Why do some people find it so hard to accept a belief other than theirs?

I think that if people find out they’re wrong, it overwhelms them. A good defense is a strong offense.

Maybe because they have it ingrained in them to the point that it is fanaticism or zealotry. I understand that this may be extreme and it certainly doesn’t apply to everyone, but history has shown that different groups and individuals adopted this approach. Not as much today as in the past, I think.

It would definitely be a nicer world if there was more acceptance and/or tolerance of each others beliefs, religions, and viewpoints. There is no question, in my mind at least, that the human race is nowhere near perfect and we probably still have a long way to go in making it better.

In order to confirm the veracity of one’s own beliefs, one has to aver that one’s beliefs are applicable to everyone.

A while back on Askville somebody asked, “Why do you think Christianity is bad?” After qualifying that I was only talking about Born Again evangelical Christianity, I went into an extended critique of how the process of becoming “born again” unhinges a person from reality as the rest of us experience it.

When you place faith and scripture at the center of your reality, you no longer engage in the same kind of (empirical) reality testing like the rest of us do. If something appears to be consistent with belief or scripture, it is accepted as “proven” or “Absolutely True.” In rejecting secular methods of reality-testing, the believer drifts out of touch with reality. This sort of thing not only distorts the believer’s sense of reality, it disrupts his ability to think analytically.

A true believer quickly develops “data blindness” toward anything that contradicts his worldview which, in turn, leads to a particular kind of analytical paralysis. Over time this can lead to clinically significant cognitive distortions, and a susceptibility to what I call “dog whistle” politics. In some people, the habits of being a True Believer become so ingrained in the believer’s personality that they develop what I call “Born Again Personality Disorder.”

The discussion is way too long to repeat here, so here’s the link:

http://askville.amazon.com/Christianity/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=16540571&avctx=myaccount.mywatchlist

Our greatest need is to be right.

@Alfreda: I’m inclined to agree with your answer – Windex’s too. May I add that in my own experience I’ve seen those most comfortable in their own belief system/religion reacting less hostile/offensive towards other people’s views and beliefs. They seem instead to be more curious about other beliefs. Some religious groups feel it is their “duty” to convert others to their belief, and take a more proactive “in your face” approach, with the mindset that persistence and effort get rewarded. That’s my take on it anyways.

Matthew 28:19…we got told to tell y’all about Jesus.

Yes, but not everyone believes in the Bible. Why would Jesus TELL someone to do that? It doesn’t make sense. The Bible doesn’t make sense.

krose, did you just change your avatar, or have you been getting younger :)

haha yeah it’s my kid sitting on the pot. :) It makes me happy.

cute

gracias

I will say that Christianity is the only religion that does not require you to read the “document of authority” i.,e, bible, in it’s original source language, Greek. If you don’t read it for yourself in the original language, how do you know what it really says or means? Each translation or edition changes the meaning, starting back with the King James version. And each denomination puts its own spin on what the bible says or means. I

n some ways Christianity resembles a game of “Telephone.”

Anyone who feels that they must belittle or demonize other people’s beliefs in order to promote their own beliefs has a distorted view of their religion’s spiritual teachings. All religions provide timeless spiritual teachings alongside cultural message directed to a specific set of people living in a certain period of time.

The spiritual basis of all faiths is acceptance of others and anyone who cannot accept other beliefs is locked up in their own ego. The purpose of moving towards God is to move away from our own individual yearnings.

@Monty: GA! Nice distinction between what kind of religious people you are talking about.

It’s not just born-again evangelical Christians that can be stubborn in hearing about other beliefs. In fact, when I was younger, the most stubborn seemed to be the atheists who mocked my feeble attempt at belief in a god.

Either way, it’s something to do with the religious/non-religious communities each person is involved with. If someone has a solid group of friends with the same beliefs, then of course it will seem that they are right.

As someone who was baptized a Catholic at age 16, there is also the idea that “so many people in the past believed this, and this Church is the oldest of the bunch”.

I know it sounds crazy but I find the people without a solid history of drug use are the worst offenders. People who have dabbled in different perceptions of their own reality can more completely understand how someone else could live in a slightly skewed reality.

You have to occasionally sit outside yourself to truly comprehend another’s perception (or point of view).

People who have only felt one way (in regards to perception and reality) are certain that their reality is the correct one. This recipe can make quite a dangerous fundie.

I can’t remember who said it but there was a quote they went along the following lines:

The best protection against knowledge is to be absolutely certain.

“I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians, they are so unlike your Christ.”

Ghandi

Very interesting bodyhead. I would have to agree. Well maybe I just want an excuse for having done hallucinogenics. :)

@shading,
Sometimes atheists are evangelical Christians with a god-shaped hole in their belief system. I once went to the meetings of our local Atheists, Agnostics and Free-Thinkers Association who, of course, met on Sunday. For the most part, these were “recovering Christians” who had been severely emotionally abused by religious parents who shamed them and shunned them for daring to think critically. It was almost like going to AA, where you had people telling their religion horror stories—and they were truly horrible.

One of the more painful lessons of my life is that even good and well-meaning people tend to be blind to how they profit from the exploitation of others. If you leave anything valuable around unguarded and unwatched, people develop uncanny powers of rationalization as to why they should take it. If you have ever seen how relatives pick a house clean after someone has died, you know what I mean. “Oh yes, he told me he always wanted me to have that ____.”

And, the tendency is even more formidable when it is done collectively. For example, people develop a belief they are “God’s Chosen People” in order to explain and excuse the genocides and atrocities they commit in taking possession of their “promised” land. Such crimes seal the pact between them and the demons they elevate and worship as gods. It’s not for nothing that religious people have to believe that they are right. If they don’t then they have to confront the crimes they have committed in the name of their religions.

@bodyhead,

” I find the people without a solid history of drug use are the worst offenders. People who have dabbled in different perceptions of their own reality can more completely understand how someone else could live in a slightly skewed reality.”

Absolutely, that’s why pot, LSD and similar drugs are so illegal. Its not because they are harmful, its because they each plug you into a different reality, with its own perspective and its own hierarchy of values.

The war on drugs is, essentially, a form of religious persecution of anyone who has partaken of a “forbidden” fruit and stepped outside of himself and has seen that reality is largely a matter of perspective, and a fairly arbitrary one at that. It galls me no end that Christians have succeeded in creating a $50 billion a year appendage of the state to enforce their point of view. That prison-industrial complex does nothing but crush and impoverish people and prevent them from organizing politically. Yet no Christian dare own up to the least little part of it. Its as if their eyes can’t focus on it, because if they did, they would have to acknowledge their crimes against our constitutional freedoms of religion and conscience; they would have to take responsibility for the monumental misery and degradation they cause others, because they have no respect for anyone’s point of view than their own.

take the red pill, neo

It’s not the belief itself that’s the problem for other people. It’s what the belief inspires people to do. Most of the time I’m just curious about other beliefs, but I really want to know about people’s beliefs when it affects me in some way.

So, if you think a child who says a “bad word” is possessed and you just might try to perform an exorcism—you ain’t watching my kids.

If you want creationism taught in schools as science, you don’t get my vote.

If you believe your race is superior to mine or anyone else’s for that matter, I want nothing to do with you.

I think it depends on the belief and what potential for harm in terms of action that belief inspires.

I just wish that people would respect the belief in a god, or gods as much as those who do believe in a god or gods should respect those who don’t. And that mutual respect should be prevalent between the religions to.

Mockery or hatred from either end is horrible. Christian to Muslim, Atheist to Theist, Zen Monks of Timbuktu to the believers of the great Spaghetti monster (oh wait…). Whatever it is, we don’t need it.

Respecting the belief and respecting the person are two different things.

I spent a summer reading Robert Lax, I find that I am most content with the idea that, “there are as many ways to salvation as there are ways of believing.”

Because if a belief is untrue or unlikely, it is a service to that believer and to humanity to make them cognizant of that.

Obviously that goes both ways. But that’s no doubt the most common reasoning in a person’s head.

Yeah. Human are just so full of themselves really. I am sure anybody will just be glad to have someone agreeing with his thoughts. Its depends on how extreme that person really is. A crazy person with strong beliefs may want to persuade another to believe him no matter what it takes. A big boss needs you to work the way he wants you to because he thinks that is the better way and thats why he is the boss. Somehow human need to spread influence around and that is part of a leadership quality. I heard someone once said that all the education we have throughout our lives is to make us a leader that can stand on our feet and influence others. That ‘s is how we progress as human. Its not a bad thing at all but it can be when a sadistic someone with crazy ideas starts enforcing their thoughts around like Hitler!

A person trying to shove their beliefs onto someone else has some serious issues and contradictions with their own beliefs and values of their religion.

They are either making God small, in that He can’t do this for Himself so the believer feels they have to do it for Him, or they are making themselves as big as God, trying to go round being all high and mighty getting people to convert to their religion.

And making anything else out to be as big as God is a very big sin, is it not?

When an elected official is using their religion as a “how-to guide” in governing, that does impact your life. Personally I don’t want to be led by anyone who believes in the bible or qu’ran literally. No man is more dangerous than a man who does evil in the name of his religion all while thinking he’s helping the world become a better place.