I am not religious myself. However, oftentimes I encounter online messages from people who seem to be extremely anti-religious. They may say things like "Religion is useless" or "God is dead" or "I disproved God" or "I disproved religion", which I find extremely hurtful. Yes, I do agree with religious skepticism, but some extreme forms of religious skepticism seem to be just morally unacceptable and overly insulting. (Fortunately, people tend to do this online. People in real life tend to be more friendlier, possible because of the face-to-face interaction.) Recently on this forum, I felt that this ex-Catholic atheist with whom I conversed had some awful anti-religious sentiments. She claimed that she disproved God by performing a "science experiment" and trying to see whether or not God would pass the test. She claimed that the lack of effectiveness of prayer in health care was due to the absence of God. When I asked her whether or not she prayed to God for forgiveness, she replied that she never had and instead prayed once to a Catholic priest, because that's what Catholics do (according to her words). Having read Religion for Dummies, I became awfully suspicious of her behavior and her claims and attempted to debate her. Didn't work. Actually, she just claimed that I had some sort of anti-atheist bias. Personally, I view atheism/agnosticism as a personal choice that same way I view practicing a religion as a personal choice. If a person just doesn't feel that religion is right for them, then they do not practice it rather than screaming out to the world that "Christianity is false!" Ironically, I still thank her for providing me an unique experience. After talking with her online (it was only an online forum conversation), I began to realize the importance of prayer myself. She showed me (quite unintentionally) how prayer was not going to work, and I felt I understood the meaning of prayer and how prayer was supposed to work. I referred to Corinthians 13 and thought that pertained to my experience with that pitiful ex-Catholic atheist girl, especially the part about "moving the mountain" thing, which she seemed to interpret as "literally and physically moving a mountain by God's works". Eh... I thought I got really spiritually enlightened at that point and made me wonder whether God was really worth praying to.
Ethically speaking, have you ever defended a person with a faith commitment different from you? For example, a Christian defending a Jew from anti-Semitic attacks?
Ethically speaking, have you ever defended a person with a faith commitment different from you? For example, a Christian defending a Jew from anti-Semitic attacks?