Certainly not all believers think a non-believer will burn in hell. and even amongst those that do believe that, I'd think at least a portion of them would feel it their Christian duty to respect you as a creation of God and to treat you adn show you respect as a reflection of how a good Christian acts.

Oh yeah, and that's mostly been my experience all my life, msbelle. True dat.

And, as per usual, Nilly is absolutely correct.

I always think of how in The Horse and His Boy all the true believers of Tash (the false god) got to cross over into Aslan's world even though they didn't believe in the "right" God. So, believers and non-believers who treat others with respect and love are the same-- it doesn't really matter what you believe just what your actions are and where your heart is. Or something. And I don't even know that I believe, just that I don't not believe.

Trudy, that argument sounds like the jar of peanut butter is proof that evolution doesn't exist. A belief in the supernatural isn't the same as the set of emotions human beings feel that are the result of chemicals floating around in our heads.

I'm not saying anything about proof, I'm talking about expanding a level of acceptance you already have for certain nuttyness to include more nuttyness.

You see love as chemicals in our heads, a lot of people see it as a lot more powerful, profound and verging-on or actually supernatural -- but whether they do or don't one doesn't respond to a declaration of love by saying "nah, that's just chemicals floating around in your head."

ETA: I apologize if this appears to be mean. I'm rereading some things I've said inconversations with others, and gah, I can be really cruel. I'm totally not coming at you from a mean place.

You're not coming off as mean at all, IMHO.

I always think of how in The Horse and His Boy all the true believers of Tash (the false god) got to cross over into Aslan's world even though they didn't believe in the "right" God. So, believers and non-believers who treat others with respect and love are the same-- it doesn't really matter what you believe just what your actions are and where your heart is. Or something. And I don't even know that I believe, just that I don't not believe.

Oh, man, maybe that's where I got that! Or maybe it's the only thing that really makes sense. Um, to me.

The Secret makes me bonkers, too. Maybe because it's actually a religion (based on magical woo-woo), but it's presented like a system (based on some kind of fact).

Um, what's The Secret?

My primary objection to The Secret is that its Oprah's explaination for Oprah... as if luck didn't have a thing to do with it.

Of course, Oprah could wave around pug puppies like they were the secret to her success and I'd develope a dislike for pug puppies.

from my eyes Religion and belief in a Diety only makes sense once I say - surley it is beyond something I can truly understand. Once I say that, then the whole thing about - "How would one thing make sense to all people" - comes into play. (Much like how could one diet work for all people when body types and genes and ancestry are so varied) And once THAT is out there, then who am I to say that a different religion, or just a belief in how to live one's life is not comprable to my Religion from the standpoint of the Diety. My church and my practices work for me, right now. Everyone else is not judged on what works for me.

megan, obviously you really don't want to know cause if you really did, you'd know.

Bah. I'm home sick, and have slept until now. So now I feel too groggy to contribute to the atheist/believer discussion.

But I have to share this board-related dream! I dreamed that while I was away someone (a Buffista, but I don't know who) redesigned part of the board. So now when you make a post there's a second field for an optional headline for your post. And if you enter a headline, the resulting post had the headline in bold above the post. What was especially terrible was the headline had this bright green bar (that stretched across the page) as a background. It was hella ugly.

::shudder::