| Comrade Tovya said:
No, I would not have to extend my position to such a man, because his whole system of belief is founded upon my own (what Christians call the old Testament). He cannot have a religion without both his new Testament, and my so-called, old Testament. His Bible is his own and my own combined. However my own Bible is simply my own Bible. My "religion" is only dependent upon the so-called "old Testament" and has nothing to do with the "new Testament". In retrospect, a Christian's Bible is half-his and half-mine. Henceforth, a Christian cannot be a Christian without my Bible, but a Jew can be a Jew without ever seeing a New Testament. As for your last point, I do not take offense to a Christian telling me how he or she believes, as I am quite respectful to all faiths... and I do not have to agree with someone to respect their opinion. I believe in free will and democracy. I do however take offense to someone telling me that me and my 3 boys are going to be put in fiery furnace and be tortured for all eternity... I hope my reasons for being upset at such a notion would be obvious. I love my kids, and the very thought that someone would tell my kids that they will be burned and tortured forever is quite disturbing. I respect the opinion of all men, but I will never respect someone's right to beat me over the head with their idea of the truth, nor will I ever accept someone telling my children that they are doomed to be thrown into a fiery furnace to burn for all eternity and never to have rest from such torture. I actually find such things to be quite disturbing. I do not expect people to believe that I am destined to be God's right hand man... nor do I care if they hope that I get hit by speeding truck. I just don't care. But if that same person tells me day in and day out that they want to see me and my children get run over by a car, over and over again for the rest of eternity, that's actually pretty spooky. What I am trying to say is, I don't expect people to believe as I do... I just don't care what people believe... I do, however, want to be left in peace and to live my life as I feel God wishes me to live. If you or any other Christian doesn't agree, that's okay, I respect that. You have the right to disagree with me, 100%. But as soon as your right to disagree infringes upon my right to choose my own salvation, then that's when your freedoms have trampled upon my own... and that's not freedom at all. I hope we understand each other. I respect your right to be a Christian, and I respect someone elses to be an athiest. It doesn't matter if I agree or not with either of you... each person will face death in his own time, and that person will face their own after life... therefore, I won't waste my life bringing them hell on Earth by trying to force my beliefs upon them. |
By your position I meant the one where you said your extensive knowledge of Old Testament theology would be an argument in and of itself. For someone who has extensive knowledge of the New Testament, in the languages it was written, you would have to extend that same courtesy to them as you do yourself:a level of expertise in your respective field.
How is it a beating over the head to simply tell someone something? I don't know how you've experienced it, but it certainly should be done, at least, kindly. In any event, wouldn't it be more disturbing if a person who believed that others were going to burn for all eternity, and he thought he knew that he could help save them from that fate, but did not? And we still are commanded to go and tell people about it; how can you respect others beliefs and opinions, but take offense at them when they actually do them?
Just to clarify, I certainly do respect others beliefs as well. I respectfully disagree, and urgently attempt to convince them otherwise.
Okami
To lavish praise upon this title, the assumption of a common plateau between player and game must be made. I won't open my unworthy mouth.
