A Muslim, A Jew, A Christian, A Pagan And And Atheist

[nailit]

Walk into a coffee shop....
And they talk, laugh, drink coffee and become good friends.
Its not a joke. Its what happens when you're not an ass-hole!

The above ^ popped up on my FB feed.

Some truth in there I think. I have a jewish friend on my FB, Ive worked with some lovely muslim ladies, I work with Christians and have Christian friends, Im sympathetic to those with a pagan turn of mind and have had pagan friends in the past and would identify myself as an atheist re: monotheistic religions.
Also have actually enjoyed a coffee with all the above.


Its when the ass-hole turns up that it becomes an issue!

[237SJ]

I think you need to see people as they are and not concentrate on their religious beliefs which have no bearing on who they are.

[Mamyalynne]

♪ People who need people . are the luckiest people in the World ♪

[Jordyboy9]

Nailit,is it something in your makeup (that’s not the word I am looking for)that you have a thing about religion,I am accused on here for my winging and my perverse interest of moderators faults,but you seem to be forever on about religion,and telling us as many times how you have read the bible,what’s the difference if someone is catholic,prody,or whatever,as the famous Robert Burns said A MANS A MAN for oh that.

[Theland]

What's wrong with being an a/h? I have been one for years and have the scars to prove it.
I am one of those people who can brighten up a room by leaving it.

[nailit]

///Nailit,is it something in your makeup//
No.

[TonyV]

I really do not bother with someones skin colour. It is the person I am talking to.

[TonyV]

^^^^
Or religion.

[spathiphyllum]

I dont think anyone has suggested people of different religion can’t get along civilly

[vetuste_ennemi]

//I think you need to see people as they are and not concentrate on their religious beliefs which have no bearing on who they are//

I agree absolutely with the first half of that sentence, SJ, (and its implicit corollary "treat them as you find them"), but not at all with the second. The second part presupposes either that all religions are morally equivalent, or that religion does not influence its followers' behaviour. I disagree with both these premises.

For instance, the counter-intuitive injunction to "love your enemy and bless those who persecute you" is, I suggest, (among the Abramic religions) uniquely Christian.

[Canary42]

How true Nailit. I often wonder how many Muslims Ab's favourite islamophobe actually knows personally, or has chatted to.

[Theland]

Vetuste I agree.

[Theland]

Canary who is that?
I have a phobia of Islamism, a healthy wariness of those who follow a book that tells them to hate us.
Thank God most Muslims don't follow the letter of it.

[naomi24]

// The second part [of SJ's post] presupposes either that all religions are morally equivalent, or that religion does not influence its followers' behaviour. I disagree with both these premises. //

I disagree with them too.

[237SJ]

I stand by my first post but then again, I

[237SJ]

I stand my first post but then again, I take as I find and I don`t base my opinions of people and their culture on ignorance.

[naomi24]

SJ, Does that mean you think others base their opinions on ignorance - and if so, why do you think that?

[237SJ]

I didn't mention anything about morals.

[Mamyalynne]

In the scenario you describe, if a pain in the rear turns up to disrupt your pleasant conversation - direct them to a different area of the coffee shop.

There they may order a coffee enema.

[vetuste_ennemi]

//I stand my first post but then again, I take as I find and I don`t base my opinions of people and their culture on ignorance//

I think you miss the point of what I was trying to say, SJ, and I apologise for my poor effort in trying to make it.

I think people as a whole have decent instincts (if only through evolutionary necessity, i.e. the need to co-operate in order to succeed in an unforgiving environment). But culture will influence decent people.

I'll side-step both religion and Godwin's law by offering a political analogy. When the education is controlled by an ideological oligarchy otherwise decent people may be persuaded to do indecent things.

I'll give specific examples. A fourteen-year old boy was made a hero of the state for shopping his parents who (did what?) criticised Stalin. Ten year olds surrounded their teachers (placards hanging round their necks "Enemies of the People") and abused them because they didn't embrace Mao's "Great Leap Forward". Jim360 creates a post on AB describing a Nobel Laureate bio-chemist as a fool and demanding an immediate recantation from the heretic and the annulment of his academic awards and privileges.


Neither the Russian teenager, nor most of the Chinese kids, and most certainly not Jim360 have acted in this disgusting way but for the power of indoctrination.

[vetuste_ennemi]

.. would have acted