Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Respect

I have given a great deal of thought to the recent, and for that matter, past discussions involving disrespectful references.

I am not a fundamentalist Christian, nor am I an Evangelical Christian, Nor a Moslem or any of the other labels that we use to identify, in some way, how others differ, or are the same as we. It isn't important in this forum at this time to state what my beliefs are. That would detract from the main topic.

That topic is respect. Every day I read the paper, (Spokesman-Review of course) and grind my teeth over the sarcasm and vitriol that spews forth in articles and editorials. Where have good manners gone. Haven't some of you learned to be tolerant of others? It doesn't matter that you disagree with someone else's opinion. What does matter is how you do it.

To insult the belief system, or the base from which a person is coming from is to lose the argument from the start. If you don't have logic and good theory going for you, sarcasm and put downs certainly won't help you either.

My father once said to me, "Herb if you find that you are digging a hole for yourself, the first thing to remember is to let go of the shovel".

I suggest that those of you that insist on basing your arguments on personalities and putdowns, let go of the shovel...

If you need a forum that totally agrees with you, start a new blog entitled "atheists R us"...

3 comments:

Word Tosser said...

Yes, and people got to understand, to get respect, they have to give respect. So many demand it without giving any.

Mari Meehan said...

You know we creaky old codgers who think alike need to band together and make ourselves heard. Sort of a Grey Panthers for the cyber age!

Lil ol' me... said...

Herb, I believe in God, but I can't stand religion. John Lennon once said, "Jesus is all right but it's his thick disciples that ruined it for me". Well, I don't like all the dogma and prejudices that seem to accompany organized religion. I haven't been in a church in 20 years. I believe that all religions lead to the same God. And if you believe that, then there's none of the "My God's better than Your God" mentality. That's another thing that's wrong with world. People poking their noses into others' business, telling them what to believe or how to behave. Ok, I'll close now. This almost feels like I'm doing my OWN blog...