r/AskReligion • u/AureliusErycinus 道教徒 • 7d ago
What is one thing that you hate about discussing religion online?
For me it's quite simple:
Everybody assumes that you're arguing in bad faith when confronted with a different opinion. It doesn't matter how mild or spicy your opinion actually is; or how your intention is actually perceived. It's always that you're the bad guy if you hold a different view from someone.
Everybody has to assume that everybody is their enemy and it's neither conducive to a healthy conversation, and I can't imagine the amount of mental health problems that the person behind the computer has to behave that way. I was not raised to treat people that way myself so I don't understand it at all.
2
u/Comfortable-Rise7201 Buddhist 7d ago edited 7d ago
For me it’s just the amount of black and white thinking, that there’s never any merit to what one belief system has to say about something and that one argument between opposing ideas for something has to prevail as some ultimate truth.
I guess what I mean is, people don’t really examine their biases critically enough to see a more nuanced picture of a situation, even if what they say has merit to some degree. There’s not enough admitting of “but I don’t enough about xyz to be sure,” for example. Different religions and philosophies have different relationships with knowledge and exercising belief that we have to understand where these ideas are coming from first and foremost.
You’re right about that tendency for people to be really contrarian all the time, and how that just derails productive conversation. A lot of times people criticize what they don’t truly understand or give the time to research first, and that’s frustrating.
2
u/SirAxlerod 6d ago
When people act like atheism is a theism, rather than a lack there of.
1
u/AureliusErycinus 道教徒 5d ago
I get that. There are a lot of annoying atheists out there that are almost Evangelical in nature. I attribute that to the environment they grew up in. But it's not true of all atheists.
2
u/Human_Frank 6d ago
Like you assumptions bother me, but the one that bothers me the most is when other's assign me beliefs I don't have just because I believe in God.
It seems that a lot of people assume it's impossible to believe in a God without anything else complicating the picture. Since you believe in God you must believe in Jesus, or you must believe God is a man, or you must believe etc etc etc... The notion that I exist and there is a God who created me and that's all I need to worry about is completely lost on some people. They either can't grasp this simple concept or they just want things to be more complicated than I believe them to be.
2
u/Fionn-mac Pagan 5d ago
My first thought on this is that it's actually easier for me to discuss religion through online forums than in-person! If I have non-mainstream views about major religions then I can express them more openly online than in real-life interfaith spaces without having to fear offending someone. But personal interaction and relatability can get lost in online venues, making conflict and insults between netizens easier. So that's not great.
1
u/CrystalInTheforest 5d ago
I think the sticky post at the top of the sub says it all.... The assumption that any and all religions are all basically the same as Christianity, and so any issue or perceived flaw in Christian arguments by a commentator are universally applicable to everyone else.
1
u/needlestuck 2d ago
The lack of ability of folks to examined their unconscious biases, which leads to them being able to consider that any other possibility besides what fits in the framework they hold onto.
0
u/hammerb 6d ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTtA7fJIrNA&ab_channel=AndrewITstyle
This pretty much sums up any discussion I have ever had about religion
3
u/BayonetTrenchFighter Christian (Mormon) 6d ago
For me it’s the unapologetic bigotry I face