Why can’t we just agree to disagree?
Someone:Â I believe in determinism!
Me:Â WHAT? How can you not believe that you have control of your own life?
Recently we had a long discussion about religion and determinism at work, or at least that’s how the discussion started. The content of the discussion is not really important, so I won’t bore you with details.
As far as I can tell, it’s part of human nature to want to push our opinions on other people. I find that most discussions about topics where people have strong beliefs or opinions end up in a fight, because none of the people in the discussion are willing to suggest: let’s agree to disagree. So my question is; why is it so important to us to make other people believe or not believe the same things we do?
To clarify, I don’t really think this is a conscious choice. To me it seems that we just have such strong opinions that we don’t even know when the discussion moves from being a constructive discussion to an opinion-war of some kind.
Back to the discussion about religion and determinism, why did I ever even join a discussion about these topics, and why is it so hard to understand and respect that even though I personally don’t believe, others can? I guess life would be really boring if we were all in agreement about everything…
Digression warning: According to the definition of atheism, I’m a weak atheist – meaning I simply don’t believe there’s a God, because I’ve never seen evidence that he/she exists. I’m not saying that I know God does not exist, and if someone could prove to me that he/she really does exist I would of course acknowledge the fact. I suppose that’s what believing is, to be able to trust in something that hasn’t been generally acknowledged as proven?
I guess this part of me will shine through in any discussion, since the same goes for determinism. To the best of my knowledge, how my life will proceed is a result of my choices in life (as well as a whole lot of random variables of course).
I’m seeing a pattern in what kind of discussions that usually become arguments, and it seems as though belief is often the keyword. If someone claims something to be true that they can’t prove, it seems inevitable that the discussion will ultimately transform into an argument – simply because if someone makes a statement about something they believe is true, the reaction from people who don’t believe will be something like my reaction in the discussion I quoted at the beginning of this post (maybe that’s not what they will say out loud, but I think it’s more than likely that they will be thinking it, and that will color their arguments).
“Those who turn to God for comfort may find comfort but I do not think they will find God.”
~ Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic’s Notebook, 1960
You must have been reading some threads in the Opera Forums.
\r\n\r\nSome things are not provable.\r\n\r\nI cannot prove God to you.\r\n\r\nI can point you to Him, however.\r\n\r\nI can show Him by my life.\r\n\r\nThe desire to know something will make or break whether or not we know something.\r\n\r\nIn other words, if I don\’t want to know God — I will do my level best to avoid acknowledging Him. In fact, I will be inclined to look at all the hypocrisy I might detect in believers of God and use that as an excuse to not want to know Him.\r\n\r\nAnd if I and hungering to know God, I will come to know Him.\r\n\r\nThere is a higher truth than human reasoning and philosophizing about these things.\r\n\r\nMatthew 5:6 –> Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, \r\n for they will be filled.\r\n\r\nThis scripture merely means that those who are hungering for truth will find it.\r\n\r\nI encourage all fence-sitting atheists who want to know for sure about these things to take a look at the book called \”I Don\’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist.\” It has multiple authors and discusses how Christianity actually requires the least amount of \”faith\” in light of evidence that is available in examining the matter of what religion or lack of religion, if you will, one should believe in.
This has been a long-running internal \”over-lunch-discussion\” mostly between people who believe and have faith, and \”fence-sitting atheists\” such as myself (great description btw)
\r\n\r\nI completely agree that with a bit of faith and maybe some hope, the smallest bit of evidence will be enough to convince some people that God does or does not exist.\r\n\r\nI\’m not so sure I agree that the same is true the other way around though, especially for \”fence-sitting atheists\”. In my case, through my Physics major, I have seen \”evidence\” that the big bang most likely happened, and that Darwin\’s theories of evolution are more than likely to be true. That\’s why I classify myself as a weak or fence-sitting atheist; if someone could convince me with equally strong evidence that God created earth and the Universe, I would be happy to admit that my image of the Universe and its origin is wrong 