@great-big-stees saidIt is very rare that it leads to a change of beliefs, but it can lead to a perfectly pleasant conversation with possible deep thoughts and reflection on both sides as long as they try to remain respectful of each others' beliefs.
very often that discourse between people of different faiths/beliefs leads to a change in their faiths/beliefs or do they just continue to argue.🤔
Toxic environments/attitudes always results in arguments.
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@suzianne saidI must admit that I don’t get here much but from what I’ve read it seems kinda…aggressive.🤔
It is very rare that it leads to a change of beliefs, but it can lead to a perfectly pleasant conversation with possible deep thoughts and reflection on both sides as long as they try to remain respectful of each others' beliefs.
Toxic environments/attitudes always results in arguments.
Back when I used to be religious, online discussions helped me to believe in evolution.
I always believed that truth would stand up to scrutiny; religious beliefs like creationism didn't. It wasn't too long afterward that I stopped being religious altogether.
So I'm one instance where it has happened, though that was before I joined RHP. Being open and honest enough to allow your fundamental beliefs to be challenged is tougher than it sounds.
@great-big-stees saidI had already lost my faith before I started using the internet much and certainly before I turned up on this website. I find many topics covered here interesting but I don't have any desire to change anyone's beliefs.
very often that discourse between people of different faiths/beliefs leads to a change in their faiths/beliefs or do they just continue to argue.🤔
By contrast, I participated on the Debates Forum for several years and I think debates/ discussions/ arguments there definitely tweaked my opinions over time. I also know I very occasionally changed a few minds on a few issues here and there.
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@fmf saidI, at one point in my life, thought I'd like to become a minister (Anglican). Going into my 4th year at university my minister's son, a good friend of mine, was killed along with his girlfriend while hitchhiking back from Mexico (they were killed in the US). I went to see my minister and asked him what he felt towards their killer(s), who were never caught. He said that he forgave them. I was blown away. I said that if that happened to me forgiveness would never have crossed my mind. It was then that I decided that that "calling" was not for me. I'd have felt like a fraud.
I had already lost my faith before I started using the internet much and certainly before I turned up on this website. I find many topics covered here interesting but I don't have any desire to change anyone's beliefs.
By contrast, I participated on the Debates Forum for several years and I think debates/ discussions/ arguments there definitely tweaked my opinions over time. I also know I very occasionally changed a few minds on a few issues here and there.
@great-big-stees saidI became a Christian at 25, my father in law in his 80’s. I would have described myself as agnostic before, and my father in-law as hard Atheist.
very often that discourse between people of different faiths/beliefs leads to a change in their faiths/beliefs or do they just continue to argue.🤔
@great-big-stees saidI never aspired to be a priest but I did weigh very carefully the possibility of becoming a brother in an order called The Society of the Sacred Heart.
I, at one point in my life, thought I'd like to become a minister (Anglican).
@great-big-stees saidIt didn't get as far as being accepted or rejected. I decided to "walk my faith" in a different way.
Hmmmm. I see why you were "rejected". Couldn't get past the "pat down".
@vivify saidYou don't have to believe in Creationism (as a magic-based creation) just because you're religious. Neither evolution nor creationism or religiosity have to be held in the absence of the other. Both would have you think so, and in that way they only promote the divide, but there doesn't have to be a "divide".
Back when I used to be religious, online discussions helped me to believe in evolution.
I always believed that truth would stand up to scrutiny; religious beliefs like creationism didn't. It wasn't too long afterward that I stopped being religious altogether.
So I'm one instance where it has happened, though that was before I joined RHP. Being open and honest enough to allow your fundamental beliefs to be challenged is tougher than it sounds.
@great-big-stees saidYes as long as we don't have the aggression and sadly all too frequent point scoring that one can encounter in this corner of RHP.
very often that discourse between people of different faiths/beliefs leads to a change in their faiths/beliefs or do they just continue to argue.🤔
The biggest impact on me was a guy that I met by accident whose mantra was "keep an open mind", which i have tried to adopt and found that it makes things releated to spirituality richer. You can always learn.
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@Great-Big-Stees
I believe that while some pairs of people appear to just continue to argue, some others change their mind on something perhaps while observing silently an argument.
I do not feel anyone is obligated to supply names and dates for proof of this.
God knows.
If no one never changed their beliefs there would be no believers or former believers. History and biographies and autobiographies manifest that both cases occur.
Dr. Rodney Stark is the name of a scholar who socialogically studies conversions from one belief to another.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_Stark
Rodney William Stark (born July 8, 1934) is an American sociologist of religion who was a longtime professor of sociology and of comparative religion at the University of Washington. He is presently the Distinguished Professor of the Social Sciences at Baylor University, co-director of the university's Institute for Studies of Religion, and founding editor of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion.[1]
Stark has written over 30 books, including The Rise of Christianity (1996), and more than 140 scholarly articles on subjects as diverse as prejudice, crime, suicide, and city life in ancient Rome.[2] He has twice won the Distinguished Book Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, for The Future of Religion: Secularization, Revival, and Cult Formation (1985, with William Sims Bainbridge), and for The Churching of America 1776–1990 (1992, with Roger Finke).[3]