Do religious believers actively avoid conversations with non-believers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Love is an emotion and empathy is an understanding.

of what?

PP is pointing out that neither love nor empathy are supernatural, as another poster said.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I assume everyone is a non-believer or agnostic unless something about our interactions (usually mentioning religious service attendance) indicates otherwise.

If I actively avoided speaking to these people at all, I'd only be friends with people I met through my faith community. That would be:

1) insane and bad for my mental health
2) actively opposed to teachings of my faith

What faith is that ? Because there’s an awful lot in the Bible about being separate from the unclean and unbelievers

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I assume everyone is a non-believer or agnostic unless something about our interactions (usually mentioning religious service attendance) indicates otherwise.

If I actively avoided speaking to these people at all, I'd only be friends with people I met through my faith community. That would be:

1) insane and bad for my mental health
2) actively opposed to teachings of my faith

What faith is that ? Because there’s an awful lot in the Bible about being separate from the unclean and unbelievers

Could be pp is not a Christian or not the type of Christian who worries about what the Bible says.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Love is an emotion and empathy is an understanding.

of what?

PP is pointing out that neither love nor empathy are supernatural, as another poster said.

i was asking what empathy is an understanding of? For example, sympathy is an understanding and reaction to anothers feelings. What is one understanding in empathy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Love is an emotion and empathy is an understanding.

of what?

PP is pointing out that neither love nor empathy are supernatural, as another poster said.

i was asking what empathy is an understanding of? For example, sympathy is an understanding and reaction to anothers feelings. What is one understanding in empathy?

it's the ability to cosmically share someone else's feelings...let's all sing kumbaya now

[Anonymous]

Look it up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Love isn't supernatural.

Empathy isn't supernatural.

Love is an emotion and empathy is an understanding.

Both exist in the natural world.

Yesh, that post was…something else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Love isn't supernatural.

Empathy isn't supernatural.

Love is an emotion and empathy is an understanding.

Both exist in the natural world.

Faith, an emotion and an understanding, exists in the natural world too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Love isn't supernatural.

Empathy isn't supernatural.

Love is an emotion and empathy is an understanding.

Both exist in the natural world.

Faith, an emotion and an understanding, exists in the natural world too.

No one claims faith doesn’t exist. What is your point?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Love isn't supernatural.

Empathy isn't supernatural.

Love is an emotion and empathy is an understanding.

Both exist in the natural world.

Faith, an emotion and an understanding, exists in the natural world too.

And in the case of religious faith, it also exists in the supernatural world.

I can have faith that a person will live up to their word, or I can have religious faith that there is a supernatural being, who lives in the sky, who cares about me and that if I'm good, and/or receive absolution right before I die (if I'm Catholic, a particular branch of Christianity), that god will let me into heaven, where I will live eternally with all the other good people who have already died.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I assume everyone is a non-believer or agnostic unless something about our interactions (usually mentioning religious service attendance) indicates otherwise.

If I actively avoided speaking to these people at all, I'd only be friends with people I met through my faith community. That would be:

1) insane and bad for my mental health
2) actively opposed to teachings of my faith

What faith is that ? Because there’s an awful lot in the Bible about being separate from the unclean and unbelievers

There's also stuff in the bible about stoning women.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Love isn't supernatural.

Empathy isn't supernatural.

Love is an emotion and empathy is an understanding.

Both exist in the natural world.

Faith, an emotion and an understanding, exists in the natural world too.

And in the case of religious faith, it also exists in the supernatural world.

I can have faith that a person will live up to their word, or I can have religious faith that there is a supernatural being, who lives in the sky, who cares about me and that if I'm good, and/or receive absolution right before I die (if I'm Catholic, a particular branch of Christianity), that god will let me into heaven, where I will live eternally with all the other good people who have already died.

I honestly can't tell if this is written by a believer, or by a non-believer to point out how ridiculous this sounds when you type it out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I assume everyone is a non-believer or agnostic unless something about our interactions (usually mentioning religious service attendance) indicates otherwise.

If I actively avoided speaking to these people at all, I'd only be friends with people I met through my faith community. That would be:

1) insane and bad for my mental health
2) actively opposed to teachings of my faith

What faith is that ? Because there’s an awful lot in the Bible about being separate from the unclean and unbelievers

Could be pp is not a Christian or not the type of Christian who worries about what the Bible says.

Buahahaha, that's funny. I'm PP, and an every-Sunday-at-church kind of person who listens to morning prayer with readings from Psalms, the OT, and the NT almost every commute.

Some of the separation from the unclean was part of Israel's ceremonial or civil law, which is not binding on Christians (versus the moral law aka the 10 commandments which is). Some of the parts about separation from unbelievers refers specifically to communion and to membership (or confirmation, depending on your denomination's preferred terminology) in the church. Yes, I would not want to attend a church that doesn't fence the table as we Christians call it and remind everyone that communion is for believers only.

But nothing in the above says anything about never talking to non-believers. That would flatly contradict other Scripture. See Romans 10:14

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

Or Colossians 4:5-6

Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Love isn't supernatural.

Empathy isn't supernatural.

Love is an emotion and empathy is an understanding.

Both exist in the natural world.

Faith, an emotion and an understanding, exists in the natural world too.

No one claims faith doesn’t exist. What is your point?

my point was the same point that the poster made about love and empathy

[Anonymous]

I have pretty good religious radar based on things people say and how they approach the world.

I would never not talk to someone whether they are religious or not.

There are some topics I wouldn’t bother talking about with each group. Just to be polite or because there’s no point.