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Originally Posted by chickentribs
Cello - I think that you and others on this thread are missing a great opportunity to try and understand what faith means to people and the true nature of religion.. You are asking the ideals of something very personal, and then pull away the tools for them to effectively talk about it. Similar maybe to asking you what love means to you, but then saying, "I don't want to hear about your family or relationships though. Everybody always brings up family and relationships and I don't like my family."
You can have some great conversations with really intelligent people and instead of a debate to be won (I am the worst at this) try to imagine what they feel and why. Even if you can't agree on how to debate the issue with them, appreciating the rules they play the game by is a good exercise to discipline your own philosophical inqueries. The respect we give others always describes our nature more than we could ever describe someone else...  |
Chickentribs, I am not trying to say that I have no interest in hearing about religious views and dogmas and beliefs. I think that it is a wonderful thing for people to be religious and have faith. I envy them.
In fact, I find that many of my most stimulating conversations deal with religious values, when someone teaches me about their faith from the side of their faith. But, I find that the worst philosophy is when someone says something along the lines of "We are here to appease God" or "This is wrong because my prophet says so," and then they leave the discussion at that.
I would find it to be much better if the person I am talking with could be willing, even if not quite able, to defend their view beyond the dogma, such as "This is wrong because my prophet says so, and I agree because..."
It seems to me that philosophy is not simply about having beliefs, but having reasons to believe what one does. If you were talking to someone and they said "I'm an idealist" and when you asked them what the support for this idea was they said "Because I'm an idealist," you'd quickly tire of their "philosophy." I don't think that religion is drastically different, though I do understand that it can be more personal.