jord wrote:
Turquoise wrote:
Beduin wrote:
I never cared about what a person believes in. What I do care about is the person’s behavior towards his/her surroundings. I would say that whatever a person really believes in, will be reflected on his/her behavior, no matter what he/she claims.
Simply, ask yourself. When was that last time you helped someone?
Spoiler (highlight to read):
If you have’nt, well… no one needs you
I can agree with that.
I can't. People who do good deeds to go to Heaven or avoid Hell don't deserve the same respect as someone who does good things just to help out others.
I see where you're coming from. The reasoning behind an action does matter, but the action itself also matters.
In a practical sense, if religion keeps someone from doing bad things, then I guess I'm ok with them being religious. On the other hand, if religion causes them to act like a hateful bigot or extremist, then yeah... I'm not ok with that.
For me, respect doesn't really come into the equation as much as trust. I have plenty of close friends that are religious, and perhaps, their religions keep them from doing bad things. Because of the actions I've seen them make, I trust them, and so our differences in beliefs really don't matter to me most of the time.
Pragmatically, I guess the reasoning matters a lot less to me than the actions themselves.