![Razz :P](./images/smilies/77tongue.gif)
I reiterate, I do not see that kind of division between people at all, other than in fanatics on either side. And there aren't a lot of those in my neighborhood.
Well, that's the thing.Primula Baggins wrote:Beliefs can be alien, but surely (talking of the ordinary spectrum of religious beliefs here, not human sacrifice, etc.) that doesn't make people impossible to understand or relate to. Especially if we're living in the same culture, one in which religion is increasingly seen as a private matter and whose mainstream is increasingly secular.
I suspect it's not a symmetric thing.But - do right handed people wonder what it is like to be left handed?
I'm more interested in the personal experiences because I am a former christian (catholic and lutheran) so I understand christianity very well.Pearly Di wrote:There is certainly a collective, and commonly agreed, understanding about the nature of God between Christians (and surely between people of other faiths about what they believe). We do have 2,000 years of collective history and teaching to draw upon.TheEllipticalDisillusion wrote:I find it interesting that a few people have agreed with other posts. Is there a collective understanding about this deity or personal, or a mixture of both?
I can only answer for Christians. Primarily from what I understand of God in the Bible ... and from helpful and illuminating insights from 'mothers and fathers in the faith'. Of course my personal experience comes into play, because you can't talk about a personal faith without personal experience, but I prefer to have a solid foundation of doctrine on which to base my subjective experiences.Where do your understandings of your deity stem from (personal, collective, somewhere else)?
I hope that makes some kind of sense.
I know the feeling.JewelSong wrote:And my thoughts, they are refusing to collect right now.
I wonder this all the time, and have actively spent time trying to learn. I can throw pretty well with my left hand right now. If I had a left-handed hockey stick, I might know that one better (sort of do because when you pass with a goalie stick, it is technically left-handed).But - do right handed people wonder what it is like to be left handed?
It feels that way to me sometimes though. And it wasn't the greatest metaphor. I wasn't saying people on both sides can't live and work together. We do it all the time. But it is a difference and it does affect worldviews and it does cause people to, on occasion, scratch their heads.Primula Baggins wrote:I guess I have never thought of the "divide" between believers and nonbelievers as being an important distinction in the sense you seem to be describing, River. It's not like they are two entirely different kinds of people, with different aims, or as if the whole spectrum of humanity doesn't exist within each category, or as if we can't be friends or live in the same society.
As a lefty with perfect pitchRiver wrote:As far as wondering what it's like to be left-handed goes, I do wonder that. S was a born lefty forced to learn to use his right hand. This has left him with a degree of ambidexterity I am jealous of. And, more poignantly, I sometimes wonder how it is for people with functional stereovision, if it really is as cool as people say it is. I also wonder what it's like to have perfect pitch. Or be totally tone-deaf. Or have synesthesia. Or a thousand other things that are different from me.
Wouldn't it be more like, knowing the names of colors while the majority of the world around you doesn't know them? Because it isn't as if people without perfect pitch can't hear the notes, and identify their relationship to one another. As I understand it, people without perfect pitch can still carry a tune; they just can't identify the key it's in -- is that right?nerdanel wrote:imagine being able to see color while the majority of the world around you is color-blind, and you'll probably get what I'm saying
Kind of like being Jewish at Christmastime.Griffon64 wrote:As far as handedness goes: since the majority of the population is right-handed, many implements with an intrinsic handedness are mostly for right-handed use, and therefore, many left-handed people learn and handle these ambidextrously - with the exception of stuff like desks, of course! I'm left-handed, and speaking for myself, I've never wondered what it is like to be right-handed.I can handle the right-handed stuff just fine ( except writing and drawing ) so I kind of know what it's like already.
Well, vison has given me a kind of "jumping off" point for my own post on this topic.vison wrote: Oddly enough, or I guess not oddly at all, the "religious point of view" or "notion of the deity" that I can understand the most readily (as far as I know, at any rate) is the "old man in the clouds" type of deity. The one who made everything and used to talk to people out of burning bushes and who is still concerned with "us" on a daily basis.
This is relatively easy to answer, Nin.Nin wrote:When I wonder about religious faith, I wonder more about the fact what it means for people's lifes. What does it mean to go to church? What does it bring to you? What impact has religion on your actions and values?
Actually, yes. Although such a prospect would be very bleak. However, I have read some arguments for humanism and atheism. (Not Richard Dawkins: the guy rants too much and dismisses all religious people as idiots.)Can you imagine world without your deity?
I'm not trying to be contentious, because Vison has asked us not to beSo obviously, I don't pray. To whom? I also don't pray because I think we are responsible for each and every of our reactions.