Interfaith Group

Last edited Thu Dec 11, 2014, 03:44 AM - Edit history (1)

[div class="excerpt" style="margin-left:1em; border:1px solid #bfbfbf; border-radius:0.4615em; box-shadow:3px 3px 3px #999999;"]I am going to post this and any future post to you normally as a show of respect, and with sensitivity to your dislike of my font.

That said, I use it because I like it. I wanted to customize my posts and escape the stale and boring font everyone posts in. I wanted something that felt more alive and which could convey emotion better. I would not go to all the trouble it takes to type like that otherwise.

Probably a bad comparison but I imagine that it is like you would probably feel without your sailboat gif.

I also think you are a nice person in real life.

No, I am certain you are very nice person and all your posts are in the spirit of doing what they think is right and fair. You have your convictions and your ideals and you fight tirelessly for them, and I think that is very admirable.

In fact, one of the things I believe in most is that we are all human beings with strengths and weaknesses and that we all ultimately have good intentions. You, Okasha, TM99 and rug as well as those on the other side as well (leaving their names out to avoid offending those in this group who don't get along with them).

And that goes for me as well. I am human. I love, I laugh, I get sad, and I hurt. I can both disagree and agree with people on a range of issue. There are some issues that we agree on. For instance, you and I both think that belief is not a choice. While belief can change, we both think that a person can not choose what they accept as true or not.

But we also disagree. Vehemently on some issues. And sometimes one person's sincere conviction can be offensive to the other person. When we were on better terms I at first over looked those things and then I tried many times to try and communicate those things to you. I tried discussing things with you but we could not seem to get through to each other. There were times where I would try and communicate these things through replies to other posters. I guess, while I can create long rambling posts full of prose; but in the end, I sucked at communicating.

For that I am sorry.

But when the sagan thread occurred and our relation soured I was very very hurt. And very angry. When I was passionately trying to argue on Goblinmonger's behalf in here and you counseled Justin to ignore Kd and I, well I was livid. I imagine you felt just as hurt and angry as I vented that anger.

So I apologize for my behavior in those posts. I would say I promise that I will not vent my anger at you in that room anymore but that would be an empty promise as the hosts in that room have banned any meta discussion. So I will instead say I won't vent my anger at you anywhere on DU period. And hopefully this thread can lead both of us to getting over the hurt and anger we have at each other altogether.

That said, we have some stark difference of opinion. Differences that just are not going to go away. From the beginning I have said I was an atheist. That I do have anti-religious views. However, I also do not consider all religion as bad. I am quite supportive of that church you posted about who helped immigrants, and a mosque I read about in LGBT group that was helping the LGBT community. But I do have my critiques of religion and many of them are quite bitter. In honor of the SoP I won't go into them.

I think if we are going to start over, you need to understand where I am coming from, as I feel you thought I was something I wasn't. I am very much a partisan for those things I believe in. For instance, I am radically liberal. When I see someone advocating for what I see as a conservative opinion, I get combative. I am also a huge advocate for scientific skepticism. And I see things from that point of view. I really do try and see both sides, but there are going to be times I am staunchly entrenched in an opinion.

Overall, I think we (everyone on DU) all probably agree more than we disagree. The fact that we are all posting on a progressive website tell me that we all should (in theory) believe in trying to help the poor, that we are all against bigotry, against violence, and all have a belief that by working together we can make this world just a little bit better.

But when people have disagreements over issues they hold close to heart, that get clouded. People get hurt, and they lash out at innocents and create new partisans who lash out at other innocents and so on and so on and before you know it, you have forgotten the very humanity of the people you disagree with.

I was trying to warn carolinayellowdog of that.

Quite possibly, the most sage expression ever uttered.


[div class="excerpt" style="margin-left:1em; border:1px solid #bfbfbf; border-radius:0.4615em; box-shadow:3px 3px 3px #999999;"]You really don't have enemies here

This will probably be the nail in my tombstone but we are going to have to agree to disagree here.

It's hard to say one doesn't have enemies when you are in a thread arguing that you should be banned when you didn't violate any rules. When you didn't attack anyone but are getting attacked left and right.

I have a lot of other thing I want to say but won't.

Lets leave it at that.