Thread: How about this?
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Old 07-28-2006, 11:49 PM
  # 12 (permalink)  
equus
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: uk
Posts: 3,054
Let me just ask this. I am not an atheist. I believe in a HP. Is it alright if I come in and post on a secular forum? I don't know if I am welcome or not. Of course I'm not trying to convince others to believe in my beliefs and I respect others for their beliefs.
Hey - I hope you do come and post!! I have friends that believe in God and we get along fine, sometimes we even talk about our differing views and have no problem.

What helps me is clarity of expectations. I was serious that I don't place mtslef where my views are likely to cause offense. If I'm in a church I keep my beliefs well out of it, on the F&F people know I'm an aithiest but I don't talk about it often, I don't say why, I don't even say what that means to me because I think the majority are believers.

My (not so well recieved) comment was based on having seen the same debate on SR over and over again. The fact that this time it took place in a secular forum isn't that startling - it's taken place in nearly every other forum at some point. I OBSERVE that there seems to be a lack of clarity or the debates wouldn't continue ad infinitum, my own point being that clarity about whether 12 steps are faith based would probably help!!

For my part - I'd be sad to come in here and find anyone posting how X 'should' believe in god. I'm not sure if the place for personal stories about people's faith - just as I don't think the spiritual or christian forum would be the place for me to enter and talk about my growth in aitheism.

I suppose it's something I'm quite used to in a way - like I said I have friends that believe in god but also my work is secular and rightly so, it would be totally unproffessional for someone to start talking about their faith to me or me about aitheism to them.

My parents are religious - it's taken YEARS for them to wake up and smell the coffee that I'm happy as I am, and these days on the score of religion we get on fine. But just as they leave the subject with me - I don't start telling them they shouldn't believe.

That's my ESH - for what it's worth.
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