Respect: 1)To feel or show deferential regard for: esteem. 2)To avoid violation of or interference with. 3)To relate or refer to:concern.
This from my American Heritage Dictionary. If we focus on the second meaning, it is clear that we must indeed respect the beliefs of others.
Utter nonsense. There are any number of beliefs that people might/have/do hold that I feel compelled to violate or interfere with. Some people don’t believe whites should date blacks. I violated that one quite happily. Others are adamant that interfaith marriages are a bad idea. I violated that one, too. I have interfered with men who believed they had the right to hit their women and parents who believed their right to discipline their child extended to handcuffs and batons.
I feel no remorse at my failure to respect any of those beliefs, thank you very much. Nor do I ever expect to.
Idiot me, thinking we were talking about religious beliefs. I’ll go skulk away now.
I agree with the sentiment, but aren’t we now talking about the difference between “belief” and “action”. It’s sort of a moot point, because by using the word “right” you almost ensure that someone is going to attempt to exercise it. But if someone believed it was … acceptable to discipline their child with handcuffs and batons, there’s nothing wrong with the belief. It’s the action that should not be tolerated/respected in either sense of the word. In the examples you give, it’s a semantic difference at best, splitting verbal hairs, but the underlying difference remains the same, doesn’t it?
I interfered with the action.
I failed to respect the belief.
I still do.
I learned an alternative meaning to respect while I served in the armed forces. All too frequently we have some senior officer running around making seriously flawed decisions, these decisions usually resulted in major catastrophes. You had to respect the uniform the jerk had attained by some major lack of judgement, you did not have to respect the idiot inside the uniform.
You may not like or respect the beliefs of another, but there are times you must tolerate and by doing so respect those beliefs merely because of the wrapping they come in.
Tolerance and respect go hand in hand. You can respect a belief because you share the belief, you can tolerate the belief because it is a pointless exercise to disagree with the belief. The line comes when you can not respect or tolerate the belief.
Surely if no one had beliefs in “the man up stairs” so much could be gained, situations avoided (i.e the encounter between the “thread-starter” and the muslim "i’m guessing here).
Muslims-Jews
Christians-Muslims
whatever, clashes over something that to me does not exist, , I live in the middle east and the ONLY reason i respect their religion (i.e not eating in public during the holy month) is because of the consequences (usually jail time, in extreme cases death). I do not however go out of my way to be disrespective to anyone’s belief, so some deal of respect must be paid.
I respect someone’s right to hold a belief different to my own. That does not necessarily mean I respect that particular belief.
Some people claim to believe that the earth is flat despite evidence to the contrary. Such people are fools and do not accord my respect.
Some people genuinely believe the earth is around 6000 years old despite the evidence provided by dating methods that they themselves would be prepare to accept if it were to prove a point in their favour (remember the ‘What if Noah’s Ark were found on Ararat’ thread)Such people are wilful fools - they do not get my respect
Ancient civilisations believed in human blood sacrifice, especially in South America with pre-Aztec tribes. There have been discovered human pre-natal and tiny babies buried with wooden idols.If this belief system were to be revived I would advocate putting the persons in prison.
I would be quite happy to steamroller my culture over the top of one that practises female circumcision against the subjects express consent. I would be happy to see a culture that believes female children can be left outside to die or recieve little or no education or medical attention, wither away and die.
I do not respect the view of someone who is in possession of proofs of things and the denies them - such stupidity can kill, AIDS is a case in point.Look at the President of SA, his beliefs are getting in the way of HIV education and costing many South Africans their lives.No matter how well meaning he is, no matter how much he believes his view, no matter how good a man he is, he is a dangerous idiot.
However I can feel concern for them if they are suffering, I would never want to lose my compassion for the welfare of others.
Spiritual welfare is fine, you could argue that there is a need for more of it but so much religion is based on intolerance for other religions that such practitioners can hardly be surprised if their values are not respected.
Foolish beliefs can seem eccentric and harmless but the propagation of ignorance is never to be taken lightly, it can have unforseen consequencies, did the Mormon really have any idea that banning blood transfusions would cost lives when they first came up with it ?
Ignorance is the greatest sin of all.
In the absence of proof almost anything is possible but once there is proof then it must be accepted - no exceptions.
What happened to Scylla re ‘You can’t own land only god does’ is just an excuse to violate the rights of another, religion has done this sort of thing for thousands of years.
I second Spiritus Mundi
OP: Do we HAVE to respect others’ beliefs?
You don’t HAVE to do anything. You don’t even HAVE to obey the law. But you have to be prepared to accept the consequences of your actions.
As for respecting others’ religious beliefs:
I’m a hard-core atheist. I know that God and the afterlife don’t exist just as certainly as I know that Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny don’t exist. I don’t try to convert others to my ways, but I know what I know. Meantime, my live-in girlfriend is a devout Protestant. She is very set in her beliefs, and I doubt if I could argue her out of her religion even if I tried for years on end. We’ve basically agreed not to push our views on each other. We love each other very much and we expect to get married in the future and live the rest of our lives together. (Incidentally, my ex-wife was a Catholic–in other words, this isn’t a new situation for me.)
Do I respect my girlfriend’s beliefs? No. Her religious beliefs are wrong. Plain and simple. Basically, this is just another way of saying that I disagree with her on this point.
Do I respect my girlfriend? Of course. There is much more to her than her religious beliefs. She is worthy of respect in a thousand ways. The fact that I don’t respect her beliefs doesn’t affect my respect for her as a person in any material way.
Do I show respect for my girlfriend’s beliefs? Yes. Call it paying lip service, but I respect my girlfriend, so I at least make a show of respect if she talks about some aspect of her religious beliefs. She does the same when I discuss some aspect of my own atheism. We know we disagree on these things. We don’t feel a need to be openly scornful of each other’s beliefs.
Do I respect my girlfriend’s viewpoint on her religion? Yes. That is, I know about her past and her background, and I know that being religious makes sense for her. It doesn’t do any particular harm to her or me or anyone else, and I respect the fact that that religion fills a need for her. I don’t respect the beliefs themselves, but I respect how those beliefs complement her life and how she applies them in her life. I respect the interaction between her as a person and her beliefs.
The reason I’m spelling all this out is to demonstrate that a lot of different things are meant by the word “respect.” We all have family members and close friends who look at the world differently from us (who have different political opinions, who have different priorities in life, or who even just root for a different football team). And we can love the person, disagree completely with them on this or that point, and still respect (or at least show respect) for the difference–or, at a minimum, the other person’s right to hold that belief.
Co-workers are a little more remote from us than family and friends, so we may be a little less forgiving or respectful. But there are still conventions regarding how we deal with co-workers too.
People wearing tinfoil hats are the most remote, and we may feel the least restraint when it comes to the need to respect them or their views. But even then we get into political issues of “respect.”
“Political respect” (to coin an awkward phrase), means to me that I have to respect and even defend the rights of others to believe and even live differently from me, even in ways that directly contradict my own beliefs. I do it on the basis of a political principle embodied by the First Amendment and the general ideas of the Constitution. Basically, the health of the country is at issue at this particular level. Compromises have to be made, of course–members of the erty-erty religion can’t deflower 12-year-old girls whenever they want. But if the erty-erts don’t act in a way that infringes on the basic rights of others or harm the state, then I can’t attempt to restrict their ability to worship and live as they please. I can hate them, rail against them, and try to convert them, but under the spirit of the First Amendment I also should be fighting anyone who would attempt to restrict their right to practice the erty-erty religion. I have to respect their religious beliefs on at least THAT level.
Okay. End of my dissertation. Mainly I wanted to point out that there are lots of nuances to the word “respect.” The definitions I have offered and the differentiations I have pointed out aren’t authoritative or exhaustive, of course. Other posters can certainly refine and/or refute some of the nuances I’ve tried to explain here. But to answer the OP’s questions, I think each person need only look at their own lives: How does each of you react to those family members and close friends who have beliefs, priorities, or opinions that are different from yours?
Perhaps my post was taken to literally. You bible-interpreters know how it is.
I find it almost a duty to act within the rules when I see that acting within the rules can create a schism of some sort. It gives me no greater pleasure than to do what I’m told, knowing full well that what I will do will cause a problem. In matters of personal belief this is especially important. How would a pentagram neclace go over? Or some obscure religious idol that is clearly sexual in nature? I guess what it comes down to is: how much are you truly bothered by this? To what silly and preposterous end are you willing to take this?
JTR: The (non-denominational Christian) bear extends a heartfelt thank-you for explaining in such a clear manner not just why, but how one can respect beliefs one does not share. You have eloquently stated the case. I do not expect any rational arguments against it.
[sup]I know, I know! I said rational, didn’t I?[/sup]
~~Baloo
I have to admit that I’m rather disappointed by the number of slippery slope arguments from people I wouldn’t expect to use them.
As far as I know, freedom of religion is not absolute in the country. Past government action has shown that they will restrict religion if it violates the law or impedes on the rights of others.
You do not have to respect a person who believes in human sacrifice because under US law, his religion is not valid.
Same thing if he wants to have sex with 5 year old virgins, hold a revival on your land, or kill all non-believers.
Also, under your constitutionally protected right to your own beliefs you cannot be forced to eat turd because someone else believes it. It’s a straw man argument… unless any of you can site a case where a person of one religion was forced to participate in the religion of another.
Just use common sense and don’t say anything that will cause discord in the workplace, but don’t back down when your beleiefs are questioned. That’s my motto.
Maybe I just see this topic differently since I am never in the position to disrespect someone’s religion. Everytime, I have been in the minority* and I’m the one usually asking for a little tolerance.
*I’m a confused, border-line atheist. I know, not an actual religion, but a belief nonetheless.
“We must respect the other fellow’s religion, but only in the same sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.” – H.L. Mencken
Actually, I’m not even sure I respect the other fellow’s religion as much as that. I don’t go up to people on the street (or in my workplace) and say “Gee, your wife and/or kids sure are ugly”, and I don’t go around buttonholing people who are religious and telling them all the reasons why I disagree with them. However, if some co-worker or acquaintance hauled out the family photos and fished for compliments in a really insistent way, I’d probably just smile and nod and say something polite, whereas if they tried to get me to “say something nice” about their religion, I doubt I would comply. That said, I wouldn’t pick a fight about it with a co-worker who showed religiosity in the workplace in a non-proselytizing way (i.e., a religious plaque on the wall of their cubicle) any more than I would go up to a co-worker and start critiquing their family photos. In fact, if a co-worker or other casual acquaintance made a casual religious remark in passing, I’d probably try to make some noncommittal reply. (“The Lord sure is wonderful isn’t he?” “Gee, I’m glad to hear about your daughter’s remission.”) I also think I would be quicker to voice disagreement with someone’s opinions about, say, “scientific” creationism, or church-state issues, than about simple belief in God or Jesus Christ. I would also try fairly hard to avoid being drawn into a religious discussion with, say, my Great-Aunt Lavinia, as opposed to some guy at work, and I would probably try harder to stay out of a religious discussion with some guy at work than with some total stranger in a public place. (That is, if a co-worker were trying to witness to me, I’d probably be inclined to just say “no thanks”, since I’ve still got to work with this person–although if a co-worker seemed to want to have intelligent discussions about religion, they might lure me into it. If some guy sitting next to me on an airplane started pestering me about findign Jesus, I’d be more inclined to let him have it with both barrels and start trotting out as many obscene, absurd, atrocious, or mutually contradictory Bible verses as I could–at least in my Mittyesque imagination.) All this is mainly touching on “respect” in the sense of “how I would behave and speak in their presence”. I really don’t have any control over what other people’s expressed beliefs causes me to think.
I do have some fairly caustic bumper stickers on my car, and then there’s my sig line on this message board… Oh, well.
I can tolerate anything but intolerance.
I think most people’s beliefs are in the amusingly wrong to deeply twisted range. No amount of logical argument is going to change an illogically arrived at conclusion. There are better ways of wasting my time than to try to convert the 6 billion people who don’t think exactly like me.
That’s right; each and every one of ya.
I have always assumed it best to hold the minimum number of beliefs lightly, like the butterfly wings they are; and my first belief is: The only thing I can’t tolerate is intolerance.
I don’t respect any religion. The main thrust of all religions is to force their flaky beliefs on their neighbors.
Oh the Catholics hate the Protestants,
and the Protestants hate the Catholics,
and the Hindus hate the Moslems
and everybody hates the Jews!
Oh yes it’s National Brotherhood Week.
National Brotherhood Week.
etc.
Right, carry on.
What fire? believes that
That is a belief I do not respect.
I do not believe anybody has taken the position that it is either universally wrong or not possible to respect a belief to which one does not subscribe. Of course it is possible. In many, if not most, cases it is even the proper/courteous/empathic/humane thing to do.
That is not the same thing as saying that one should universally respect all beliefs.