits and pieces about their particular religion and are scared to death to question their own religious beliefs or to look and listen to another point of view.

It is particularly puzzling to me why people will try to force their religious views upon others, but they are so unwilling to listen to a rebuttal.

If they feel own religious view are the "right way" then they should also believe that their views will stand up to any analysis or argument. Yet these people who tend to push their beliefs on others are offended when their beliefs are challenged.

Again, if their beliefs ar the "right" ones, then there really is no reason to get offended. Simply reply to the challenge and prove the opposition wrong....if you can!

Problem is, the people who often push their religion on others, often have very little knowledge and a lot of blind faith.

Banks

To believe in religion, Is to have blind faith.

agreed
au1929

I couldn't agree more.

amen!

errrrr.....I mean, well you know what I mean.

The blind faith does beg the question "How do you get someone else to have blind faith in something"

I would have thought proselytizing (forcing your beliefs on others) wouldn't work, because your victims, at best, would just be pretending to have blind faith.

The only way I can see it working is if you start programming very young children or pray on the emotionally and mentally vulnerable. Oh yeah, that's exactly what they do......

That's a ridiculous shot in the dark.

The reason they share there beliefs are the same reason you're sharing your opinions on the matter. When people have opinions, with which others disagree, they share them.
Sometimes angrily, sometimes not. Sometimes forcibly, sometimes not. It's that simple.

It would make as much sense if I said the reason you are expressing your opinion right now is because you're not sure what to believe, and you want to get others to believe you so you don't feel stupid.

There's no logical backing. It is just an interesting possibility.

SCoates: Good post; you made some interesting points. Why do we all want to share our beliefs?

Is it just a desire for others to agree with us, like you said, or does it come from a desire to "enlighten" others?

I think the dividing line between the two is the listener. If he wants to hear, then you're educating/enlightening. If the listener is an unwilling participant, then you're preaching, desperate for attention.

Since we all joined this site of our own free will, then we're "enlightening" each other. (Though I'm sure some would disagree with me on that point. :wink: ) Accosting others on the street though, is a violation of privacy, and it those who do it should be ready to defend themselves and their beliefs.


I want to add in a proviso about communicating knowledge as opposed to beliefs, but I'll wait until people have responded to what I already posted first.

Perhaps it's a pride thing. Everyone wanting to show that they know more than the next man.

There could be lots of factors.

I think some people see the potential good in everyone else seeing things their way

eg....for a Christian, everyone becomes a good samaritan and world hunger is solved

...for the atheist, people stop wasting their time with fairy tales and billion dollar churches and start doing some practical good.

Interesting Eorl. I guess to think that your beliefs weren't worth sharing would be that you had self-loathing issues.

To change your beliefs may equate with admitting you were wrong, or stupid. Hmmm. I guess for some people changing everyone else seems easier.